Negative Zone

The Negative Zone is a fictional setting, an antimatter universe appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The location is depicted in various publications from Marvel, most frequently in ''Fantastic Four'' and '' Captain Marvel''. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, it first appeared in ''Fantastic Four'' #51 (June 1966).

Fictional description

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.

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. 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). A few months later after Spider-Man's name was cleared, Cassie St. Commons was given the guise of Dusk and joined the Slingers. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

After the events of ''Secret Invasion'', the inmates of the prison took control of the facility after their correction officers abandoned the prison. Blastaar later overrun the prison during the prelude to the '' War of Kings'' story arc.

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.

In '' Annihilation: Scourge'', 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. 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. He then leads the Cancerverse's residents in attacking the Negative Zone, forcing Blastaar and Annihilus to team up against them. The Void is defeated by Beta Ray Bill and Lockjaw, with the latter sacrificing his hammer Stormbreaker.

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.''Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe'' #1. Marvel Comics.

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.

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.

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.
* 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. 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. Additionally both Rikki Barnes and Onslaught traveled from the Pocket Universe of Heroes Reborn to the mainstream Marvel Universe through the Negative Zone. 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, 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, 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.

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.

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. A proper Negative Zone was eventually introduced in the Ultimate Marvel where The Ultimates confront Reed Richards.

Heroes Reborn (2021)

In an alternate reality depicted in the 2021 " Heroes Reborn" miniseries, the Negative Zone is used by the Squadron Supreme of America to imprison Earth's most dangerous villains, such as General Annihilus, Doctor Juggernaut, the Hulk, Mister Beyonder, Namor, and Hank Pym / Ultron.

In other media

Television

* The Negative Zone appears in the ''Fantastic Four'' (1994) episode "Behold the Negative Zone".
* The Negative Zone appears in the unproduced ''Silver Surfer'' episode "Down to Earth".
* The Negative Zone appears in '' Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes''. This version is inhabited by various serpentine and insectoid creatures.
* The Negative Zone appears in the '' Iron Man: Armored Adventures'' episode "The Makluan Invasion". This version is a dark, empty void.
* The Negative Zone appears in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes''.
* The Negative Zone appears in '' Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.''.

Film

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.

Video games

* The Negative Zone appears in '' Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2''.
* The Negative Zone appears in '' Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet''.
* The Negative Zone will appear in '' Marvel Cosmic Invasion''.

See also

* Phantom Zone
* Qward

References

External links

Negative Zone
at Marvel.com

Negative Zone
at Marvel Wiki

{{Jack Kirby

Fictional elements introduced in 1966
Marvel Comics dimensions