FANTASTIC FOUR #256

"THE ANNIHILATION GAMBIT!"
Story & Art: John Byrne | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Al Milgrom | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: At the dimensional interface between the Negative Zone and our world, the Fantastic Four begin work on a plan to return home without the use of their destroyed Negative Zone portal. Twelve days later, the plan is complete and the FF have created a spectral version of the Baxter Building within the Negative Zone. Reed activates a frequency modulator which should send the group home if someone in the real world has breached the barrier created by Annihilus.

And on Earth, Captain Marvel of the Avengers pierces the field and enters the Baxter Building. Annihilus is crippled by an explosion and hurled back into the Negative Zone as the Fantastic Four return home. The Thing finds Alicia Masters severely injured and rushes her to the hospital. The Avengers enter the Baxter Building and confer with Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch while the Invisible Girl scours the building for young Franklin. She finds him also injured, and the FF and Avengers depart immediately for the hospital as well.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: This issue is half of a semi-crossover with AVENGERS. While FANTASTIC FOUR 256 tells the story of the FF working to escape from the Negative Zone, AVENGERS 233, by Roger Stern and co-plotter/penciler John Byrne, shows us the Avengers struggling to penetrate Annihilus’s barrier and ultimately succeeding thanks to Captain Marvel.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #242

"CONFRONTATIONS!"
Scripter: Roger Stern | Artists: John Romita, Jr. & Kevin Dzuban
Letterer: Diana Albers | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The Mad Thinker, incarcerated in a maximum security prison, projects his consciousness into an android body at his hidden lair and learns that Spider-Man recently fought a rogue robot from one of his laboratories. The Thinker, having heard rumors of the wall-crawler's spider-sense, sends another robot to his normal stomping grounds to test him.

The robot attacks Spider-Man as he blows off some steam at the East Side Con Edison plant. The automaton unleashes weapon after weapon against Spider-Man, but he avoids every assault and eventually defeats the robot by tricking it into dropping a pair of huge generators on itself. Spider-Man grabs a small fragment of the robot's shell and heads home.

The Sub-Plots: Peter heads to Empire State University to see if he passed his final exam. While there, Professor Sloan reminds Peter that he needs at least an 80% on the test to stay in the graduate program, then informs him that the tests are not yet graded.