The Beyonders are a fictional enigmatic higher-dimensional race appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They live outside the multiverse and are the beings responsible for the multiverse's destruction during Jonathan Hickman's Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Wars saga. Publication history The Beyonders were first mentioned in the team-up comic Marvel Two-in-One #63 (May 1980), by Mark Gruenwald and Jerry Bingham. The Beyonders received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1. They also received an entry in Secret Wars Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse. An initially unrelated character called the Beyonder was tied to these older characters by Steve Englehart for his "Secret Wars III" story in Fantastic Four #318–319 (September–October 1988). The Beyonder first appeared during the first Secret Wars, as a being that was stated to be the omnipotent embodiment of an entire separated multiverse. As he became self-aware, he recognized himself as the only person in his Universe. According to Englehart, an editor hated the character and ordered the Beyonder "removed" from the Marvel Universe. Englehart did as asked but has stated that he tried to exile the character with dignity. The character was retconned into a less powerful character, a self-aware Cosmic Cube inhabiting his own "dimension" because there was no matrix to hold his energy, with the explanation that other more powerful beings had exercised their powers on the Beyonder's behalf to ease his transition into self-awareness. The Beyonder later underwent another retcon, briefly becoming a mutant inhuman, and after a last retcon is now considered to be a member of the alien race of the same name and is referred to as a "child unit" by the Beyonders. The Beyonders were greatly expanded upon in Al Ewing's Defenders: Beyond series. They were revealed to be the same race as the "Omegas" previously seen in Defenders (2011–2012) and briefly appeared in Ultimates 2 (2016) #6. Their origin story was revealed and were tied to the Celestials; the "Beyond" space that they dwell was revealed to be formerly the Second Cosmos, the first multiverse that formed after the Celestial War. Fictional history The Beyonders are a race of extra-dimensional entities that were created by the Celestials following the creation of the Second Cosmos, the first multiverse, in the Celestial War. They were originally called "Omegas" by the Celestials. When the Second Cosmos ended and was reborn as