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145-414: Co-creator Neal Adams' early ideas for Killraven involved the character being the son of a Doc Savage archetype . This concept had been reworked by the first issue, a multiple-creator goulash in which the two originators and co-plotters turned the scripting over to another writer, and in which artist co-creator Adams penciled only the first 11 pages and Howard Chaykin the remaining nine. The second issue

290-650: A photographic memory , a mastery of the martial arts , and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices. He is a physician , scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Polar Treasure , a musician. Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes ' deductive abilities, Tarzan 's outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy 's scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln 's goodness. He also described Doc Savage as manifesting " Christliness ." Doc's character and world-view

435-543: A "radical" idea concerning "why the very existence of the universe depends on the health and well-being of Galactus." The consequences of Galactus' death are explored in the issues Fantastic Four Annual 2001 and Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #46–49 (October 2001 – January 2002) written by Jeph Loeb and culminate in Galactus' revival, bringing resolution to Simonson's cliffhanger from the Devourer story arc. The character features in

580-527: A Devourer of Worlds and thereby restore the cosmic order. Galactus locates the hero Anti-Man outside the Multiverse and, after transforming him into a Herald of Life, sends him to recruit the recently disbanded Ultimates to help discover the identity of Eternity's captor, who is later revealed to be the First Firmament, the first iteration of the cosmos. Master Order and Lord Chaos bring Galactus to trial before

725-501: A Lifebringer instead of a Devourer of Worlds, his first act as such being to re-create Archeopia, the first planet that he ever consumed. Galactus later rescues the team at the behest of Eternity, and learns that the latter has been imprisoned by an unknown force. Galactus also comes into conflict with fellow cosmic entities Master Order and Lord Chaos , who, along with the Molecule Man , wish for Galactus to return to his former role as

870-493: A being who is compelled to infuse dead planets with life-sustaining energies, thus altering the character's primary motive for the first time since Galactus' debut in 1966. Elaborating on what inspired the change, Ewing explained "What inspired it—a mixture of wanting someone big on or allied with the team—originally, we thought about Odin, but he's a bit busy—and my usual preoccupations with atonement, redemption, growth and change. So what can [Galactus] do now? Well, whereas before he

1015-580: A central role as antagonist in Hunger #1–4 (2013), in which the mainstream Galactus of the primary Marvel continuity merges with his counterpart from the Ultimate Marvel publication imprint, Gah Lak Tus . Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov commented that his intent was to use Galactus as a means to place the characters from the Ultimate Marvel imprint into a completely unexpected crisis: "What I hope comes across

1160-403: A character that broke away from the archetype of the standard villain. In the character's first appearance, Galactus was depicted as a god-like figure that fed by draining living planets of their energy, and operated without regard to the morality or judgments of mortal beings. Galactus's initial origin was that of a Taa-an space explorer named Galan who gained cosmic abilities by passing near

1305-506: A choice of the original pulp cover or the covers from the Bantam paperbacks, and most include the original interior artwork, as well as new essays and reprints of other old material. In late 2008, Nostalgia Ventures ended their relationship, and Sanctum Books continues with the reprints on their own. Two Doc Savage radio series were broadcast during the pulp era. The first, in 1934, was a 15-minute serial which ran for 26 episodes. The 1943 series

1450-474: A complete list of the titles in the original pulp magazine series.) One Lester Dent biographer hypothesizes that one inspiration for Doc Savage may have been the American military officer and author Richard Henry Savage , who wrote more than 40 books of adventure and mystery stories and lived a dashing and daring life. The character first appeared on screen in a 1975 film, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze . It

1595-500: A crossover with King Kong , was released in 2013. Murray teamed Doc up with another Street & Smith pulp-era hero, The Shadow , in Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow (2015) and Doc Savage: Empire of Doom (2016). Sanctum Books, in association with Nostalgia Ventures, began a new series of Doc reprints (starting November 2006), featuring two novels per book, in magazine-sized paperbacks. Several editions came with

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1740-696: A direct sequel series to The Ultimates (vol. 3) #1–6 titled The Ultimates 2 (vol. 2) #1–10 (November 2016 – August 2017) which focused on the Lifebringer Galactus as the de facto leader of the Ultimates. Galactus in his Lifebringer persona made his final appearance in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #26–30 (December 2017 – April 2018) before being reverted to his "Devourer of Worlds" persona by writer Gerry Dugan in Infinity Countdown #4 (June 2018). Set at

1885-543: A fake Ultimate Nullifier . Unable to read Richards' mind (which is protected by the Watcher), Galactus retreats. Galactus empowers and uses the superheroine Dazzler to locate a missing Terrax, who is in fact hiding from his master inside a black hole. The Dazzler defeats and retrieves Terrax, and forces Galactus to return her to Earth. Galactus is fooled by the Galadorian Spaceknight Rom into trying to devour

2030-463: A film involving several Street and Smith pulp heroes, including The Shadow , The Avenger , and Doc Savage. A screenplay was supposedly written by Siavash Farahani but since then, no other news surfaced with regards to this script. Writer/director Shane Black was set to direct a film adaptation for Original Film and Sony Pictures . Black would also co-write the screenplay with Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry . The film version will be set in

2175-462: A final story, "Killraven: Final Battles, Final Lies, Final Truths" (also referred to as "Final Lies, Final Truths, Final Battles"). The story never saw print, according to McGregor, because Marvel would not assure Russell the company would print the story in Marvel's best format at the time. In this intended finale to McGregor's story, "Killraven would take that war back to the intruders" on Mars itself. In

2320-626: A five-issue alternate universe Killraven miniseries planned for release in 2008, but the project never went into production. On the alternate-future Earth designated Earth-691 by Marvel Comics, the Martians from H. G. Wells ' The War of the Worlds return in 2001 for another attempt at conquering the planet (they were later retconned as extrasolar aliens using Mars as a staging area). After humanity's enslavement, men not used as breeders or collaborators are trained and forced to battle gladiator-style for

2465-517: A highly skilled swordsman, wrestler, and martial artist. He is a master of most hand weaponry, especially shuriken. He is a master strategist in guerrilla warfare. Killraven possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of human history, art, and science predating the Martian invasion of A.D. 2001, implanted in his mind by Keeper Whitman. As artist P. Craig Russell described, "Killraven has a sort of extrasensory ability to counterbalance his gladiatorial skills. He

2610-531: A human preacher from Earth named Pastor Mike (full name unknown) that he names Praeter to be his new herald. Later, when the Mad Celestials from Earth-4280 invade, Galactus destroys one before being struck down by the others. Revived by Franklin Richards, he and Franklin succeed in vanquishing the remaining Celestials, and prevent the destruction of Earth. In the aftermath, Galactus learns that he will no longer face

2755-406: A living force of nature whose existence is necessary to correct the imbalances between the conceptual entities: Eternity and Death , as well as to serve as a cosmic test of survival for civilizations. Additionally, the continued existence of Galactus ensures the confinement of the cosmic entity Abraxas . As Galactus requires planets with the potential to support life, his existence also causes

2900-508: A military cadre of survivors and the butterfly-like Mourning Prey. Still later, the Freemen encounter Killraven's brother, Deathraven, and discover he has become a Martian collaborator. In November 2020, the Martian occupation is over when Killraven unleashes a zombie plague on the Martians' food supply (humans and human infants). As a youth, gladiator-in-training Jonathan Raven's physical prowess

3045-436: A movie adaptation of The Thousand-Headed Man . Complications with rights killed the project. In 1975, producer and director George Pal produced the movie Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze , starring Ron Ely as Doc Savage. The movie was a critical failure and did poorly at the box office. Several articles and a later interview with Pal suggest the movie's failure had much to do with its loss of funding during filming when

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3190-616: A novel by Philip José Farmer , Escape From Loki (1991), which told the story of how in World War I Doc met the men who would become his five comrades. Clark Savage Jr. first appeared in March 1933 in the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine . Because of the success of the Shadow, who had his own pulp magazine, the publishers Street & Smith quickly launched this pulp title. Unlike the Shadow, Clark Savage, "Doc" to his friends, had no special powers but

3335-512: A potential Wold Newton Universe cross-over involving a meeting between Doc Savage and a retired Sherlock Holmes in 1936. In any case, this screenplay was never filmed. In 1966, the basic premise of Doc Savage's origin was an obvious influence on the Mexican lucha libre film character Mil Mascaras (1966), which was released at the height of the popularity of the Doc Savage paperback book series in

3480-614: A proposed Doc Savage TV series, George Pal commissioned a two-part teleplay by Alvin Sapinsley based on the May 1935 pulp novel The Secret in the Sky . The teleplay was completed in January 1975, but due to the poor reception of the first Doc Savage film, a pilot was never filmed. Another screenplay was written by Philip José Farmer based on the January 1936 pulp novel Murder Mirage . It included

3625-455: A second script based on the first Doc Savage pulp novel, The Man of Bronze , because he felt the movie-going audience needed more background information about Doc and his origin. Contemporary news accounts indicated that Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil had been filmed in the Lake Tahoe area simultaneously with the principal photography for the first Doc Savage film. However, due to

3770-429: A series of paperback books , which had sold over 20 million copies by 1979. Into the 21st century, Doc Savage has remained a nostalgic icon in the U.S., referenced in novels and popular culture . Longtime Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee credited Doc Savage as being the forerunner to modern superheroes . Doc Savage Magazine was printed by Street & Smith from March 1933 to the summer of 1949 to capitalize on

3915-738: A spacecraft and are engulfed in the Big Crunch . Galan, however, does not die: after bonding with the Sentience of the Universe , he changes and gestates for billions of years in an egg made of the debris of his ship that the current universe formed after the Big Bang . He emerges as Galactus, and though an unnamed Watcher observed Galactus's birth and recognizes his destructive nature, the Watcher chooses not to kill Galactus. Starving for sustenance, Galactus consumes

4060-545: A star, but writer Mark Gruenwald further developed the character's origins, presenting Taa and Galan as existing in the universe prior to the Big Bang that began the setting of the current primary universe. As Galan's universe came to an end, he merged with the " Sentience of the Universe " to become Galactus, an entity that wielded such cosmic power as to require devouring entire planets to sustain his existence. Additional material written by John Byrne , Jim Starlin , and Louise Simonson explored Galactus's role and purpose in

4205-404: A sword and shuriken. He sometimes rides a mutated serpent-horse, or appropriated Martian vehicles and aircraft. There have been counterparts of Killraven in several stories: In the mainstream Marvel Universe that the company dubs Earth-616 , Jonathan Raven appears in the 2006 - 2007 miniseries Wisdom . He is the son of Wisdom's MI-13 co-worker and lover, Maureen Raven, and the target of

4350-407: A theatrical motion picture , with Marvel and Sony Pictures in negotiations with Robert Schenkkan to write a script. Those plans were abandoned and the rights of Killraven were reverted to Marvel. Doc Savage Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr. , he

4495-498: A torn khaki shirt and under the by-line "Kenneth Robeson". The stories were not reprinted in chronological order as originally published, though they did begin with the first adventure, The Man of Bronze . By 1967, Bantam was publishing once a month until 1990, when all 181 original stories (plus an unpublished novel, The Red Spider ) had run their course. Author Will Murray produced seven more Doc Savage novels for Bantam Books from Lester Dent's original outlines. Bantam also published

Killraven - Misplaced Pages Continue

4640-531: A trans-dimensional Martian Invasion because, as the Martian leader states, "On all Earths! Always! Every one of him is dangerous! Ruling council plan to invade all other Earths. So I urged this first expedition now before he is grown". Wisdom is forced to kill Maureen in order to stop the Martian invasion, while Jonathan is taken to an MI-6 safehouse in Prague and trained by martial artist Shang-Chi . Hollywood trade stories in 2005 reported plans to adapt Killraven for

4785-539: A two-year hiatus in Fantastic Four (vol. 6) #45 (July 2022)—the final issue of the event " Reckoning War "—where Galactus is resurrected by his former heralds . Galactus was originally the Taa-an explorer Galan of the planet Taa, which existed in the sixth incarnation of the prime pre-Big Bang universe . When an unknown cosmic cataclysm gradually kills all other life in his universe, Galan and other survivors leave Taa on

4930-625: A weapon to destroy all life in the universe, but is thwarted when the entity is freed by Drax the Destroyer . Galactus retaliates and destroys most of Annihilus' forces. Seeking a final confrontation with Tenebrous and Aegis, Galactus sends the Silver Surfer to locate them. The Surfer eventually draws the pair into the barrier between the universe and the Negative Zone , which destroys both of them. After an encounter with Epoch , Galactus consumes

5075-611: A whole host of alien races or their representatives ... there were the Skrulls , the Watcher and the Stranger , all of whom Lee and Kirby used in the foundations of the universe they were constructing, one where all things were possible but only if they did not flout the 'natural laws' of this cosmology. In the nascent Marvel Universe, characters acted consistently, whatever comic they were appearing in. Their actions reverberated through every title. It

5220-717: Is a polymathic scientist , explorer , detective , and warrior who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic at Street & Smith Publications , with additional material contributed by the series' main writer, Lester Dent . Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name. The illustrations were by Walter Baumhofer , Paul Orban , Emery Clarke , Modest Stein , and Robert G. Harris . The heroic-adventure character would go on to appear in other media, including radio, film, and comic books, with his adventures reprinted for modern-day audiences in

5365-453: Is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . Formerly a mortal man, he is a cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his life force, and serves a functional role in the upkeep of the primary Marvel continuity . He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966). Lee and Kirby wanted to introduce

5510-539: Is a framing device, yes. We wanted it to be a story, not just a long Misplaced Pages entry. As established in Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run, there comes a point when Galactus and Franklin Richards stand together at the end of time, and now we get to see exactly what they were doing there." Galactus was killed by Thor during the "Herald of Thunder" story arc in Thor (vol. 6) #1–6 (March–August 2020), and reappeared after

5655-521: Is a notation at the end of the original film that a sequel adapted from the novel Death in Silver featuring the infamous Silver Death's-Heads was in the works, but nothing came of it, despite the drafting of a script for it). According to the screenplay by Joe Morhaim that was posted on the Internet, as well as other archival and news accounts, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was based very loosely on

5800-515: Is a sort of god. He is beyond reproach, beyond anyone's opinion. In a way he is kind of a Zeus, who fathered Hercules. He is his own legend, and of course, he and the Silver Surfer are sort of modern legends, and they are designed that way." Writer Mike Conroy expanded on Lee and Kirby's explanations: "In five short years from the launch of the Fantastic Four , the Lee/Kirby duo ... had introduced

5945-449: Is described as "the physical, metamorphosed embodiment of a cosmos ." Although not an abstract, non-corporeal entity, his true form cannot be perceived by most beings; each species sees Galactus in a form they can comprehend, similar to their race or a deity of their religion. Galactus can also appear as a humanoid star when addressing fellow members of the cosmic hierarchy. Through his actions of consuming planets, Galactus embodies

Killraven - Misplaced Pages Continue

6090-506: Is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows: Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man. By

6235-417: Is likely the case). Doc Savage fights against evil with the assistance of the "Fabulous Five". Doc Savage has appeared in comics and a movie, on radio, and as a character in numerous other works, and continues to inspire authors and artists in the realm of fantastic adventure. Doc Savage Magazine was created by Street & Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic to capitalize on

6380-471: Is mentioned in Truman Capote 's novel In Cold Blood , as an older Kansan recalls Doc's "fixing" of the criminals he had caught. Lester Dent , the series' principal author, had a mixed regard for his own creations. Though usually protective of his own work, he could be derisive of his pulp output. In interviews, he stated that he harbored no illusions of being a high-quality author of literature; for him,

6525-548: Is on the 86th floor of a New York City skyscraper, implicitly the Empire State Building , reached by Doc's private high-speed elevator. Doc owns a fleet of cars, trucks, aircraft, and boats which he stores at a secret hangar on the Hudson River , under the name The Hidalgo Trading Company , which is linked to his office by a pneumatic-tube system nicknamed the "flea run". He sometimes retreats to his Fortress of Solitude in

6670-627: Is revealed as a blimp, a scorching death comes from super-charged electric batteries, a "sea angel" is a mechanical construct towed by a submarine, Navy ships sunk by a mysterious force are actually sabotaged, and so on. But Doc Savage also battles invisible killers, a murderous teleporter, and superscientific foes from the center of the Earth. In earlier stories, some of the criminals captured by Doc receive "a delicate brain operation" to cure their criminal tendencies. These criminals return to society, unaware of their past, to lead productive lives. The operation

6815-643: Is the sense of wonder that's being brought into the Ultimate Universe...with the smart, modern tone Brian has established." Following his appearance in Hunger , Galactus was a major supporting character in The Ultimates (vol. 3) #1–6 (January–June 2016), where writer Al Ewing fundamentally changed the nature of Galactus' character. During the events of the story, Galactus is transformed into "the Lifebringer",

6960-435: Is very much the barbarian type, yet at the same time he has this seed planted in his brain that is the history of the human race — a racial memory of everything that has been obliterated by the Martians. It's almost a magical ability.... It was what removed him from being just another sword-wielding gladiator type." Killraven wears bulletproof fabrics and leather. He is armed with various weapons as needed, and usually carried

7105-588: The African American M'Shulla Scott , shared color comic books' earliest known dramatic interracial kiss, in issue #31 (July 1975), page nine, final panel. Aside from McGregor, with whom the character became associated, other writers include Bill Mantlo (a fill-in Amazing Adventures and a Marvel Team-Up with Killraven and a future-flung Spider-Man ); Joe Linsner (a 2001 Marvel Knights one-shot , Killraven , set in 2020 New York City , at odds with

7250-458: The Air-Walker , Mister Fantastic reprograms Galactus's ship to travel to the Negative Zone , which contains many uninhabited worlds that could potentially be consumed. Thor and Olympian ally Hercules encounter Galactus when his next herald, Firelord , travels to Earth to be free of his master. Galactus frees Firelord when Thor presents Galactus with the magical Asgardian suit of armor named

7395-541: The Arctic , which pre-dates Superman 's similar hideout of the same name. The entire operation is funded with gold from a Central American mine given to him by the local descendants of the Maya people in the first Doc Savage story. (Doc and his assistants learned the little-known Mayan language of this people at the same time, allowing them to communicate privately when others might be listening.) Lester Dent kept current with

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7540-644: The Chaos King , a metaphysical embodiment of Oblivion and another antithesis of Eternity. While the Hulk and his allies the God Squad, Alpha Flight , and several members of the Avengers fight Amatsu-Mikaboshi's forces, Amadeus Cho and Galactus develop a machine which will move Earth to a safe location in a sealed-off continuum, only to adapt the plan by trapping Amatsu-Mikaboshi in that dimension instead. After an encounter with

7685-622: The Destroyer to animate and use as a herald. Galactus comes into conflict with the High Evolutionary when attempting to devour Counter-Earth , but he is temporarily transformed into harmless energy after attempting to devour the planet Poppup, the homeworld of the Impossible Man . After returning to normal form, Galactus is sought by the Fantastic Four to help stop a new cosmic threat,

7830-537: The Great Depression , enabling him to buy a yacht and vacation in the Caribbean. All of the original stories were reprinted in paperback form by Bantam Books in the 1960s through 1990s. Of the first 67 paperback covers, 62 were painted in extraordinary monochromatic tones and super-realistic detail by James Bama , whose updated vision of Doc Savage with the exaggerated widow's peak captured, at least symbolically,

7975-580: The In-Betweener , is forcibly merged with them into a new cosmic being called Logos. After destroying several Celestials, Logos forcibly transforms Galactus back into the Devourer of Worlds. The process is reversed when Anti-Man sacrifices his life to restore Galactus as the Lifebringer. Galactus then swears to free the imprisoned Eternity. During the " Infinity Countdown " storyline, the Silver Surfer requests Galactus' aid in defeating Ultron/Hank Pym by consuming

8120-558: The Living Tribunal , still seeking to restore Galactus to his former state for the sake of the cosmic order. Although Galactus successfully argues that the balance of the new Multiverse is different and that his old role is obsolete, the Tribunal is destroyed by a Firmament-influenced Master Order and Lord Chaos. After a brief battle, Master Order decides to create a new cosmic order, which it and Lord Chaos would control. Their former servant,

8265-520: The Silver Surfer : My inspirations were the fact that I had to make sales and come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. In other words, I couldn't depend on gangsters. I had to get something new. For some reason, I went to the Bible and I came up with Galactus. And there I was in front of this tremendous figure, who I knew very well because I've always felt him. I certainly couldn't treat him in

8410-574: The Skrulls ' throneworld of Tarnax IV, and discusses his role in the universe with fellow cosmic entity Death . Mr. Fantastic is captured by the Shi'ar for saving Galactus' life, and is tried by all of the aliens who survived the annihilation of their homeworlds by Galactus. During the trial, the cosmic entity Eternity — the sentient embodiment of space and reality of the Marvel Universe — intervenes, allowing all beings present to momentarily become one with

8555-629: The Sphinx . Mr. Fantastic offers to release Galactus from his vow to not devour Earth if he helps defeat the Sphinx. Galactus agrees, if the Fantastic Four first recruit a being called Tyros as a new herald. The quartet succeed, and the newly empowered and renamed Terrax the Tamer leads his master to Earth. Galactus locates and defeats the Sphinx in Egypt , but is confronted by Mr. Fantastic, who, unbeknownst to Galactus, wields

8700-425: The machine pistol , the supermachine pistol, or the rapid-firer. A wide range of ammunition types were used for the machine pistols, including incendiary bullets that smash on contact, coating the target with a high-temperature paste-fed fire, high explosive bullets able to uproot trees, ordinary lead bullets, and the sleep-inducing "mercy bullets". Doc also developed an automated typewriter. Doc's greatest foe, and

8845-410: The poor reception of the first film, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was never completed or released. In an interview conducted in 2014, while he was filming the television movie Expecting Amish , actor Ron Ely stated unequivocally that "no portion of The Arch Enemy of Evil was ever filmed, concurrently with The Man of Bronze or otherwise. That's a total myth." Finally, in anticipation of

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8990-401: The supervillain mold of the tyrant with god-like stature and power. As Lee recalled in 1993, Galactus was simply another in a long line of super-villains whom we loved creating. ...[W]e felt the only way to top ourselves was to come up with an evil-doer who had almost godlike powers. Therefore, the natural choice was sort of a demi-god, but now what would we do with him? We didn't want to use

9135-491: The 1930s and will include the Fabulous Five. Neal H. Moritz will produce. In September 2013, talking about the difficulty in casting the character, Black commented, "He's the perfect physical specimen, people look at him and they are over-awed by the symmetry and perfection he exudes." In June 2014, it was revealed that he wanted Chris Hemsworth for the lead role but Hemsworth was never officially announced or attached to

9280-725: The 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer . He will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), portrayed by Ralph Ineson . Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby , the character debuted in The Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966, the first of a three-issue story later known as " The Galactus Trilogy "). In 1966, nearly five years after launching Marvel Comics ' flagship superhero title, Fantastic Four , creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on an antagonist designed to break

9425-409: The 64-page hardcover graphic novel Silver Surfer: Judgment Day (October 1988), in which Galactus clashes with the demonic entity Mephisto . Galactus was featured in the miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet #1–6 (July –December 1991), The Infinity War #1–6 (June –November 1992) and Cosmic Powers #1–6 (March –August 1994). The character starred in the six-issue miniseries Galactus

9570-537: The Bantam Books reprints a success, media tie-ins for Doc Savage began immediately. A 1965 house ad for a poster, "The Arch-Enemy of Evil", announces, "Tougher than Tarzan, braver than Bond, Doc is America's newest rage - with teenagers, college students, and the 'in' groups all over the country. And there's a television series and feature motion picture in the future." In 1967, a TV Guide article reported talks were underway to have Chuck Connors play Doc Savage in

9715-614: The Black Nebula, the homeworld of the Dire Wraiths , but he is repelled by the Wraiths' Dark Sun. A weakened Galactus pursues the rebellious Terrax to Earth and strips him of his power. Near death, Galactus is saved by the Fantastic Four and the Avengers while also acquiring another herald: Nova II, who offers herself as Galactus' herald in exchange for him sparing Earth again. Galactus devours

9860-436: The Black Winter considers Galactus to be his herald. This causes an angered Thor to drain Galactus of his energies enough to turn him into a desiccated husk. When the Black Winter moves in to claim Galactus' body, Thor uses it as a bomb to decimate the Black Winter. The first (and oldest) living entity in the universe, Galactus was created during the union of the Sentience of the (previous) Universe and Galan of Taa, and

10005-416: The Devourer (September 1999 –March 2000), written by Louise Simonson and illustrated by John Buscema, which climaxed with Galactus' death. Simonson originally conceived that the story arc would occur in Silver Surfer (vol. 3), but the title was cancelled due to dwindling sales. She proposed a separate limited series, and at the time was initially doubtful that Marvel would approve what she considered

10150-431: The Doc Savage series was simply a job, a way to earn a living by "churning out reams and reams of sellable crap", never dreaming how his series would catch on. Comics historian Jim Steranko revealed that Dent used a formula to write his Doc Savage stories, so that his heroes were continually, and methodically, getting in and out of trouble. Dent was initially paid $ 500 per story and this was later increased to $ 750 during

10295-462: The High Evolutionary, Galactus invades Asgard , home of the Norse Gods, seeking an Asgardian artifact to sate his hunger and spare future civilizations. Odin , ruler of the Norse Gods, contends that Galactus wishes to ensure that he is not replaced in the next universe. To avoid a protracted battle, the Silver Surfer offers to remain on Earth to guard the artifact on the condition that Galactus may have it once Asgard eventually passes. Galactus recruits

10440-418: The Martians' amusement; women are used as breeders to supply infants, eaten by the Martians as a delicacy. Jonathan Raven, dubbed Killraven as his gladiatorial nom de guerre , escaped with the help of the gladiatorial "keeper", but without his brother, Deathraven. Killraven joined the Freemen, a group of freedom fighters against Martian oppression. From 2018 to 2020, Killraven and his companions travel across

10585-504: The Martians. In 2005, writer Jim Valentino said his aborted plans for the Marvel comic Guardians of the Galaxy involved Killraven, in his 50s, joining the team and forming an attraction to Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) . Valentino said he would have established Franklin Richards as Killraven's father. Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Rob Liefeld announced in August 2007 they were creating

10730-575: The Marvel Universe, and examined the character's actions through themes of genocide , manifest destiny , ethics, and natural/necessary existence. Frequently accompanied by a herald (such as the Silver Surfer ), the character has appeared as both antagonist and protagonist in central and supporting roles. Since debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books , Galactus has played a role in over five decades of Marvel continuity. In 2009, Galactus ranked fifth on IGN 's list of "Top 100 Comic Book Villains", which cited

10875-448: The Marvel Universe, appears to validate the existence of Galactus as necessary for the natural order and essential to prevent an even more catastrophic fate; Howard University professor of literature Marc Singer criticized this, accusing the writer-artist of using the character to "justify planetary-scale genocide." Byrne and Stan Lee also collaborated on a one-shot Silver Surfer story (June 1982) in which Galactus returned to Zenn-La after

11020-628: The Negative Zone, reasoning that he will eventually starve to death, as the region is composed of anti-matter . A comatose Galactus is found by the Eternals and Aarkus , who hope to use him in their war against the Kree . Galactus returns to the universe, and after an encounter with Squirrel Girl , is forced into his own incubator by the Ultimates , who are determined to end his threat. Galactus re-emerges as

11165-511: The October 1934 pulp novel Death in Silver . Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil would feature a deformed, German-speaking supervillain , whose pet man-eating octopus was a nod to a similar plot element in the September 1937 pulp novel The Feathered Octopus . In fact, this screenplay was originally intended to be filmed as the first Doc Savage movie. However, producer George Pal commissioned

11310-451: The Silver Surfer appeared as antagonists in both Skaar: Son of Hulk #7–12 (March 1, 2009 – August 1, 2009) and Son of Hulk #13–17 (September 1, 2009 – January 2010), and as protagonists in the miniseries The Thanos Imperative #1–6 (June–November 2010). Galactus was a member of the God Squad in the miniseries Chaos War #2–5 (December 2010 – March 2011). After an appearance in Fantastic Four #583–587 (November 2010 – March 2011),

11455-582: The Surfer and Nova II from Mephisto 's realm, and aids the cosmic hierarchy in a war against the mad Eternal Thanos , who wields the Infinity Gauntlet . When Nova II is conscience-stricken at causing the death of billions of aliens, Galactus takes on a new herald, the bloodthirsty Morg the Executioner . Tyrant eventually returns and Morg sacrifices himself to stop the former creation of Galactus by using

11600-460: The Surfer to Earth for betraying him. Galactus later returns for his former herald, but the Surfer is unrepentant and chooses to remain on Earth. Thor learns of Galactus' origin when the entity comes into conflict with Ego the Living Planet . Returning to Earth, Galactus unsuccessfully tries to re-enlist the Silver Surfer. After the Fantastic Four and the Surfer defeat Galactus's new herald,

11745-415: The Surfer's rebellion and drained it of energy after allowing the populace to flee. Writer-penciller John Byrne and inker Terry Austin produced "The Last Galactus Story" as a serial in the anthology comic-magazine Epic Illustrated #26–34 (October 1984 – February 1986). Nine of a scheduled 10 installments appeared. Each was six pages with the exception of the eighth installment (12 pages). The magazine

11890-473: The U.S. In 1999, there was an announcement that a possible remake featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the works, with the involvement of Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell , but it and several other Schwarzenegger projects ( Sgt. Rock and an epic about the Crusades ) were shelved when Schwarzenegger ran for and was elected Governor of California . In late 2006, Sam Raimi was rumoured to be making

12035-497: The Ultimate Nullifier. Galactus then decides, with help from his new herald Red Shift, to only devour the energy of living beings, which brings him into conflict with alien races and Earth's superheroes. During a final confrontation near Chandilar, the throneworld of the Shi'ar , the Silver Surfer turns Galactus' siphoning machines against him. A starving Galactus dies and assumes the form of a star. The death of Galactus allows

12180-601: The antagonists' names are anagrams of the Battle Creek-based Kellogg Company 's breakfast cereals. The Freemen meet the flirty and sensual Volcana Ash, who helps them battle Atalon and the Death-Breeders. After learning that his brother Joshua (Deathraven) is still alive, Killraven fights Martian slaves alongside a time-traveling Spider-Man , The Freemen eventually reach the Everglades , where they encounter

12325-488: The cause of his universe's destruction: the Black Winter (Fimbulwinter), a cosmic entity that fulfills a similar purpose to Galactus on a far larger scale — rather than simply devouring planets, it consumes entire universes. Galactus reveals to All-Father Thor that he had a vision of Thor being responsible for his death. In a bid to destroy the Black Winter, Galactus turns Thor into his Herald of Thunder. Thor later learns that

12470-423: The character became a mainstay of the Marvel Universe. To preserve the character's mystique, his next two appearances were nonspeaking cameos in Thor #134 (November 1966), and Daredevil #37 (February 1968), respectively. Numerous requests from fans prompted the character to be featured heavily in Fantastic Four #72–77 (March–August 1968). After a flashback appearance in Silver Surfer #1 (August 1968),

12615-420: The character had no dialogue. Author Andy Lanning said that he and co-writer Dan Abnett were "treating Galactus like a force of nature; an inevitable, planetary catastrophe that there is no reasoning with, no bargaining with and no escaping." Galactus also appeared in the limited series Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1–3 (June–August 2009), a sequel to Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1–6. Galactus and

12760-462: The character in the pulps. This lasted through the end of Doc Savage Comics in 1943 after 20 issues, and briefly with his return to Shadow Comics in vol. 3, #10 (Jan. 1944). He would last until the final issue, vol. 9, #5 (1948), though did not appear in every one. He also appeared in Supersnipe Comics #9 (June 1943). Post- Golden Age , there have been several Doc Savage comic books: With

12905-404: The character is being dubbed the "World's First Superhero", mentioning that Savage's published appearance pre-dated that of Superman 's (who debuted in 1938). Johnson also included the hashtag "#World'sFirstSuperhero". On April 11, 2018, Johnson said he and Black were still eager to do the project, but, "That project had a few issues, not creative issues but more so business affairs issues—where

13050-505: The character moved to his own book, Doc Savage Comics . Originally, these stories were based on the pulp version, but with Doc Savage Comics #5 (1941), he was turned into a genuine superhero when he crashed in Tibet and was given a blue hood with a sacred ruby in the forehead that deflected bullets and hypnotized anyone who gazed into its mystical red light. These stories had a Doc (now known as "The Invincible") who bore little resemblance to

13195-589: The character returned to Earth in Silver Surfer (vol. 6) #1–5 (January–May 2011) and was the antagonist in The Mighty Thor #1–6 (April–September 2011). Galactus played a supporting role in the storyline "Forever" featured in Fantastic Four #600–604 (November 2011 – March 2012) and FF #16 (March 2012) by Johnathan Hickman, where Hickman introduced the concept of a shared destiny between Galactus and Franklin Richards . Writer Mark Waid would subsequently develop this concept further (see below). The character played

13340-536: The character returned to Earth in Thor #160–162 (January–March 1969). Galactus' origin was eventually revealed in Thor #168–169 (September–October 1969). The character made appearances in Fantastic Four #120–123 (March–June 1972) and Thor #225–228 (July–October 1974). These two storylines introduced two new heralds for Galactus. Galactus also featured in Fantastic Four #172–175 (July–October 1976) and 208–213 (July–December 1979). Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reunited for

13485-450: The character's "larger-than-life presence" as making him one of the more important villains ever created. IGN also noted "Galactus is one of the few villains on our list to really defy the definition of an evil-doer" as the character is compelled to destroy worlds because of his hunger, rather than out of malicious ends. The character has been featured in other Marvel media, such as arcade games , video games, animated television series, and

13630-430: The conceit of Galactus feeling remorse for his actions, and the weight of his genocides. In the issue, Death assures Galactus of his role and purpose as one of shepherd and weeder in guiding the universe to its proper purpose, and Galactus remains resolute. Byrne further elaborated on this concept in Fantastic Four #262 (January 1984), which sparked controversy. At the end of the story, Eternity , an abstract entity in

13775-584: The cynical and bitter Native American Hawk, and the slow-witted strongman Old Skull — meet and incorporate into their group the feisty scientist Carmilla Frost and Grok, her deformed, apelike clone. The Freemen ally with the human/plant hybrid Mint Julep, and battle Abraxas, Rattack and his rats, the High Overlord, and Skar. Killraven tames a mutated serpent-horse to use as his mount, and his Freemen battle Pstun-Rage in Battle Creek, Michigan . In this encounter,

13920-405: The eastern portion of North America , from New York City to Cape Canaveral while searching for Killraven's lost brother. Pursued by the cyborg Skar, the Freemen encounter various victims of Martian transhuman experiments, as well as emotionally and psychologically scarred survivors. Fugitives from the Martians, Killraven and his Freemen — his African American "mud-brother" M'Shulla Scott ,

14065-450: The end of the primary Marvel continuity, the miniseries History of the Marvel Universe #1–6 (July 2019 – December 2019) by Mark Waid depicted Galactus as the in-story narrator. The story features Galactus recounting all the major events that have occurred in Marvel continuity to Franklin Richards as the universe experiences its final moments. Confirming the series as occurring within the primary Marvel continuity, Waid elaborated that "[t]here

14210-507: The end of the series, usually only Monk and Ham appear with Doc. Doc's cousin Patricia "Pat" Savage , who has Doc's bronze skin, golden eyes, and bronze hair, also is along for many of the adventures, despite Doc's best efforts to keep her away from danger. Pat chafes under these restrictions, or indeed any effort to protect her simply because she is female. She is also able to fluster Doc, even as she completely charms Monk and Ham. Doc's office

14355-641: The entity Abraxas (a metaphysical embodiment of destruction) to emerge from imprisonment. The entity wreaks havoc across thousands of alternate universes , killing various incarnations of Galactus before the children of Mr. Fantastic — Franklin Richards and Valeria von Doom — exhaust their powers to restore the original Galactus. Galactus then provides Mr. Fantastic with the Ultimate Nullifier , which he uses to reset reality and prevent Abraxas' initial escape and destruction. Conscience-stricken, Galactus tries to rid himself of his cosmic hunger by feeding on

14500-477: The essence of the Doc Savage novels. The first 96 paperbacks reprinted one of the original novels per book. Actor and model Steve Holland , who had played Flash Gordon in a 1953 television series, was the model for Doc on all the covers. The next 15 paperbacks (consisting of stories 97 through 126 in the Bantam reissue series) were "doubles", reprinting two novels each (these were actually shorter novellas written during paper shortages of World War II). The last of

14645-514: The eventual end of the universe alone; he and Franklin will witness it together. Galactus is then pulled through a hole in space-time to an alternate universe and meets another version of himself: a space-faring mechanical hive mind called Gah Lak Tus . After the two merge with one another, Galactus makes his way towards this universe's Earth in an attempt to consume it. The heroes of the alternate Earth travel to Earth-616 to acquire information on Galactus and eventually manage to send Galactus to

14790-736: The extra-universal forces of the Cancerverse (an alternate universe without death) to invade. Galactus, the Celestials and the resurrected Tenebrous and Aegis combat the powerful Cancerverse weapon: the Galactus Engine (constructed from the corpse of the Cancerverse's counterpart to Galactus). During the events of the Chaos War , Galactus is teleported to Earth by the Olympian demigod Hercules to help fight

14935-418: The final cancellation of the magazine. In a September 20, 1948, letter to Lester Dent , Bacon wrote "As long as we are dropping the science detective and returning to just Doc Savage, I think we should return to a real adventure story..." A key characteristic of the Doc Savage stories is that the threats, no matter how fantastic, usually have a rational explanation. For example, a giant mountain-walking spider

15080-486: The first six issues of the limited series Thanos (December 2003 – May 2004), written by Jim Starlin . Issues #7–12 (June–November 2004), written by Keith Giffen , introduce the Fallen One , who is retroactively presented as Galactus' first herald. Galactus' origin is re-examined in Fantastic Four #520–523 (October 2004 – April 2005), in which the character is temporarily reverted to his mortal form. After appearing in

15225-516: The hero as an unwilling herald to locate the planets. The Fantastic Four and Quasar free the Torch by changing Galactus back into the humanoid Galan, who chooses to exile himself to an energy-rich alternate dimension before he can transform back into Galactus so that he can feed on that reality without endangering planets. Galactus consumes Beta Ray Bill 's Korbinite homeworld with the help of his new herald, Stardust . After Annihilus declares war on

15370-626: The landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles. Some planned elements of the "Killraven" saga were incorporated into the Eclipse Comics series Sabre , McGregor and Russell each said in 1983. The character made latter-day appearances in Marvel Zombies 5 #2 (April 2010) where the war against the Martians is concluded, and in The Avengers vol. 4, #4-6 (Aug.-Oct. 2010),

15515-575: The latter in the present day after time-traveling. Killraven appears in Claws II (Aug. 2011), in which the superheroes Wolverine and Black Cat meet him in the future fighting Martians. In 2014, Killraven also makes a cameo appearance in All-New Invaders Issue # 12 in a modern retelling of the War of the Worlds. In the late 1980s, Don McGregor wrote 50 to 60 pages and P. Craig Russell began illustrating

15660-557: The limited series Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1–6 (March–August 2005) Galactus was a central character in the " Annihilation " storyline, appearing in the limited series Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1–4 (June–September 2006), Annihilation #1–6 (October 2006 – March 2007) and the epilogue , Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1–2 (February–April 2007). Galactus was an antagonist in Fantastic Four #545–546 (June–July 2007), where he tried to devour fellow cosmic function Epoch . In Nova (vol. 4) #13–15 (May–July 2008),

15805-494: The mid-1990s, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar considered tying in Marvel's 2099 imprint, making Ravage a descendant of Killraven: "Our idea was that the Killraven stories had actually happened, but Earth somehow got itself back together. It's now one hundred years later, and the Martians are attacking again, meaning that all the superheroes were going to have to deal with them". Galactus then arrives, and devours Mars along with

15950-535: The mystical realms by an alien sorcerer, Galactus becomes entangled in the schemes of Dormammu and Mephisto. Galactus begins to consume mystical energy, eventually absorbing Dormammu and other mystical entities, and in doing so goes insane and destabilizes reality. Doctor Strange intervenes and – with the aid of Eternity and the Living Tribunal – is able to undo the damage wrought by Galactus. An injured Galactus crashlands on Asgard, apparently seeking asylum from

16095-459: The nearby planet of Archeopia—the first of many planets he would destroy to maintain his existence. Subsequently, in memory of his dead homeworld of Taa and the first planet (Archeopia) to fall prey to his hunger, Galactus constructs a new "homeworld": the Möbius strip -shaped space station called Taa II. Galactus becomes involved in a civil war among the "Proemial Gods", who had come into being during

16240-568: The only enemy to appear in two of the original pulp stories, was the Russian-born John Sunlight , introduced in October 1938 in the Fortress of Solitude . Early villains in the "super-sagas" were fantastic schemers bent on ruling the world. Later, the magazine was retitled Doc Savage, Science Detective , and Doc dealt with more conventional criminal organizations. The super-saga was revived in 1948 by new editor Daisy Bacon shortly before

16385-603: The origin of the Silver Surfer and Galactus in the one-shot graphic novel The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience! in 1978. This Marvel Fireside Book , published by Simon & Schuster , was an out-of-continuity retelling of the origin story without the Fantastic Four. The full Lee-and-Kirby origin story was reprinted in the one-shot Super-Villain Classics #1: Galactus – The Origin (May 1983), inked by Vince Colletta and George Klein , lettered by John Morelli and colored by Andy Yanchus . While nearly identical to

16530-584: The original novels were reprinted in a numbered series of 13 "omnibus" volumes of four to five stories each. It was one of the few pulp series to be completely reprinted in paperback form. The Red Spider was a Doc Savage novel written by Dent in April 1948, about the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The story was killed in 1948 by new editor Daisy Bacon , though previous editor William de Grouchy had commissioned it. It

16675-434: The original series' locale by that fictional year); and Alan Davis (also artist), in a 2002 parallel universe miniseries, Killraven vol. 2. An Essential Marvel volume in 2005 reprinted all the character's appearances except that Davis story. McGregor and Russell, however, remain the series' signature creative team; more than two decades after the original series' end, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that: It

16820-467: The planet Orbucen. When a distraught Beta Ray Bill seeks vengeance for the destruction of the Korbinites' homeworld, Galactus relents and creates a female Korbinite as a companion for Bill. Galactus also consumes the planet Sakaar, earning the enmity of the Hulk 's alien-born twin sons, Skaar and Hiro-Kala . The Silver Surfer finds the body of a future Galactus underneath New York City, and he summons

16965-414: The planet Saiph, which is overrun by Ultron drones. Galactus reluctantly agrees. After consuming Saiph, Galactus' hunger returns and the Silver Surfer becomes his herald again as he takes Galactus to find an uninhabited planet. Returning to Earth, Galactus has a confrontation with Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four, with Doom revealing his plans to harness Galactus' power as an energy source. Banished to

17110-568: The planet of Zenn-La, Galactus accepts the offer of Norrin Radd to become his herald, the Silver Surfer , in exchange for sparing his world. Eventually locating Earth, Galactus is driven off by the Fantastic Four , Uatu the Watcher, and the rebellious Silver Surfer after the Human Torch —with the Watcher's assistance—retrieves the Ultimate Nullifier from Taa II. Although Galactus leaves Earth, vowing that he will never try to consume it again, he banishes

17255-700: The power from the Infinity Gems , but is tricked into releasing the Hunger, a being which feeds on entire galaxies. The Hunger is destroyed when Thanos orchestrates a final battle with Galactus. When an alien race develops a technology to make planets invisible to Galactus, he empowers the Human Torch (who has traded powers with his sister the Invisible Woman and becomes the Invisible Boy as a result of this) and utilizes

17400-474: The present Galactus to Earth. Mr. Fantastic explains that, in the distant future, the heroes on a dying Earth had killed Galactus and then escaped to the present via time travel . When Galactus discovers these heroes now live on a planet called Nu-Earth, he destroys it and its inhabitants in retribution. A tear in the fabric of space caused by the Annihilation Wave and other interstellar conflicts allows

17545-656: The previous origin, this story featured supplemental material, edits, and deletions by writer Mark Gruenwald , pencillers John Byrne and Ron Wilson and inker Jack Abel . Rather than traveling into a dying star, the character enters the core of the collapsing universe before the Big Bang ; the story was later reprinted as Origin of Galactus #1 (February 1996). The character guest-starred in Rom #26–27 (January–February 1982). Galactus featured in two related storylines in Fantastic Four #242–244 (May–July 1982) and later #257 (August 1983), in which writer-artist John Byrne introduced

17690-426: The project once was, who had rights to it, where we were trying to move it to. There was a lot of that, which we're still kind of working through." On February 19, 2020, it was announced Original Film would, instead, shift development to a television series. The project is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and Condé Nast Entertainment. Galactus Galactus ( / ɡ ə ˈ l æ k t ə s / )

17835-407: The project. On May 22, 2016, Black told Thrillist that he would like to make the movie with Dwayne Johnson , stating, "I made a decision that Dwayne is the guy. I would like to do Doc with Dwayne Johnson if we can make that work. It's on the back burner while he's busy." On May 30, 2016, Johnson confirmed on his Instagram account that he will be starring as Savage in the film, also hinting that

17980-457: The same way I could any ordinary mortal. And I remember in my first story, I had to back away from him to resolve that story. The Silver Surfer is, of course, the fallen angel. When Galactus relegated him to Earth, he stayed on Earth, and that was the beginning of his adventures. They were figures that had never been used before in comics. They were above mythic figures. And of course they were the first gods. Kirby elaborated, "Galactus in actuality

18125-443: The scientific developments of his era. While some of Doc's gadgets were simply science fiction many of his 'futuristic' devices were actual inventions, or ideas engineers were attempting to produce. Futuristic devices described in the series include the flying wing , the answering machine , television , automatic transmission , night vision goggles , electromagnetic rail guns , and a hand-held automatic weapon , known variously as

18270-468: The series with another Murray-Dent posthumous collaboration, The Desert Demons. Nine new novels are planned for the new series The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage . In 2011, Doc Savage: Horror in Gold was published. In 2012, Altus Press published Doc Savage: Death's Dark Domain , Doc Savage: The Forgotten Realm , Doc Savage: The Infernal Buddha and Doc Savage: The Desert Demons . Doc Savage: Skull Island ,

18415-507: The studio changed heads and Pal was forced to cut costs. Nevertheless, Pal, as producer, is generally blamed for using the "high camp" approach in the style of the Batman television series. An original soundtrack for the film was also commissioned, but when Pal lost his funding, he resorted to a patriotic march from John Philip Sousa , which was in the public domain . Science-fiction writer Philip José Farmer tried to get another movie made (there

18560-462: The success of The Shadow magazine and followed by the original Avenger in September 1939. In all, 181 issues were published in various entries and alternative titles. Doc Savage became known to more contemporary readers when Bantam Books began reprinting the individual magazine novels in 1964, this time with covers by artist James Bama that featured a bronze-haired, bronze-skinned Doc Savage with an exaggerated widows' peak , usually wearing

18705-404: The success of Street and Smith's pulp character, The Shadow . Ralston and Nanovic wrote a short premise establishing the broad outlines of the character they envisioned, but Doc Savage was only fully realized by the author chosen to write the series, Lester Dent . Dent wrote most of the 181 original novels, hidden behind the " house name " of Kenneth Robeson . (See List of Doc Savage novels for

18850-541: The third story, Doc already has a reputation as a "superman". Savage is accompanied on his adventures by up to five other regular characters (referred to in the 1975 movie and in marketing materials from the Bantam Books republication as "The Fabulous Five"), all highly accomplished individuals in their own right. In later stories, Doc's companions become less important to the plot as the stories focus more on Doc. The "missing" characters are explained as working elsewhere, too busy with their own accomplishments to help. Toward

18995-544: The tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world. There were enough would-be world conquerors in the Marvel Universe and in all the other comic book galaxies. That was when inspiration struck. Why not have him not be a really evil person? After all, a demi-god should be beyond mere good and evil. He'd just be (don't laugh!) hungry. And the nourishment he'd require is the life force and energy from living planets! Kirby described his biblical inspirations for Galactus and an accompanying character, an angelic herald Lee called

19140-545: The universe's infancy. When a faction of the gods led by Diableri of Chaos attempts to remake the universe in their own image, Galactus kills Diableri and imprisons three others ( Antiphon , Tenebrous, and Aegis ) in the prison called the Kyln . Galactus then creates the being Tyrant out of a desire for companionship, but the two ultimately engage in a major conflict. Galactus decides to empower his first herald—the Fallen One —who ultimately rebels against his master. When approaching

19285-564: The universe, allowing them to understand that Galactus is a necessary part of the cosmic order. During the Secret Wars , Galactus attempts to consume Battleworld to force the Beyonder to remove his hunger, but his plan is foiled by Doctor Doom . Galactus grants clemency to the Silver Surfer, who aids his former master against the Elders of the Universe and the In-Betweener . Galactus also rescues

19430-463: The universe, the entity attacks and destroys the Kyln, freeing former Galactus foes Tenebrous and Aegis. Sensing their release, Galactus temporarily releases Stardust from his service and re-employs the Silver Surfer as his herald due to his familiarity with their old foes. Tenebrous and Aegis, however, find and defeat the Surfer and Galactus and deliver them to Annihilus. Annihilus intends to use Galactus as

19575-488: Was announced on May 30, 2016, that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be playing Clark "Doc" Savage, billed as the "World's First Superhero", and the film would be directed by Shane Black with a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. In 2020, the concept was changed from a film to a television show. A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near- superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance,

19720-568: Was based not on the pulps, but on the comic book version of the character. No audio exists from either series, although some scripts survived. In 1985, National Public Radio aired The Adventures of Doc Savage , as 13 half-hour episodes, based on the pulps and adapted by Will Murray and Roger Rittner. Daniel Chodos starred as Doc. Street & Smith Comics published comic book stories of Doc both in The Shadow comic and his own title. These started with Shadow Comics #1–3 (1940). In May 1940,

19865-408: Was cancelled with issue #34, leaving the last chapter unpublished and the story unfinished; however, Byrne later published the conclusion on his website. Galactus played a pivotal role in the limited series Secret Wars #1–12 (May 1984 – April 1985), and became a recurring character in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) (beginning with issue #1 (July 1987)). Stan Lee and artist John Buscema also produced

20010-601: Was forgotten until 1975, when Doc Savage scholar Will Murray found hints of its existence in the Street & Smith archives. After a two-year search, the carbon manuscript was located among Dent's papers. It finally saw print in July 1979 as Number 95 in Bantam's Doc Savage series. When the original pulp stories were exhausted, Bantam Books hired Philip José Farmer to pen the tale of how Doc and his men met in World War I. Escape from Loki

20155-412: Was fully written by the debut's scripter, Gerry Conway, followed in the third by Marv Wolfman . After this, the book became the province of writer Don McGregor for an acclaimed run from #21 (Nov. 1973) to the final issue, #39 (Nov. 1976). Pencillers were Herb Trimpe , Rich Buckler , Gene Colan , and, most prominently, P. Craig Russell from issue #27 on. Two of its characters, Carmilla Frost and

20300-410: Was heightened thanks to injections of experimental chemicals by Keeper Whitman. He was later given mental powers through Whitman's psycho-electric experiments, including the psionic ability to project his consciousness into and take over a Martian's mind, and the psychic ability to resist mental assaults and to mask his presence from robot scanners. Killraven is also a superb hand-to-hand combatant, and

20445-479: Was published in 1991. It was followed by seven traditional Doc Savage stories written by novelist Will Murray, working from unpublished Lester Dent outlines, beginning with Python Isle. Philip José Farmer had earlier written the book Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life in 1973, which described the characters and the stories on the entertaining premise that Doc actually existed and the novels chronicled his exploits in "fictionized" form. In 2011, Altus Press revived

20590-408: Was pure soap opera but on a cosmic scale, and Galactus epitomized its epic sweep." This led to the introduction of Galactus in Fantastic Four #48–50 (March–May 1966), which fans began calling " The Galactus Trilogy ". Kirby did not intend Galactus to reappear, to preserve the character's awe-inspiring presence. Fan popularity, however, prompted Lee to ask Kirby for Galactus' reappearance, and

20735-410: Was raised from birth by his father and other scientists to become one of the most perfect human beings in terms of strength, intelligence, and physical abilities. Doc Savage set up base on the 86th floor of a world-famous New York skyscraper (implied, but never outright stated, as the Empire State Building ; Phillip Jose Farmer, in his Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life , gives good evidence that this

20880-439: Was taking in vast amounts of energy, now he's putting out vast amounts of energy—pure life energy. He always said he was going to give back more than he took out of the universe—now he's making good on that, one dead world at a time." The themes of redemption and change were received well by columnist Mark Peters, who described Ewing's work on Ultimates as "one of the best Galactus stories ever." Galactus featured prominently in

21025-466: Was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative of Art Nouveau illustration, gave

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