The Negative Zone in the Marvel Universe is used as a fictional universe parallel to Earth's. While the universes are similar in many respects they are different in that: all matter in the Negative Zone is negatively charged; the Negative Zone is entirely filled with a pressurized, breathable atmosphere; and near the center of the Negative Zone is a deadly vortex of unspeakable power. Since the Negative Zone is largely uninhabited, several would-be conquerors have attempted to bridge the gap to Earth and take over its population. Notable residents of the Negative Zone include Blastaar and Annihilus.
The Negative Zone is often visited by the Fantastic Four as Mister Fantastic discovered it, and has mapped portions of it extensively. The Age of Apocalypse version of Blink also visited it once, proving that there is only one Negative Zone that does not change with the multiverse.[volume&issueneeded]
For a number of years, Captain Mar-Vell and Rick Jones were bonded to each other, causing one of them to exist in the Negative Zone while the other would exist in the regular universe. They exchanged places by clasping the special bracelets each wore or automatically after a few hours.
Spider-Man has also visited the Negative Zone, and acquired a costume that allowed him to merge with shadows and become practically invisible.[volume&issueneeded] When he was framed by Norman Osborn a few weeks later, he used the costume to become the dark, mysterious Dusk (one of his four new superhero identities during the Identity Crisis story arc).[volume&issueneeded] A few months later after Spider-Man's name was cleared, Cassie St. Commons was given the guise of Dusk and joined the Slingers.[volume&issueneeded]Cletus Kasady also visited the Negative Zone, finding and bonding with a symbiote there, as he had lost the original Carnage symbiote when Venom absorbed it into his own symbiote.[volume&issueneeded]
History
The earliest origins of the Negative Zone and its culture have not been revealed, but estimates place its height of science and art over 1.5 million years ago, nearly coinciding with the rise of the Skrull and Kree races. It is believed that around that time the Negative Zone ceased expanding and began its "Big Crunch", contracting toward a central nexus. Some of the most powerful and influential races thereby faced destruction and sought to preserve their lives, including the Tyannans. During this time, Blastaar and Annihilus rise to power.
While searching for a way to travel through sub-space, Reed Richards discovers a gateway to the Negative Zone.[1] He spent a fair amount of time studying it through probes, and determined that it was largely unpopulated. He—and others—used the Negative Zone on several occasions to get rid of difficult enemies, such as the Super-Adaptoid and Galactus.[2][3] Reed and the Fantastic Four have since done more detailed explorations of the Zone and no longer use it to dispose of villains.
For some time, the Norse realm of Asgard was lost in the Negative Zone.[4]
In Civil War, a group of heroes led by Iron Man, Mister Fantastic and Yellowjacket create a massive prison in the Negative Zone (similar to the Vault) to house captured non-registering heroes as they wait for their trials. It is designated Negative Zone Prison Alpha and nicknamed Fantasy Island by its inmates. Tony Stark named it "Project 42", as it had been the 42nd idea out of a hundred that he, Reed Richards, and Hank Pym created following the Stamford Disaster.
In the one-shot Civil War: The Return, the Prison's warden was revealed as the first Captain Marvel, apparently back from the dead. Although he was later revealed as a Skrull sleeper agent named Khn'nr, whose conditioning was so strong he kept believing he was the Captain even after he had realized he really was not.
In Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, the Skrull warrior Lyja (posing as Susan Richards) sends the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone. She reveals herself to Johnny Storm (her former spouse) and attacks him, feeling angry that he had forgotten her. During the course of their battle, Johnny saves Lyja from being hit by a police car, pulled in through the portal. The two reconcile after that, but a Negative Zone creature attacks them. They defeat the creature, but Lyja passes out from her injuries. A bit later, when the "new" Fantastic Four fly off to the prison, Franklin and Valeria are grabbed by Negative Zone creatures, but Lyja saves them. Later when Ben, Johnny, Franklin, Val and the Tinkerer are ready to leave the Negative Zone she refuses to leave, because she wants to find out who she is.[5]
After the events of Secret Invasion, the inmates of the prison took control of the facility after their correction officers abandoned the prison.[volume&issueneeded] Blastaar later overrun the prison during the prelude to the War of Kings story arc.[6]
The Negative Zone is used to dispose of Earth-616's Galactus when he is accidentally transferred to the Ultimate Marvel universe due to the temporal distortions caused by the events of Age of Ultron. The heroes of the Ultimate Marvel universe reasoned that Galactus will starve to death in the Negative Zone because it is a universe made of antimatter and Galactus would not have anything to eat there.[7]
In Annihilation, the Negative Zone is visited by the Sentry, who is struggling to understand his new state of self and find a way to separate himself from the Void.[8] Upon soaking up the negative cosmic rays, the Sentry is able to separate himself from the Void but is left powerless. The Void is drawn to the Cancerverse realm, where he impersonates the Sentry and becomes its leader.[9] He then leads the Cancerverse's residents in attacking the Negative Zone, forcing Blastaar and Annihilus to team up against them.[10][11] The Void is defeated by Beta Ray Bill and Lockjaw, with the latter sacrificing his hammer Stormbreaker.[12]
Squirrel Girl later banished her clone Allene and her squirrels to the Negative Zone. They settled on one of the planets, which they established as Squirreltopia 5000.[13]
Silk visited the Negative Zone with Fact Channel News members Lola and Rafferty to find her parents Albert Moon Sr. and Nari Moon. They befriend a dragon named David where they find that Nari has been operating as the Red King who leads the Knights Gheva and Albert is a prisoner of Ash King. Silk rescued her parents and the five of them returned to Earth.[14]
Unique features
The Crossroads of Infinity
The Crossroads of Infinity is a vortex at the center of the Negative Zone that serves as a nexus to other universes. However, travel through it is dangerous and runs the risk of the traveler imploding.[volume&issueneeded]
The Distortion Area
The Distortion Area is an invisible sphere of energy that links other dimensions.
Emotions
For unknown reasons, the Negative Zone occasionally amplifies the emotions of its visitors.
Life
The Negative Zone is capable of supporting life, but is largely uninhabited. Most of the encounters heroes have had with the Negative Zone revolve around Annihilus or Blastaar.
Time
Being a different dimension with different laws of physics, time flows slower in the Negative Zone than it does on Earth. This ratio decreases the closer one is to the Negative Zone's center and eventually becomes a 1:1 ratio.
Planets
The Negative Zone includes the following planets:
Argor – A planet that is home to the Argorans.
Arthros – A planet that is home to Annihilus and the Arthosians (a race of insectoids).
Baluur – A planet that is home to Blastaar.
Kestor – A planet that was destroyed causing the Kestorians to become nomads.
Squirreltopia 5000 - A planet that is settled on by Allene Green (a clone of Squirrel Girl) and her loyal squirrels.[13]
Tarsuu –
Tyanna – A planet that is home to the Tyannans (a race of lion-like aliens). Tyanna is located at the Crossroads of Infinity. The Tyannan scientists genetically engineered a spore that could be scattered over an uninhabited planet's surface where they can grow into new plants and animals. This terraforming made the planet habitable.
Other versions
In the Blink miniseries, it is established that there is only one Negative Zone in the multiverse, with exit points to different realities and timelines, as the Blink from the Age of Apocalypse found herself in a Negative Zone that still remembered the Fantastic Four's role in defeating Annihilus despite the fact that the team never existed in her world.[15] This goes along with the Mutant X Universe, where Havok tried to get back from the Mutant X-verse to the main Marvel earth by a detour through the Negative Zone.[16] Additionally both Rikki Barnes and Onslaught traveled from the Pocket Universe of Heroes Reborn to the mainstream Marvel Universe through the Negative Zone.[17][18] During the Cataclysm event it is again established that there is in fact only one Negative Zone in the multiverse of Marvel Universe, with exit points to different realities and timelines, as the Ultimate Marvel heroes, after a brief trip to Earth-616 to acquire local information on Galactus,[19] eventually manage to send Galactus to the Negative Zone, reasoning that he will eventually starve to death because Negative Zone is made of anti-matter,[20] however, following an incident on Earth 616 where the Eternal known as Ikaris is brainwashed by a Kree device called the God's Whisper, the Eternals retrieve, with help from Aarkus, the comatose Galactus from the Negative Zone, and state that they plan to use the God's Whisper to unleash him upon the Kree when he awakens as revenge for what they did to Ikaris.[21]
Ultimate Marvel (The N-Zone)
The Ultimate Marvel equivalent of the Negative Zone was originally called the N-Zone, a zone that exists directly below the Ultimate Marvel universe. It is tied to the powers granted to the Fantastic Four and is the homeplace of the Ultimate Fantastic Four villain Nihil. The N-Zone is a universe in the later stages of entropic heat death, with less than a million years of existence left to it. There are few stars still burning, mostly long-lived red dwarf stars, and despite the advanced technology of many races, life barely maintains a toehold on its existence. Space is also apparently foreshortened in this universe, with the Fantastic Four's shuttle Awesome achieving speeds that would be impossible in our own universe. It has an atmosphere that is lethally acidic to humans and the Ultimate Fantastic Four, with the exception of the Thing, required space suits to live.[22]
Later it was reckoned that the N-Zone is one of many other zones, labeled with letters (e.g. the Z-Zone and the Q-Zone) implying that the N is merely a categorization, not a shortening of the word "negative" therefore no longer connected to the Negative Zone.[23] A proper Negative Zone was eventually introduced in the Ultimate Marvel where The Ultimates confront Reed Richards.[24]
The Negative Zone appears in the original script for Fantastic Four (2015) before it was reworked into Planet Zero, a planet with unstable energy that causes the titular characters and Victor von Doom's mutations.[26][27]
Galactus is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, he is a cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his life force, and serves a functional role in the upkeep of the primary Marvel continuity. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #48.
Mister Fantastic is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The character is a founding member and the leader of the Fantastic Four. Richards has a mastery of mechanical, aerospace and electrical engineering, chemistry, all levels of physics, and human and alien biology. BusinessWeek listed Mister Fantastic as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics. He is the inventor of the spacecraft that was bombarded by cosmic radiation on its maiden voyage, granting the Fantastic Four their powers. Richards gained the ability to stretch his body into any shape he desires.
The Human Torch is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. He is writer Stan Lee's and artist Jack Kirby's reinvention of a similar, previous character, the android Human Torch of the same name and powers who was created in 1939 by writer-artist Carl Burgos for Marvel Comics' predecessor company, Timely Comics.
The Invisible Woman is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1. Susan Storm is a founding member of the Fantastic Four and was the first female superhero created by Marvel during the Silver Age of Comic Books.
Firelord is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Franklin Benjamin Richards is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a supporting character in Fantastic Four. He has been portrayed as a child and as a novice superhero.
The Skrulls are a race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They originated from the planet Skrullos and their empire is located in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their infiltration of Earth was a major event in the Marvel Comics universe as shown in the crossover event Secret Invasion.
Uatu, often simply known as the Watcher, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #13. He is a member of the Watchers, an extraterrestrial species who in the distant past stationed themselves across space to monitor the activities of other species. Uatu is the Watcher assigned to observe Earth and its Solar System.
The Super-Skrull (Kl'rt) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, generally as an enemy of the Fantastic Four, whose collective powers he possesses. The character, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appeared in Fantastic Four #18, and has been depicted as both a supervillain and an antihero. The character has also appeared on television and in video games and novels.
Ego the Living Planet is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Thor #132 and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.
Annihilus is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, primarily as an adversary to the Fantastic Four. The character debuted in Fantastic Four Annual #6, which was published in November 1968. Annihilus was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and was notably featured in the "Annihilation" event.
Blastaar is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #62. Blastaar is an opponent of the Fantastic Four and lives in the Negative Zone. He is also an enemy of Annihilus, another Fantastic Four villain.
Terrax the Tamer is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist John Byrne and writer Marv Wolfman, the character first appeared in October 1979, and is a herald of cosmic entity Galactus and enemy of the Fantastic Four.
H.E.R.B.I.E. is a fictional robot appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was initially conceived for The New Fantastic Four and integrated into the comics continuity shortly afterwards. The character is usually depicted as an ally of the Fantastic Four.
"Annihilation" is a 2006 crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics, highlighting several outer space-related characters in the Marvel Universe. The central miniseries was written by Keith Giffen, with editor Andy Schmidt.
Within Marvel Comics, most stories take place within the fictional Marvel Universe, which in turn is part of a larger multiverse. Starting with the Captain Britain story in The Daredevils #7, the main continuity in which most Marvel storylines take place was designated Earth-616, and the Multiverse was established as being protected by Merlyn. Each universe has a Captain Britain designated to protect its version of the British Isles. These protectors are collectively known as the Captain Britain Corps. This numerical notation was continued in the series Excalibur and other titles. Each universe of the Multiverse in Marvel also appears to be defended by a Sorcerer Supreme at nearly all times, appointed by the mystic trinity of Vishanti to defend the world against threats primarily magical in nature from within and beyond and bearing the Eye of Agamotto.
Stardust (Lambda-Zero) is a fictional character appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics and existing in that company's Marvel Universe. Stardust is one of the many Heralds of Galactus. Unlike most of Galactus's Heralds, Stardust seeks to kill all who attempt to escape the planets that Galactus feeds upon, an action that Galactus neither requires nor forbids.
Paibok the Power Skrull is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a foe of the Fantastic Four.
The Silver Surfer is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, and video game adaptations. The character was created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, published in 1966.
The Maker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writers Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar and artist Adam Kubert, while his Maker identity was created by Jonathan Hickman.
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