Galactus the Devourer

Galactus the Devourer #1-6

by Louise Simonson, Jon J. Muth (Illustrator), John Buscema (Illustrator)

His name strikes terror throughout the Galactus, the devourer of worlds! But now, the godlike Galactus' unceasing hunger has driven him mad - and he has come to destroy the Earth! As Marvel's greatest heroes face the ulti mate cosmic threat, the Silver Surfer must again become Galactus' herald...and target other worlds for annihilation! Can the sky-rider save his monstrous master from himself, or will the unbalanced Galactus devour all he surveys? Get ready for never-before-revealed shocking secrets behind the origins of both Galactus and the Silver Surfer - and prepare yourself for the most unexpected death of all!
GALACTUS THE DEVOURER 1-6

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

Louise Simonson (born Mary Louise Alexander and formerly credited as Louise Jones, when married to artist Jeff Jones) is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman, and Steel. She is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Weezie".

Since 1980 she is married to comic book writer and artist Walter Simonson

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bland, generic writing that is 90% exposition. Hearkened back to those 60's comics that while groundbreaking at the time, are unbearable to read now.

This book is just odd. The Silver Surfer and Alicia Masters are now a couple and she has her own suit of ridiculous looking armor that allows her to travel through space. Starts off with the Mole Man stealing a sewage plant before Galactus shows up. Galactus is now a cosmic junkie that only feds off the life force of living beings. The Silver Surfer whines about what to do for five issues before the heavyweights of the galaxy kill Galactus off. Even after they comment each issue about how Eternity showed up during "The Trial of Galactus" and said the universe needed Galactus but their puny brains were too small to remember why.

This was terrible.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 2 out of 5]

Galactus returns to menace Earth. It's up to a coalition of superheroes to prevent it. In the Marvel Universe, this is known as “Wednesday.” The twist this time is that the big G is hungrier than ever. No longer having the patience to consume the planet itself, he now prefers to drain the energy of sentient beings directly. Will the Silver Surfer sacrifice everything, including the woman he loves, to protect the Earth?

Honestly, this was pretty second rate. Louise Simonson has written better stories. Muth, Buscema, and Sienkiewicz have all done better art. There have certainly been better Galactus stories. One wonders what--aside from separating fans from their money--was even the point of this whole exercise? The story ends on a “change” that is either likely to be undone in a hot second by the first writer who comes up with their own Galactus story, or is the setup for another yawner of a Major Crossover Event (™). Either way, there's no reason to get too attached to this particular story. Not recommended.

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Galactus: The Devourer collects issues 1-6 including the artwork of John Buscema. A reprint of the original run issues this tells a powerful story of Galactus' second attempt at attacking the Earth. This time he no longer hungers for the natural forces of the planet to sustain himself but must feed on the sentient life on the planet.
As I mentioned before I really like the artwork from my youth in comics and the skill of excellent story telling, a lack of that was the driving force behind my giving up on comics so many years ago. Once again Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer) must make the ultimate sacrifice to save the Earth and those he has come to love and care for. This time his sacrifice is not enough as his conscience ponders what his sacrifice has doomed the rest of the galaxy to.
The story also reminds us something I remember the watcher relaying to Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. 'Galactus is beyond good or bad' (like a force of nature) and that in the end Galactus will return to the universe much more than he has taken.
A great story worth taking the time to read and enjoy.

[Farhad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generic Galactus is Nigh, almost zero character development and nothing special in the graphic department, and one the most lame ways (still not as lame as Fantastic Four TV Series) to get ride of Galactus.

Galactus Fans avoid it.
Marvel Fans avoid it.
Comic Fans avoid it.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Galactus the Devourer is really a Silver Surfer graphic novel that revolves around Galactus. An alien crashes into the ocean and in his final moments, warns Silver Surfer that Galactus is coming. Silver Surfer soon realizes that Galactus is not well. Not only is he physically drained, he also has changed his habits. Galactus used to feed on the cores of planets, which gave him enough usable energy that he didn't need to feed often. Now, his new herald, Red Shift, has Galactus addicted to sentient energy. Galactus no longer devours planets, he just "eats" all life from them and leaves them barren. The energy he gets from this is largely empty and does not sustain him, so he now feeds constantly. It is up to Silver Surfer and Earth's other heroes to redirect Galactus from Earth, and even then, this new Galactus is a danger to every universe and every galaxy. The story is solid and plays out at a good pace. While I personally don't find Silver Surfer to be that interesting, we get enough action from the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and many other Marvel characters to keep the excitement up. The only real problem I had was that the story had quite a few cop outs and I often didn't entirely understand what was happening all the time. They do things like mention that Galactus's existence is vital to our universe for cosmic reasons that are too big for us to possibly understand. Bullshit. Either Marvel didn't want to play all their cards this early, or they didn't want to bother thinking of an actual explanation. Some of the panels are equally frustrating. Many times it felt like one panel was full of four or five panels worth of plot, so I never really understood what had happened. "Oh look! Silver Surfer did something and now that guys hurt. I don't know what he did, but it worked." And their schemes to fight Galactus were equally under-explained. it felt like the whole "cosmic reasons" thing again, where maybe they think they can jargon their way out of having an actual plan. In the end, Galactus the Devourer is a solid story with average artwork. I really liked the idea behind it and it opens the door for some interesting possibilities, but I often felt like Louise Simonson was trying to avoid any heavy lifting and bullshitted her way out of explaining things.

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth reading, I guess. Revisits a lot of familiar Galactus/Silver Surfer lore. I felt like the story ended with no explanation of some key plot points. Why did Galactus become addicted to devouring sentient life? Why was Galactus deemed somehow necessary?

I'm not very familiar with the story of Mantis. It felt like they couldn't make up their minds whether she is slutty or regal and majestic.

Alicia Masters emerges as the sympathetic character. I like how she sticks by Silver Surfer in spite of all his drama, and in spite of catching him kissing Mantis on the mouth.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of Galactus The Devourer

This was such an exciting and fantastic read! I loved seeing the relationship between Galactus and the Silver Surfer and I loved seeing Galactus be challenged by everyone and still hold his own! Such an incredible read!

[Devero · Rating 1 out of 5]

Davvero, J.J.Muth ha fatto di meglio e pure la Simonson ha scritto di meglio.
Decisamente una miniserie perdibile, una storia nata male, veramente brutta.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle of the road Galactus story.

[Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani · Rating 3 out of 5]

not a bad story but just decent

[Pxg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good

[Alex Sarll]

Miniseries from 1999 - so, just before I got back into Marvel - which I suspect made a lot more sense at the time, especially the portentous stuff at the end, after Galactus has been destroyed forever (LOL), setting up stories I have clearly missed entirely. This also means there are various odd details such as Alicia Masters, blind sculptress and sometime girlfriend of the Thing, having her own superhero armour and a relationship with the Silver Surfer (which was the style at the time). The plot starts off with the Mole Man stealing a sewage plant by way of a minor incident around which to establish the status quo, before moving into cosmic mode. Galactus has always been a bit of a bother, what with the whole 'eating planets' business, but now he's entirely out of hand. He's looking really peaky, and not eating whole planets anymore, only the sentient life which inhabits them. It's not good for him, and obviously it's not good for the galaxy. On some level it's pretty clearly a drugs metaphor, though since he says initially the sentient life just added savour to his meals, maybe it's like a smack habit which starts off with using heroin to season your sandwiches?

Anyway, the art is (mostly) Buscema pencilling with Billy the Sink on inks, so at least it looks good - a bit like Jack Kirby, if only Kirby had been able to draw.

[Andrew Pixton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one had a number of my favorite things about the genre. Beautiful artwork, good character development, and ethical dilemmas. Superhero genre is excellent at toying out the deeper questions of good and evil, and here Norrin Radd once again becomes Galactus' herald to save a planet he loves (Earth) and is forced to lead him to other planets of intelligent life for consumption. A hard decision to make, what would you do if those are your only options? Of course it works out that they find a way around it so maybe it isn't a true ethical dilemma, but that's still the superhero thing. What should they do in this crazy situation with no good option? It struck me at how noble of a character the Surfer is. The quality of his character is far above most other heroes, which is why he's such an interesting anti-hero. It has other tropes too, two dangerous events happen right next to each other, in America, around the heroes. I imagine living in a world like DC or Marvel Earth would be insane with crazy calamities constantly around the corner. The Surfer is the deep thinker of superheroes which is why I like him.

[Talk Comix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very standard cosmic story. The artwork was solid. I think the key part to this book was the end. Just as i thought there was was a tipical cosmic restart with silver surfer going back to being a herald.the cane along and created a really interesting twist. This was a gateway book with the next book (had there been one) being more interesting. This is for core silver surfer fans.

[Niklas · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of my first comic books since i picked up the habit again, so i wasn't used to this
''cover-bait/title-bait'' that sometimes occur with comics lol. I really wanted and expected a story focusing on Galactus, instead it was more about silver surfer, his chick(s) and the other heroes...
The comic felt really boring to me unfortunately, and not because of the age.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent Galactus story featuring the Fantastic Four, Avengers and others. Starts off a bit generic but has a good ending.