Snap Into Marvel: Air-Walker’s Card Is The Sweetest Yet

Real Name: Gabriel Lan

First Appearance: Fantastic Four #120 (December 1971)

Powers and Abilities: Like other Herald of Galactus, Air-Walker is imbued with the Power Cosmic, enabling a variety of cosmic-level abilities including superhuman strength and stamina, the ability to fly through space, and manipulation of matter and energy. As a former member of the Nova Corps, Air-Walker is also a highly skilled combatant.

Comic Book Chronicles

Air-Walker has the distinction of being the first Herald of Galactus introduced to readers after Silver Surfer, the first and still most famous of Galactus’ heralds. Air-Walker also introduces the idea that Galactus’ heralds, at least for a time, were each representative of one of the four main elements (Silver Surfer being water, Air-Walker being…air).

Also, Air-Walker is a character who, in the majority of his appearances, was a robot simulacrum of the actual Air-Walker, who readers only met well after the robot version had been around for years.

Debuting in Fantastic Four #120 by Stan Lee and John Buscema, Air-Walker is a character seemingly created in as riff on the Biblical “Horn of Gabriel“, the instrument supposedly played by Gabriel to announce the resurrection of the dead at the end time. He shows up, says his name is Gabriel, and blows a horn, announcing the end of the world — because the horn summons Galactus.

By the next issue, Air-Walker is revealed to be a robot, after Silver Surfer — who famously rejected Galactus and got banished to Earth in punishment in the landmark “Galactus Trilogy” — shows up and knocks him to the ground. But it’s okay; Galactus is just there to try and coerce Silver Surfer back into being his herald.

Eventually, the Air-Walker robot, left on Earth, was repaired, fought Thor, and got destroyed again, at which point its origins were revealed: a former member of the Nova Corps (whose members include, uh, Nova, and whom you may remember from their MCU counterparts in the first Guardians of the Galaxy), Gabriel Lan was the captain of the Way-Opener.

After his ship encountered Galactus, Lan agreed to become his herald, and grew to care for his master, enraptured by Galactus’ stories of cosmic travel. When the alien Ovids mounted an attack on Galactus, Air-Walker defended his master, dying in the process, which led Galactus to transfer a portion of his soul into the robot which later appeared before the Fantastic Four (in part because Galactus was unhappy with the relatively dead-eyed robot version of his former friend and wanted to trade back up to Silver Surfer).

Being a robot, Air-Walker returned off and on through the years, notably in the “Herald Ordeal” Silver Surfer story in the 90s, in which the former heralds of Galactus teamed up to defeat the current evil herald, Morg. But also being a robot meant Air-Walker all too often gets destroyed in the course of his subsequent returns, becoming easy cannon fodder. His last such appearance was in the “Annihilation: Scourge” event in 2019, but it’s probably only a matter of time before he returns again, to provide some quick and easy gravitas to the cosmic epic du jour.

Fit & Finish

Air-Walkers base card is more or less a direct recreation of his literal first appearance on the cover of Fantastic Four #120, blowing his horn with his flaming angel wings. He launches with a surprisingly large number of variants (five) in the game files (though not all are released yet), all of which are pretty much riffs on the same image. While Air-Walker doesn’t have a ton of variant looks to his name, something featuring his 90s era resurrection would be nice.

Form & Function

Air-Walker’s Marvel Snap ability is both hilarious and touching. Having its destruction trigger its ability is clearly a nod to the fact that Air-Walker is a robot who keeps getting destroyed, brought back, and destroyed again.

And while said destruction triggers it being replaced with any four cost card from your deck, I’m choosing to assume Second Dinner chose that cost level to give it synergy with a Firelord, a four cost card released the same week as Air-Walker which has the ability to revive a three cost card.

Why is that touching? Because Firelord — a former Herald of Galactus himself — was once Pyreus Kril, best friend and fellow officer to Gabriel Lan, who only became Firelord — and a herald — in order to learn about what happened to his buddy after Galactus made Gabriel a herald. So in the end, former friend Gabriel and Pyreus have cards which trigger each other: Air-Walker gets destroyed and summons Firelord, who brings back Air-Walker. That’s not really a synergy that is going to warp the meta, but it is kind of sweet, and a great example of the way Second Dinner uses the comic book lore to shape the abilities of the cards.