The whole idea of Galactus Is extremely terrifying in a cosmic sense, as he is essentially a god with the power to consume an entire planet, and there is really no way to stop him. However, his standing as a pillar of cosmic horror in Marvel Comics doesn’t end with the fact that Galactus just travels the cosmos devouring worlds, because he has one unique power that effectively turns Galactus from an evil god to absolute nightmare fuel.
In this four-part limited series Hunger By Joshua Hale Fialkov and Leonard Kirk, readers are shown the fallout of Age of Ultron From the perspective of the Ultimate Universe. Age of Ultron Happened in Earth-616, but because the Avengers used time travel to defeat Ultron, they inadvertently tore the fabric of reality, creating a rift between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. Earth-616’s Galactus traveled through the rift in the Ultimate Universe, and he immediately bonded with his Earth-1610 variant, Gah Lak Tus.
When Galactus merged his body with the Gah Lak Tus swarm, he literally became the ultimate version of himself. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that Earth-616’s Galactus was an unnecessary redundancy in terms of the level of horror he brought upon the universe. Sure, Earth-616’s Galactus was much more powerful than Gah Lak Tus – something that was evident throughout the Hunger miniseries – but Gah Lak Tus needed no help being completely terrifying, and that was due to the Hive mind. Most Unique Power: The ability to infect organic life with a ‘zombie’-like virus.
The Gah Lak Tus Swarm throws planets into a ‘zombie apocalypse’ before consuming them
Unlike the original Galactus, who is a cosmic force of nature tasked with consuming planets through the universe itself, Gah Lak Tus is an artificial hive made of countless drones that aimlessly wanders the universe devouring anything and everything in its path. Gah Lak Tus was created by the Kree Empire eons ago, and since then, it has indiscriminately exhausted entire worlds. Gah Lak Tus is an affront to nature as opposed to being a natural part of it (like Galactus), making it one of the most terrifying threats in the original Ultimate Universe.
The horror of Gah Lak Tus was further amplified in Famine, as the miniseries showed in gruesome detail exactly what each individual drone actually does while the entirety of Gah Lak Tus is feasting on a planet. When some of the drones attack Earth, it is revealed that they can infect living organisms with something similar to the techno-organic virus, mutating people into cybernetic zombies who immediately start rampaging after being turned. It’s as if Gah Lak Tus forces a planet’s population to destroy itself in a ‘zombie apocalypse’ before it consumes the planet itself, which is next level horrifying.
Galactus’ unique Ultimate Universe power explains why he is so good at destroying worlds
Gah Lak Tus can also perfectly adapt to any environment, changing themselves while changing others
Mutating living organisms into techno zombies isn’t the only aspect of Galactus’ unique Ultimate Universe power that is utterly terrifying, as the specifics of how it can so easily conquer and then consume entire planets is also terrifying. Gah Lak Tus can not only change the physiology of a planet’s population, but it can also change itself – each individual drone – to perfectly adapt to any environment. That’s why Ultimate Galactus is such an effective killer, it’s always tailored to the world it attacks.
The aspect of Ultimate Galactus’ unique power of transformation is terrifying in the sense that it basically cannot be stopped no matter what planet it attacks. However, the fact that Gah Lak Tus effectively turns a planet’s population into zombies before consuming the planet itself is easily the scariest part, proving that Galactus‘ Most unique power turns him from evil god to absolute nightmare fuel.