Collecting Fantastic Four #251-257 and Annual #17, Avengers #233 and Thing #2.

Fantastic Four #251 is witten and illustrated by John Byrne. Reed has built a new portal to the Negative Zone and plans on taking he rest of the Fantastic Four on a trip. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a nice downtime issue before the latest big story arc begins. Reed unveils his new Negative Zone portal, but gets interrupted when Sue reminds him that it is time for the tenants meeting (the Fantastic Four recently bought the Baxter Building and now have to take care of the needs of everybody else in the building).

Johnny seems to have gotten over the heartbreak of Frankie Raye becoming a Herald of Galactus because he has enrolled in a film studies class just so he can be with Frankie's old roommate. There is a bit of a triangle between Johnny and the two girls. Johnny has the hots for Julie, but she isn't all that interested in him. To top it off, Sharon is interested in Johnny.

Ben has doubts about the new Negative Zone portal. What if Annihilus or one of the other Negative Zone monsters gets loose again? Ben's doubts will end up being proven true, but more on that later.

Fantastic Four #252 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. The Fantastic Four discovers a primitive culture deep within the Negative Zone. Meanwhile, back at the Baxter Building, Franklin and Alicia have an unexpected guest.

Sure enough, no sooner had the Fantastic Four departed for the Negative Zone, then Annihilus popped up in the Baxter Building. Annihilus looks so rad and extreme that it would be easy to think he is a product of the 90's, but he is actually a creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby from the 60's. He is an evil bug-man from another dimension, what's not to love?

I always said that Jack Kirby was at his best when he was drawing epic space adventures. John Byrne does a fair job of it here as well. The Fantastic Four aren't just a team of super-heroes, a lot of their adventures involve them exploring strange new worlds. The four originally became fantastic because they were struck by cosmic rays on a space flight after all.

This issue was originally presented in a 'widescreen' format, everything was drawn sideways. The effect is rather lost when you are reading the issue digitally like me. I imagine it would have only added to the epicness of the original issue.

Fantastic Four #253 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. The Fantastic Four offer aid to some Negative Zone wanderers while a weakened Annihilus vows to destroy the whole universe back on Earth.

The Fantastic Four next encounter a race of wandering aliens that has evolved to the environment of a ship and no longer find planets habitable. These stories have a twist at the end and this story's twist is that the aliens in cryigenic storage are all dead.

Due to the time dilation of the Negative Zone portal (or something), the Fantastic Four have been travelling for weeks, but only a few hours have passed back on Earth. It would have been really cool if there had been a mini-series showing the unseen adventures the Fantastic Four had in the Negative Zone.

Fantastic Four #254 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. The Fantastic Four is ambushed in the Mantracora region of the Negative Zone. Meanwhile, Annihilus continues his plot to destroy the universe.

In this story, Reed is captured by the leader of the Mantracorans, Taranith Gelstal, who plans to absorb his intelligence. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Annihilus uses Reed's machines to erect a barrier around the Baxter Building. The Wasp and She-Hulk are out apartment hunting and encounter the barrier as well. This scene will be repeated in Avengers #233, in which the rest of the Avengers try to get through the barrier.

Fantastic Four #255 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. In the Negative Zone, Taranith Gelstal has rendered Mr. Fantastic mindless. Back on Earth, Daredevil makes a startling discovery that might have something to do with Annihilus and his plans.

Taranith Gelstal plans to use the minds he has absorbed to pilot a ship off of the planet. He isn't actually a native of Mantracora, he is an alien that crashed on the planet some years ago and has since taken over. It is revealed that Taranith Gelstal has absorbed more minds than he needs, so Reed is able to take over the mind-draining device and free himself. Meanwhile, Daredevil is another hero that encounters the barrier around the Baxter Building.

Avengers #233 is plotted by Roger Stern and John Byrne, with script by Stern and art by Byrne. A strange force field is emanating from the Baxter Building and it comes down to the Avengers to investigate.

While the Fantastic Four fight Annihilus inside the Baxter Building, the Avengers try to break through the barrier outside. The Avengers don't have much success and the Vision is disabled when he tries to phase through the barrier. This will lead to him getting connected to the Titan computer ISAAC and trying to take over the world, which is covered in the Absolute Vision story line.

This was an issue of Roger Stern's Avengers. Surely I don't need to say how much I enjoyed this run again? Stern's Avengers is probably my favourite run on the Avengers, until the Busiek/Perez issues in 1998. That being said, I still have a soft spot for Steve Englehart's Avengers. Yes, even the Celestial Madonna saga.

Fantastic Four #256 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. The Fantastic Four try to find a way out of the Negative Zone in to stop Annihilus and his plan to destroy the universe. Meanwhile, Galactus hungers.

The Fantastic Four arrive just in time to stop Annihilus and get funky new costumes to boot. Somehow the Fantastic Four's old costumes were changed during the journey out of the Negative Zone and became darker. The new look will stick around for a while. I'm not exactly sure when the Fantastic Four return to their old costumes. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened durign Tom DeFalco's run when he regressed everything back to how it was during the Silver Age.

I don't understand the science of it, but the Fantastic Four are able to return to Earth by creating a copy of the Baxter Building. It's probably good that I don't understand the science behind it because then I can't pick up on just how wrong it all is. Reed Richards is super-smart, so I should just relax. He clearly knows what he is doing.

Thing #2 is written by John Byrne and illustrated by Ron Wilson. Ben receives a letter from his college sweetheart, wanting to meet again. How will his old girlfriend react to his new appearance as the Thing?

The letter from Ben's old girlfriend leads to a flashback to his college days. Ben starts to fret that she will react badly to the fact that he is a giant rock man. Ben needn't have worried as his once beautiful girlfriend has since become disfigured by a stroke and just wants to talk to Ben about adjusting to the way she looks now.

The Thing's solo adventures in Marvel Two-In-One, which was basically the Thing Team-Up. Marvel Two-In-One ended up getting cancelled for whatever reason, but the Thing's solo adventures continued in his own self-titled comic book. Sort of what happened when Marvel Team-Up was cancelled and was replaced by Web of Spider-Man.

Fantastic Four #257 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. Galactus is growing weak and desperately needs a planet to feed on. Unfortunately, the planet that Nova chooses for him is the Skrull Throneworld.

Part of this issue is a downtime story after all the adventures in the Negative Zone and the big fight with Annihilus. Reed and Sue are thinking about getting a place to live outside the Baxter Building so that Franklin will have somewhere safe to live. Well, that and the fact that Sue is in the family way again. They want somewhere safe to bring up the new baby.

Most of the issue is taken up with Galactus contemplating his existence. Death appears to Galactus and convinces him that he does have a purpose in the universe and must not allow himself to die. Then Nova to lead Galactus to another planet to feed on. I am saddened that John Byrne saw fit to destroy the Skrull Throneworld this way. This won't be the end of the Skrulls of course, but it just seems that the Marvel writers of this time had something against the Skrulls. The Skrulls will end up losing their shape-shifting powers round about this time as well.

Fantastic Four Annual #17 is written and illustrated by John Byrne. The Fantastic Four are called to King's Crossing, the site of their first encounter with the Skrulls. What would happen if the townspeople drank the milk produced by the Skrulls tricked into becoming cows at the end of that encounter?

Sharon Selleck, one other part of Johnny's love triangle, gets stranded near a small town where things aren't quite right. She calls Johnny for help and the Fantastic Four investigate. It is revealed that the town where Selleck is the same town where Reed hypnotised the Skrulls into becoming cows way back in Fantastic Four #2. Those Skrull-cows 'mingled' with regular cattle and people have been drinking them milk, turning them into shape-shifters as well.

I thought it was a fun idea to revisit the hypnotised Skrull idea from way back in the Fantastic Four's second ever issue. I love it when writers dust off old comics ideas. Of course, this won't be the last time we see people getting affected by feeding on Skrull-cow by-products. In Skrull Kill Krew, we find out that the Skrull-cows have been sent to the slaughterhouse and turned into burgers.

This trade was a nice change after the mixed bag of that Teen Titans retrospective. I love John Byrne's work and this collection did little to dampen my feelings. There were some fun adventures in the Negative Zone, an appearance from a rad villain, a crossover with the Avengers and a fun annual with Skrulls. The collection wasn't all action though. There were plenty of character moments, from Galactus pondering his existence to Reed and Sue coming to terms with being the landlords of the Baxter Building. I am already looking forward to the next volume.

My rating: 4 stars.

Next time: The Flash by Mark Waid Book 2