When Marvel heroes first faced off against Galactus in the comics, he was a threat unlike any they had ever seen. Known as the World Devourer, Galactus' reputation has carried forward over the years as one of the biggest threats in the Marvel Universe, and in anticipating his arrival, he has been built up as one of the biggest villains looming in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future.

And yet, his impact may be deadened so late in the history of the MCU when world-ending threats are a dime a dozen. So, with that being the case, let's look at whether Galactus can carry the same gravitas and awe to the films he first inspired in the comics.

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Heroes Reborn Galactus

When Galactus first appeared in 1966's Fantastic Four #48he came as the result of creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby fantasizing about a story in which the Marvel super-team had to face a threat bigger and more powerful than ever before. Conceiving of a godlike being who devoured planets, his arrival to Earth nearly ended all of humanity as the powers of the Fantastic Four made them no more than insects to the titanic figure. It came down to their use of wits and reason in stopping a threat more powerful than they ever faced, and over the years, Galactus maintained his status as one of Marvel's most powerful cosmic beings, even as more powerful threats were introduced.

But in the MCU, the heroes of Earth have already faced threats far grander than those which threaten a single planet. The first Avengers film had an army of aliens pour into New York City with the intention of conquering the planet, its sequel featured Ultron threatening humanity with an extinction-level event and even as recently as Eternals, the films of the MCU feature the destruction or death of billions of lives as a regular threat. And in the wake of Thanos combining the power of the Infinity Stones and wiping out half of all life in the entire universe, even the average MCU citizen is aware of cosmic threats that can destroy trillions of lives in a moment.

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Even in the latest MCU installments, a world-ending threat feels like small potatoes, with What If...? featuring a threat to the entire multiverse. Parallels to Galactus were made immediately apparent as the alternate-reality Ultron, infused with the power of Vision's body and all of the Infinity Stones, chomped down on an entire galaxy in a manner reminiscent of the World Devourer himself. In order for Galactus to truly feel like the threat he is in the comics, the MCU might have to boost the scale he operates on to even more cosmic proportions just to invoke the same sense of awe.

However, the constant race to up the ante ever further needs to stop sometime. As the MCU features more street-level heroes like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, it is clear that not every project in store for the universe needs to have such grand consequences. Rather than boosting Galactus' power to such epic proportions, the MCU would do well to focus on the human-level response to such a threat. Drama can still feel intense and life-altering even when its scale does not exceed those of the dangers that came before. As the MCU introduces its take on the Fantastic Four, maintaining focus on the human scale of its characters can help Galactus feel every bit as godly and massive as he did when he first appeared in the comics.

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Ultron becomes Galactus, kind of, in What If

There's also the possibility of incorporating the threat of Galactus into larger galactic affairs. In the comics, he often serves as a destabilizing force that motivates events like Secret Invasion, itself set to receive an adaptation in the MCU, so rather than treating him as the main villain, it may make more sense to integrate Galactus as one important piece in a larger threat that affects the political landscape of star-spanning civilizations like the Kree and the Skrulls.

In any case, there is quite a lot in adapting classic Fantastic Four tales to the MCU that necessitates they be done differently than how they were originally executed. As Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four of the comics broke ground on many concepts that now precede their introduction to the MCU. Galactus will need to go through some changes in order to really fit in the modern mythology of the movies, and fans can't really expect to get the same old villains when the world he's being introduced to is so dramatically different.

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