The Monstrefact: Marvel’s Galactus

titanic space god predates the Big Bang. He survived the great collapse of the previous universe and entered into our own, hatching from the cosmic egg. His god like abilities come via the power cosmic, which he sustains through the consumption of entire worlds. And yet Galactus is a lot more complex than your typical Earth destroying elder god. While definitely an existential threat and a perpetrator of untold megadeaths, Galactus does not consume worlds with malice, as the latest MCU

film accurately depicts. He himself is a slave to his own insatiable hunger, but is lawful and honorable standing by the letter of pacts made for the survival of various planets and such. While he's certainly a villain and a monster by many measurements, he is also beyond good and evil, a natural force that dwarfs everything he encounters. Sometimes he even acts in ways that might cast him as an

anti hero. In The Fantastic Four First Steps, Galactus is as close to his silver Age glory as we could hope for. A giant humanoid being in purple armour and a great hat that might best be described as a papal miter with cosmic horns. English character actor Ralph Ineson

provides his voice and likeness. The presentation is delightfully over the top, as it should be, But the entire Galactus scenario, in which a ravenous cosmic power sends its harbingers out in search of worlds and civilizations to dine on, actually isn't entirely the domain of comic book science fiction. Humans have wrestled with the Fermi paradox for seventy five years now.

If other intelligent life forms exist in the universe, perhaps even in some abundance, then why haven't we encountered them, heard of them, seen any signs of them. Why is the universe so silent? Hypothesized solutions vary from the possibility that Earth really is a rare commodity in the cosmos to the idea that we exist in a sort of space zoo or nature reserve. But while the latter concept entails benign alien beings that intentionally leave us alone, the

dark Forest hypothesis paints a bleaker picture. Name for the two thousand and eight Lucien novel of the same name, the dark Forest hypothe this states that the rest of the universe is quiet because its various intelligent, technologically advanced civilizations are understandably afraid. They remain unheard and unseen because they know to raise their voices or in any way broadcast their presence could attract the unwonted attention of dangerous,

even more powerful forces. This could be threats known to exist, or merely threats likely to exist and therefore worth remaining silent for. And this is where we get to the possibility of if not an actual galactus, then something close enough to terrify us, something that hungers and sends its seekers and heralds far across the sprawl of stars in search of civilized worlds to harvest. First, let's think about

that hunger galactus must consume worlds. This we know the idea is far from ridiculous when we consider it the Kardashev scale, which sorts potential civilizations by how much power they can harvest Type one the energy of an entire planet, type to the energy of an entire star, Type three

the energy of an entire galaxy. Certainly, by type three we are contemplating galactus level power, and it certainly puts forms of planet and star harvesting or even consumption into consideration, both in terms of what we can imagine, such as the use of a Dyson sphere to enclose a star and collect the sum total of its energy output, and means that we can't even fathom.

The concept here is that the cosmos seems silent because thus far all other sufficiently advanced intelligent forms of life have been destroyed by deadly seeker self replicating destroyers that are even now on their way to decimate Earth as well. In teasing this hypothesis apart, some have argued that humanity would have surely been discovered and eradicated already if this

were the status quo in the galaxy. However, if we've not yet met the criteria for extermination, or if there's some hope of passing a civilizational test that ensures our survival yish, then perhaps the sword of Damocles merely hangs above all of our heads, entirely dependent on how we conduct ourselves or how solid the latest season of Single

Female Lawyer happens to be. Obviously, there are numerous ways to dissect this hypothesis, ranging from just considering the toll such self replicating machines might take on the galaxies available mass over time. This would potentially spell a kind of Gray Goog apocalypse on a cosmic scale, as well as issues of detection or lack of detection here in our

local neighborhood. Naturally, the idea has been explored in various Sci Fi treatments, often as a means to explore our collective values as a species, our hopes and our fears that something else out there shares those values in either its dark or light extremes. And we see this with Galactus as well, that a herald is sent to judge us, save or condemn us based on our merits or the merits of those who stand as shining examples of what

we aspire to be. And in this we're reminded that Galactus is a comic book take on the divine, a god who sits in judgment, echoing a very long standing note in human mythmaking, such as in the Bible, and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. In the Bagava Ghita, I am time grown old to destroy the world, embarked on the course of world annihilation.

Except for yourself. None of these will survive. Of these warriors arrayed in opposite armies, and in Marvel comics, Your planet is now marked for death. Your world will be consumed by the devour. There is nothing you can do to stop him, for he is a universal force, as essential as the stars. Hold your loved ones close, and speak the words you've been afraid to speak. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact or

Animalist Upendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.