Quarteto Fantástico: Antítese

Fantastic Four: Antithesis #1-4

by Mark Waid, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams

O lendário artista Neal Adams ilustrando sua primeira história completa do Quarteto Fantastico, junto ao gigante dos roteiros Mark Waid! Um meteoro de origem desconhecida emerge do hiperespaço e tem como destino final a ilha de Manhattan. e se o Quarteto não conseguir impedir que atinja a Terras, milhões morrerão! Mas o pior ainda está por vir: Galactus desapareceu! E apenas ele tinha o poder para derrotar seu equivalente da Zona Negativa: Antítese!

Fantastic Four: Antithesis (2020) 1-4 , X-Men (1963) 65, Fantastic Four (1998) 60

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book

136 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Mark Waid is an American comic book writer widely known for shaping modern superhero storytelling through influential runs on major characters at both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Raised in Alabama, he developed an early fascination with comic books, particularly classic stories featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, whose imaginative scope and sense of legacy would later inform his own writing. He first entered the comics industry during the mid 1980s as an editor and writer for the fan magazine Amazing Heroes, before publishing his first professional comic story in Action Comics. Soon afterward he joined DC Comics as an editor, contributing to numerous titles and helping shape projects across the company. After leaving editorial work to focus on writing, Waid gained widespread recognition with his long run on The Flash, where he expanded the mythology of the character and co-created the youthful speedster Impulse. His reputation grew further with the celebrated graphic novel Kingdom Come, created with artist Alex Ross, which imagined a future DC Universe shaped by generational conflict among superheroes. Over the years he has written many prominent series, including Captain America, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Superman: Birthright, bringing a balance of optimism, character depth, and respect for comic book history to each project. Waid has also collaborated with notable artists and writers on major ensemble titles such as Justice League and Avengers, while contributing ideas that helped clarify complex continuity within shared superhero universes. Beyond mainstream superhero work, he has supported creator owned projects and experimental publishing models, including the acclaimed series Irredeemable and Incorruptible, which explored moral ambiguity within the superhero genre. He later took on editorial leadership roles at Boom Studios, guiding creative direction while continuing to write extensively. In subsequent years he expanded his involvement in publishing and digital storytelling, helping launch online comics initiatives and advocating for new distribution methods for creators. His work has earned numerous industry awards, including Eisner and Harvey honors, reflecting both critical acclaim and enduring popularity among readers. Throughout his career Waid has remained a passionate student of comic book history, drawing on decades of storytelling tradition while continually encouraging innovation within the medium. His influence extends across generations of readers and creators, and his stories continue to shape the evolving language of superhero comics around the world today through enduring characters imaginative narratives and thoughtful reinventions of familiar myths within popular culture and modern graphic storytelling traditions.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... fine, I suppose, but it’s hard not to be disappointed when you get a book that’s just OK from two creators who are such giants in their fields. Not bad but definitely a far cry from Waid and Adams’ best work.

Oh, and BOY does Neal Adams draw a fugly Ben Grimm... sheeesh!

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

When the Silver Surfer arrives on earth, near death, the Fantastic Four find themselves up against a new threat in Antithesis!

When this was solicited, I was on the heels of reading Mark Waid's Fantastic Four run and hungry for more. The Neal Adams was just icing on the cake, I thought.

It pains me to give this two stars but it was only okay. The story was adequate, I guess. Galactus is stripped of his power and tossed into the Negative Zone by Anthesis, another cosmic being that imbues planets with his life force and enslaves them. It sounds interesting but from there it's a paint by numbers Fantastic Four story. Reed's ignoring his family in favor of science, Ben and Johnny bicker, and there's some technobabble solution. Apart from a twist at the end, I'm already forgetting the details. Like most of today's comics, it felt like an issue and a half of story stretched across four.

Neal Adams is pushing 80 but still put out some good artwork in this. Sure, I hate the way he draws Ben Grimm and it seems like he had trouble maintaining a consistent look for Johnny but he's still a damn fine artist. I thought the color detracted from the artwork, though, and the story would look better in black and white.

The volume is padded by an X-Men issue drawn by Adams and the first issue of Waid's Fantastic Four run. It is what it is.

The enlarged size of Fantastic Four: Antithesis didn't do much to make it a more engaging story. Two out of five stars.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, light-enough FF adventure with classic Neal Adams art and presented in an oversized paperback.

[Tesutamento · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usta yazar Mark Waid 2000'lerdeki başarılı Fantastic Four serisinden sonra seriye kısa bir macera için geri dönüyor. Bu kez yanında daha çok bir dönemin Batman çizeri olarak tanınan Neal Addams var. Bu kitap ayrıca Addams'ın vefatından önceki son çizerlik işlerinden biri.

Dört sayılık kısa hikayede Silver Surfer dünyaya harap olmuş halde ulaşıyor ve FF'i yaklaşan tehlike için uyarıyor. Öyle ki bu tehlike Negative Zone'dan gelen ve Galactus'u mağlup eden bir varlıktır. Hikaye oldukça ortalama bir seviyede. Dizilerin ve animelerin yazın vizyona giren filmleri gibi bir tat sunuyor. Ne bayılırsın ne de kötülersin. Ana hikayenin dışında Waid'in yazdığı dönemden bir Fantastic Four sayısı ve O'Neil'ın yazdığı Addams'ın çizdiği bir X-Men sayısı da kitapta mevcut. Ustalara saygı duruşu gibi düşünülebilir.

Marvel bu kitabı standart boyutunun dışında treasury edition adı altında, omnibuslardan dahi daha büyük bir formatta basınca FF fanı olarak haliyle onu aldım. Addams'ın çizimleri çok dalgalı olsa da yine de hoşuma gitti. Tabi bunu Addams'ın 79 yaşında çizdiğini de hesaba katarak söylüyorum.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for something a bit more … well, more, I suppose. The art was about as good as you expect from legendary Neal Adams (Avengers #93 was one of the first issues from that series that I ever bought, and it wasn’t just the appearance of the Fantastic Four that intrigued me, but the art as well). Unfortunately, the story here doesn’t have the same power as the best of the Fantastic Four stories usually do, but then no one could match Jack Kirby & Stan Lee when they were at their best. This is fun, entertaining, and the Treasury-Size format really sets the package off well. Definitely worth it for fans of Adams and/or the Fantastic Four .

The inclusion of X-Men#65 with art by Adams and Fantastic Four #60 by Waid, are nice additions, but don’t really add anything to the overall story. Although I have to say that this is probably the nicest looking reprint of this particular X-Men issue that I’ve ever seen, so the treasury format does suit the art by Neal Adams very well.

[Judah Radd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it, but I don’t think it’s for everyone.

This was very much a tribute to silver age Fantastic Four. The art was by Neal Adams, and it was awesome... but definitely not contemporary looking. It’s a good read if you want to revisit campy, fun, old school Marvel. Strong Lee/Kirby vibes.

The art looked amazing on these bigass treasury edition pages. Definitely a nice way to spend 30 min.

[Matthew Yeldon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels rushed. The writing needed a good edit. Not only are there big mistakes in the artwork — inconsistencies, continuity errors, and poor attempts at correcting design flubs — but Waid tries to fit in huge interesting ideas in too short a run. The antithesis to Galactus? The team being imbued with the Power Cosmic? Reed becoming Galactus?! That’s a lot of cool stuff only being glossed over. The story should’ve been drawn out to at least double the length. Such a shame.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Earth is threatened by a cosmic menace bigger than Galactus whose premise never clicked for me. Parts feel like Waid is reviving some ideas he started in his previous run

Neal Adams still doing dynamic page layouts, which is good to see but as others have commented his Ben Grimm is distractingly off-model. Maybe they should’ve brought in Murphy Anderson to redraw the heads?

[Benjamin Kimble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neal Adams is a phenomenal artist, hence why Marvel wanted to release this in treasury size. He draws an amazing Galactus, Reed and Sue are beautiful in almost every panel, and Johnny is a beautiful blaze of glory. But Ben is ugly, I don’t like how he draws the Thing. Very grotesque and not how I like him. Now the plot of this sees the anti-Galactus from the negative zone known as Antithesis show up trying to conquer the universe. See because Galactus eats and destroys Antithesis feeds worlds and satisfies them, putting them under his control. It’s an interesting idea but I don’t feel he’s taken far enough. Then end of this is dedicated to Reed becoming Galactus because his mind is failing him. The last issue involves his team trying to reach out with an emotional cry to get him back. It’s okay, but I’m really not sure how I feel about the idea and the execution definitely could have been better. This book has some of Mark Waids amazing dialogue, but he also try’s to throw in some modern slang and quips that don’t work quite as well. Two absolute legends here give us an okay book.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to bid farewell. Neal Adams last full work on Marvel tells a story of universe ending proportions with the joy and adventure of the classic Fantastic Four. It may not be the best F4 story ever, but a solid entry by two solid creators and a great good bye from Neal to Marvel. The adition of an X-Men issue by Adams and a F4 story by Waid and Weringo that bookends this volume as a pretty good summary of what Fantastic Four can deliver.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Fantastic Four: Antithesis Treasury Edition” (2021). Reprinting “Fantastic Four: Antithesis” #1-4 (October 2020-January 2021). Writer, Mark Waid and penciler, Neal Adams (credited together as “Storytellers”). Inker, Mark Farmer. Color artists, Laura Martin with Andrew Crossley. Letterer, “VC’s Joe Carramanga”.

I have to say that I ended up really enjoying this one. Aside from a few really oddly drawn depictions of Ben Grimm (the Thing)—I think Adams was trying to show Grimm’s emotions through exaggerated facial expressions, as is per Adams’ usual style, but Grimm’s rocky exterior makes that very difficult—this is a beautifully drawn book.

Now, I should say that this is clearly “later Adams” (the style he had developed into and used on all of his projects from Batman: Odyssey (2010-2012) onwards. Hyper detailed. Hard lined figure outlines. Exaggerated facial expressions. Some long time Adams fans dislike this change (or development) of Adams’ style, so they might also not like it here.

However, I felt it was perfect for a story of this scope (and especially in this larger “treasury” sized format. Adams page layouts are dynamic, much of the story taking place in outer space or in the “Negative Zone”, and the characters all benefit from the larger page size (especially “cosmic” alien characters like the heroic and noble Silver Surfer, creepy/scary Annihilus, gigantic Galactus, and the new villain character here, Antithesis).

The story is a pretty standard but sufficient one to warrant the Neal Adams visual fireworks. Gateways begin to open between Earth and the Negative Zone, allowing Annihilus to attack at the start of the story. The Fantastic Four successfully repel his attack and send him back to the Negative Zone but then discover (from the Silver Surfer, who crash lands on Earth, injured) that a new threat, Antithesis, has seemingly destroyed the Surfer’s master, Galactus, and threatens the Earth next.

(One thing I’m not too sure of is the actual timing of when this story is supposed to take place. The Silver Surfer is still (or again) serving as Galactus’s herald and guide during this story. Yet Reed and Sue’s daughter, Valeria, is very young, not yet speaking. I’m not familiar enough with Fantastic Four continuity to know if those two things line up, or if it doesn’t even matter if Waid and Adams maybe considered this story to be out of the established continuity all together?)

As someone who has read all of Neal Adams’ material, I think, from “Batman: Odyssey” through this and “Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul” (“Antithesis” and “Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul” being the last two things he did prior to his death in April 2022), I can say that while I enjoyed much of Adams *art* in pretty much all of those stories (which also included “The First X-Men” (2012-2013), “Superman: The Coming of the Supermen” (2016), and “Deadman” (2018)), I think I enjoyed “Antithesis” more than any of the others (which is saying a lot coming from a big DC guy like me). And I attribute this to Mark Waid’s involvement in the writing of it.

Yes, Neal Adams’ renditions of his classic DC characters like Batman, Superman, and Deadman will always *look* awesome. However, Adams’ plots (and especially his dialogue and characterizations) when he was both writing and drawing, as he was in all of these except for “Antithesis” and scripting assistance from Christos Gage on “The First X-Men”, were often quite, well, wacky at best, head-scratchingly bad at others. So much so that his final Batman stories are widely criticized as being nonsensical and difficult for longtime readers to get through.

Waid is very familiar with the characters of the Fantastic Four as he wrote their regular monthly title from 2002 to 2005. Therefore his (presumably) plot and dialogue here keep this story a quintessential Fantastic Four adventure and the characters all their familiar selves. (For Adams, this is the first time he ever drew a full length Fantastic Four story or for anything more than a quick cameo. But his Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm are all excellent here, as is his Ben Grimm except for the aforementioned odd facial expressions here and there.

This “Treasury Edition” reprint collection (which, for those not familiar with treasury or tabloid sized comic books, measures at 8.75” x 13.3”) also includes two bonus stories from the Marvel archives, the first drawn by Neal Adams, a classic February 1970 X-Men issue (#65) written by Denny O’Neil and inked by Tom Palmer). And, second, the first issue of Mark Waid’s 2002-2005 Fantastic Four run (#60 [#489], October 2002), penciled by the late great Mike Wieringo and inked by Karl Kesel. Both good choices to bring back in the treasury sized format.

Another trade paperback reprint collection of “Fantastic Four: Antithesis” is due out in January 2023. This will be in the more standard comic book size/format and will, presumably, only include the “Antithesis” mini-series (not the two bonus stories).

Again, I really liked the “Fantastic Four: Antithesis Treasury Edition”. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

O lendário Neal Adams queria escrever uma história com a primeira família da Marvel. Ao realizar seu desejo, a Casa das Ideias escalou o prolífico roteirista Mark Waid para desenvolver os roteiros dessa história em quadrinhos. A única exigência de Adams era que a história envolvesse Galactus, o devorador de planetas. Na trama, Galactus é destituído de seus poderes cósmicos por um ser chamado Antítese, e cabe ao Quarteto Fantástico restituir esses poderes. O quadrinho é bastante superior aos últimos trabalhos de Neal Adams, que foram bastante fracos, como Batman: Odisseia, por exemplo. Mas também não é muito especial ou imprescindível. Na publicação acompanham duas outras histórias em quadrinhos: uma dos X-Men em que Adams compartilha as páginas com Denny O'Neil e outra, a melhor história desta edição, o início da fase de Mark Waid no Quarteto Fantástico, com Mike Wieringo. No final das contas, as duas histórias extras são mais interessantes do que a história principal. Nessa direção o sentido do encadernado meio que se perde...

[Ilan Preskovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's call that a 3.5 rounded up.

This features neither the best Mark Waid FF story nor top-tier Neal Adams, but both of these are very high bars to clear. What I can say is that Waid writes very much to Adams' strengths - BIG expressive emotions and BIG superhero action - and thanks to some rock-solid inks by veteran inker, Mark Farmer, this is probably the best work I've seen from the legendary artist from his later years. And considering that is either the last thing he did or at least one of the last, that makes it even more of a minor miracle.

And even this isn't A+ Waid, it's a really solid and fun effort, full of all the sci-fi weirdness, classic superhero adventuring and sweet family drama that you might hope for in a Fantastic Four story - along, of course, with some good old-fashioned Ben and Johnny hijinks.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
This one is very easy to sum up: an 'evil' anti-(or should that be supra-destructive) Galactus creature by the name of Antithesis (dictionary def. someone or something that is the direct opposite of something or someone else (so, bang on-the-nose)) escapes The Negative Zone, in the process nullifying Galactus, reducing him to a mortal form Galan. The Fantastic Four must then team up with Galan to defeat Antithesis which will return Galan to his Galactus form.
This shouldn't work, but it does: the combination of Neal Adams' art and Mark Waid's script is great and as the seeds planted early on in the story come to fruition in the last third, it turns into a heartwarming tale of fatherhood and how great responsibility comes from great power and whomever wields it.

[Jan Andersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading all four issues in one. All in all I like the story and the art. Waid does what he does. It's a good solid with FF and Galctus/Galen fighting an anti-version.

Sure Adams has been better. But he is a legend in his own. Only his Thing looks kind of strange from time to time. His mouth is twisted and ape-like. And Galan looks asian with a Fu Manchu moustache.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty basic story about Reed learning not to be insecure - it's funny that one of the bonus issues included is from the 1998 run, because that single issue was miles better than the main plot.

[The_J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor story, strange artistic choices. Drawn in by the promise of Waid and especially Neal Adams art - this is subpar and tired use of FF tropes, with perhaps some love to the intimacy of Reed and Sue. Poor use of Galactus.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big Fantastic Four fan, but this story was just too out there for me. Not out there in a good way where my mind was blown but out there in the makes-no-sense kind of way.

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neal Adams drew the heck out of this. It’s cool seeing his approach to these characters.

[Jipi Perreault · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun classic kind of story. The kind that the FF goes to space and come back after a few pages. Nothing on the horizon but fans might enjoy the ride despite the weak titular vilain.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent art from a master of the craft.

[Dom Nuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story but horrible art. Expected better.

[ISMOTU · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic cosmic adventure with the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and Galactus. Mark Waid and Neal Adams are comics legends bringing their expertise to Marvel’s first family.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine low calorie snack of a fantastic four story, with some of Neal Adams' last sequential art. It's otherwise nothing special and plays like a silver age comic for the most part.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Big ideas that could have been cool, but overall trite and stupid in the end.
Ugly, rushed art in places too. Why did Sue get antennae when she became a surfer?

[Al McCarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay story, not bad writing, Neal Adam’s is still great, but where did he come up this business with Ben Grimm’s mouth?

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical comic tale. Includes reprints of Waid and Adams issues that don’t really fit.

[Daria Monahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it about Mark Waid and Neal Adams' Fantastic Four: Antithesis. The Fantastic Four were team up with Galactus and Silver Surfer for fought Antithesis.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story idea! The two added issues at the end of the trade doesn’t have anything to do with the storyline, other than they’re written by Mark Waid.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Mark Waid, Neal Adams AND the First Family, but this book wasn't it. Adams' artwork on this miniseries is only pretty good by his loft standards, and perhaps less amenable to modern coloring. Waid, who has written a phenomenal Fantastic Four run, adds very little to the mythos with Antithesis. I wish I could say I enjoyed this even from a nostalgia standpoint, but unfortunately I feel this book doesn't justify the need for the treasury format.