The Galactus Trilogy and "Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four, Volume 5" (). The Galactus Trilogy "The Galactus Trilogy" is a 1966 three-issue comic book story arc that appeared in "Fantastic Four" #48 - #50. Written, plotted and drawn by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for Marvel Comics, it introduced the characters Galactus and the Silver Surfer. In 2018, "The Atlantic" called it "the indisputable pinnacle of the so-called Silver Age of comic books". In 1966, nearly five years after launching Marvel Comics' flagship superhero title, "Fantastic Four", Lee and Kirby collaborated on an antagonist designed to break from the era's archetypal mold of supervillains,
Superhero comics World War II and the end of the Great Depression. In comics format, superpowered and costumed heroes like Popeye and The Phantom had appeared in newspaper comic strips for several years prior to Superman. The masked detective The Clock first appeared in the comic book Funny Pages #6 (Nov. 1936). In the Great Depression and World War II era the first Superhero Comics appeared, the most popular being Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Captain America. After World War II superhero comic books gradually declined in popularity, their sales hindered in part by the publication of "Seduction of the