The Fantastic Four are attacked by Terrax, the herald of Galactus. Terrax, with powers over earth, takes Manhattan island and makes it float to outer space, keeping all people within as hostages. He has been escaping from Galactus and wants the Fantastic Four to fight him on his behalf. It does not go as expected: once he's near enough, Galactus absorbs all the cosmic power of Terrax and returns Manhattan to its place. But the long chase left him weakened, and as Reed released him from the promise not to consume planet Earth in a previous adventure, he prepared to do so. The Fantastic Four, aided by other heroes, manage to defeat him. However, Reed saved his life, and he departed with Frankie Raye as his new herald, Nova.note With her help, he consumed the Skrull Throne World.
Terrax was still alive, but without powers. Dr. Doom rescued him, restored those powers and sent him against the Fantastic Four, but there was a problem: Reed Richards does not show up for the fight. Silver Surfer aids the Fantastic Four, and both Terrax and Dr. Doom die in the fight. They later find that Reed has been abducted by aliens, who will make a trial against Reed for the highest crime to all life: saving Galactus.
Tropes
- Artifact Title: Despite the name, Galactus is not really on trial here. Reed is the defendant. Galactus is only trialed by proxy: as Reed does not deny the action itself of saving Galactus, the trial is instead about that action being an acceptable one or not.
- Author Avatar: the Watcher takes John Byrne himself and brings him to witness the trial of Reed Richards.
- Beyond the Impossible: The weakened state of Galactus allows the Thing, thrown in a Fastball Special, to do something never seen before: make Galactus fall.
- Enemy Civil War: The alliance between Dr. Doom and Terrax gets broken when Reed fails to show up. Dr. Doom wants to halt it all: his enemy is Reed, and the deaths of the three others would be meaningless if Reed is not there to see them. But Terrax hates all the FF equally, and has no problem with killing those three right now and killing Richards some other day once he finds him.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Galactus does not have an actual appearance. All aliens see him their own way.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Double subverted. When Terrax raises Manhattan, several other heroes are seen (Daredevil, Spider-Man, the Avengers), but none of them can help. It's all up to the Fantastic Four. And then, when the island and Galactus land, they join the fight against Galactus.
- Took a Level in Badass: Frankie got a huge power upgrade when she became Nova, herald of Galactus.
- Understatement: Nova thinks "Galactus is like no other man I've ever know". Then she realizes the stupidity of that thought and corrects it: "Galactus is like no other man, period".
