Wikipedia

Beyonder

TheBeyonder(/biˈɒndər/) is a fictional cosmic entity appearing inAmerican comic bookspublished byMarvel Comics.Created by writerJim Shooter[2]and artistMike Zeck,the Beyonder first appeared inSecret Wars#1 (May 1984) as an unseen, nigh-omnipotent[3]being from outside the multiverse who kidnapped the heroes and villains of theMarvel Universeto have them do battle onBattleworld,a fictional planet created by the Beyonder. The character plays a more antagonistic role in the 1985 sequel,Secret Wars II,in which he takes human form to learn about desire but threatens to destroy the multiverse out of increasing frustration.

The Beyonder
The Beyonder fromSecret Wars II#3
Art byAl Milgrom
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceCameo appearance:
Secret Wars#1 (May 1984)[1]
Full appearance:
Secret Wars II#2 (May 1985)
Created byJim Shooter
Mike Zeck
In-story information
SpeciesBeyonders
Place of originBeyond-Realm
Team affiliationsUnlimited Class Wrestling Federation
Beyonders
Omega Council
Notable aliasesFrank
Kosmos
The Maker
The One from Beyond
Abilities
  • Reality warping
  • Nigh-omnipotence

FollowingSecret WarsandSecret Wars II,the Beyonder experienced many notableretcons.At first, he was changed to aCosmic Cubethat was incomplete because of theMolecule Man.[4]TheIlluminatisuggested he was amutantInhuman.[5]Finally, he is revealed to be a "child" of theBeyonder race.[6]

Publication history

edit

Created by writerJim Shooter[2]and artistMike Zeck,the Beyonder first appeared inSecret Wars#1,[7]as an unseen, apparently nearly omnipotent being. He reappears inSecret Wars II#1 (July 1985), which was written by Jim Shooter and drawn byAl Milgrom.

Fictional character biography

edit

Secret Wars

edit

The Beyonder is the manifestation of the "Beyond-Realm", which exists separately from the multiverse.[8][9]This dimension was accidentally accessed by lab technician Owen Reece; some of the energy from the dimension escapes and imbues Reece with infinite powers, which he wields as the villainousMolecule Man,and the remaining energy gains sentience and becomes the Beyonder.[10][4]The Beyonder creates a planet calledBattleworldout of pieces of various planets (one such piece being a suburb ofDenver,Colorado) and abducts a number ofsuperheroesandsupervillainsfrom Earth and forces them to fight each other so that he can observe the never-ending battle between good and evil.[11]During this time, his powers are briefly stolen byDoctor Doom.[12]

Secret Wars II

edit

Intrigued by what he has witnessed during the first Secret Wars, the Beyonder comes to Earth during theSecret Wars IIstory line to walk among humans and study them and learn of human desire firsthand. He creates a human body for himself (this body originally resembles Molecule Man). He also transforms a television writer named Steward Cadwell intoThundersword.[13]Finally, the Beyonder creates a form for himself based on that ofCaptain Americaafter witnessing him defeatArmadillo.[14]

After learning of the importance of money fromLuke Cage,the Beyonder turns a building into pure gold,[15]causingSpider-Manto rescue those trapped in the building, while the U.S. government works to get rid of the gold to avoid a financial crisis.[16]The Beyonder later meets the blind superheroDaredeviland restores his ability to see, asking for legal representation in return. After realizing that the desire to protect his eyesight might compromise his integrity and dedication, Daredevil demands that the Beyonder take his sight away again, which he does.[17]After becoming involved with a woman named Sharon Ing, when we learn that he is open to loving women and men and can also change his own gender, Beyonder attempts to getDazzlerto fall in love with him, but fails, leading to feelings of despair.[18]Following this, the Beyonder is recruited to be a professional wrestler and is nearly killed byThingin aUCWFwrestling match.[19]

In order to combat Beyonder,Mephistosent his demon agent Bitterhorn to form the Legion Accursed where he managed to get 99 villains together upon shaking their hand. While waiting for the Legion Accursed to arrive, Mephisto tricked Thing into signing a contract that would increase his strength. When the Legion Accursed had arrived, Thing had to defend Beyonder from them. By the time Mephisto planned to drop his contract with Thing, nearly all of the Legion Accursed were defeated. Due to Beyonder and Thing ruining his plan, Mephisto returned all the villains to where they were before he began his scheme.[20]

After being encouraged to find enlightenment byDoctor Strange,and failing, a frustrated Beyonder decides to destroy the entire multiverse, leading to several more battles with various Marvel superheroes, all of which end up with the Beyonder victorious. The Beyonder is finally defeated by a huge group of superheroes, including theFantastic Four,X-Men,Avengers,andSpider-Man,after theMolecule Manintervenes and kills him, while he had temporarily transformed into an infant in the midst of a re-birthing process. The Beyonder's energy returns to the Beyond-Realm, where it evolves into a new universe.[21]

Deadpool Team-Up

edit

Long after theSecret Wars IIcrossover had ended, aDeadpoolspecial featured the "Secret Wars II continues in this issue" corner tag that was used during that original storyline. In this issue, a younger, less-experienced Deadpool is hired by theKingpinto kill the Beyonder. The flashback sequence ends with Deadpool chasing him into a portal with a footnote saying "to be continued in Secret Wars III".[22]

Kosmos and the Maker

edit

The tale of the Beyonder continues several years later when it is revealed that, in the distant past, the enigmaticBeyonderscreatedpocket universesholding vast amounts of sentient energy. Some are tapped into by various beings, includingSkrullsand humans, to create reality-warpingCosmic Cubes.The Beyonder is told that this is his origin, but he is missing a containment vessel and theMolecule Manabsorbed part of his energy. They merge and shape themselves into a Cube.[4]

The Cube expels the Molecule Man from its form, returning him to Earth, and soon evolves into the cosmic being known as Kosmos. Kosmos takes on a female form and is tutored byKubik,touring the universe with him.[23]When the Molecule Man's loverVolcanaleaves him, he becomes angry, extracts the Beyonder from Kosmos, and proceeds to attack him until Kubik intervenes.[24]

At some unknown point, Kosmos becomes insane and assumes a mortal form, now calling itself the Maker. After theamnesiacMaker destroys aShi'arcolony, theImperial Guardmanage to imprison it in the interstellar prison called theKyln.The Maker's madness takes control of several inmates but is finally subdued byThanosand several of his allies among the prisoners. Thanos confronts the Maker, and, by refusing to reveal its origins at a critical juncture, manipulates it to psychically shut down its own mind. Thanos instructs the Shi'ar that the body should be kept alive but brain-dead, or the Beyonder essence would go free again.[25]

In the "Annihilation"crossover story line, theFallen One,a formerHerald of Galactusunder the control ofThanos,[26]is sent to investigate the aftermath of the Kyln's destruction by theAnnihilation Waveand ascertain the Beyonder's fate. The Fallen One finds the lifeless form of the Maker in the rubble, confirming the Beyonder's freedom.[27]

The Illuminati

edit
The Beyonder in his human form. Art byJim Cheung.

In aretconof past events,Charles Xavierreveals to his fellowIlluminatimembers that in the original Secret War, he had attempted to mind-scan the Beyonder, revealing him as one of theInhumanspreviously ruled over by fellow Illuminati memberBlack Bolt.Xavier also deduced the apparent secret behind the Beyonder's seemingly godlike abilities, which was that the Beyonder was not only an Inhuman but also amutant,and the exposure of his mutant genes to Terrigen Mists had created an unprecedented power.[28]

This revelation leads to a confrontation with the Beyonder during the events of the second Secret War, wherein Black Bolt expresses his extreme displeasure toward the Beyonder's activities. When encountered, the Beyonder is dwelling in a simulacrum of Manhattan Island onCeres,adwarf planetin theasteroid belt.The Illuminati convince the Beyonder to leave the universe, causing the Beyonder's human form and his simulacrum city to crumble into dust. However, Black Bolt admits that he has no memory of an Inhuman becoming the Beyonder, and the final image of the story reveals that the entire event was in the pupil of the Beyonder's right eye, thus making the revelations dubious.[5]

Time Runs Out

edit

Hank Pymis sent by theIlluminatito investigate the Incursions and the collapsing multiverse. Upon discovering the truth of the Ivory Kings, Pym returns to the Illuminati to warn them about their enemy: theBeyonders.He refers to the Beyonder from the original Secret Wars as a "child unit" of the Beyonders.[6]

The Molecule Man later reiterates the same thing while also revealing that the accident that gave him his power and the "child Beyonder" his awareness was engineered by the Beyonders.[29]

Defenders

edit

The Beyonder appears to theDefendersafter they left the multiverse.[30]He explains the history of the Beyonders before reluctantly joining the Defenders on their quest.[31]Upon reaching the House of Ideas, he decides to break free from and leave the story ofThe One-Above-All,promising to return on his own terms.[32]

Powers and abilities

edit

The Beyonder is aninfinite-dimensional,[33]orbeyond-dimensional,[3]entity and was originally portrayed as the most powerful being in the Marvel Comics multiverse, and as the be-all and end-all of the "Beyond Realm",[34][35]that took human form to better understand the nature of human beings.[13]

The narration stated that he possessed power millions of times greater than the entire multiverse combined,[36]and that a regular universe was a drop of water in the ocean compared to the Beyond Realm.[37]

The Beyonder proved capable of destroying, and recreating, the abstract entity known asDeathacross the multiverse, although it extremely exerted and weakened him to do so. However, even in this state, he was capable of easily sending a horde of demons back to hell with a wave of his hand.[38]

Despite his power, the Beyonder has shown moments of vulnerability. He was overwhelmed whenRachel Summersreturned the enormous powers that he had bestowed upon her along with the thoughts of the past and present beings in the universe, to the point that he collapsed on the ground,[39]and he was apparently slowed down in battle against theMolecule Man.[40]He also lost part, or all, of his power on various occasions, some of them engineered by himself.[36][37][41]He also stated that thePuma—when in perfect harmony with the Universe—was capable of killing him.[42]However, on another occasion, after trying to be a superhero by fighting a superpowered biker gang, the Beyonder stated that he limits his powers to keep them more in line with the world around him.[43]

After his creator,Jim Shooter,left Marvel, writer-editorTom DeFalcore-tooled the Beyonder, diminishing his power greatly: He was no longer nearly omnipotent, and several of the cosmic beings who were previously established to be below him in power were vastly upgraded in conjunction.[24][44][45][46]

Nonetheless, the Beyonder retained his reality-warping powers, allowing him to control and manipulate matter, energy, and reality at a cosmic level beyond all but the strongest and most powerful of cosmic entities.

He repelledGalactus"like a bug",[47]and exceeded the collected energy of the latter's World-Ship.[48]He once destroyed a galaxy on a whim to meet his needs during the first Secret Wars,[47]and later created a universe out of his own being.[4]When the Molecule Man extracted the Beyonder from Kosmos, their battle took place in more than three spatial dimensions, and threatened to cause vast destruction across the multiverse.[24]In Kosmos' 'Maker' incarnation, she was stated as capable of reversingThe Crunchitself, essentially collapsing the entire universe.[49]However, his scale of power was stated to be significantly below that of theLiving TribunalandEternity,[4]theCelestials,[46]or the Molecule Man (when unfettered from his emotional weaknesses).[24]

After The Beyonder was retconned again to be a child of the race ofBeyonders,[6]and he was later seen fully grown and interacting with an assembly of them,[31]his power was presumably upgraded to a similar scale to them, and other Beyonders have together managed to kill theLiving Tribunaland all of theCelestialsin the Marvel multiverse.[6]However, it was stated that he is considerably less powerful than the entire multiversalPhoenix Force.[50]

Other versions

edit

Guardians of the Galaxy

edit

InGuardians of the Galaxy,the Beyonder provides GuardianVance Astrowith a black undergarment resembling aSymbiote.[51]Later, he attempts to hold captive the ruler of the Universal Church of Truth,Protégé.Protégé retaliates using his limitless ability to copy the abilities of other beings to become a match for the Beyonder. They battle until Eternity and The Living Tribunal intervene.[52]

Heroes Reborn

edit

In an alternate reality depicted in theHeroes Rebornstoryline, a character namedMister Beyonderappears as an inmate of theNegative Zonebefore escaping and confrontingHyperion,claiming that his reality is not what it seems. Despite being perturbed by his words, Hyperion defeats Mister Beyonder.[53][full citation needed]

Mutant X

edit

InMutant X,the Beyonder allies with Dracula to wage war on Earth's forces and to confront the entity known as theGoblyn Queen.[54]

Spider-Ham

edit

In theSpider-Hamuniverse, "The Bee-Yonder" gives Spider-Ham a version of the black uniform.[55]

In other media

edit
The Beyonder as he appears inSpider-Man.

References

edit
  1. ^Misiroglu, Gina Renée; Eury, Michael (2006).The Supervillain Book: The Evil Side of Comics and Hollywood.Visible Ink Press.ISBN9780780809772.
  2. ^abRivera, Joshua (October 10, 2014)."Go big or go home: Why Marvel's new 'Secret Wars' could be too much".Entertainment Weekly.
  3. ^ab"Official Narration for Secret Wars 2".I.servimg.com.Retrieved3 November2018.
  4. ^abcdeFantastic Four#319. Marvel Comics.
  5. ^abNew Avengers: The Illuminati#3. Marvel Comics.
  6. ^abcdNew Avengersvol. 3 #30 (Feb. 2015). Marvel Comics.
  7. ^Truitt, Brian (October 9, 2014)."New 'Secret Wars' is Marvel Comics' major event of 2015".USA Today.
  8. ^Secret Wars II#3 (Jun. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  9. ^"[Excerpt of synopsis]"(Comic book).Marvel Comics.RetrievedAugust 28,2017– via servimg.com.
  10. ^Secret Wars II#8 (Nov. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  11. ^Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars#1 (Jan. 1984). Marvel Comics.
  12. ^Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars#10 (Feb. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  13. ^abSecret Wars II#1. Marvel Comics.
  14. ^Captain America#308. Marvel Comics.
  15. ^Secret Wars II#2. Marvel Comics.
  16. ^Web of Spider-Man#6. Marvel Comics.
  17. ^Daredevil#223. Marvel Comics.
  18. ^Secret Wars II#4. Marvel Comics.
  19. ^The Thing#30. Marvel Comics.
  20. ^Secret Wars II#7. Marvel Comics.
  21. ^Secret Wars II#9. Marvel Comics.
  22. ^DeadpoolTeam-up#1. Marvel Comics.
  23. ^Fantastic FourAnnual #23. Marvel Comics.
  24. ^abcdFantastic FourAnnual #27 (1994). Marvel Comics/
  25. ^Thanos#10 (2003). Marvel Comics.
  26. ^Thanos#12 (2004)
  27. ^Annihilation: Silver Surfer#1 (April 2006). Marvel Comics.
  28. ^"New Avengers: Illuminati #3 Preview"[usurped].Pop Culture Shock.
  29. ^New Avengersvol. 3 #33 (April 2015). Marvel Comics.
  30. ^Defenders: Beyond#1 (July 2022). Marvel Comics.
  31. ^abDefenders: Beyond#2 (August 2022). Marvel Comics.
  32. ^Defenders: Beyond#5 (November 2022). Marvel Comics.
  33. ^Secret Wars II#2 (Aug. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  34. ^Secret Wars II#8 (1986). Marvel Comics.
  35. ^"Jim Shooter in an Interview for Secret Wars 2".I.servimg.com.Retrieved3 November2018.
  36. ^abSecret Wars II#9 (March 1986). Marvel Comics
  37. ^abSecret Wars II#4 (Oct. 1985).Marvel Comics
  38. ^Secret Wars II#6 (1985). Marvel Comics.
  39. ^Uncanny X-Men#203.Marvel Comics.
  40. ^Secret Wars II#9 (1985)Archived2015-02-20 at theWayback Machine.Marvel Comics.
  41. ^Secret Wars#10 (Feb. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  42. ^Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man#111. Marvel Comics.
  43. ^Dazzler#40 (Nov. 1985). Marvel Comics.
  44. ^The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universevol.2 #7 (June 1986). Marvel Comics.
  45. ^Fantastic Four#319 (1988). Marvel Comics.
  46. ^abFantastic FourAnnual #23 (1990). Marvel Comics.
  47. ^abMarvel Super Heroes Secret Wars#1. Marvel Comics
  48. ^Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars#10. Marvel Comics/
  49. ^Thanos#10-12. Marvel Comics/
  50. ^Defenders: Beyond#3 (September 2022). Marvel Comics.
  51. ^Guardians of the Galaxy#38 (1993). Marvel Comics
  52. ^Guardians of the Galaxy #50.Marvel Comics.
  53. ^Heroes Reborn#2. Marvel Comics.
  54. ^Mutant X #31-32.Marvel Comics.
  55. ^Spider-Ham#17. Marvel Comics.
  56. ^abc"Beyonder Voices (Marvel Universe)".Behind The Voice Actors.RetrievedAugust 7,2024.A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  57. ^Palmer, Roger (February 10, 2021).""Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" Casting Details Announced ".What's On Disney Plus?.
edit
  • The Beyonderat The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beyonder&oldid=1253279302"