In 1966, nearly five years after having launched Marvel Comics' flagship superhero title, Fantastic Four, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on an antagonist designed to break from the archetypal mold of supervillains of the time, and be instead a being of 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. Having dreamed up [many] powerful baddies ... we 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 of demi-god, but now what would we do with him. We didn't want to use the tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world. ... That was when inspiration struck. Why not have him not be a really evil person? After all, a demi-god would be beyond mere good and evil. ... [What] 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 dubbed the Silver Surfer: My inspirations were the fact that I had to make sales. And I had to come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. ...I had to get something new. And ... 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 always felt him, and I certainly couldn't treat him the same way that I would any ordinary mortal ... and of course the Silver Surfer is the fallen angel. ...[T]hey were figures that have never been used before in comics. They were above mythic figures, and of course, they were the first gods.
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