The Beyonders were an all-powerful race of extra-dimensional beings from the Marvel Comics universe. They inhabited "White Space, the void outside the Omniverse, and were even known as the "White Lords of Wild Space", and as the "Sinnu Sarrum" or "Ivory Kings".
They were beings of indescribable power, who occasionally sent 'packages' of reality-altering power into the Multiverse as an experiment; these 'packages' are known as 'Cosmic Cubes', and they bestow godlike power on their wielder. Eventually, such Cubes develop into - equally potent - beings in their own right. One such being was known as the Beyonder himself, although his Cube-related origin was not revealed until much later.
Viewed as essentially benevolent at first, the Beyonders were eventually revealed as cruel and destructive when they decided the 'experiment' of life had run its course and they plotted to destroy the entire Multiverse. They found their nemesis in Doctor Doom, who, taking the alias Rabum Alal - or 'Great Destroyer' - eventually found a way to seemingly annihilate the Beyonders by turning their own power against them.
History
They studied life inside the Marvel universe from afar, experimenting in stages; initially, they hired native life forms - the extraterrestrial race the Nuwali - who, in return for gold, constructed the wildlife reserve known as the 'Savage Land' on Earth. Later, the Beyonders created a race of their own; the humanoid, space-faring Fortisquians, also known as the Comet Men, who promote evolution on planets throughout the Milky Way. The Fortisquians' origin seems to make them particularly susceptible to insanity. Finally, the Beyonders started sending Cosmic Cubes into the universe to 'test' the life forms therein. The Skrulls used their Cube to create a vast and majestic empire, but the very same power ran out of control and destroyed almost everything they had built until the Cube attained sentience and evolved into the Shaper of Worlds.
The first encounter humans had with the Beyonders occurred when the High Evolutionary - a scientist from Earth whose own experiments had evolved him into a superhuman being, and who thought of himself as a god - created a planet for the beings he had made to inhabit, but which was soon stolen by agents of the Beyonders for their museum of cosmic curiosities. The encounter affected the High Evolutionary's mind, and he became obsessed with evolving humankind to a state where they could contend with the Beyonders.
Years later, what was later claimed to be a juvenile Beyonder broke into the Marvel universe, ripped apart a galaxy, built from its remains a single planet, abducted many superheroes and supervillains from Earth and elsewhere and forced them to compete with one another; it promised any wish to the victor. But one would-be competitor, Doctor Doom, decided he would be nobody's plaything, and instead invaded the Beyonder's own realm and stole his boundless power for himself. For a while, Doom wielded the Beyonder's power, but the mental strain proved too much and while he was suffering a breakdown, the weakened Beyonder took back what was his. He then withdrew to his own realm to ponder his experiences.
Many years later, it was revealed the Beyonders had decided to destroy the Multiverse using the countless multiversal iterations of Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, as a bomb; they intended to detonate all of his multiversal selves at once, destroying all universes in one go. When Doctor Doom discovered this, he used time travel to assassinate as many Molecule Man as possible; but doing this caused the universes to destroy themselves anyway. He turned to a different strategy: gathering as many Molecule Men as he could, he built them into a weapon to use against the Beyonders. Utilizing the apparent weakness the Beyonders have - they cannot interfere with their own timeline - he detonated his 'time bomb', seemingly destroying the Beyonders - and almost all of the Multiverse along with it. The power of the Beyonders seemingly flowed into the 'original' Molecule Man, making him the most powerful being to ever exist.
It remains to be seen whether this was truly the end of the Beyonders, however, as the ghost of the Shaper of Worlds declared that 'nothing truly dies'.
Powers and Abilities
Stated to be a race of beings of infinite power they only lacked infinite knowledge but through this, they studied mankind and others like them, through the Marvelverse they have been one of the top beings who manipulates its realities.
- Omnipotence: The Beyonders wielded unlimited raw power capable of achieving anything they imagine, far beyond the powers granted by, for instance, the Infinity Gems.
- Omnipresence: As shown within the lead-up to Secret Wars 2016, the Beyonders were capable of existing in infinite universes simultaneously as they fought and killed one of the strongest cosmic entities to date - The Living Tribunal, another Omnipresent being within the omniverse.