Who Is The Beyonder, The Next Major MCU Villain

The character we will meet today is the Beyonder. This villain is a cosmic entity of Marvel Comics created by artist Jim Shooter and artist Mike Zeck. Wonder appeared for the first time in the famous Secret Wars #1 in May 1984.

The first appearance of this cosmic entity depicted him as an invisible, almost omnipotent being who abducted the heroes and villains of the Marvel universe and forced them to fight on another planet, Battleworld. The character later appeared more antagonistically in the 1985 sequel, Secret Wars 2. On this occasion, he took a human form and threatened to destroy the multiverse. Although he first took a physical humanoid form in Secret Wars 2 issue 2, at the end of Secret Wars 2: Beyond Air he met his demise.

He subsequently appeared in stories in the 2000s, but this time in a much diminished form. Of course, they had already made him ridiculously powerful and had to make his defeats somewhat more believable. Beyonder is an infinite dimensional entity and was originally portrayed as the most powerful being in the Marvel Universe, as well as the being and the entire realm beyond, who took human form to better understand the nature of humans.

The Beyonder, one of the Most Powerful Villains in Marvel Comics

The main description of this character said that he possessed a power millions of times greater than the entire multiverse combined, being almost impossible to defeat this key being, because his power was ridiculously high. Beyonder’s incredible ability was shown to destroy and recreate the abstract entity known as Death throughout the multiverse. His power was so great that he could destroy entire dimensions with a single thought, being billions of times more powerful than the entire multiverse combined. Though this excess of power brought his creators some real-life problems, asking very grim questions about how to handle such a character and who would be able to deal with him.

Marvel later altered his origin, and the cosmic cube explanation emerged. With this explanation, he was no longer omnipotent, he had less power and more limitations. However, he possessed a great and unique ability that allowed him to manipulate matter and cosmic energy on a level beyond anyone else. His nature and origin have increasingly changed in a quest by the creators to make him much more believable. Now we can consider him an Inhuman, with a mutant gene, and when he was exposed to the mists of origin, his powers grew enormously. Crazy, really. They had to ask those questions early on and how his power would influence him later on.

The Origin of Beyonder 

Image: Marvel Comics

Now, let’s finish with the introduction of this exaggerated being and let’s start with the origin of Beyonder to see if we can understand a little of what the creators of the character wanted to explain. 

The origin of Beyonder goes back millennia, cosmic entities known as the Almighty created a source of energy in another dimension. This force would allow them to become mortal or create a rift in reality to extract and store it. In this way, they created cosmic cubes, objects capable of granting any wish to its bearer, allowing the Almighty to learn more about the wish.

The entity that would later have the name Cosmos was an enclosure of this energy comprising the entire extradimensional universe, the Realm of the Almighty. This entity was unaware of its existence or, at least, of another reality. However, this later changed in a rather significant event. The event was in an accident at an atomic plant in which Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, had participated. The experiment opened a dimensional hole between the Realm of the Almighty and the multiverse, where Earth existed.

Through the hole, the entity observed the Earth for many years and was fascinated by everything he saw. In his universe, he was everything, and apart from everything, whereas in Earth’s universe, every being was also an individual entity. The Almighty was fascinated by what humans call desire, for the one who could achieve everything was unaware of that sensation.

Beyonder’s Relationship with Other Superheroes

After long years of study, the Beyonder decided to experience that feeling of desire and conducted an experiment. Beyonder created a body for himself. During a time of analysis, he observed the importance of money and power. So Beyonder turns a building into pure gold, causing Spider-Man to rescue those trapped in the building, while the U.S. government worked to get rid of the gold and avoid a financial crisis.

Later, Beyonder would meet Daredevil and knowing that Daredevil cannot see, restores his sight. Daredevil realizes that the desire to protect his sight could compromise his integrity and dedication. For this reason, he demands that Beyonder again take away his ability to see, which he does.

Later, Beyonder attempts to obtain the heroine Dazzler, who falls in love with him but fails, leading to feelings of despair. After this, Mephisto recruits Beyonder to become a professional wrestler. However in a fight against The Thing, he is almost killed. To combat Beyonder, Mephisto sent his demonic agent, Bitterhorn, who was commissioned to form an Infernal Legion. In addition, he managed to gather 99 villains. Shaking hands with them while awaiting the arrival of the Infernal Legion, Mephisto tricked The Thing into signing a contract that would increase his strength. When the Infernal Legion arrived, The Thing had to defend Beyonder from them. When Mephisto planned to abandon his contract with The Thing, almost all the legacies were defeated.

The Relationship Between Beyonder and Doctor Strange

Image: Marvel Comics

Later, Doctor Strange encourages Beyonder to find the path to enlightenment. Not understanding this and unable to achieve it, the cosmic being becomes desperate and enraged. So he decides to destroy the entire multiverse, which leads to several battles in which Beyonder ends up as victorious, although this would later change. Eventually a group of superheroes had to come together to defeat this powerful character. This team included the Fantastic 4, the X-Men, The Avengers and Spider-Man, and they neutralised him. Later, the Molecule Man would kill him.

In this way, we learned the origin and the very tangled history of Beyonder, the all-powerful cosmic being. Marvel has covered this character with so many theories and restructurings that ended up blurring him. Although we know this happened to almost all of the majority of both Marvel and Disney characters. 

Now we have solid rumors that this could be the villain to replace Kang. As we discussed here, Marvel just fired Jonathan Majors, who played the villain. However, it is unlikely that they will choose to recast the character. The reason is that he has had many appearances and has not been very popular with the public. For this reason, another villain will likely take the reins of the universe from now on. Will the Beyonder be the next great antagonist of the MCU?

Featured Image Via Marvel Comics