For decades,Galactuswas considered the greatest of Marvel’s gods - a force of nature who travels the universe, destroying and consuming entire worlds. But in 2020, fans found out that even Galactus has a master - the terrifying force of universal destructionknown as the Black Winter.
What Galactus is to individual planets, the Black Winter is to entire universes… or at least, that’s the short version. In reality, the Black Winter has its own fascinating lore, explaining its overwhelming power and the one being it truly fears.
Here are the eight essential facts you need to know about the Black Winter, explaining everything we know about Galactus' master so far.
8The Black Winter’s Ice Disintegrates Whatever It Touches
Even the Gods Can’t Resist Black Winter’s Power
While Galactus eats planets, it’s not exactly a simple process. To extract the maximum amount of energy from a planet, Galactus needs to break it down with special equipment - a process which takes hours to complete.Galactuscandestroy planets more easily, but it goes against his larger purpose - gathering cosmic energy to create the next Big Bang, kickstarting the cycle of creation once the universe begins to die.
In contrast,the Black Winter kills just by existing. A gargantuan cloud of cosmic ice and snow, the Black Winter is entropy in physical form. Whatever it touches withers and dies, including the heart of Marvel’s reality, the legendary Asgardian World Tree, Yggdrasil. Just by existing within a specific reality, the Black Winter begins rotting it from the inside out, destroying whatever it touches forever.
Because the Black Winter is the embodiment of total destruction, it has the ability to appear to each person as the thing that will eventually kill them.
7The Black Winter Takes the Form of Whatever Will Kill You
Like Galactus, It Has No True Form
In Marvel lore, every cosmic process - from Death to Love to Chaos - is embodied as a god, however these gods (aka the Universal Abstracts) have no true forms. As conceptual beings, they’re too big to be understood by the human mind, and are given a simple appearance dictated by the viewer. This is true ofGalactus, who looks like a human to humans, but looks completely different to other alien species.
Because the Black Winter is the embodiment of total destruction, it has the ability toappear to each person as the thing or being that will eventually kill them. When confronting Galactus, the Black Winter took the shadowy form of Thor - a prediction that was quickly confirmed when the pair battled shortly after. Against Thor, the Black Winter took the form of his greatest villains, including avision of Thanos wielding Mjolnir.
6The Black Winter Killed the Justice League
Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash Were Consumed
InThor Volume 6 #2(Cates and Klein), fans see the Black Winter consume an alternate reality. While Marvel doesn’tquitebreach copyright, it comes as close as possible tosuggesting this is the DC Universe, showing heroes similar to Superman and the Justice League going up against the Black Winter.
When destroying this universe, the Black Winter even takes the form of one of the Hands - the supreme beings in DC lore, who create and destroy realities.
While the Black Winter can destroy individual realities within the multiverse, its true goal is to end the entire multiverse.
5The Black Winter Destroyed an Entire Multiverse and Created Galactus
The Sixth Cosmos Was Totally Destroyed
While the Black Winter can destroy individual realities within the multiverse,its true goal is to end theentiremultiverse. It has achieved this goal before, destroying the Sixth Cosmos (the version of the multiverse that existed before the one fans know and love.) On destroying the Sixth Cosmos, the Black Winter apparently chose Galactus as its sole survivor, forcing him to agree to be its ‘herald’ for the remainder of his existence.
As the sole survivor of the Sixth Cosmos, it’s Galactus' role to gather energy by consuming planets. Eventually, when the current Cosmos is finally destroyed, Galactus will release this energy, kickstarting thenextCosmos in line. Various comics have suggested thatwhen Galactus dies fulfilling this purpose, he’ll be replaced in the next Cosmos by Franklin Richards- the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.
Galactus isn’t the first Devourer-of-Worlds caught up in the cycle of creation, andwas preceded by Omnimaxand What-Must-Be.
It’s unclear so far whether the Black Winter is an integral part of the eternal cycle of reality or a predator that has insinuated itself into the process, especially because it’s not the only member of its species…
4The Black Winter Is Part of an Entire Species
The Black Winter Is Just One of the Enders
While the Black Winter was originally depicted as a singular being,Storm Volume 5 #7(from Murewa Ayodele and Luciano Vecchio) revealed it’s part of a whole species known by many names, including"the Enders."
Enders are cosmic predators who feed on realities, traveling across the Oblivion Void between the multiverse and non-existence to try and hunt. The Black Winter is a terrifying god beyond reality for humanity, but on the larger scale of the multiverse, it’s just another predator - albeit one that has been devastatingly successful so far.
3Oblivion Protects Reality from the Black Winter
Marvel’s Cosmic Villain Has a Vital Purpose
While the Enders have incredible power, they are kept in check by a larger predator that even the Black Winter has cause to fear. In Marvel lore, Oblivion is one of the Universal Abstracts -cosmic entities which embody the defining forcesof reality. InStorm#7, fans learn that one ofOblivion’s function is to feed on members of the Black Winter’s species, stopping them from ending the multiverse before its appointed time. While Oblivion is the embodiment of the cosmic void and is also a major force of destruction, it has its own reasons to hate the Black Winter’s species…
2Even the Black Winter Has a Master
The Black Winter Serves the first Storm God, Hadad
InStorm Volume 5 #8(Murewa Ayodele, Lucas Werneck and Mario Santoro), Marvel revealed that the Ender species has a creator -the Elder God known as Hadad. The first Storm God to ever exist, Hadad grew arrogant and began attacking the other Universal Abstracts. Hadad defeated Death, Eternity, Oblivion and even the Phoenix Force, shaping them into armor and weapons. He was ultimately exiled from reality by Marvel’s supreme being, the One-Above-All, but that was only the beginning.
Since then, Hadad has been biding his time outside reality, creating universe-destroying ‘Rot Storms.’ This is another name for the Enders,making the Black Winter one of Hadad’s servants, sent out into the multiverse to destroy reality as his revenge on the One-Above-All. As an old enemy of Hadad, Oblivion happily foils his plans, working as part of the system that Hadad is trying to subvert and destroy.
This reveal creates a chain of godlike entities (below), whereeach god creates a lower being that rebels against them, right down to Galactus empowering the Silver Surfer. Interestingly in this chain, the only exception is Black Winternotbetraying its creator Hadad - perhaps a story to be told soon, as Hadad presses his assault on reality in the pages ofStorm.
1The Black Winter Is Suspiciously Similar to Thanos' Child
Is This How Black Winters Are Created?
Introduced in 2002’sAvengers: Celestial Quest(from Steve Englehart and Jorge Santamaria), theRot is the child of Thanos and Death.The Rot was created when Thanos died, causing his soul to merge with the Universal Abstract Death. The Rot is neither alive nor dead and destroys everything it touches, causing matter to disintegrate on contact and appearing as an encroaching cloud of eldritch darkness.
These abilities are notably similar to the Black Winter, suggesting that the members of the Ender species may be created via a similar process, under Hadad’s supervision. If so, thencreating each Black Winter would require sacrificing an entire realityto bring it to maturity, showing the scale at which Marvel’s most powerful cosmic entities operate.
A recent addition to Marvel lore, the Black Winter is a being of staggering power that even dwarfsGalactus. However, in Marvel mythology, there’s always a bigger fish, and there are predators and masters higher up the chain than even theBlack Winter.
