Marvel Officially Confirms Galactus’ Place As Its Most Powerful Villain

Warning! Spoilers for Doom (2024) ahead!The Marvel Universe is full of unbelievably powerful beings like Thanos and the Celestials or the Beyonder, but none of them hold a candle to Marvel’s most dangerous villain, Galactus. In one dark alternate universe, Galactus shows off his true power and destroys the universe, and there’s not a thing the Avengers can do to stop him.

The giant-sized Doom (2024) one-shot by Sanford Greene and Jonathan Hickman picks up right after Galactus has destroyed most of the known universe. It seems that Galactus has grown tired of waiting for the universe to end naturally, and instead decides to end it himself.

What follows is a terrifying look at just how dangerous Galactus actually is. Most people in the Marvel Universe have come to view him as a force of nature, but not one that is actively malicious. Doom shows exactly just how much damage Galactus could cause if he became truly evil, and there’s seemingly no one in the Marvel Universe who can stop him.

Galactus Devours Because He Needs To, Not Because He Wants To

Doom (2024) by Sanford Greene, Jonathan Hickman, Rachelle Rosenberg, Sanford Greene, and Joe Caramagna

Galactus used to be Galan of Taa, a perfectly normal mortal from the iteration of the universe that existed prior to the current Marvel one. When his universe began to end, Galactus was visited by the conscience of his universe, and merging together, Galactus gained the Power Cosmic and was able to travel over into the next iteration of the universe. While Galactus is powerful enough to do essentially whatever he wants, he needs to feed on planets in order to stay alive. This has made Galactus a major threat to tons of civilizations, but he feeds out of necessity, not maliciousness.

Galactus has also shown that he’s willing to work with the civilizations on the planets he encounters if possible. This has been made evident by the numerous times he has spared Earth in the past. This unending hunger had always made Galactus dangerous, but as long as he was willing to work with people, he was never that much of a problem. This has caused a few readers, and the Marvel Universe itself, to forget just how absurdly dangerous Galactus actually is, which was brilliantly shown in this recent Doom comic.

A Fed Galactus Is Practically Unstoppable

Galactus doesn’t want to just destroy entire solar systems for his own benefit, and therefore, he tends to only eat what he needs to survive. His power tends to fluctuate based on how hungry he is versus how satiated he is. This means the majority of times he’s seen, he’s actually pretty weak compared to what he could do at full power. There have been a few times when Galactus has pushed the limits of his power, one of which being when Galactus fought four Mad Celestials at the same time. After consuming four planets, Galactus was able to kill one of the four.

Galactus was capable of fighting off four Celestials and killing one of them after feeding off only four planets. In Doom (2024), he feeds on entire galaxies and is shown killing five Celestials with a single energy blast. With that kind of power, it’s no surprise that both the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are completely obliterated when trying to stop him. This level of power fits in perfectly with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original idea when creating Galactus. Originally, Galactus was meant to be a character who was so powerful that he was simply beyond the concepts of good and evil.

Galactus doesn’t even destroy the universe for any real nefarious reason. He simply grows tired of constantly having to scrape by to survive while waiting for the universe to end naturally. At the end of the story, Galactus builds a machine that is specifically designed to bring about the end of the universe and more importantly, bring about the creation of the next one. This motivation is perfectly in line with the idea that Galactus is beyond good and evil, since he isn’t doing this for any real purpose other than wanting to finally be allowed to move on.

There have been other versions of “Galactus” in the past, such as Omnimax. Driven insane by his hunger, it’s likely Galactus simply wants to stop being Galactus. He’s ready for the universe to end and for another person to take his place in the next universe, and unfortunately, there’s no one in the Marvel Universe who can stop him if he decides to do that.

While it’s unlikely that Galactus will ever go mad in the main 616 universe, it’s certainly a terrifying possibility. While the Fantastic Four have used weapons like the Ultimate Nullifier to fight off Galactus in the past, he’s also demonstrated that he can avoid that weapon when he wants too. Considering just how big the Marvel Universe is as well, if Galactus decided he wanted to begin eating planets in the far reaches of the universe to power up, there would simply be nothing the Avengers could do to stop him. By the time they even become aware that it’s happening, if they even do, it will be too late.

Galactus Is Marvel’s Ultimate Villain

This story ends with Galactus definitively winning. The Avengers are dead, Earth is destroyed, the Guardians of the Galaxy are killed, and the Celestials are destroyed. The only person standing between Galactus and the total death of the universe is Doctor Doom, and it’s unlikely that he will win this fight. While villains like Thanos have succeeded in “killing” the Marvel Universe before, they were ultimately defeated and the damage they did was undone. This isn’t true for Galactus. In this story, he definitively wins, and he does it with ease.

The Avengers have fought off tons of cosmic threats over the years. Celestials, the King in Black, beings as old as the universe itself have all gone up against the Avengers and lost. But this isn’t true for Galactus. Very rarely have the Avengers or Fantastic Four outright defeated Galactus. They’ve managed to deter him from feeding on Earth, either by temporarily fighting him off or making a deal with him. But Marvel’s heroes have never really fought a full-powered Galactus and won, and this comic perfectly shows why.