Galactus made his debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and luckily, he avoided a major problem that ruined Kang in the MCU. When Kang the Conqueror showed up in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it was supposed to be the start of the story leading to Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, but that never happened. Instead, real-life problems caused Marvel to drop Jonathan Majors from his contract, and Kang has never been mentioned since his last appearance in the Loki Disney+ streaming series. That was highly disappointing since Kang looked like he could be a great character based on his appearance in Loki. However, there was one other problem that destroyed Kang from the start.
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Galactus debuted in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and that movie treated him much better than Kang was treated, which means that Galactus remains strong for his eventual MCU return.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Ruined Kang
Jonathan Majors was an inspired casting choice when Marvel signed him to play Kang the Conqueror. When he debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, he looked like he was going to measure up to the greatness that Marvel Comics fans thought he would be. He was smart. He was strong. He had devious plans, and he was conflicted enough to be a complex MCU villain. Then, the movie did the worst possible thing, and it really made Kang dead in the water. Ant-Man, who is one of the MCU’s best comedic characters, not only beat Kang but also killed him.
This was shocking. Kang is a multiversal threat, and he was a danger to the entire Avengers team in Marvel Comics. Having him not only lose, but die at the hands of Ant-Man and his family was a terrible decision. While the film tried to fix things by showing this was one of many Kang variants in the post-credit scene, it didn’t solve the biggest problem. If Ant-Man could beat Kang, why should any MCU fan consider him a threat at all?
The MCU almost fixed him when they put him in the Loki streaming series. Kang, as He Who Remains at the end of time, was a brilliantly depicted character, and the flashback scenes showing one of the Kang variants’ origin story were fantastic. However, once again, the Kang at the end of time was killed by Sylvie, and that once again showed that Kang, on his own, was not a villain to fear. While it seemed to start a chain reaction that was going to lead to Kang Dynasty, why would anyone who only knows Kang from the movies think he was a danger? The MCU ruined Kang before Jonathan Majors even forced his exit from the franchise.
Galactus Is Still Strong Enough to Return
Marvel seemed to learn its lesson. If there is someone who is a bigger threat than Kang, or even a bigger threat than Thanos and Doctor Doom, it’s Galactus. Bringing in the Eater of Worlds to the first Fantastic Four movie meant that he had to somehow lose, but how could the MCU do it that wouldn’t destroy him like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania destroyed Kang? The MCU figured out a way to do it, and while some fans still complained, it was the perfect way to keep Galactus strong.
When Galactus arrived on Earth, the Fantastic Four had no way to stop him, and they came up with a plan to send him to another dimension since they knew they couldn’t beat him. Ant-Man defeated Kang. The Fantastic Four were realistic enough to realize they couldn’t beat Galactus, and they just needed to send him away. However, the best moment came when Galactus stopped short of the trap and proved smart enough to recognize it and escape.
The only way the Fantastic Four could beat him was to attack him head-on, and this still barely worked. It took the Invisible Woman using her power at its highest levels, sacrificing herself, to just hold Galactus back. Even then, it took the Silver Surfer to betray her master to knock him back into the portal and send him far enough away to save Earth, for now. The Fantastic Four: First Steps ending never diminished the power scale of Galactus, and it proved that even Earth’s strongest heroes couldn’t stop him without trickery and a little help from a cosmic-powered being.
Galactus will be back eventually, and he will be just as scary and mighty as ever. No one believed Kang was a threat after Ant-Man and then Sylvie beat him. However, Galactus still has no equal. He was never defeated, and when he returns, it makes him scarier than ever. After destroying Kang right out of the gate, the MCU recovered and showed they can still create dominating villains and do it the right way.
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