Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Escape from the Negative Zone by James Asmus; and Nick Bradshaw, Ibraim Roberson and Max Fiumara Collects Uncanny X-Men Annual #3, Steve Rogers: Super Soldier Annual #1 and Namor: The First Mutant Annual #1 Why I Bought This: I love me some Negative Zone and I love me some Captain America so you put those two together you’re getting my money. Plus in a wider sense it’s a chance to see a whole bunch of heroes in the Negative Zone who, to my knowledge, have never been there before. The Plot: The short version is the X-men and Namor get accidentally stranded in the Negative Zone and Captain America has to rescue them with Blaastar playing the villain. Chapter specific spoiler recaps to follow:

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Fantastic Four: Into the Breach by Carlos Pacheco & Jeph Loeb. Collects Fantastic Four (vol. 3) 40 – 45. Why I Bought This: It’s a Negative Zone story, which always grabs my attention. Plus the back cover promises Torch gets to form and lead a new version of the team, which is something I always wanted to see as both Ben and Sue have had their turn in the past. Also it was in the discount bin for $7 and on Free Comic Book Day I could take an extra 20-percent off. The Plot: Your non-spoiler version is as follows: An evil corporation has constructed its own portal into the Negative Zone to raid it of exotic energy sources. Reed tries to tell them this is a very bad idea and ultimately he, Sue and Thing get stranded in the Zone; leaving Johnny to form a new team to mount a rescue attempt. Johnny picks Namorita (of the New Warriors) as well as former members She-Hulk and Ant-Man 2 (Scott Lang), and then we get parallel stories ...