Warning! Spoilers for Fantastic Four: Antithesis #3 below!
Marvel Comics has a new Galactus. In the pages of Fantastic Four: Antithesis #3, the original Galactus has been stripped of his powers following a battle with a powerful new villain. However, instead of later regaining his power cosmic, the Devourer of World's tremendous powers have been transferred to an iconic Marvel hero, Reed Richards.
In the current Fantastic Four Antithesis miniseries from Mark Waid, Neal Adams, Mark Farmer, Laura Martin, Andrew Crossley, and VC's Joe Caramagna, a powerful new villain named who's an antithesis to Galactus has emerged and is using negative life force to turn planets (and the people living on them) into his own Hellish army. In an effort to stop them, the Fantastic Four traveled to the Negative Zone to free Galactus (who was imprisoned by the villain) who's been stripped of his powers and is simply Galan of Taa - his mortal form.
In issue three of the miniseries, the Fantastic Four are aboard Galactus' ship. In order to stop Galactus' antithesis and their dark armies, they need to take Galactus' energy from the changed beings. That's when Galactus decides to imbue the entire Fantastic Four with the Power Cosmic. By using the power and directing it at the monster, the FF are able to send it back to the Negative Zone. But, instead of the Power Cosmic returning to Galan, it's given to Reed Richards.
It's quite shocking to see Reed dawn the Galactus armor and grow in size to become the new Lifebringer. His costume is quite similar to that of Galactus, but Reed's new outfit keeps the team's logo. Reed has white eyes and it's questionable whether he has full control of himself in his new role. It's possible the part of the antithesis' energy was transferred to him as well. In a final page preview for Fantastic Four: Antithesis #4, the Fantastic Four, Galan, and the Silver Surfer can be seen trying to stop Reed's Galactus as he appears to be siphoning energy from Earth.
Funny enough, Reed isn't the first member of the Richards' family to be shown as the new Galactus. His powerful son Franklin was teased to become the future Galactus in Waid (and Javier Rodriguez's) History of the Marvel Universe. While the two stories aren't set in the same continuity, it appears that in this case, "like father, like son," is an applicable idiom. It will be fascinating to see how Reed handles the new powers and whether he remains as Galactus. Having one of the world's smartest men as a giant, world-eating villain probably isn't good news, however.