Warning: contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #44!
The Fantastic Four’s greatest enemy Galactus only fears one weapon in the universe – and until very recently, that weapon was shrouded in mystery. But the truth of the Ultimate Nullifier is finally revealed in Fantastic Four #44, and the device’s origin will shock Marvel fans for its simplicity and sheer brutality. The weapon was never designed as a deterrent – it was designed to be used immediately by the non-interfering Watchers of all people, with devastating consequences.
The weapon was first revealed in the pages of Fantastic Four #48-50, also known as the Galactus Trilogy. When the aforementioned Devourer of Worlds arrived on Earth, Uatu the Watcher memorably chose to break his oath of non-interference, sending the Human Torch to Galactus’ ship, the Taa II. Onboard, Johnny Storm found and retrieved the Ultimate Nullifier, a diminutive yet frighteningly powerful weapon from which Galactus instantly recoiled. Earth was saved and the Ultimate Nullifier was never used…but where did this devastating weapon came from, and who created it?
In Fantastic Four #44, written by Dan Slott with art by Andrea Di Vito, Davidae Tinto & Rachel Stott, the true nature of the Ultimate Nullifier is revealed during the Fantastic Four’s Reckoning War event. Countless millennia ago, the Watchers were engaged in a horrific war with the Prosilicans, now called the Reckoning. With the Reckoning’s victory almost in sight, a Watcher named Enmu used the combined knowledge of his species to craft the Ultimate Nullifier – and subsequently used it. Nine-tenths of the universe were instantly obliterated, and untold trillions of beings died. The history of the weapon was hidden, and only a few beings in the universe knew its true nature.
One of those beings was apparently Galactus himself. In Fantastic Four #50, after Reed Richards brandishes the weapon, he warns “Your feeble mind cannot begin to comprehend its power! You hold the means to destroy a galaxy…to lay waste to a universe!” Evidently, Galactus was speaking the truth. Previously, the weapon was said to be an aspect of Galactus himself. While this can still technically be true, it was the Watcher Enmu’s creation and Enmu’s decision to use it; in that respect, he is responsible for far more deaths than Galactus or even Thanos.
The true nature of the Ultimate Nullifier’s inner workings are still a mystery, but the purpose of the weapon is now abundantly clear; it was used to eradicate nine-tenths of the universe and end a bitter war with the Reckoning. The peaceful Watchers, having seen the devastation they caused with their power, retreated from the universe and vowed never again to interfere with the goings-on of ‘lesser’ beings. The Fantastic Four’s greatest enemy was right to fear the Ultimate Nullifier, but Galactus also feared the Watchers: the greatest mass murderers in Marvel history.
