Why Did The Beyonder Have Varying Powers Between Series?

My first memory of encountering the Beyonder wasn’t in a scholarly article but in the pages of 'Secret Wars'—that over-the-top 1984 event where an all-powerful being scoops up heroes and villains like chess pieces. Back then he was presented as literally from the 'Beyond', an entity so vast and curious that he created Battleworld to study conflict and desire. That original take painted him as almost childlike in curiosity but godlike in power: incomprehensible motives, simple questions about why people suffer, and the ability to warp reality on a whim. Over the years Marvel kept poking at that simple origin. The mid-late 80s saw 'Secret Wars II', which brought him to Earth to learn about humanity. After that, writers started trimming his omnipotence down with retcons — one popular line of thought was that he was related to the Cosmic Cubes, a being born from or equivalent to an evolved Cube. Fast-forward to Jonathan Hickman’s big multiversal overhaul around 2014–2015: the Beyonder concept became more concrete as part of a species of extradimensional entities called the Beyonders, creatures outside the multiverse who played a huge role in the destruction/reconstruction of realities. So depending on which era you read, the Beyonder is either a solitary beyond-god, a sentient Cosmic Cube, or part of a ruthless race. As a lifelong reader, that messiness is irritating and kind of beautiful — it means every version tells a different story about power, curiosity, and what happens when you give someone everything they could ever want.

Klein Moretti, aka 'The Fool', stands as the pinnacle of power in 'Lord of Mysteries'. His journey from a baffled transmigrator to a deity governing mystery and change is nothing short of epic. As a Beyonder of the 'Fool' pathway, his abilities defy logic—manipulating fate, rewriting reality, and even resurrecting from death. His domain, the Sefirah Castle, acts as a cosmic chessboard where he pulls strings unseen. Yet, what truly cements his strength isn’t just raw power but his cunning. He orchestrates battles where opponents unravel their own doom, blending intellect with omnipotence. Unlike others who rely on brute force, Klein’s mastery lies in patience and deception. He bends the rules of the world itself, turning prophecies into weapons and myths into shields. Even deities tread carefully around him, knowing he could rewrite their existence with a whisper. His final ascension to 'The Lord of the Mysteries' isn’t just a title—it’s a testament to outplaying the universe’s oldest schemes. Power here isn’t measured in destruction but in the quiet click of a domino falling.

I get a little giddy when this topic comes up because the Beyonder is one of those wild cards in Marvel lore that forces you to rethink what 'cosmic' even means. Back in the original 'Secret Wars' he was basically a walking omnipotence machine — curious, childlike, and utterly baffling to the heroes and villains who were suddenly made pawns in his experiment. That depiction makes him feel more like a force of narrative will than a force of nature. Compare that to Galactus, who eats worlds because he fulfills a cosmic function, or Eternity, who embodies the totality of existence: their roles are ontological, rooted in the fabric of the universe. The Beyonder, by contrast, was obsessed with subjective questions — desire, love, meaning — and used raw power to probe them. Later retcons turned the Beyonder into one of a race (the Beyonders), and the tone shifted from singular deity to a catastrophic, almost mechanistic cosmic entity. That move pulls him closer to things like the Molecule Man (who ties into the Beyonders' schemes) and away from the godlike, moral-judge vibe of the Living Tribunal or the absolute unknowability of the One-Above-All. To me, that means the Beyonder is best enjoyed as a narrative lens: he’s terrifying because he’s curiosity weaponized. If you want grand cosmic stakes with a philosophical twist, he’s your guy — messy, fascinating, and still capable of surprising me every reread.

Man, this one’s a favorite debate topic when I hang out on comic forums—there’s no single, simple list because Marvel keeps retconning the Beyonder(s). In the original 1984 event 'Secret Wars' the Beyonder is basically omnipotent and the heroes don’t so much kill him as force a retreat of sorts—Doctor Doom plays a huge role in confronting him, and the arc ends with the Beyonder pulled into a more human-like story later in 'Secret Wars II'. Fast-forward decades and the story gets messier: Marvel retconned the one-off Beyonder into a species called the Beyonders. In Jonathan Hickman’s lead-up to the 2015 'Secret Wars' event, the Beyonders (plural) are the culprits behind the multiversal collapse, and the key figures who defeat them are Doctor Doom and the Molecule Man (Owen Reece), with Reed Richards and others instrumental in the plan. Doom essentially uses the Molecule Man’s multiversal connection to strike back and ends up being credited with stopping the Beyonders by harnessing that power. I always like bringing up how a cosmic mystery becomes a very human story—friends, betrayals, and a lot of scheming—so who "defeated" the Beyonder depends on which era you’re reading and whether you mean the original entity or the later Beyonders.

Back in the mid-'80s I stumbled onto something that felt like a comic-book earthquake: the Beyonder first shows up in 'Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars' #1, which hit in May 1984. That oversized, brightly colored event issue literally opens with him looking at Earth and deciding to drag heroes and villains to a patchwork planet — it was such a wild premise that even a kid browsing the spinner rack felt the stakes. I still have a soft spot for that slow, jaw-dropping reveal. Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck are the names tied to bringing the Beyonder into continuity, and the way he’s introduced as basically an omnipotent being from “beyond” is why he stuck in fandom conversations for decades. If you’re tracking continuity, remember that his origin and power level were changed and debated a lot afterward (see 'Secret Wars II' and later retcons), but his literal first in-continuity appearance is unequivocally that 1984 'Secret Wars' #1. For anyone curious, flipping through that issue is like seeing a big, messy idea explode into the Marvel Universe — and it still makes me want to re-read it on a rainy afternoon.

Picking up the original 'Secret Wars' as a kid felt like opening a door to something absurd and huge. The Beyonder in that story basically reshapes reality like a bored god with a toybox: he snatches heroes and villains out of their lives and plops them on Battleworld, puts together ecosystems, rebuilds cities, and even hands out—or withholds—powers to manipulate how conflicts play out. He doesn’t just throw physical obstacles at characters; he rewrites rules. He can change someone's age, resurrect or kill, alter loyalties, and make mountains out of whole moral quandaries just by willing it. Later comics complicate that image. 'Secret Wars II' shows his curiosity about human desire, which leads him to tinker with minds and create bizarre moral experiments. Then modern retcons, especially the Jonathan Hickman-era 'Secret Wars', reframed him not as a lone almighty but as part of a broader class of extradimensional beings—the Beyonders—whose machinations destroyed a multiverse. That shift softened the original omnipotence a bit and connected his power to other cosmic mechanics like the Molecule Man. I love how the concept grows: what started as a pure-omnipotence gimmick became a fascinating lens on power, consequence, and writers trying to keep stakes believable.

I’ve been hunting down Beyonder stories for years, and honestly the best place to start is with the classic collected editions. Look for the trade paperbacks or omnibuses that gather 'Secret Wars' (the 1984 event) and 'Secret Wars II'—those are the core Beyonder appearances. Hardcover omnibuses will give you the full run in one chunky volume if you want the immersive, bookshelf-ready experience. If you prefer digital, Marvel Unlimited and ComiXology both carry these collections, so you can binge the whole thing on a tablet or laptop. For physical copies, ask your local comic shop to order a new printing or check online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Midtown Comics, or TFAW. I also keep an eye on eBay and secondhand stores for older printings and variant covers—great for saving money or finding rare editions. Pro tip: check the table of contents in the listing to see whether tie-ins are included, since some omnibuses collect only the main series while others throw in crossovers and extras. Happy reading—there’s something wildly nostalgic about flipping through those 80s/90s pages with coffee in hand.

I get giddy thinking about the Beyonder because he's one of those comic book concepts that forces storytellers to decide what kind of story they actually want to tell. In the comics, especially in the original 'Secret Wars' and the later 2015 'Secret Wars', the Beyonder is a near-omnipotent, almost childlike cosmic being who experiments with heroes and villains to understand desire and conflict. If the MCU ever brings him in, I suspect they'll avoid a literal one-to-one translation because a fully omnipotent character can kill drama. They'd need to humanize or reframe him. My favorite possible approach is to make the Beyonder less of a single god and more of an emergent force — a consequence of multiversal entropy, or a composite intelligence formed from leaked reality-fragment data. That lets the MCU keep high stakes (reality warping, creation of Battleworld-style realities) without breaking emotional investment. They could reveal hints across projects: weird incursions in 'Loki' or the multiversal fallout in 'Doctor Strange' could be framed as fingerprints of something probing our universe. I’d love a slow-burn reveal where a mystery entity manipulates events until the heroes realize they’re part of an experiment — it preserves awe and gives characters meaningful struggle, which keeps me hooked.