Beyonders

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. The Beyonder later underwent another retcon and is now considered to be a member of the alien race of the same name and is referred to as a "child unit" by the Beyonders.

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. After becoming aware of the Earth, the Beyonders began studying the Marvel Multiverse with amusement and curiosity. 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.

They 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.

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. One of these energy modicums would later develop sentience and take its name after its creators, the Beyonder.

Time Runs Out

When entire universes throughout the Multiverse began to collide with each universe's respective Earth as the point of impact—events known as "incursions"—the Avengers send Hank Pym to find answers at the start of the Time Runs Out storyline. Instead, he learns that the incursions are being caused by the Beyonders, whom he also refers to as the Ivory Kings. Upon returning to Earth, he tells his fellow heroes that the Beyonders 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) as part of an experiment involving the destruction of all life in throughout the Marvel Multiverse. Later, Rabum Alal reveals to Doctor Strange 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—identical in every reality—to function as a "bomb" that would destroy its native universe. The purpose of their experiment was to eventually kill all of the Molecule Men at the same time, bringing an end to the multiverse. After discovering that they are unable to travel through time since they are constrained and restricted to their own sequential timeline, Doom, Strange and Molecule Man confront the Beyonders one last time. Their attack apparently failed and as a result the number of universes was reduced from thousands to barely more than two dozen. However, it was later revealed that the attack was actually a success, and that Doom used his own bomb made of Molecule Men from throughout the Multiverse, which not only allowed him to destroy the Beyonders but at the same time channel the resulting energy into Owen Reece, and use that energy to collect what remained of the Multiverse into a single planet known as Battleworld.

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 three members of the race together managed to murder the Living Tribunal itself.

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. They have also displayed other limitations, as an explosion strong enough to destroy a few thousand universes was sufficient to kill them.