The Ivory Kings, The White Lords From Wild Space, the Omegas, or as they are most commonly known, the Beyonders have observed and influenced the Marvel Universe for a long time, whether directly or indirectly. They are an ancient race whose power supersede that of most beings within the Multiverse as they live outside of it.
While much of their nature and origin have remained a mystery for most of comic book history, their presence and power have played a role in the lives of heroes and villains in different, and sometimes major, ways. So let’s dive into six ways the Beyonders have influenced the Marvel Universe.
1. The Creation of Battleworld and the First Secret Wars
Appearing for the first time in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) as a mysterious voice from beyond, the character known as the Beyonder was responsible for the first big Marvel crossover event. Gathering pieces of different worlds from across the universe and connecting them into a patchwork planet of his own making, the Beyonder kidnapped heroes and villains from Earth and sent them to his Battleworld to fight one another.
Despite his experiment getting interrupted by Doctor Doom stealing his powers, the Beyonder later reclaimed them and vanished at the end. Although the heroes returned to Earth soon after those events, the Battleworld still served as the setting for the Thing’s following adventures as he stayed behind on Battleworld in The Thing #11 (1983).
While not part of the Beyonder’s plan, it’s worth mentioning that with one of the chunks of planets used to create Battleworld came the lab in which imprisoned the alien symbiote found by Peter Parker.
2. The Cosmic Cubes
While there have been numerous Cosmic Cubes in the history of Marvel Comics, one thing many of them—including the first Cosmic Cube—have in common is that they’re powered by the reality-bending energy that originates from the Beyonders’ dimension. As explained by Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #319, when a scientific genius seeking that kind of power creates a specific force field in order to collect it, a rift in reality might manifest inside the force field and pour out the energy from the dimension into it and shape it into a perfect cube. That cube can then be used to grant their wielder’s wishes by altering reality.
Cosmic Cubes have been sought out by villains and have been a source of trouble for heroes on multiple occasions, but not all of the cubes’ influences have been negative. Sam Wilson, for instance, gained his bond with his falcon Redwing, and by extension his ability to communicate with birds, thanks to the Cosmic Cube used by the Red Skull.
3. The Library of Worlds
The Library of Worlds is a vast place built outside the Multiverse by the Beyonders, whose doors can only be unlocked with specific keys. Not only does the place work as a hub that opens doors to multiple realities, it is also a repository of knowledge and information. Its labyrinthine halls, however, make it a much bigger place than one might expect, with much of the Library’s content still a mystery.
As explained by the Molecule Man in New Avengers (2013) #33, the Library of Worlds was built in the same unobservable space from which the Beyonders observe the Multiverse, so anyone within the Library will be undetected from the Beyonders. Because of that, it was used as a base by Doctor Doom and his Black Swans. Eventually, the Library also became a rendezvous point for sorcerers and scientists of the superhero community, as well as members of the Centum, to discuss a plan to stop the proto-mage Cubisk Core in G.O.D.S. (2023) #1.
4. The Death of the Multiverse
The biggest experiment ever conducted by the Beyonders came in the form of the destruction of the Multiverse as shown in New Avengers (2013) alongside Avengers (2013), the books that paved way to the multiversal Secret Wars (2015), one of Marvel’s biggest events to date. Not only did the incursions caused by the death of universes fractured the bond of heroes and sparked a cosmic war, it also brought about the end of both Earth-616 and of the original Ultimate Universe.
Despite the Multiverse getting restored at the end of Secret Wars, it was not the same as it was: the Seventh Cosmos was now the Eighth Cosmos and the hierarchy of the cosmic entities was permanently changed.
A retcon in Defenders: Beyond (2022) #2 explained the Beyonders’ destruction of the Multiverse was in fact an attempt to prevent the threat of a dominion known as Enigma. The experiment failed and Enigma lived to become a threat to mutantkind in the Krakoa Era, but the death and rebirth of all of existence remained as the Beyonders’ most impactful legacy.
5. The Origin of the Molecule Man
Debuting in Fantastic Four #20 as an antagonist of Marvel’s first family, Owen Reece became the Molecule Man while working at a laboratory. An accident with an “atomic machine” endowed him with the ability to control and transmute molecules. It wasn’t until Secret Wars II (1985) #8 that a connection between Reece and the Beyonders was established. The issue revealed Reece’s accident had opened a rift to the home dimension of the Beyonder from the original Secret Wars, which allowed the entity to observe Earth and study the human population, causing him to come up with the Battleworld experiment. The Molecule Man and the Beyonder had a complicated frenemy relationship in the years that followed, even temporarily fusing with one another to become a Cosmic Cube.
It turns out, as revealed in New Avengers (2013) #33, the Molecule Men from across all of the Multiverse were created by the Beyonders as singular beings to function as bombs that would destroy their respective realities once the Molecule Men died, kickstarting the Beyonders’ multiversal experiment.
6. The Creation of the Savage Land
One of the most recognizable locations in the Marvel Universe, the Savage Land is a prehistoric preserve in the Antarctic where living dinosaurs still roam alongside primitive tribes, wild beasts, and mutates. What is not known by many is that the Beyonders had a hand in its creation.
The first hint at that connection happened in Ka-Zar The Savage #34 where we discovered that an alien race called the Nuwali had come to Earth eons ago to build a preserve for the planet’s fauna and flora. That they did as “hired agents of a greater race” more powerful than they were. The identity of that greater race wasn’t revealed until Fantastic Four #316 and the following issues. The Beyonders’ goal for that preserve was for it to be a laboratory of evolution as part of yet another of their experiments, but it became the setting for many adventures to come and the home of Ka-Zar.
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