The Last Marvel Hero You'd Expect Defeated Galactus in a 'Fantastic Four' Show

Captain America: Brave New World just premiered in theaters this week and the latest trailer for Thunderbolts* dazzled the audience of the Super Bowl, but Marvel Studios has also already begun promoting the third and final film it will release this year. Recently, the first trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps was released, offering the best look yet at the Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot of the beloved comic. While the trailer mainly focused on introducing the members of the titular team and establishing an optimistic tone to match much of the comic book source material, there are a few foreboding moments teasing the film’s villain.

The film will pit The Fantastic Four against Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a massive alien known for devouring planets. Galactus is one of the most powerful and dangerous antagonists in the Marvel Comics canon, but not every story portrays him with the same kind of awe-inspiring, nearly unbeatable aura, and, in one odd tale, he was easily bested by an unexpected Marvel horror hero. In the 1994 Fantastic Four animated series, one of the team’s later encounters with Galactus (Tony Jay) ends abruptly when Ghost Rider (Richard Grieco) debuts and single-handedly subdues the alien menace.

Who Are Galactus and Ghost Rider in Marvel Comics?

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Galactus first appeared in Fantastic Four #48 in 1966, in the first part of a three-issue arc fittingly referred to as “The Galactus Trilogy.” After the skies of the Earth take on a strange appearance, another alien, Uatu the Watcher, appears to The Fantastic Four (who had previously encountered him a number of times) to warn them that Galactus and his Herald, Norrin Rad/The Silver Surfer, are approaching Earth so that Galactus can consume its energy. The altered atmosphere is Uatu’s doing, the result of an attempt to conceal the planet from Galactus and the Surfer that ultimately proves unsuccessful.

Despite the Watcher, who is himself immensely powerful, providing aid in violation of his vow to not interfere in galactic events, The Fantastic Four have little hope of stopping Galactus until Alicia Masters, girlfriend of team member Ben Grimm/The Thing, encounters the Silver Surfer and convinces him to turn on his master to protect Earth. When Johnny Storm/The Human Torch succeeds in retrieving the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon the Watcher says can defeat Galactus, Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic gets Galactus to agree to leave Earth in peace in exchange for the weapon being turned over to him. “The Galactus Trilogy” is considered one of the great stories in comic book history and Galactus and the Surfer have continued to play crucial roles throughout the Marvel Universe. Julia Garner is set to portray a different iteration of the Surfer, Shalla-Bal, in the upcoming film.

Like the Surfers, there have been various Ghost Riders throughout Marvel history. Most are humans who become hosts to one of several demonic entities known as “Spirits of Vengeance,” leading them to seek retribution against those who commit wrongs against innocent people. When the full power of the Riders is used, the host’s bodies transform into flaming skeletons, and they are able to imbue objects they use with mystical, fire-based abilities, often doing so with vehicles such as motorcycles and muscle cars. In 1990s comics, the most prominent Ghost Rider was Danny Ketch, whose spirit had an ability known as the Penance Stare, which forced opponents to simultaneously endure all the pain their sins have caused others. The ability has since been used by other Riders.

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Gabriel Luna's Robbie Reyes becomes the Ghost Rider with his skull ablaze in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Image via ABC Studios

The Fantastic Four animated series introduced Galactus in a two-part episode of its first season that adapted the events of the original comic trilogy relatively faithfully. The Season 2 episode in which Galactus faces Ghost Rider shares the same title as issue #74 of the comic (“When Calls Galactus”) but the television story is fairly distinct from the written one. The episode actually begins with The Fantastic Four reluctantly aiding Galactus, who has been betrayed by his current herald, Terrax (Ron Feinberg). However, hoping to recover from being poisoned by Terrax, Galactus eventually tries to consume the Earth’s energy once more. As usual, The Fantastic Four make little progress in defeating Galactus in simple combat, even with Thor (John Rhys-Davies), God of Thunder, and Frankie Raye (Leeza Miller McGee), a recently introduced love interest of Johnny’s (Quinton Flynn) with the same fire-based powers, as backup. This makes it all the more egregious when Ghost Rider suddenly appears and neutralizes Galactus with the Penance Stare, with the whole encounter lasting little more than a minute.

Most of Marvel’s 1990s animated series are interpreted as taking place in a shared universe similar to the MCU, though one whose continuity is nowhere near as tight. However, despite this and the fact that Grieco would go on to reprise the role of Ghost Rider in a 1996 episode of The Incredible Hulk, the character’s only appearance prior to “When Calls Galactus” was a wordless cameo in a flashback on X-Men. This makes his sudden introduction and crucial role in Fantastic Four a blatant example of a deus ex machina (Thor’s appearance, by contrast, is not problematic in this way, as he had appeared on the series previously and ultimately does not play a major role in ending the conflict).

The relative sophistication of X-Men, Spider-Man, and DC shows such as Batman: The Animated Series have led the ’90s and early 2000s to be remembered as a golden age of superhero animation, but not every show or story arc was as well-thought-out or mature as the most iconic ones. “When Calls Galactus” is a prime example of this, even though Ghost Rider’s battle with Galactus, and the latter’s subsequent reconciliation with The Fantastic Four, during which he refers to them as friends, are so ludicrous that they make the episode ironically enjoyable, especially when it pokes fun at itself with Ben’s (Chuck McCann) incredulous questioning of where all the additional superheroes, specifically fire-based ones, are coming from. While several versions of Ghost Rider appeared on or were alluded to in the MCU series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and fans are eagerly awaiting one or more of the characters to be reintroduced to the franchise, there’s little chance The Fantastic Four’s own MCU debut will see them being upstaged by having an unrelated hero defeat their main foe.

Fantastic Four: The Animated Series is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.