As the Fantastic Four scrambles to prepare for a new threat heading straight for Earth, they learn how the cosmic enemy compares to Galactus.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fantastic Four: Antithesis #2, by Mark Waid, Neal Adams, Mark Farmer, Laura Martin and VC’s Joe Caramagna on sale now.
Things have been rough for Galactus lately. Once the most powerful, feared supervillain in the Marvel Universe after first menacing the Fantastic Four when he threatened to consume the Earth, the World-Eater has since been effectively dunked on by multiple different forces. In the miniseries Fantastic Four: Antithesis, the story’s subtitle is more than just an ominous moniker but the name of a new, cosmic supervillain. And as Marvel’s First Family learns more about their newfound antagonist, the foe makes short work of Galactus while on his way towards Earth.
The opening issue of the miniseries had concluded with the Silver Surfer crashing on Earth, with the Sentinel of the Spaceways once more the Herald for Galactus. As the Fantastic Four rushed to his aid and the Surfer regained his bearings, Norrin Rad informed his old friends that a new enemy across the cosmos had killed Galactus and was cutting a destructive path across the universe. As the team moves to investigate, they discover that Galactus has actually survived his encounter against Antithesis but was throughly overpowered by the villain as the Fantastic Four discover more about the omnipotent antagonist.
Just as Galactus consumes entire worlds as part of his insatiable hunger, Antithesis stands as a polar opposite to Galan — in essence, Antithesis is literal, personified antithesis of the World-Eater. That said, Antithesis is no hero, despite his opposition to Galactus. Instead, the new villain completely subjugates the populations of the planets in his path, robbing them of all individuality and agency to become mindless drones in service to Antithesis. After encountering Galactus and the Surfer, Antithesis sends Norrin to Earth while completely stripping Galan of the Power Cosmic.