Origin
The First Herald; little is known about the mysterious, nameless being simply known as the Fallen One. What IS known is that he was the very first being Galactus decided to imbue with a sufficient amount of the Power Cosmic to serve him as a harbinger of his desire to consume worlds in order to temporarily satisfy his otherwise insatiable hunger. When the Fallen One first encountered Galactus, and how exactly he came to be, is still unknown. The only fact known for sure is that his existence precedes that of Galactus’ most recognized Herald, Norrin Radd the Silver Surfer, by eons.
Major Story Arcs
First Chronological Appearance
While the Fallen One debuted in Thanos‘ series ( Thanos # 11, by Keith Giffen), his first chronological appearance while in context should be the one in Annihilation: Conquest â Starlord # 1, where the adventurer Peter Quill reminisces how he first encountered him. Ship, Starlord’s sentient space vessel drew Quill’s attention towards the Fallen One, who was roaming the cosmos in search of orbs supposedly from which his former master could feed upon. In point of fact, he was actually destroying the orbs as he found them in a well conceived plan to weaken him, if not outright starve Galactus. The reckless Starlord immediately attempted to face off with the Fallen One and put an end to his path of destruction, only to be easily defeated, and left for dead.
After intensive treatment by Ship, Starlord tried once more to approach Fallen One, this time with much greater subtlety. Starlord located the Fallen One on Avaleen-4, an agricultural world on the outskirts of the Kree empire. Starlord realized that none of the weaponry in his possession could stop the dark creature directly, but he also theorized that the energy released by the destruction of an entire world could potentially cause him harm.
In order to achieve this, Starlord generated enough energy to destroy the colony himself and then channeled it in a concentrated blast against the Fallen One. This resulted in both the complete destruction of Avaleen-4 and the defeat of the Fallen One. Guilty for intentionally causing the deaths of thousands of living beings, Quill turned himself, along with his prized prisoner into the custody of the Nova Corps. Both Starlord and the Fallen One where sentenced to serve life-imprisonment in the high security prison called the Kyln.
Fallen
After Thanos of Titan decided to visit the Crunch, and moreover, the Kyln, for reasons of his own, a well executed outbreak caused by a fraction of the institution’s prisoners incidentally occurred at the same time. As a result, the most dangerous inmates of the Kyln Creche, among them the Fallen One, managed to escape. Later on, as Thanos went to that sector in order to investigate further, three empty cocoons were found there. The first belonging to the mysterious Maker (a.k.a. Cosmos, but once called, as is later revealed, “the Beyonder”…), a being of untold power, and dubious reputation. Upon her release, the Maker set Skreet, Thanos’ future companion, free from her cocoon. At that point, the Fallen One was still in his own cocoon. The exact point where the Fallen One broke free is unknown, but it is possible, that during Thanos’ first and nearly fatal encounter with the Maker, which resulted in a devastating explosion, the Fallen One awoke and left the Kyln facility unnoticed.
As Skreet soon informed the Thanos, the being that had occupied the third cocoon was, in fact, Galactus‘ first herald. Surprised by this revelation, Thanos demanded to know more about the Fallen One’s doings before his incarceration, but due to Skreet’s distinctive speech and behavioral patterns, communication between the two wasn’t progressing well and Thanos’ patience was starting to wear thin. It was then that the man responsible for the Fallen One’s imprisonment, Starlord himself, abruptly came upon the two. Not long into the conversation, it became evident that Starlord was there to confirm his own horrible suspicion: that the Fallen One had escaped. Skreet tactlessly revealed to Thanos that Starlord and the Fallen One had history with one another. Starlord deflected nearly all of Thanos’ questions on the subject and no more information about the Fallen One came from their exchange.
In the meantime, in deep space, the Fallen One had set out to achieve his long sought-after goal. Tracking down a specific energy signature, he headed at full speed towards the one responsible for his creation: Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.
Thanos, having taken an interest in the fallen Herald, returned to his ship to try and figure out which parts of the Fallen One’s existence where true, and which where just myth, in order to locate and possibly manage him. It was then that Skreet revealed more of the Fallen One’s past, even implying that he had accompanied the Fallen One in the past during his path of destruction. The notion that the reason for the Fallen One’s downfall was his own insidious and war mongering nature, as well as his connection to the inexhaustible energy source called Black Matter, was also theorized. Thanos, realizing that the Fallen One would attack his former master, Galactus. Considering that due to an unfortunate chain of events, Galactus had been significantly diminished in power and had not at that point recuperated fully, Thanos decided to warn Galactus of the impending attack by using astral projection to him communicate with him. Making contact with Galactus, Thanos accused him of short-sightedness for empowering the Fallen One with Black Matter. Thanos enquired as to the Fallen One’s true name â Galactus responded that the name had long since been forgotten. After a further series of questions, it was made clear that the Fallen One had gone up against Galactus every single time, only to be defeated, but Galactus’ guilt was forcing him to stay his hand and let him live, instead of destroying him.
Crescendo
It was then, that the Fallen One broke into Galactus’ recuperating capsule and faced both Thanos and Galactus. Addressing the Titan by name, he demanded that he leave the capsule and let master and former servant settle their score, once and for all. Thanos tried to reason with him, pleading his case that Galactus’ demise would unbalance Universal consonance. But the Fallen One’s fiery rage was all consuming. Accusing Galactus of being aware of his dark nature all along, but still deciding to take him in as a herald, only to dispose of him once his usefulness came to pass, he blasted Thanos’ astral projection causing the Titan a most unpleasant (to his own words) sensation, and went on to face Galactus. Galactus wishing to be rid of the Fallen One and spite Thanos for his involvement grapped hold of his former herald and, opening a rift in space, teleported the Fallen One to Thanos’s ship.. Thanos then caught a brief glimpse of the Fallen One’s madness, when he exclaimed that Galactus would fall from his own hand, and that no hiding place, no matter how far away, would ever stop him from exclaiming his long desired revenge. Unwilling to let the Fallen One continue his rampage, Thanos opposed him. In return, the Fallen one blew up Thanos’ ship, and let it drift towards a Gas Giant, while he was watching from afar what he perceived as the Titan’s demise.
After the ship entered the gas giant’s core, Thanos revealed his presence to the Fallen One once again, and the two inevitably clashed. Thanos temporarily encased Fallen One into an energy field, causing him to collide with various asteroids, bringing him closer and closer to the gas giant. The Fallen tried to strike back, but was caught unaware and attacked by Skreet, and sent within the gas giant’s core. That caused a massive explosion, and resulted to what Thanos had been planning all along: it knocked out the Fallen One, and enabled the Titan to tamper with his mind, and use him as a herald, a concept that Thanos found quite appealing, and it would also let him know of the secrets of black matter, first hand.
Annihilation
During Annihilation, the Fallen One was given the task of his master Thanos to locate and retrieve the one known as the Beyonder from the Kyln Prisons. Fallen One went there only to find her dead and two Proemial Gods by the name of Tenebrous and Aegis. The two gods smelled the scent of Galactus on Fallen One and drained his energy for the gods, killing the Fallen One. Later on, Thanos traveled to reclaim his lost Herald and was presented with the husk of the Fallen One by Tenebrous and Aegis.
Powers and Abilities
Fallen One possesses cosmic powers different from any of the other Heralds of Galactus. Unlike Galactus’ other heralds, Fallen One’s infinite power source is black matter. The Fallen One manipulates this infinite source of cosmic energy for applications such as incalculable strength and durability augmentation. The Fallen One can navigate space, hyperspace, dimensional barriers, and can achieve flight of near-limitless speeds by entering hyperspace when he exceeds light speed.
The Fallen One does not require sustenance or rest as he is sustained entirely by the conversion of matter into energy. He is not affected by temperature extremes and most forms of radiation and can survive unaided in vacuum environments such as outer-space and hyperspace. He can analyze and manipulate matter and energy, and can reconstruct or animate matter at will, even transmuting elements. He can heal living beings (but cannot revive the dead), and like Galactus’ later Heralds is capable of revitalizing or evolving organic life on a planet wide scale. He can change the size of himself or of other matter, create illusions, fire energy projectiles, form and manipulate energy constructs, manipulate gravity, absorb and discharge almost all forms of energy, and can phase through solid matter. His senses allow him to detect objects and energies light years away, and to interpret matter and energy on a subatomic detail; he can even see through time, and with concentration can achieve limited perception of historical and future events in his general vicinity. Also, like other Heralds of Galactus, The Fallen One has limited telepathic abilities.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 6’10”
Weight: 400 lbs
Hair: Blue with stellar patterns
Eyes: White