Beyonders
| Beyonders | |
|---|---|
 The Beyonders being revealed by Yellow Jacket. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Marvel Two-in-One #63 (May 1980) |
| Created by | Mark Gruenwald Jerry Bingham |
| Characteristics | |
| Place of origin | Beyond Realm |
| Inherent abilities | Omnipotence Omnipresence Near-Omniscient |
The Beyonders are a fictional enigmatic and All-Powerful race appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
The Beyonders were first mentioned in the team-up comic Marvel Two-in-One #63 (May 1980), by Mark Gruenwald and Jerry Bingham. The Beyonders subsequently appear in Incredible Hulk #263 (September 1981), and Avengers Annual #17 (1988).
The Beyonders received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1. They also received an entry in Secret Wars Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse.
An initially unrelated character called the Beyonder was tied to these older characters by Steve Englehart for his "Secret Wars III" story in Fantastic Four #318-319 (September–October 1988). The Beyonder first appeared during the first Secret Wars, as a being that was stated to be the omnipotent embodiment of an entire separated multiverse. As he became self-aware, he recognized himself as the only person in his Universe. According to Englehart, an editor hated the character and ordered the Beyonder "removed" from the Marvel Universe. Englehart did as asked but has stated that he tried to exile the character with dignity. The character was retconned into a less powerful character, a self-aware Cosmic Cube inhabiting his own "dimension" because there was no matrix to hold his energy, with the explanation that other more powerful beings had exercised their powers on the Beyonder's behalf to ease his transition into self-awareness.[volume & issue needed] The Beyonder is referred to as a "child unit" by the Beyonders.[1]
Fictional history
The Beyonders are a race of extra-dimensional entities powerful enough to collect planets. Their nature is so alien that they are unable to leave their own dimension and for millennia were never observed by any being of the Earth dimension (apparently including even the near-omniscient Watchers themselves); to interact with the Earth dimension they must operate through agents. They first came to the attention of Earthlings when they commissioned the alien Nuwali race to create the Savage Land as part of their study of evolution. Thousands of years later, the Beyonders created the Fortisquians as agents to observe other worlds, including Max.[2]
After becoming aware of the Earth, the Beyonders began studying the Marvel Multiverse with amusement and curiosity and eventually hired the Pegasusian alien race as agents, to tow Counter-Earth to the Beyonders' museum. When the High Evolutionary discovered the disappearance of Counter-Earth, alongside the Thing, Alicia Masters, Starhawk, Moondragon, and Her, the Evolutionary pursued the Beyonders to rescue his world. When the Evolutionary arrived at the Beyonders' planet museum, he himself reported that his mind snapped when he witnessed the scope of their powers and how effectively insignificant he was compared to these alien beings. It is this encounter that marks the beginning of the High Evolutionary's mental instability.[3]
Every now and then the Beyonders would shunt a modicum of energy to the universe, allowing sentient beings to use them to create Cosmic Cubes - a practice they appear to have given up after the admonishments by Eternity and the Living Tribunal regarding the disruptive effect of these actions.[4] One of these energy modicums would later develop sentience and take its name after its creators, the Beyonder.[5]
The Great Game of Worlds
When entire universes throughout the Multiverse began to collide, with each universe's respective Earth as the point of impact, the period of time in which the two Earths collide became to be known as "incursion", Hank Pym is sent looking for help to stop the incursions during the Time Runs Out storyline, he finds the Beyonders; whom he also refers to as the Ivory Kings.[6] They are revealed to have killed the Living Tribunal along with all the Celestials, and every abstract entity (including Eternity, Infinity, Lord Chaos, Master Order, and the In-Betweener) in the entire Marvel Multiverse, all as part of an apparent attempt to conduct an "experiment" involving the destruction of all life in not only Earth-616 but every existing parallel reality. It was also mentioned by the Beyonders that the Beyonder was their "child unit."[7] Later on, the Beyonders killed all of the Multiversal Avengers when they tried to find them.[8] It was also revealed that the Beyonders are responsible for the accident that turned Owen Reece into the Molecule Man, the same accident that created the sentient energy modicum that would name itself "The Beyonder" after its creators. They created the Molecule Man as a singularity, being the same in every reality, to have the function of a "bomb", which would destroy its universe if he died. The purpose of their experiment was to eventually kill all of the Molecule Men at the same time. After discovering that they are unable to travel through time since they are constrained and restricted to their own sequential timeline, Rabum Alal along with Doctor Strange and Molecule Man confront the Beyonders one last time, but their apparent failed attempt ended up in the reduction of the remaining surviving universes from the incursions from thousands to barely more than two dozens.[9]
During the 2015 Secret Wars storyline Doctor Strange claims that Doom had killed the Beyonders,[10] and later during a conversation between Doctor Doom and Molecule Man, it is discovered that Doctor Doom used a bomb made up of a legion of Molecule Men on the Beyonders which not only was the cause of the reduction of the remaining surviving universes from the incursions but also killed and drained the Beyonders of their powers. When the last incursion eventually happened, due to the overwhelming scope, Strange left it up to Doom to reshape what was left of the Multiverse to create Battleworld.[11]
Powers and abilities
The Beyonders have been witnessed killing all of the Celestials in the Marvel multiverse at the same time, destroying abstract entities such as Death and Infinity, and 3 members of the race together managed to murder The Living Tribunal itself.[12]
The Beyonders are what Doctor Doom calls "linear beings". Despite their vast powers and knowledge, they seem unable to travel forward or backward in time.[13]
References
- ^ New Avengers vol. 3 #30
- ^ Fantastic Four #316
- ^ Marvel Two-In-One #63
- ^ Infinity War #4
- ^ Fantastic Four #319
- ^ New Avengers vol. 3 #29 (March 2015)
- ^ New Avengers vol. 3 #30 (April 2015)
- ^ New Avengers Vol. 3 #32
- ^ New Avengers Vol. 3 #33
- ^ Secret Wars #4
- ^ Secret Wars #5
- ^ New Avengers Vol. 3, issue 30
- ^ New Avengers Vol. 3, Issue #33