Galactus first appeared in Fantastic Four during what is known as “The Galactus Trilogy,” which saw The Watcher show up on Earth to watch as The Silver Surfer arrived. Surfer warned that Galactus was coming to eat the Earth, and the only team that stood up to the alien Devourer of Worlds was The Fantastic Four. Despite Galactus seeming to be unbeatable, Reed Richards found a way to beat him and send him away from the planet. Not only did that plan of attack work, but Galactus has fallen more than once, with at least nine defeats in the pages of Marvel Comics, where the giant fell, and even died on more than one occasion.
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From Galactus falling in defeat to someone more intelligent than him to him failing when he battles someone with equal or greater power, here are the best times that the Devourer of Worlds was beaten in Marvel Comics.
9) Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand #5
Galactus arrived in the Ultimates Universe after that world’s Age of Ultron, where another version of him, known as Gah Lak Tus, was already there. The two merged, and the Devourer of Worlds was stronger than ever. This event was called Cataclysm, and the heroes of that world had to figure out how to defeat Galactus. This led to Reed Richards from that world (pre-Maker) opening a portal into the Negative Zone and sending Kitty Pryde in with the Giant-Man serum, so she could grow to Galactus’s size and fight him while phasing in and out. The battle ends in tragedy when Kitty punches Galactus into the portal, and after Miles Morales saves her, Thor arrives and blasts Galactus fully into the Negative Zone, where the God of Thunder is also stranded. The reason this worked is that there is nothing in the Negative Zone for Galactus to consume, so he starves to death.
8) Marvel Team-Up #137 (1983)
Not every Galactus defeat was because the Devourer of Worlds fell in a fight. There was even one moment where Galactus lost thanks to the intelligence of a child. Galactus appeared on Earth, and he was hungry, needing to eat. Reed Richards was not there to help him, and Galactus sought out Franklin, offering to make him his herald to help him find a planet. He was at the circus with Aunt May, and Galactus turned her into his new herald. Franklin Richards confronted Galactus, and unlike future battles, Franklin didn’t attack him. Instead, he offered Galactus a snack (Twinkles – Marvel’s version of Twinkies) and then Aunt May helped find Galactus a planet made of the same substance as Twinkles to help appease his hunger.
7) Fantastic Four #243-244
Most of the time, Reed Richards has found a way to defeat Galactus using his brain, since it is almost impossible to beat Galactus in a fight. However, there was one moment when Galactus fell in a fight. The Fantastic Four received some assistance this time from The Avengers, and together, the heroes defeated the Devourer of Worlds. However, Reed Richards knew that Galactus couldn’t die or the universe would perish. As a result, Reed saved Galactus’s life, which almost cost him his own life when the Shi’ar put him on trial for any future lives lost at Galactus’s hands. However, for a moment, Galactus fell, and Earth’s heroes defeated him in a fight.
6) Annihilation #1
Annihilation was a massive Marvel Comics cosmic crossover event. The main villain was none other than Annihilus, and he had an army at his back that decimated several worlds before they finally met their match with a combined force of Kree, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, and more. To understand the threat that Annihilus brought, the first thing he did was take down Galactus in the very first issue of the series, and the Devourer of Worlds fell. Annihilus planned to use Galactus as a bomb to destroy his enemies. However, the cosmic Marvel heroes saved Galactus, and he ended up using his “Galactus Event” blast to wipe out most of Annihilus’s forces. Before that, though, it was impressive to see Galactus fall in the first issue.
5) Fantastic Four: Life Story #5
In 2021, Marvel Comics released a new series called Fantastic Four: Life Story, which saw the First Family of Marvel age in real time, so by the time the last issue arrived, all Marvel’s original heroes were old and retired and the young heroes (Miles, Kamala, Riri, etc) were the main heroes on their own. In the fifth issue, Galactus came to Earth and planned to feast, and none of the elder heroes were able to help. However, Franklin Richards was an adult with kids and a Wakandan wife named Zawadi. Reed Richards had one Hail Mary, and he sent Franklin into space to face Galactus. Then, using a machine that was connected to his mind, he blasted Galactus, amplifying Franklin’s psionic powers. Galactus fell in defeat, but at the expense of Reed, who ended up catatonic after the battle.
4) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #4
Squirrel Girl is known as Unbeatable for a reason. No one can beat her because she either wins every fight or finds a way to escape as the victor. She even beat Thanos in a fight, which amused Galactus, who called Thanos a “tool.” However, when it came to beating Galactus, she did it differently. The book opened with Squirrel Girl lying on a defeated Galactus, taking a selfie. However, that isn’t what happened. Instead, Squirrel Girl beat Galactus with kindness. He was going to consume Earth anyway, but she convinced him not to, and they even shared a moment where Galactus gave her a “herald card” to use to call him if she ever needed help in the future.
3) Galactus the Devourer #6
Galactus the Devourer was an interesting series because it was a six-issue miniseries released after Marvel Comics canceled the Silver Surfer series. While the title made this seem like a Galactus comic book series, it was created to tie up all the loose ends remaining from Surfer’s comics. This saw Galactus’s hunger begin to consume him, and he started to develop a madness within himself. He went on a rampage and was going to destroy everything before Silver Surfer finally channeled all his Power Cosmic into an attack on the Devourer of Worlds. He not only beat Galactus, but he also killed his master. While Surfer felt grief, Galactus said that it was meant to be and that he was proud of Surfer for killing him because it was what his herald was always meant to do in the end.
2) Fantastic Four #48-50
The first time Galactus showed up in Marvel Comics was in “The Galactus Trilogy” in The Fantastic Four #48-50. The Watcher arrived on Earth because something monumental was going to happen, and then the Silver Surfer showed up to announce his master, Galactus, was coming to consume the Earth. When Galactus arrived, the Fantastic Four knew there was no way to defeat him, and Reed Richards began to brainstorm ideas to figure out how to save the planet. What he came up with was ingenious. The Watcher helped Reed acquire the Ultimate Nullifier from Galactus’s home and then threatened to use it against Galactus. This device could erase objects from existence and even destroy universes and timelines. Galactus knew the threat and left Earth, while Reed held onto the device in case the Devourer of Worlds returned in the future.
1) Thor Vol. 6 #6
Easily, the most impressive Galactus defeat came in a more recent Marvel Comics series. In Thor Vol. 6, Galactus came to Thor and asked for help because a villain known as the Black Winter was hunting him down. Thor agreed to become Galacatus’s herald so he could receive the Power Cosmic to help battle the Black Winter. However, Thor learned Galactus had lied to him, and there was more to this feud than one godlike being hunting another. When he got the chance, Thor used the Power Cosmic and his godlike powers to destroy and murder Galactus in an all-out attack. After Galactus died, Thor then killed Black Winter and used Galactus’s helmet as a trophy and an entry gate into Agard.
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