Frightful Four
I've written this a few times.
Bentley Wittman would be a disgraced scientist/inventor known for plagiarism, animal abuse, and falsifying results for pay. But there's a black market for everything. And he's just as brilliant as he is arrogant. Moving along, some shady organization hires Bentley to lead a expedition of the Negative Zone. It's he, some loser named Janus, Piotr Petruski (a sadistic dishonorably discharged soldier who had done industrial sabotage work for Wittman), and a small squad of mercenaries (think Jurassic Park villains).
This breaking into the N-Zone endangers New York; getting the Fantastic Four involved. A lot of Wittman's crew become food for the N-Zone locals. The Four rescue the others (including Petruski) and turn them over to authorities. Bentley runs further into the Zone; being uninterested in prison. He's found by a very old very malevolent entity that quickly sized Bentley as the perfect pawn. He just offers him what he's always wanted; fame, wealth, and the power to harm those who attacked his image. He becomes the Wingless Wizard. The ideas were suddenly flowing. His inventiveness was at an all-time high. And his ego followed suit. Wizard is sent back to Earth in order to get his revenge. He goes about recruiting others to achieve this goal. And he came back with some very exotic weaponry to impress and enhance others. When he fails to defeat the Fantastic Four, he starts the real work of pillaging other worlds and planets on behalf of the Negative Zone entity. He'd gradually lose his grip on reality from having part of his mind tethered to the Negative Zone.
Pete, w/ Wizard's aid, becomes the Trap-Master. Wizard gives him alien equipment that he's able to pimp into restraint devices of varying lethality. He sticks with Wizard because the latter doesn't judge him for his quirks.
Oh and though no one cared, Janus actually survived only to be killed by his higher functioning N-zone doppelgänger the Nega-Man.