The Avengers #233
Published and © by Marvel, July 1983
Title: “The Annihilation Gambit!”
Synopsis: With the Fantastic Four trapped in the Negative Zone, Annihilus plots to destroy everything. Can the Avengers breach his barrier?
Writer: Roger Stern
Artist (breakdowns): John Byrne
Artist (finishes): Joe Sinnott
Review: John Byrne’s epic Fantastic Four/Negative Zone adventure spills over into The Avengers, where Byrne teams up with writer Roger Stern and finisher Joe Sinnott. By comparison, this issue shows how exceptional Byrne’s FF work was for its time. Stern’s story is fine, but lacks the drama and flow regularly found in Byrne’s FF scripts. And Joe Sinnott’s overpowering finishes all but strip the art of Byrne’s style; as rough as Byrne’s inking got on FF, this makes it pretty clear he was still one of the better finishers of his own work.
Grade: B-
Cool factor: This issue and Fantastic Four #256 share an ending, told from different perspectives.
Not-so-cool factor: The Avengers fight an invisible barrier. It’s like one of those “Star Trek” episodes where they fight a cosmic ribbon or a rift in the space-time continuum.
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a 75¢ Canadian variant of this issue. … According to MyComicShop.com, there is also a Mark Jewelers variant.
Character quotable: “Still I shall be Annihilus … still shall I be he-who-annihilates!” – Annihilus, in case you hadn’t figured that out
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Jan. 4, 2009.
