I just read New Avengers 29 and found out as other readers did that the Beyonders will play a part in the new Battle World coming soon and the remaking of the Marvel Universe. As you can see from the cover is the Beyonder from the original Secret Wars series toying with Yellowjacket. And at the end of the comic book is another version of Beyonder enities from the Beyond Realm. They followed Hank Pym to earth and meet the Avengers, Hank called them the Ivory Kings and The White Lords from the Beyond. There are 3 of the being who have chose a body that is very alien to earth and very different from the white robed being in 1985 from Secret Wars II. But if they are all powerful beings they can look anyway they want. It makes sense that Marvel would bring back the being that originally created Battle World to test what good and evil is. I will take the time to share what I know about the Beyonder of the past so maybe we can understand what may happen to the new Secret Wars series to remake Marvel for future generations and tie the history of Marvel to one world.
Who could save or have the power to change the reality of the collapsing universes than the god like beings from beyond. The Beyonder in the original series was created by Jim Shooter and he was the most powerful being to ever come to the Marvel Universe. He could do anything with his thoughts and alter reality itself if he so chose. The Beyonder is the sum total of a parallel reality called the Beyond-Realm or simply “Beyond”, hence the name “Beyonder”. This dimension is accidentally accessed by lab technician Owen Reece. Part of the energy from the dimension escapes and imbues Reece with near-infinite powers, which he wields as the villainous Molecule Man – potentially one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe.
“I am from Beyond. Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours. Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish.”
With those words, the Beyonder appeared on the scene like nothing before him. Appearing first in a distant galaxy, he rearranged it, using parts of it to create a “Battle-world” and discarding the rest. Then he created two drifting space stations. On one, he assembled a collection of those deemed “heroes” and, on the other, “villains”. In both cases, he made one strange choice. Among the villains, he placed a cosmic force of nature, Galactus. On the other side, he placed a seeming villain, Magneto. Placing Galactus on one side would seem to have assured an easy win for that side and may indicate that, to the Beyonder, the difference in power between Galactus and all of the others was barely noticeable. This was more or less proven when he easily repulsed Galactus’s attack and rendered him unconscious.
The Beyonder had provided resources upon the planet that could be exploited by those on either side. But Doctor Doom used it to get aboard Galactus’s world ship and study it. Although Galactus noticed and removed him from the ship, Doom was able to use the knowledge he gained combined with alien technology on the planet and Klaw, a being composed of sound, to rig a device. He knew Galactus had summoned his world ship and deduced he would break it down and absorb its energy for an all-out assault upon the Beyonder. Galactus knew the Beyonder could end his hunger, his need to consume living worlds. Awaiting the critical moment when the ship had been broken down to its base energy and Galactus was about to absorb it, Doom used his machinery to pull it away, absorbing it into himself.
Doom then used that power to make an all-out attack on the Beyonder himself. It was not enough and he suspected it might not be. But Doom used some of the power to jury-rig a trap into his armor. After defeating Doom, mutilating and dismembering him in the process, the entity known as the Beyonder approached to study him, to better understand these mortal creatures. In agony, Doom sprang his trap, the device siphoning the Beyonder’s power into himself. Unknown to him, the essence, the mind of the Beyonder, had survived. It moved from one person to the next by touch, possessing them until it got to Klaw, the one it really wanted.
Meanwhile, the rest of the villains had left for Earth, led by Owen Reece after Doom unlocked the full potential of his powers. Doom offered the heroes to join him. When they refused he killed them in one cosmic blast. But the Beyonder desperately wanted his powers back and grew cunning in his need. Knowing Doom had to focus every moment to control the powers, he weaved a tale for Doom, a tale in which the heroes managed to be resurrected and would attack him again. The trick was that simply by telling the tale, he made Doom think about it. Just like saying, “Don’t think about an apple. Whatever you do, do not picture an apple,” the very thinking of it made it reality. Beyonder/ Klaw even tricked Doom into giving him back a fraction of the power to fight off the heroes. But as Captain America appeared and confronted Doom, Doctor Doom killed him. But he was losing control. Cap resurrected because Doom feared he would. As Doom totally lost control, the Beyonder’s essence leaped from Klaw and reabsorbed all of his power. The Beyonder vanished, leaving the heroes to make their own way home, his game become a harsh reality.
Intrigued by what he has witnessed during the first Secret Wars, the Beyonder comes to Earth during the Secret Wars II storyline to walk among humans and study them and learn of human desire firsthand. He creates a human body for himself (this originally body resembles Molecule Man). He also transforms a television writer named Steward Cadwell into Thundersword. Finally, the Beyonder creates a form for himself based on that of Captain America after witnessing him defeat Armadillo and later he assumes the dark haired form on the cover of New Avengers 29. In this series after many interactions with humans and gods and superheroes the story ended with Owen Reese (The Molecular Man) killing the vulnerable baby that the Beyonder was becoming to rid him from the Marvel Multiverse. Owen took the immense power that was released from the baby’s death and sent it back to the Beyond Realm that he originally came from.
For years, that was the end of the story of the Beyonder. After Shooter left Marvel there was several attempts to bring back the Beyonder but in most cases his powers were not as great as the original form. In all these attempts to bring the Beyonder back, the big problem is that they are dependent upon rewriting Marvel history. In one version, he may have been an Inhuman and, in another a cosmic cube. But some of these stories hinge heavily on his not having been remotely as powerful as what the original source material portrayed him to be. More recent work has also rewritten history to reduce the powers of the Molecule Man, partly to make him less powerful than the Sentry without making Sentry a universe destroyer. But, again, these rewrites change the “canon” of what happened in “Secret Wars” and “Secret Wars II
As you can see in the last panel of New Avengers 29 that the Beyonders are 3, imagine what power they represent and could they be the source of the new Battle World that Marvel recently announced. That all remains to be seen. The Marvel writers are remaking the universe in the image of past events according to the brain trust of Marvel. It looks like a different way for a reboot of the Marvel Universe so hang on to seats the ride is going to be interesting. Stay tuned Marvel fans for more. 🙂 Walt
Beyonder was originally Omnipotent.