••

Yep. Seven billion people on Earth. You're the only one.

How long has he had to prepare?

If this is Galactus' second coming, (the first being during the JSA's heyday in WW II, possibly on Earth 2) then Batman's had lots of time to prepare for this eventuality and synthesize a batch of Taa-ite with which to weaken Galactus and possibly take away his planet-eating powers for good! Should that fail, in his utility belt are a set of flash cards with the word "Sutcalag" hidden in there somewhere...

Phenomenal.

Perhaps it's just the Byrne style but I felt no cross-company dislocation at seeing the JLA facing off with Galactus upon first look.

It's as if this was the normal order of things. A lot like The Batman and Captain America running into each other during WWII, I guess.

••

Yes and no.

The first cross-company crossover was a huge event -- a genuine even, not something pumped up by hype machines and speculators. More followed, and they were cool, but could not capture the lightning-in-a-bottle effect of the first.

Eventually, sadly, the people who had asked HOW those first crossovers could take place -- what universe where they in? why had such meetings not happened before? if different universe, how was the journey from one to the other accomplished? -- became the people running the show, and we ended up with explanations and even an attempt at an ongoing series.

How to suck the wonder out of something in a few easy steps!

There is no way, of course, to recapture the original thrill, but if enough time goes by, perhaps a future crossover might have SOMETHING special about it -- provided the hype machines and the speculators can be kept as far from it as possible.