Dear Charles,

After Galactus’ first appearance on Earth, I became obsessed with finding a means to stop such a cosmic menace from ever threatening Earth again. The first step was to break the same faster-than-light barrier that the cosmic beings could use to traverse space-time. After tireless hours, he finally created a machine that would do just that-- a dimensional entrance into sub-space. I rushed in to explore with the help of the Thing, finding himself in the so-called Crossroads of Infinity, the junction to everywhere. Unable to control his movements, I was tossed into another dimension, one where all matter was negatively charged rather than positively charged. At the vortex where these two dimensions aligned lay a Distortion Area, where the matter from the two oppositely-charged dimensions met and would instantly explode. I nearly fell victim to the Distortion Area until his place was taken by the Thing, who in fact turned out to be an imposter-- a rival scientist who nonetheless sacrificed his life to save me. I then called the dimension the Negative Zone and created a portal to it in his laboratory. He often led the Fantastic Four to explore this new world.

Although the Zone is largely devoid of life, the most notable inhabitants of the Negative Zone are the Tyannans (the people of Blastaar) and the evil Annihilus, the latter of which was able to carve out an empire for himself within the Zone with the help of his weapon, the Cosmic Control Rod. Another self-proclaimed ruler of the Negative Zone is Stygorr. Once, a Puritan settlement accidentally transported to the Negative Zone, and the colonists, ancestors of Hellscout, survived for years on an uninhabited planet. Elsewhere, the known inhabitants of Shadow City are Lockdown, Rosetta Stone, and the Twisted Sisters. The mysterious being Dusk originated on the planet Tarsuu in the Zone, a legacy now held on Earth by the young woman (Cassie St. Commons).

In the days of its early exploration, I often used the Negative Zone to imprison supervillains, such as one of the Mad Thinker’s androids, the Brute, the Ebon Seeker, and Maximus, but after irrevocable evidence that the Zone is in fact inhabited, such practices were abandoned.

Sincerely,

Mr. Fantastic.