FANTASTIC FOUR WEEK: Unstoppable force, meet immovable object…
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It’s FANTASTIC FOUR WEEK! Because there’s a big ol’ movie out! Click here for the COMPLETE INDEX of columns and features! Flame on! — Dan
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By SCOTT TIPTON
I’ve always loved John Byrne’s work, as long as I can remember. Even when I was little and not paying much attention to creator names, it was his issues of Marvel Team-Up that were always my favorites. Through his epic run on Fantastic Four, and then Superman, back to Marvel for books like She-Hulk and The Avengers, John Byrne’s name on a cover has always been pretty much a guaranteed buy for me.
I recently rediscovered this lost Byrne gem that is most definitely worthy of greater acclaim than it got at the time: Darkseid vs. Galactus: The Hunger.
Released in 1995 at the height of the DC/Marvel crossover mania, this book didn’t get anywhere near the attention it deserved, which is a shame, since it’s one of the best-constructed crossover books ever done, and one that fits seamlessly into the continuities of both the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe (well, at least for the moment) without disturbing a thing.
The characterizations of both the DC and Marvel characters are right on the money, and it’s got a simple concept that’s downright irresistible: “What if Galactus tried to eat Apokolips?”
The Silver Surfer and Galactus and Darkseid and the New Gods are two of Jack Kirby’s greatest concepts, if not the best, and it’s clear here that Byrne has unbounded affection for them, treating them like the treasures they are. Byrne takes advantage of the opportunity to draw his own versions of famous moments in the characters’ backstories, such as the creation of New Genesis and Apokolips…
…or the birth of Galactus:
By the way, in case you had any doubt that Byrne was doing an old-school Kirby Galactus, note that his Galactus here is even wearing shorts, just as Galactus originally did in his first Lee/Kirby appearance.
Byrne does a great job of making Darkseid feel like a worthy adversary to someone as powerful as Galactus, such as in a shocking moment when Darkseid animates the very face of his planet and wills it to attack. In a chilling detail, some of Darkseid’s subjects can be seen falling to their deaths as the very ground rises up beneath them.
It’s not often you actually see Galactus taking a physical beating, which again helps to elevate Darkseid to Galactus’ level.
Of course, it’s not just Galactus and Darkseid mixing it up: Soon, others join the fray, namely Galactus’ herald the Silver Surfer and Darkseid’s estranged son Orion, who refuses to allow his father to be killed, over the objections of Highfather and the other New Gods.
For Kirby fans, this book is full of moments you never expected to see, like Orion and the Surfer battling for the first time:
…or the Surfer driving off the Black Racer:
…or maybe best of all, Darkseid unleashing the Omega Effect on Galactus:
The story wraps up elegantly with a solution so obvious, I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me from the start.
Darkseid vs. Galactus: The Hunger is Byrne at his best, spinning new tales from the Marvel and DC mythologies that feel as if they belong right on the shelf next to the Lee and Kirby originals. If you can’t track down the original, you can find it in the DC vs. Marvel Omnibus. Well worth the effort, says me.
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MORE
— The Complete FANTASTIC FOUR WEEK INDEX of Columns and Features. Click here.
— The TOP 13 Greatest GALACTUS HERALDS. Click here.
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Scott Tipton is the longest-tenured 13th Dimension regular not named Dan Greenfield. He and Dan co-write the site’s HOT PICKS and RETRO HOT PICKS columns and Scott also writes COMICS 101. He’s perhaps best known as the writer of scores of Star Trek comics published by IDW.
July 24, 2025
Couldn’t agree more. As much as I’ve always enjoyed Byrnes’ artwork, I’ve always found he’s equally strong as a writer.
July 24, 2025
Disappointingly, this one didn’t work for me. I thought it was excessive on exposition, to include too many recaps of origins which slowed the pacing of the story. I get it, Byrne’s style is to assume that everyone’s issue is their first, but I found the story dragging on material that I just already knew. (Good chance that if you were buying this, you already had a hard knowledge of both sides’ back stories.) If I’m remembering right, Byrne also self-inked this story, and this was the beginning of the era where Byrne worked independently from inkers and his work started to take on a “scratchy” quality that didn’t mesh well compared to Terry Austin.
I’d compare this with Batman/Captain America, which I think came out about a year later. That was absolutely peak Byrne with much better art and a fair balance of both characters without an excess of exposition. (I don’t recall a shoehorned recap of either character’s origin.) Ah, well. I got the DC/Marvel Omnibus last year and it’s weird how in my brain, Bat/Cap is one of the top stories in that volume, while D/G is one of the worst, yet they’re both by the same guy in the same era.
July 24, 2025
Re: Excessive on exposition. I agree but I’ll also add that if you read these characters in their own environments – vs their respective heroes vs this type of mash-up – you’ll note that these two characters use a good deal of exposition. Exposition is “on brand” for these two villians.
July 24, 2025
Believe it or not, it was my first introduction to Darkseid, and I was already familiar with Galactus through the Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet stories I have read at the time. I bought this thinking “Well, they haven’t done an antagonist vs antagonist crossover” as the title match, so I bought it. I appreciated the recaps of the origins, and this comic made search out anything New Gods related. I have fond memories of this story to this day.