What’s worse, having the planet eaten, or the sun surrounded by a nanotech cage and sucked dry of all its energy? I’m sure such a vital question is on your mind, as it is on mine. So today I’d like to talk about the sun-stealing aliens of our new hard science fiction novel Usurper of the Sun, and compare the spooky Builders to another famous alien with a low-carb high-planet diet, Galactus!

We must admit that there is a certain hipness to planet-eating, especially given Marvel Comics’ philosophical devourer of worlds, Galactus. Not only is he huge, with a purple helmet (uh, I mean…), but he rocks T-shirts. VIZ editor Jann Jones has been known to wear this little number around the office:

“I [Galactus Head] Planets”!

The Big Man even contributed the epigraph to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao:

“Of what import are brief, nameless lives… to Galactus?”

Good question! Though ultimately we must strike a point from Galactus for talking about himself in the third person. Who does he think he is, The Rock or something?

( ObViz: Junot Diaz, author of Oscar Wao blurbed our manga 20th Century Boys, saying “Urasawa is a national treasure in Japan, and if you ain’t afraid of picture books, you’ll see why.” He’s right, yaknow.)

Finally, in his early appearances, Galactus had a big “G” on his chestplate:

Truxfax: Galactus was actually named Geoffrey by his mother, but he just calls himself Galactus when on Earth because he wants us to think that he’s hot. (But he’s so not!) (And by “tru” I mean false.)

That puts Galactus down two points!

Then we have the enigmatic Builders, the eponymous star-stealers of Usurper of the Sun. Well, Usurper won the Seiun Award in 2002, which is just like the Pulitzers, except…uh, Japanese and nerdy. No purple helmets for the Builders, but they are plenty weird. Computer geek Raul, on penetrating the Builders’ ship, asks himself, “I don’t know what’s worse—being human and knowing we’re crawling around inside an alien’s brain, or being an alien and knowing that three humans are stomping inside your head.” We’ve all been on both sides of that situation, I’m sure. Also, “one” of the Builders is named Alice, but he/she/it/they doesn’t have to wear a big scarlet A or anything like that.

I suppose our tie-breaker boils down to theme. Consuming a planet is something we all do every day, in tiny ways both depressing and exhilarating. In a way, Galactus is like a guy with two Hummers who keeps his TV running all day and doesn’t recycle. He’s us. Over the years, Galactus plots have evolved to the point where he could simply be persuaded not to eat Earth as opposed to being driven off. Sort of like convincing your neighbor to separate out his plastics. Finally.

Usurping the sun, however, is even more serious business. That’s lights out. We Earthlings depend on the sun as much as we do the earth, but we have no way of really dealing with or managing the sun. In the Bible, the universe began with the declaration, “Let there be light!” The sun is more fundamental than even our home planet—with luck some humans will leave Earth eventually for long-term deep space missions. We’ll need a sun though, even if we end up settling on other planets many millennia from now. The end of the sun isn’t just the end of everything here, it’s the end of the possibility of anything else for us. It’s the Prime Mover of the solar system.

The Builders are also substantially less human than Galactus. Big Blue speaks English, albeit the sort of English that suggests all he knows of Earth is the Book of Mormon. By way of contrast, the near-impossibility of communication with a truly alien species is one of the driving themes of Usurper. It’s hard SF we’re talking after all. Real physics (well, mostly), real exopsychology (to the extent that any such thing can be real), and real human drama.

On the downside, nobody seems interested in a Usurper of the Sun T-shirt. Plus, no helmets. But seriously, Usurper rules, and just as hard as the Big G! What are you waiting for? Pick up a copy today, or I shall consume the very planet on which you stand, mortal insect!

Hmm, I guess a threat to eat the planet does sound less cool in the first person…