This is the first in a series on the published history of the Marvel Comics Universe. Or at least it was, at one point… the canon history is in a constant state of flux as writers and editors come up with new ideas and change anything.
But still. At one point, this is the way it was.
The Multiversal Cycle
The multiverse that comprises the MCU, Marvel Comics, alternate realities, and associated media, are the seventh – and later eighth – in a series of cosmos, each with its own cosmic personification.
The first was simply the First Firmament, a being that incorporated all of its reality, that had made of itself two servitor races – the Celestials and the Aspirants. It fragmented when these two mighty races went to war, resulting in the first multiverse.
This second Cosmos ended abruptly, as its personification was interested in trying out this new-fangled “death” thing, and died, dispersing into the space beyond space. The Celestials moved on to the next cosmos, while their own servants – the Omegas – remained, becoming known as the Beyonders.
The third cosmos was fairly basic, concerned mostly with the division of existence and nothingness.
The fourth cosmos was rigidly defined by patterns that would later pass on to help define future cosmoses.
The fifth was the first with magic and sorcery. Its sorcerer supreme, Moridun, bonded with the sentience of its cosmos and passed into the sixth as Omnimax, devourer of worlds.
The sixth was a Cosmos of science and region, the universe that gave birth to Galactus, scourge of our own.
The Birth of Galactus
Galen of Taa was one of the greatest scientists of Taa, the most advanced planet of the Sixth multiversal cycle. Discovering that the universe was collapsing on an atomic level, and not finding a cure or any immunities to indicate survival, he set out in a ship to meet death with glory by plunging into the heart of the universal terminus. As the cosmic forces began to destroy him, he was contacted by the personification of the cosmos – dying as well – and offered a unification.
Together they would be reborn in the next cosmos as Galactus, a being with the power – and hunger – of galaxies.
As one multiverse transitioned to the next, Galactus was hurled into the Seventh Cosmos, to spend eons incubating within the shell of his ship, developing into a new being, out of place in this universe but inextricably woven into it by the power cosmic.
Cosmic Beings
There is a cosmic order to the universe. The seventh cosmos’s personification is a being called – as were others before it – Eternity. Each universe – including Marvel Comics’s 616, the MCU, presumably all of the others – get their own fractal smaller version of Eternity. It – along with Infinity, Death, and Oblivion – form the pillars of reality.
Above them is the living tribunal – a multiversal energy, there’s only one – that exists to preserve the balance of good and evil in all realities and judge cases between cosmic entities on behalf of the One Above All – Marvel’s supreme God and possible Jack Kirby.
These cosmic beings lack actual physical forms, but are able to solidify due to a symbiotic relationship with Manifestations – living fractals from another reality.
Lord Chaos and Master Order, who represent the forces they’re named after – were created at the same time as Eternity and the others, though are of lesser import and power.
At some point after the creation of these cosmic abstracts but before the evolution of sentient life, Eternity created offspring – Eon, intended to serve as a universal custodian, monitoring beings of such power that they might become a threat to the universe, and to nurture the evolution of sentient life.
The Watchers
The race now known as the Watchers was one of the first species to evolve in the multiverse. Advanced when other civilizations were young, their ruling body voted to use their gifts to assist less-developed peoples for the betterment of all, and absorbed cosmic isotopes, transforming to living energy, to travel through space via thought alone.
Their first benevolent mission was to the primitive planet Prosilicus. The Watchers – who had never known crime or warfare – gifted the Prosilicans the secrets of atomic energy – to cure disease, develop industry, reach the stars…
And of course, they made nukes, which they used to devastate their own world and launch a preemptive strike on a neighboring world, leading to mutually assured destruction and the death of billions.
Horrified by the outcome, the Watchers vowed henceforth to only ever observe, and never again interfere in the progress or fall of other civilizations.
The Watchers abandon their homeworld and disperse throughout the universe, each choosing a different solar system to study.
The Elders of the Universe
Other races did not fare so well, many rising to great heights before falling to extinction. Many had but a single survivor, driven to immortality by a great obsession, and these individuals grew into an informal brotherhood known as the Elders of the Universe. Among their number are the Collector, the Grandmaster, and the Gardener. All are defined by the passion that drives their immortality.
The Stranger is of a similar bent, but not an Elder himself; while his origins are shrouded in mystery and lies, one of the more likely scenarios is that when his world Gigantus was facing destruction its people merged into a single powerful composite being to continue their pursuit of knowledge.
It was during this early time that one of The Stranger’s experiments caused the creation of Ego, the Living Planet, by causing a star to go nova and fuse everything in its system into yet another composite being. While Ego is considered an honorary member of the Elders of the Universe and they often host meetings on his surface, he isn’t really one of them.
Galactus Lives
After entering our multiverse, Galactus’s incubation ship sailed inert for eons, until it was observed by the Watcher Ecce. Using his telekinesis to draw the ship to the world he was on, Ecce discovered that the being inside was immensely powerful – perhaps too powerful for the universe to contain.
He considered destroying the nascent space god before he grew too powerful, but held back, cleaving to his oath of non-interference.
Galactus continued to mature within the ship, crafting himself a bodysuit to help him control the power cosmic, and eventually settling into orbit around the world Archeopia. The locals observed the ship, but left it be, fearful of what it might contain.
Years later a foreign armada brought war to Archeopia – the invaders opening fire on Galactus’s vessel. This caused it to open, and Galactus destroyed the fleet with a gesture before consuming the energies of the planet below.
From the remains he crafted a great vessel the size of a sun, which he christened Taa 2, after his long gone homeworld. There is no malice in his destruction, only a terrible hunger; he does what he must to survive, and in that survival will some day return more to the universe than he has ever taken. So speaks Galactus.
Galactus’s Companion, Tyrant
His first great work done, Galactus set out on another – creating a companion, that he might not be so alone in the universe. Using his power and technology he created Tyrant, a bio-mechanical partner of nearly equal stature and might. In time, though, Tyrant was not satisfied with consuming to survive like his creator. Instead he thirsted for conquest and accomplishment – and these differences eventually pitted the beings of unimaginable power against one another in an apocalyptic battle that shattered galaxies.
In the end, however, Galactus was triumphant, and removed much of the power he had imbued Tyrant with, exiling his creation and protege to wander the universe and seethe.
