Galactus has always been a huge threat to the Marvel Universe because of his insatiable hunger, which can only be solved by consuming planets. This has made him a major danger to Earth in the past, but shockingly, Galactus was seemingly defeated for good by none other than Spider-Man’s Aunt May. As ridiculous as it seems, Aunt May really did beat Galactus when no one else could.
During the bizarre events of 1984’s Marvel Team-Up #137 by Michael Carlin and Greg LaRocque, Galactus’ herald Nova dies due to Galactus’ weakening power. Galactus now needs another herald and travels to Earth to ask Reed Richards for his help. He just narrowly misses Reed, who leaves New York along with Spider-Man, leaving Franklin Richards in the hands of Aunt May. Sensing the powers in Franklin Richards, Galactus decides he’s as good a herald as anyone. Terrified at the giant man in a purple costume, Franklin hides behind Aunt May, who is hit by Galactus’ empowering beam instead.
This transforms Aunt May into a superpowered being called Golden Oldie, and that’s when the story starts to get weird.
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Aunt May Uses Her Superpowers to Curb Galactus’ Appetite
Marvel Team-Up #137 by Michael Carlin, Greg LaRocque, Mike Esposito, Bob Sharen, and Joe Rosen.
The Power Cosmic is one of the strongest and oldest cosmic forces in the Marvel Universe. It allows whoever wields it to essentially do whatever they want. With it, Galactus is able to teleport anyone or anything instantly across the universe, and can even bring people back from the dead. When Galactus chooses someone as his herald, he grants them a fraction of the Power Cosmic. He does this so that they can hunt down planets for him to consume, because if he doesn’t continually replenish his energy, he’ll eventually die. But Aunt May proved that planets aren’t the only thing to sate his hunger.
As Galactus complains of his hunger, Franklin offers him a Twinkle. A delicious baked good, Galactus initially dismisses this, stating that nothing will sate his hunger except for a planet. Surprisingly, however, the Twinkle does the job, sort of. Galactus requires many Twinkles, and has Golden Oldie take every Twinkle from Manhattan and return it to him. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough, and Golden Oldie has to grab every Twinkle on Earth and return it to Galactus. This sates him, for now. Eventually, things escalate to Galactus meeting Dough Boy the Creator, a man who can create planets out of Twinkles, and this, finally, sates Galactus’ hunger.
Golden Oldie Scours The World For Twinkles
Golden Oldie then returns to Earth, where Franklin absorbs all the Power Cosmic from her, returning her to Aunt May. He does this just as the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man return from their adventure together, none the wiser. This absolutely bizarre tale is then revealed to be a dream that Peter Parker had after eating too many Twinkles, which is then revealed to be a dream of Danny Fingeroth, an editor at Marvel. This continues until it loops back around to being a dream that Galactus had. It’s an absolutely absurd ending for an absurd tale, but how else could a story where Aunt May becomes the herald of Galactus end?
Marvel Team-Up #137 is on sale now from Marvel Comics!
