In Search of Galactus

On the hull of the Xandarian starship, Ben and Sue defend the ship from an incoming meteor shower. With three of the Fantastic Four less than forty-eight hours from death by the Skrull aging ray, the situation is tense. Sue says that her powers are weakening, but Ben's sense of pride will allow no such admission. Faced with overwhelming odds, H.E.R.B.I.E. gives the order to withdraw to the safety of the ship, and while Sue is ready to comply, Ben will have none of it. This infuriates Reed as they are just about to make a hyperspace jump and to do so with Ben outside the ship would mean his certain death. Ben, however, is willing to make the sacrifice to save his colleagues and throws Sue into the airlock, sealing it behind her. Johnny unwisely decides to burn through the hull to rescue Ben with no protection from the vacuum of space and is sucked into the void by the explosive decompression. Ben retrieves him and, safely aboard, revives him.

Soon they exit warp space and arrive at the massive worldship of Galactus. When Ben once again asks how Galactus could still be alive, Reed explains how Galactus survived their last encounter: He explains that after eating planet Poppup and being transformed into a massive brain by the High Evolutionary, Galactus exploded into a massive burst of energy. This energy was collected by the world devourer's ship and it filtered the tainted energies until it was able to restore Galactus to organic form, fully recharged and ready to resume his constant quest to quench his hunger. Reed tells Ben that he was able to detect the rebirth of Galactus from his instruments after they returned from their battle against Doctor Doom. After HERBIE informs them that the Skrull aging ray is going to finish aging them in approximately 29 hours, they quickly enter the massive ship owned by Galactus. As they begin to search the massive interior, Sue begins to feel faint and insists that she should stay behind and rest while they continue to search for Galactus.

Reed, Ben and Johnny find Galactus in a massive control room and when they realize that they are beneath his notice, try to get the attention of the cosmic being. They have to double back to save Sue when she is almost caught up in one of the various machines. Seeking another means of getting the attention of Galactus, the Fantastic Four come across an intergalactic zoo and free all the animals within and cause a stampede. This finally gets the world devourer's attention and he restrains the animals. Finally deciding to listen to the Earthlings, they hear of their problem. Upon hearing of the threat the Sphinx poses for Earth, Galactus refuses his aid. When Reed, in turn, offers to release Galactus from his promise not to devour the Earth, the world devourer decides that he will intervene, but warns Richards that after he is finished defeating the Sphinx he will then consume the Earth, as he has wished to do for years. But before he can go to Earth, Galactus demands that the Fantastic Four gather him a brand new herald, and teleports them away to gather one of him.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Galactus, HERBIE (possessed by Doctor Sun)

Continuity Notes

• Unknown to any of the Fantastic Four, HERBIE is possessed by the villainous Dr. Sun as revealed in Fantastic Four #217 .

• Ben and Reed rehash their last encounter with Galactus which occurred between Fantastic Four #172-175 which ended with the world devourer's apparent demise after consuming the planet Poppup.

• Reed mentions monitoring for Galactus after their battle with Doctor Doom which occurred in Fantastic Four #200.

• Galactus vowed to not ever threaten the Earth back in Fantastic Four #50 when Reed threatened him with the Ultimate Nullifier, the only weapon that could destroy Galactus. Although it should be interesting to note that Galactus almost broke the promise on two different occasions in Fantastic Four #74-77, and Fantastic Four #120-123.

• Galactus is seeking out a new Herald after his last one, the Destroyer armor was stolen by Loki as seen in Thor #265.