COMIC ANNOTATIONS: Defenders: Beyond #2

It's time to play the music

It's time to light the lights

It's time to meet the Beyonders on the Defenders show tonight!

Defenders: Beyond #2: "Yesod: The Second Cosmos"

Written by Al Ewing

Artwork by Javier Rodriguez

Letters by Joe Caramagna

Okay, let's just dive right in with the title, shall we? "Yesod" is, again, one of the nodes or Sephirot of the Kabbalistic tree of life. Yesod is the "foundation," the node above Malkuth, the one that allows movement and connection. Since the first issue was titled "Malkuth," it appears that these issues are going to be traveling up the Tree of Life -- I expect the next issue will be "Tifaret."

The Second Cosmos -- or, rather, what remains of the Second Cosmos -- is where this issue takes place. But that's later.

Page 1, Panel 1: The Beyonder saying "In the beginning..." This is the first words of the Bible, Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth." Very appropriate, since this issue starts with a history lesson showing the very beginning of the Marvel universe.

Page 2-3, Panel 1: "...our creators had no collective name. They were simply the earliest creations of the earliest cosmos." The earliest cosmos was the First Firmament, as detailed in Ultimates 2 (2016) and these early creations would have a variety of names such as "Astro-Gods" (Marvel Boy), "Aspirants" (Iron Man (2012)), and "Death Celestials" (Defenders (2011)).

The celestial beings are also making the same hand gesture we see in Ultimates 2 (2016) #6:

Page 2-3, Panel 2: Some of the early creations evolved in the First Host of the Celestials and with them came with Celestial War. This is also outlined in Kieron Gillen's Iron Man run that started in 2012, with Tony Stark coming across the Godkiller Armor that the Aspirants had created to destroy the Celestials:

Page 4, Panel 1: "A multiverse of possibility--where each 'what if' could become its own 'what is." The Beyonder is paraphrasing the Queen of Nevers here from Ultimates 2 #100: "All things are possible. Each "what if" may become what is."

Page 4, Panel 2: "So the Celestials created servitors for the task, well suited to the infinite. Omega beings--life-forms without limit." The servants of Celestials are often called "Celestial servitors" (like the Celestial Destructor's servitors in Civil War II). "Omega beings," on the other hand, refers to the Omegas that the Celestials created to populate the Second Cosmos:

Some of these Omegas would flee from the Aspirants/Death Celestials and, as detailed in the 2011 Defenders by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson, create the Concordance Engines in order to shape Earth-616 as a place filled with superheroes in order to defeat the Death Celestials.

You'll notice that these Omegas also have the Greek Omega symbol on their hands. The only other characters to have those symbols on their hands were Omega and James-Michael Sterling from Steve Gerber's and Mary Skrenes' 1975 Omega the Unknown.

Page 5, Panel 3: The Third Cosmos would be the first with an actual narrative. It would create the first hero, Lifebringer One, in order to battle the first villain, Anti-All, as detailed in Ewing and Rodriguez's Defenders (2021) #5.

Page 5, Panel 4: "Nothing dies, while we remain -- there in the remains of the Second Cosmos outside all that is known..." Ewing is directly quoting the Omega Council from Defenders (2011) #11.

Page 6, Panel 1: In fact, here they are:

"For we are the Celestial Servitors."

First mentioned in Ultimates 2 (2016) #6, although the Celestials having servitors was mentioned previously.

"We are the Omega Council."

First mentioned in Defenders (2011) #10.

"We are the Ivory Kings."

First mentioned in New Avengers (2013) #5.

"We are from Beyond."

The phrase "I am from Beyond" comes directly from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 in 1984. However, the Beyonders were mentioned four years before that in Marvel Two-in-One #63.

It should be noted that these Beyonders -- aside from the Beyonder -- are wearing similar outfits to what they wore in Defenders (2011) #10, with the addition of Omega symbols on their chests. In fact, aside from the Beyonder himself, all of the rest of the Beyonders appear to have the same facial appearance, as if they couldn't be bothered with looking different from each other while wearing flesh.

Page 7, Panel 1: Blue Marvel mentions that he's faced Beyonders before -- specifically in Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, where he faced off against the Beyonder controlling Jason Quantrell, the CEO of the Beyond Corporation.

Loki then says that they also have faced off against the Beyonders, "well, probably." This is because in the last issue of Loki: Agent of Asgard, Loki faced off against They Who Sit Above in Shadow, a group of Gods to the Gods that fed off of the cycle of Ragnarok. However, They Who Sit Above in Shadow had died long ago, so Loki theorized that they were actually renegade Beyonders running from Doom's massacre of them in Secret Wars (2015) #1. They did quote the original Beyonders speech from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1: "Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours."

Page 7, Panel 5: The Beyonder transforms into the clothes that he wore for the majority of Secret Wars II, the white jumpsuit.

Page 8-9, Panel 2: "A side effect from the creation of a multiversal demolition tool--my old frenemy the Molecule Man--poked a hole in the womb-space I was forming in." The Molecule Man is called a "multiversal demolition tool" because the Beyonders created him in order to cause the complete destruction of the multiverse, as revealed in New Avengers (2013) #33. The "pin prick" in the dimensions that the Molecule Man created, which aroused the Beyonder's curiosity was revealed back in Secret Wars II #6.

Oh and this is called the "womb-space," because the Beyonder was only a "Child Unit" at the time, as revealed by Hank Pym in New Avengers (2013) #29.

Page 8-9, Panel 2: "Imagine an infinite baby, learning only from TV commercials for actions figures!" An apt metaphor, since the only reason the original Secret Wars was made was because of the creation of the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars toy line by Mattel. In fact, here's an actual commercial for the toy line.

Page 8-9, Panel 5: "Fixing me meant speedrunning certain larval stages..." The Beyonder is holding an image of a Cosmic Cube and of Kosmos. Whoo boy, let's explain this: there was a third Secret Wars storyline called, imaginatively, "Secret Wars III," which happened in Fantastic Four #318-319. In it, the Beyonder is told that he and the Molecule Man are a failed experiment and need to be combined to be complete, which they do and become Kosmos, a living Cosmic Cube similar to Kobik. Whew. I guess being a living Cosmic Cube is the "larval stage" of the Beyonders.

The Beyonder also refers to the Beyond as the "Engine Room" of creation, a phrase that has also referred to the Yesod node of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

Page 8-9, Panel 6: "There are rogue Beyonders--like the "debaser unit" Blue Marvel fought!" The Beyonder controlling Jason Quantrell called itself a "debaser unit" in Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #6. In fact, it listed a number of different types of Beyonders:

"Removing him from continuity left a mess, too!" In order to defeat the Beyonder controlling Jason Quantrell, Blue Marvel managed to open a portal the Neutral Zone to bring in his son, Kevin Brashear, who used his power to remove the Beyonder from continuity.

"Monica's investigating what he left behind." Although the Beyonder/Debaser Unit is gone, the Beyonder Corporation still exists and recently employed Ben Reilly as their own personal superhero during Spider-Man Beyond. In that story, Monica Rambeau was investigating the Beyond Corporation with the help of the Daughters of the Dragon.

"But...it wasn't some "rogue unit" that destroyed the Seventh Cosmos, was it? That was all of you together." Blue Marvel is referring to the events of Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers (2013) and Secret Wars (2015), in which it was revealed that the Beyonders wanted to destroy the entire multiverse, but were eventually stopped by the combined powers of Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, and the Molecule Man.

Page 10, Panel 2: "We are linear in nature--" Doctor Doom discovered in New Avengers (2013) that while the Beyonders are nigh omnipotent, they still only experience time linearly, making that one of their weaknesses.

"A firebreak in the flow of events was judged practical...to prevent the coming Dominion." What is the Dominion? It is unclear at this point, but it might have something to do with the universal societies that Jonathan Hickman introduced in Powers of X #5:

While Dominions already exist in the Marvel universe, what kind of Dominion would the Beyonders themselves fear?

Page 10, Panel 3: Taaia says she's heard that word before from Loki -- back in Thor (2020) #24 (Legacy #650), Loki mentioned to her that when traveling through the threshold, they saw a threat even bigger than the Black Winter, something outside of reality. "There are things that have dominion out there."

Page 10, Panel 4: The Beyonders are standing in front of a Concordance Engine from Defenders (2011).

The Beyonders also reveal that the "Enigma Force" comes from the Concordance Engines. The Enigma Force is responsible for the Uni-Power, the energy that gives Captain Universe their powers. Yes, that's right: Captain Universe. Their first appearance: Micronauts #8.

Page 13, Panels 2-8: Loki is the God/Goddess of Stories, so it looks like they can manipulate the narrative itself, as shown by the panels bordering the Beyonder boxing him in like a cage. This is very similar to how Groot defeated Hermes in Ewing and Juan Cabal's Guardians of the Galaxy (2020) #12, trapping him in a loop of "I am Groot."

Page 16, Panel 2: "I...I feel the "Black Winter" at my back...the dark touch of Death...!!" The Black Winter is a cosmic entity that consumes universes introduced in Silver Surfer: Black #4. It is the being that destroyed the Sixth Cosmos, Taaia's home.

Page 18, Panel 3: 'As Taaia opens herself-for the "White-Hot Heart" that turns a cosmos--' The White-Hot Room has been referred to as the "Heart of Creation." It is also the home, as we shall see, of the Phoenix Force.

Page 19, Panel 2: "You called out in defiance of death. I heard. I came." This is very similar to what the Phoenix Force told Jean Grey in Classic X-Men #8: "You cried out for aid. I heard. I came."

Page 19, Panels 7-10: Taaia is paraphrasing the Phoenix's speech from X-Men #101.

Page 20, Panel 1: Taaia as the Phoenix.

And that's it for this issue. Until next time.