Fantastic Four #140
Annihilus Revealed!
Flying through the Negative Zone is Annihilus, its ruler, as he grows closer to the portal to Earth while he gloats over how he will finally get revenge against his foes the Fantastic Four. As he reaches the distortion area, he is stopped by the words of his prisoner. When that prisoner begs to know when they will be released, Annihilus states that their fate is in his hands.
Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building on Earth, Reed's experiment ends in failure when he uses too much lead in the solder he is using to put together his latest invention. Walking away from the experiment he feels that it doesn't matter anyway without his wife and son living at the building anymore. Soon the rest of the Fantastic Four and their friend Wyatt Wingfoot return to New York after their mission in Oklahoma. When they arrive, Ben has little patience for Reed's depressed mood and reams him out for being so useless when they were almost killed by the Miracle Man. Before the argument can go on any further there is a sudden alarm prompting Reed to rush to the monitors. It's a panicked call from Sue, who tells Reed that there is something seriously wrong with Franklin and that she is returning home for her husband to look at him. Before Reed can get any more details, the image cuts out. When Reed tries to rush off and see his wife, the rest of the team tries to slow him down so they can all go together. When Reed resists, Medusa unthinkingly smacks him in the head with a wrench, knocking Reed out.
At that moment in Pennsylvania, Sue wonders why the connection cut out and decides to drive out to the Baxter Building with Franklin anyway, bidding farewell to her friends Bob and Carol Landers. As she drives on a deserted country road, Sue suddenly loses control of her car as it veers off into the woods. There she is confronted by Agatha Harkness, who tells Sue that she must come with her as Franklin is in grave danger. Sue agrees to go with the elderly witch, and soon they teleport away.
Several hours later, the Fantastic Four are heading to Pennsylvania after an unforeseen interruption by the Sub-Mariner, and when they arrive at the Landers home they learned that Sue had left hours ago. Using a tracking device, Reed is able to track down her car but finds no trace of Sue or Franklin. Using a scanning device he confirms his worse fears, some anti-matter radiation has saturated the area, prompting Reed to order his team to head back into the Negative Zone.
When they arrive they find that the doorway to the portal had been broken open from the inside and that their foe Annihilus has breached the barrier and now stands in their headquarters. The Fantastic Four try to fight Annihilus, but he is too strong for them and they are all knocked out. When Wyatt regains consciousness, Annihilus binds him and decides to amuse the Native American with his origins.
Annihilus explains that his world came to life over a thousand years ago. When life sprang on the planet, he was the only creature to emerge from the mire with intelligence. Because of this he was feared and shunned by all the other living creatures on his world. Growing to hate them all, the insect that would become Annihilus ventured across the planet until he came across the long-dead crew of a ship from the planet Tayanna. Inside the ship, Annihilus found a helmet that filled his mind with all the secrets of Tayanna as well as what became of the crew: The Tayannans had mastered technology on their world and sent a crew out to spread the seed of life across the Negative Zone. However, their ship was struck with a meteor and crashed on the world that would eventually give birth to Annihilus. Dying of starvation, the Tayannans then unleashed the life seeds from the rods that they brought with them, hoping that at least one world would grow teeming with life. With this knowledge, Annihilus pledged to become an immortal ruler of the Negative Zone, using the Tayannan technology to create his Cosmic Control Rod.
With his story complete, Annihilus then tosses the Fantastic Four and Wyatt into the Negative Zone portal, intent on finally getting his final revenge against his hated foes.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Medusa, Thing, Human Torch), Invisible Girl, Franklin Richards, Wyatt Wingfoot, Agatha Harkness, Annihilus, Carol Landers, Bob Landers, Ebony
Continuity Notes
The Fantastic Four take time to help Namor in the Sub-Mariner #67 between page 7 and 8 in this story.
Here are some facts about Annihilus at the time of this story:
He states that he has battled the Fantastic Four twice in the past, referring specifically to the first time in Fantastic Four Annual #6, the second time he is referring to is Fantastic Four #107-110 during the Nega-Man affair. However, Annihilus has fought the Fantastic Four on three occasions, as seen in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #9. Reed erased everyone's knowledge of that battle with the Cosmic Cube at the end of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #12.
The name of Annihilus' homeworld of Arthros and his people were first named in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Delux Edition #1. The alien races involved in his origins are identified as the Arthosians and Tyannans in that same issue.
