WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Defenders #2, available now from Marvel Comics.
Two of Marvel's classic villains have become a serious problem, and to deal with the threat Doctor Strange has recruited a brand new team of Defenders. Unfortunately, the raw magic that the Sorcerer Supreme invoked to do so has also sent the heroes hurtling through time to an age before the Multiverse existed. The Defenders might not have been prepared for their journey, but they've at least found someone to help guide them through it. That person happens to be the mother of Galactus, and her story is a heartbreaking new chapter in the saga of the Devourer of Worlds.
The heroes have arrived on the world of Taa, the birthplace of Galen, who is fated to become Galactus in Defenders #2 (by Al Ewing, Javier Rodriguez, Jay Bowen, VC's Cory Petit, and VC's Joe Caramagna). Before his transformation, Galen was an explorer on his home world which, as it turns out, was once under threat of being consumed by Omnimax, the Devourer of Worlds from the Sixth Cosmos. The Defenders are alerted to the situation upon their arrival by a bold, boisterous woman named Taaia, and after helping the heroes rescue the residents of her world, she leads them through a wormhole to her own personal science fortress. Like all Scienceers, Taaia has a sprawling hyper-lab nestled inside of what she calls Tesseract space, and it is there that the Defenders learn just who it is that they are dealing with.
Harpy's enhanced senses pick up a scent, alerting Taaia that her son Galen has awoken. When the Silver Surfer takes a particular interest in the child, Taaia takes him to meet her infant son who is being diligently and automatically cared for within a futuristic techno-cot. Taaia doesn't even move to pick up her child, as the technology has all of his needs met already, save for keeping him safe from the dangers outside. It's this heroic urge to protect her son that pushes Taaia to dive so completely into her work, even if that comes at the expense of more personal interactions between mother and child.
Regardless, Taaia genuinely loves her son, making it all the more heartbreaking to know what he will eventually become. While Galen does follow his mother's path of being a great scientist through his time as an explorer, his transformation into the same kind of Devourer of Worlds that Taaia fought so hard to defeat is crushing.
Despite the lack of direct attention or affection displayed by Taaia towards her son in this issue, there is no doubt that she had a profound impact on who he would later become. Her dedication and ambition may have been twisted with Galen's transformation, but they are traits that he inherited as both Galen and Galactus.
Even if the future is already set in stone for the Devourer of Worlds, seeing the past unfold has given new insight into the character of Galactus and makes his inevitable change into the celestial force even more tragic.
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