From 2007, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #26, "Countdown to Oblivion" Written by Fred Van Lente, art by Cory Hamscher. A slightly abridged, slightly altered retelling of the FF's first encounter with the Silver Surfer and Galactus. Millions of alien refugees converge on earth, seeking a new home, but they don't have time to conquer the place before they're forced to flee the arrival of Galactus. Reed makes plan after plan to save humanity: his first idea, to build space arks to leave the planet, is hindered by both politics and skeptics, including some mockery from a thinly-veiled Conan O'Brian type!
Decoy holographic earths don't fool the Silver Surfer, and Reed doesn't have time to teleport earth into the Negative Zone, either. (Sue points out that the latter is probably just as well.) The Surfer beats the Four handily, but Reed plays one last gamble, and tricks Galactus into altering earth's magnetosphere into a form inedible to him. (Whether or not that would do earth's environment any good isn't dwelt upon.) Enraged that he can no longer devour the earth, Galactus intends to merely destroy it; but the Silver Surfer stands up to him, getting exiled on earth for his trouble.
I love these Marvel Adventures books, but collecting them could give you a bit of OCD: you could get this issue as the original single issue, the squarebound Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four vol.7, or the larger-sized Target reprint Spider-Man: Silver Surfer. The latter also includes another Silver Surfer guest-spot in Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #28, the classic Lee/Buscema "The Spider and the Surfer!" from Silver Surfer #14, and the origin of Galactus. The latter's a kind of heady choice for a collection aimed at children, but there you go.
I can no longer read about Galactus, without thinking of how Squirrel Girl defeated him, and his whole rationale for invading Earth in the first place. It is now simply him, going out for fast food, since the Earth heroes always...ALWAYS find him another planet to nosh on.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say the whole bit by faux Conan had a point; why aren't scenes like this played out moe often? you can't tell me in tjhe real world Reed wouldn't be ripped and rediculed to death over the years, no matter the numerious times the FF save the world. Not bad art. Not the best, but better than what the 90's had to offer.
ReplyDeleteLater in the issue, when Galactus comes down, there's a shot of faux-Conan panicking in the streets, screaming "Mr. Fantastic was right!" I have to imagine, that has to be at least a little satisfying...
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