Psycho-Sexual Galactus

With Galactus' forthcoming appearance on Spaceknight Saturdays, I thought it'd be fun to talk about a couple of his comics (and not his best known necessarily). Just to get the appetite going. First up:

SILVER SURFER: PARABLE #1-2, Epic Comics, December 1988 to January 1989A cross between the Holy Bible and a giant monster movie? No, it's not Neon Genesis Evangelion, it's Silver Surfer: Parable, a short little mini-series, which was eventually collected as a slim hardcover.

Published under the Epic imprint, Stan Lee's fable about the evils of religion is just that: a fable. It takes place outside the bounds of the regular Marvel Universe. Probably Stan Lee's last actually good work, it may be overwrought, but that's what that filthy hippy, the Silver Surfer, is all about: long-winded speeches and weepy, purple prose. Parable dishes it out in spades. If it stands out though, it's because French comics superstar Moebius illustrates it, giving it that eerie, stylish European groove. So it doesn't matter the characters are all basically "ideas" and you never truly care for them. It's just gorgeous to look at.

So it all starts when the world-eater himself, Galactus, comes back to Earth in what can only be called a gigantic vibrator.
No, don't try to tell me it's not. I've read Moebius' comics before. It's all tantric and shit, and if Stan the Man didn't figure it out, well, a French guy just got an American back for the Louisiana Purchase. Galactus plans to respect the vow he gave the Surfer back in the day to not destroy humanity, but his hunger is so great, he's just got to get himself an Earth with a side order of Moon! So his plan is to pass himself off as a hedonistic god and let humanity destroy itself in a global Sodom (maybe Gomorrah).

From there, it throws in more biblical references than Superman Returns. Some of it pretty obvious...
Some of it rather obscure...
I looked up that number of the plane and I think it may refer to the 73rd Psalm, the 7th verse of which reads: "Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish." I guess it's about humanity's hedonism. As far as I can make it:
Source of any obvious reference - Stan Lee.
Source of any obscure reference - Moebius.
Chalk it up to different school systems.

Ok, so obviously the Surfer isn't gonna stand idle. His plan is to let Galactus fire at him, then move out of the way and let the building behind him get demolished, then cry over the massive loss of life. Repeat until humanity revolts against their "god". Well, it works! And it gives Moebius the chance to show Galactus get Godzilla on New York's ass.
At the end, we've all learned a good lesson about worshiping false idols, haven't we? So when Galactus is defeated and leaves, we all turn to the Silver Surfer as our new god! The Surfer starts making outrageous demands to save us from ourselves and they send him away. I could make various theological points about what Stan's trying to say here, but let's just take this as a Parable and not an Allegory, shall we? Don't care to walk into that brick wall right now.

Finally, it wouldn't be a Silver Surfer story if he didn't feel sorry for himself, so he does. On the last page, he tells us that the worst fate of all is to be forever alone. Awwwww.

Get a life, wuss.

For your next home assignment, compare the above statement to Galactus' pithy philosophy: "Consequences are for lesser beings." That's the kind of things you say when you've got balls the size of small buildings.