Like Annihilus, Nihil and his caste are from a species that can live over a million years. Not wanting to die before he is supposed to naturally, when Nihil learned that the UFF were from a different, younger universe he engineered a plan to escape and kill them. Johnny Storm, who for the entire trip had been experiencing discomfort, fell ill and was rushed by Sue back to their ship. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm went along with her but once they returned to tell Nihil of their situation Nihil revealed his intention to steal their ship, named by Johnny as the "Awesome", and go to Earth. He exploded his translation devices, thereby rupturing Reed and Ben's space suits and exposing them to the N-Zone's highly acidic atmosphere. Nihil then sent his previously unseen soldiers to kill them but Reed sealed his damaged suit by covering his shattered face mask with his hand, and Ben discovered his lungs filter out poisons, enabling him to battle Nihil.