The Beyonder

With all of the upcoming MCU events the introduction of cosmic heroes and villains is imminent, many Marvel fans forget the origins of these characters so let's take a look at the most likely characters to be introduced. First up, The Beyonder (a necessary player in the Secret Wars storyline).

In fact The Beyonder is THE major player in the Secret Wars storyline, that was his first appearance. Though he originated in the Secret Wars storyline and its sequel he remained relevant through the comics today. His story continues after Secret Wars in a Fantastic Four run where it is revealed that in order to form a mature, stable cosmic entity that his energy must merge with Molecule Man’s. When this happens the form takes on an entirely new personality, called Kosmos. After going insane Kosmos takes a mortal form calling itself The Maker. The Maker destroys a Shi’ar colony and is only subdued by Thanos. The Annihilation storyline determines The Beyonder’s fate though he really doesn’t play an active role in the storyline himself.

In an Illuminati run an alternate version of the events of Secret War storyline occurs. A “reveal” that happens is that The Beyonder was once an Inhuman. It was also revealed at the end though that this storyline occurs in the eye of The Beyonder and therefore considered to be a memory of his creation done for his own entertainment.

In a New Avengers run it is revealed that The Beyonder created multiple pocket universes that contain a large amount of sentient energy. This once again speaks to the power that The Beyonder possesses. The Beyonder is named as such because he is beyond dimensions, at his origin he was the most powerful being in the Marvel Universe. The Beyonder was shown capable of both creating and destroying death as an entity across the universe. That said he has taken on a human form more than once leaving him vulnerable, the division of his powers has also left him with some weaknesses. If we are thinking about the power of cosmic entities on a scale, let's place the Beyonder below the Living Tribunal and above Galactus, he would also be considered below the celestials. After its original creator, Jim Shooter, left Marvel The Beyonder was dwarfed significantly. His regular opponents and fellow cosmic entities were also leveled up in order to compare.

Omnipotent, cosmic entities are difficult enough to balance in the comics. Overpowered beings are often boring as they can’t contribute much to the overall story and experience no real struggle, that said it is perhaps even more difficult to bring them to the big screen. Not only because we haven’t seen anything of The Beyonder’s power scale in the MCU (as they dwarfed the hell out of the celestials and have been wildly inconsistent with their lore and origins) but also because balancing them with the heroes we do have currently is going to be a bit of a nightmare. I think the best course of action is going to be to either bring in multiple cosmic entities at once so that they can balance each other out OR to use The Beyonder to usher in the Secret Wars storyline and then simply let his existence fade into the background. Either way (or whatever secret third option they come up with) this is going to be a tipping point for Marvel. It's either going to be brilliant, and usher in a new era for the MCU or it's going to kill any future prospects the MCU has of expanding into it's cosmic characters and storyline.