Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: al ewing, beyonder, defenders, Iteration, marvel, Secret Wars

Defenders Beyond Lays Out Marvel History Like Never Before (Spoilers)

Al Ewing has loved to rewrite the cosmic history and future of the Marvel Universe, the many iterations there have been and will be to come. From Contest of Champions through to Ultimates and Defenders. And now he gets The Beyonder to join them all together in today's Defenders Beyond #3 drawn by Javier Rodriguez.

And so we start at the First Iteration of reality, as previously portrayed by Jim Starlin in the Infinity books and Grant Morrison in Marvel Boy…

… as well as being knitted together by Ewing in Ultimates, Immortal Hulk and pretty much every other book he gets to write.

With the concept of colour, of rainbow, defined from the get-go as an act of rebellion against the straight-forward black and whole.

Which then leads into the Secord Iteration. It has been commented that the current DC Comics maxim of "Everything happened, everything matters" combined with the recent trend towards Multiversal storytelling across mass media devalues everything and means that "nothing matters". And so it is with Iteration of reality number two…

But the Celestials survive and continue through iteration after iteration…

And it's all being observed and puppeted by The Beyonders, of Secret Wars fame, but who also have played a role in so much else.

And yes, the one with with the face-obscuring shoulder pads is indeed the Beyonder of old. All that nonsense about being an exiled Inhuman has been brushed under the carpet.

As a Marvel comic goves the most damning take on their original event, Secret Wars, which Jim Shooter wrote to please Mattel who has the Marvel Comics license for toys and wanted a reason to place them all together in one place.

Secret Wars was the Beyonder playing with action figures. Or dolls as we used to call them, before gender-specific language got in the way.

As Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez seek to place all the various Beyonder tales into one overarching narrative – even if that means "speedrunning" through a few. And a Dominion from an interaction yet to come…

The transition from the Seventh to the Eight Iteration was the more recent Secret Wars event of course. Which was far more sophisticated, taking in for more themes and ideas and… still bashing dolls into dolls, just with great iterations. And as for the Dominin, yup, back in Thor #24! And totally called out!

DEFENDERS BEYOND #3 (OF 5) (RES)
MARVEL COMICS
JUL220894
(W) Al Ewing (A/CA) Javier Rodriguez
Loki's Defenders manage to escape the Second Cosmos and the Beyonder, but Taaia is grievously wounded in the process and none of Loki's or Blue Marvel's expertise seems to be helping. Enter – the Phoenix! But what is the price of a universal
constant's aid…?
RATED T+In Shops: Sep 28, 2022
SRP: $3.99

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