After the treatment he’s gotten by the heroes the past 7 issues I’m surprised it took this long.
Secret Wars II #8
Marvel (1986)
“Betrayal!” WRITER: Jim Shooter PENCILER: Al Milgrom INKER: Steve Leialoha COLORIST: Christie Scheele LETTERERS: Joe Rosen & Rick Parker EDITOR: Bob Budiansky
Beyonder has had enough! He feels he was happier when he didn’t know about the multiverse and other realities. His quest to learn desire has gone unfulfilled any everyone keeps trying to beat him up. So his solution is to just blow up the multiverse so it will be only him left. Molecule Man tries to talk him out of it, and a trip through Beyonder’s past reveals it was the event that turned Owen Reece into the Molecule Man that broke a hole in the Beyonder’s universe, leading to the Secret Wars. The trip only shows Beyonder’s failings, mostly with romancing Dazzler, and reminding him about Owen and Marsha’s relationship doesn’t help any. Beyonder leaves them a few moments before he destroys everything.
Beyonder ends up in San Francisco, home of the New Mutants, and even Beyonder doesn’t understand why he went someplace where there is someone capable of taking him on (namely Rachel, who carries some of the Phoenix Force in her). As Beyonder leaves and continues to be attacked by Marvel heroes, Molecule Man realizes that he’s the only one who has a chance of stopping Beyonder but he’s scared that he can’t win and everything he does to protect himself, Marsha, and the town are thwarted by the Beyonder. Finally, Beyonder stops in with Spider-Man, who talks him out of destroying the universe and he returns to make peace with Molecule Man, who still thinks he has to fight the Beyonder. Thinking the One From Beyond is jealous of what Owen and Marsha have together, she pretends to betray and leave him (Beyonder figured that out but Owen didn’t and Beyonder revels in his misery) and he decides to spare reality…for now. The Avengers go after him again, but he’s still angry and blows everyone away, taking Captain America prisoner!
I don’t have the final issue or any of the actual tie-ins…and I don’t think I want to. Tonight I’ll go into larger detail as to what my problem is with this series, which also factors into why I’m not a huge Marvel fan in the first place. As for this story, I don’t blame the Beyonder but thus far he hasn’t been the evil monster the Marvel heroes have painted him as, and now he is. I guess something happened in the crossovers to foil his guru plans (the flashback reveals one guy was actually going to kill him thanks to Beyonder’s plans…long story) but that’s the trouble with the tie-ins. They’re supposed to tell what Beyonder’s actually gone through besides this comic, helping to shape what he is now. And all of this could have been avoided. It’s the Beyonder becoming a supervillain and after some admittedly uninteresting stories–and some that were interesting–it feels forced because he’s always been a seeker of knowledge, not counting that time he messed with the Celestials, but I wonder if that could have been avoided as well? I’ll get into that tonight.
As for this series, it really is skippable. There’s nothing that has a major impact on the Marvel Universe that I know of. There were some good standalone issues as I’ve reviewed but as a whole I understand why comic fans aren’t crazy about it.
BW Media Spotlight 