Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #439: Morg

So, while chatting with Jimmy about…well, the transcript will pop up later today.  Anyway, it turns out Jimmy didn’t know there were more Heralds of Galactus beyond the Silver Surfer, Firelord, and Terrax.  Well, yeah.  There were.  So, I think I have a few entries to cover over the next few weeks.

Why not start with Morg?  He was the guy who looked like he was gonna betray Galactus from his first appearance, and then he shocked everybody by…doing it much later.

Morg first appeared in Silver Surfer #69 in August of 1992, the product of two guys named Ron, writer Marz and artist Lim.  At the start of Morg’s first storyline, Galactus’s Herald was an Earth woman named Frankie Raye, AKA Nova.  This Nova had no connection to the Nova Corps, but that’s neither here nor there.  Nova was one of the more moral Heralds and did her best to guide Galactus to planets where there wasn’t much in the way of sentient life without telling him.  However, Galactus figured that out and decided to go to a planet with a Medieval-level of technology from the looks of things for his next meal as a way of teaching Nova her place.  Landing near a castle, Galactus talked about how he had to feed and all, and there was no one who could stop him.

Enter Morg, a court executioner who decided to challenge Galactus.

Impressed by his chutzpah, Galactus offered to make Morg his new Herald.  Morg accepted, but unlike, say, the Silver Surfer, Morg didn’t do it to spare his home planet.  No, he only cared about his own personal survival.  So, a guy who only looks out for himself?  I can see no way that this can blow up in Galactus’s face.  Nova was told to beat it, and she did, and when the Silver Surfer showed up to check in on her, Morg kicked his ass rather easily.

Yeah, Morg got to keep his ax when he was imbued with the Power Cosmic, and Galactus didn’t hold back on juicing him up.  The Surfer realized Morg was bad news, and he was going to need help to bring the guy down.  That means recruiting all of the other previous Heralds.  Firelord, a friend, was easy.  Nova was located without too much trouble.  Former Herald Airwalker was revived as a sentient robot.  And yeah, known evildoer Terrax the Tamer was likewise recruited.  With their combined might, Morg was defeated.

They probably needed that combined might.  While out a’Heralding, Morg had found a mystical underground pond on one one doomed planet.  He’d basically killed the priests there before bathing in this Well of Life despite or perhaps because the last surviving priest said that the water wasn’t meant for immersion.  Oh, and he reported back to Galactus before that, letting him know he was coming, but there was a pause before he said “Master” at the end, suggesting that, yeah, this guy was up to no good.

The resulting battle ended with Nova dead, pre-Herald friends Airwalker and Firelord voluntarily taking the position of Herald, and a disappointed Galactus stripping Morg of the Power Cosmic.  That magical water was all he had left.  Or it was until Terrax killed him.  But Galactus brought him back at full power later, allowing Morg to go find Terrax and get revenge, a mission that didn’t quite go through as this cosmic threat called Tyrant was collecting powerful beings across the universe to power his machines, all to maybe challenge Galactus later.  The prisoners there included Terrax, Morg, Gladiator, Beta Ray Bill, someone named Ganymede, Jack of Hearts, and the Silver Surfer.  Galactus eventually showed up, and that was good because Tyrant was mopping the floor with all of these guys save the Surfer, Morg, and Terrax, and that was mostly because Morg and Terrax were too busy fighting each other.

Anyway, Galactus and Tyrant were more or less equals, so Tyrant let everyone go except Morg to spite Galactus.

Wait, does that mean Galactus betrayed Morg first?

That’s probably why, much later, Morg managed to betray Galactus and Tyrant (because Morg started working for Tyrant at some point) by hitting both of them with the Ultimate Nullifier.  His own attempts to escape failed miserably, and Morg died while Galactus was exiled to another dimension.

Annihilus would try to leach the Power Cosmic’s corpse from Morg unsuccessfully later during one of the Annihilation storylines, but that guy was dead until much later when Morg showed up, without any explanation on where he came from, to retrieve Galactus when a massive threat is coming for Eternity.  Did he learn to be less selfish?  I don’t know, but he did.

Anyway, that’s Morg.  I suppose I should cover another Herald next time.  Will it be Nova?  Airwalker?  Stardust?  Goldie Oldie?

OK, not Golden Oldie.