The 1995 publication of Darkseid vs Galactus: The Hunger is another instance in which I wish there was an introduction explaining the thinking behind the book, as it was most decidedly not a crossover featuring the publishers' most popular characters.
In fact, while Darkseid and Galactus had at that point long been recurring presences in their respective fictional universes, from 1970 and 1966 respectively, neither had ever had their own comic book—not even a miniseries or one-shot (Galactus would get a mini in 1999 in the form of Galactus the Devourer, while Darkseid would get one-shots in 1998 and 2017).
Who, exactly, was this book for...?
I suppose the obvious answer is that it was for hardcore comics fans, who would of course know that both cosmic characters are among the most feared villains in their universes, and that both were the creation of Jack Kirby. Galactus appeared during Kirby's seminal run on the Fantastic Four with Stan Lee (with whom he shares a creator credit for the character), while Darkseid was introduced in an issue of Kirby's run on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and became a major figure in Kirby's "Fourth World" suite of books before eventually being adopted as a DCU-wide villain.
Another guess? Maybe John Byrne pitched the book, and neither publisher was inclined to turn down an offer from a relatively popular creator of Byrne's caliber, one who had created foundational stories for both of them?
And make no mistake, this is a Byrne book, as he handles both the script and the art, the only other credit being for colorist Rick Taylor (No letterer is credited, so I'm not sure if that means that Byrne handled that himself too, or if they just left the credit off of the title page for some reason.)
Now I had missed all of the work that Byrne is best known for, his late '70s and 1980s work on The Uncanny X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Sensational She-Hulk and the post-Crisis reboot of the Superman line. I could probably count on one hand the number of Byrne books I've read (Wait, let's test that out: Man of Steel #3, Legends, Batman: The Many Deaths of the Batman, JLA arc "The Tenth Circle" and Genesis...Yep, that's only one hand!).
So his presence here wasn't something that particularly excited me the way it might have readers a decade or so older than me; I mean, I skipped it when it was originally released in 1995, and, like the X-Men/Titans crossover discussed previously, I wasn't really looking forward to reading it here.
Like most of the DC/Marvel crossovers of the '90s, it's just 48-pages long, and the plot and basic conflict are simple and straightforward. You might have even intuited it from the title alone. Galactus, the space-faring cosmic giant who sustains himself by draining all of the energy from planets and feeding off it, has set his sights on Apokolips, the home planet that tyrannical space god Darkseid rules with an iron fist.
(Of note is a special thank you included on the title page. After a nice dedication to Kirby, "who created his own universes when ours alone proved too small to contain him, " there's a special thanks given to a Marc Galinis McFinn, "who one day said to me 'Galactus tries to eat Apokolips...'")
Byrne opens with a four-page recounting of the origins of Apokolips and New Genesis and their respective New Gods and has those on New Genesis in great excitement of a coming threat, one to which the Source suggests Highfather respond to with this cryptic message: "Hide The World."
Something must be done to get New Genesis out of the path of Galactus, of course, or else why would he choose to attack Darkseid's Apokolips, when a much more appetizing alternative is right there?
This they do, so that when Galactus' herald the Silver Surfer streaks onto the scene, in a dramatic splash page, he heads straight for Apokolips, where he's immediately swarmed by scores of Parademons. They are no match for him, of course, and he sends out the signal to his master.
While Highfather waits from his now-hidden planet, he tells Orion of Galactus' origin story, and then the giant lands on Apokolips and begins to busy himself setting up his planet-draining apparatus. From here on out, it's basically just what the title says, Darkseid vs. Galactus, the former throwing his planet's various defenses against the invader in a vain attempt to stop him.
Meanwhile, hotheaded Orion, unable to take standing by and doing nothing for so long, dons his helmet and flies into action, tackling the Silver Surfer. This leads to a fight between the two, which manages to stretch out the page count a bit (as does Darkseid's recounting of the Surfer's origin; despite what seems like a relatively niche appeal, this book is really written with potential new readers in mind).
The Surfer eventually overpowers his New God foe, blasting him with a bolt of the power cosmic ("Let the annoyance end now") that should have killed him...but when the Black Racer arrives to collect Orion, the Surfer delays him long enough that Orion's Mother Box is able to heal him. (Certainly there are Kirby fans out there that appreciated seeing the Silver Surfer and the Black Racer sharing a panel, right?)
So where does all this fighting end up...? Well, there can't really be a victor, and not just because this is an inter-company crossover, and thus neither side's character can really thoroughly, unequivocally vanquish the other. No, because of the stakes, victory for either combatant would mean the destruction of the other, and we can't have a comic where Darksied kills off Galactus any more than we can have one where Galactus destroys Apokolips...and, presumably, all those that live there.
The back cover copy frames the conflict as "an unstoppable force meets an immovable object," which sounds about right. So how to resolve it without stopping the force or moving the object?
Byrne has an exceptionally clever twist that essentially leads to a draw, the two title characters facing one another, acknowledging one another's similarities and then dropping their conflict, leaving the status quo of either unchanged.
It ends, in other words, as it must, but Byrne comes up with an interesting rationale for it doing so, one that fits in well with Kirby's creations.
None of these characters are really my personal cup of tea, despite their strengths and attributes. That is, I find they generally work when facing off against more relatable heroes, or when in stories with point-of-view characters that ground all the cosmic opera in something approaching the real world.
Here, Orion and the Silver Surfer are as close as we get to relatable heroes though, and both of them talk in the same overblown, purple dialogue that all the other characters do. This is not the fault of Byrne, of course. It's just who these characters are and how they have always been portrayed.
I'm not a big fan of Byrne's art style either, although, to be fair, it is here completely focused on the otherworldly, so everything he draws is essentially a "cover" of a Kirby design, and there's no visual relief from that 20th Century futuristic look, nothing to contrast it with.
There is therefore little to grab onto here; you're either a fan of Kirby's creations as recreated by Byrne, or this story probably isn't for you.
That said, Byrne does a solid job of reintroducing all the players and concepts, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that one could encounter this story and become a fan of Kirby's creations, and, thankfully, Byrne keeps the proceedings quite simple.
Not only in the basic nature of the conflict, but the storytelling. He doesn't get too deep into the histories and continuities of the various characters. The pages also feature relatively few panels each, and there are lots of splashes and big panels devoted to showcasing "moments" of import (The Surfer confronting Orion, Darkseid using the Omega Effect on Galactus, etc). It's a relatively quick, painless read.
What would happen if Galactus tried to devour Apokolips? This is Byrne's answer, in the form of a short but epic-feeling comic.
Next: 1995's Spider-Man and Batman #1
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