Comic Book / Secret Wars II

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Secret Wars II is a nine-issue comic book Limited Series and crossover published between 1985 to 1986 by Marvel Comics. It was written by Marvel's then Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and primarily penciled by Al Milgrom. The series was a sequel to Secret Wars (1984). It tied-in with issues of other Marvel titles, with each "tie-in" featuring a Secret Wars II logo in the top right hand corner to indicate that it was a part of the overall story.

The plot follows the return of The Beyonder, the being who started the first Secret Wars, who comes to Earth in search of enlightenment and inevitably comes into conflict with Earth's metahumans and the cosmic entities that exist in the Marvel Universe. It tries to become human, help people, learn how to love etc. but keeps failing, and his frustration turns him into a menace. He is eventually dealt with, although the heroes also have to prevent the destruction of the planet as a consequence of his actions.

Trope:

• Abstract Apotheosis: The Beyonder destroys Death on the multiversal level, but realizes the consequences of doing so. Left too weak to restore Death completely, he has to sacrifice his friend and use him as the seed to recreate Death.
• Abusive Parents: Tabitha Smith's father beat her after learning she was a mutant, leaving her right eye swollen almost completely shut.
• Artistic License – Economics: Averted. A very naïve Beyonder is told by Power Man that money — or the lack thereof — is the root of most all problems in the world, and that money is a stand-in for gold (though his partner Iron Fist mentions they haven't been on the gold standard for years). The Beyonder, wishing to make everyone happy, turns an entire skyscraper into gold... which quickly collapses in on itself. Several crossover issues explore the ramifications this has on the world economy. (The government ends up covering up the event and throwing the excess gold into a sea trench.)
• Balloon Belly: The Beyonder's human body develops a prominent gut after he gorges himself on food (though he is able to fix this by changing the excess fat into energy).
• Baffled by Own Biology: The Beyonder, a godlike entity, had no idea what the strange fullness he felt was. Spider-Man deduced that he had to, for the first time ever, use the bathroom, and then had to tell the Beyonder how to do it.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: During a clash between the Beyonder and Molecule Man, Volcano pretends to beg for the Beyonder to let her go, and claims that she never loved Owen. It is revealed soon after Volcana lied, and only said what she did because she knew the Beyonder was jealous of the contentment she and Owen had.
• But Not Too Bi: When The Beyonder shows his temporary girlfriend a list of other people he wishes to have a romantic relationship with, she's surprised that some of them are men. Pretty daring for 1985, although they couldn't go any farther since he only ever shows interest in women before and after that.
• The Cameo: Circuit Breaker from The Transformers (Marvel) pops up for three panels👁 Image
  ◊ in issue #3 to help convince Beyonder that mind-controlling everyone is bad. This was done at a time when The Transformers was treated as taking place in the Marvel Universe before being retconned into its own continuity, retroactively making her the Marvel universe take on the character instead of actually being from the Transformers series. Her appearance wasn't just to shill the Transformers comic - having her appear in a non-Transformers comic before her Transformers debut proper allowed Marvel to keep the rights to the character instead of Hasbro.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first Secret Wars (1984), the Beyonder understood enough about humans/mortals to offer them whatever they wanted so as to provide the crossover its Excuse Plot. Here, the Beyonder is instead utterly ignorant of normal humans and what their lives are like; the entire plot revolves around him wrestling with the mortal perspective from a position of omnipotence.
• Crisis Crossover: The story features an appearance by pretty much every Marvel character with an active title at the time.
• Damaged Soul: The next few issues of the New Mutants showed that being killed and resurrected by the Beyonder was incredibly traumatic to the kids.
• The Death of Death: Death is killed by Beyonder.
• Establishing Character Moment: While Secret Wars II #1 doesn't really offer anything in terms of the Beyonder's characterization, Uncanny X-Men #196 features a scene of him in a cafeteria that establishes him as a cosmic idiot.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: In issue 6, "Life Rules," the Beyonder builds himself a Home Base in which to operate as a superhero. In a bit of subversion, he buys the property, files the plans at city hall, and then builds it.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Beyonder chooses Dazzler as his a potential mate as he explores the human emotion of love. He tries to woo her, but lets her go. In a subsequent issue, he picks up a Dazzler vinyl, one of its songs playing, and falls into a funk, thinking of her.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Spider-Man ends up getting tangled up in the whole skyscraper incident and, in the process, finds himself snatching a gold notepad in order to help pay for Aunt May's expenses. He later decides otherwise.
• Gaslighting: Mephisto attempts to kep the Beyonder from reuniting with his power by creating illusions, as he is unable to directly affect anything in the mortal realm.
• Genre Shift: The first Secret Wars (and, you know, the genre of superhero comics generally) is mostly about costumed adventurers and crimefighters battling evil or saving people from disasters. Secret Wars II is instead half fish-out-of-water comedy and half philosophical grappling with a search for meaning and the problems of omnipotence... with the odd, sudden Out-of-Genre Experience where some regular comic book adventures reassert themselves.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After being convinced that the Beyonder's plan to neutralize Death was a mistake, the Beyonder's friend Dave willingly sacrifices his life to revive Death.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Mephisto tricks the Thing into signing a contract that will increase his strength, so that the Thing can join the villains gathered in his plot to destroy the Beyonder. However, Ben Grimm, despite his hatred for the Beyonder, cannot bring himself to stand by and let the villains attack him. Ben's interference causes Mephisto's entire plan to fall apart.
• The Immune: Molecule Man's near-complete power over matter and energy makes him the one being in the universe able to resist or reverse the Beyonder's actions.
• Kudzu Plot: The event's plot is extremely unfocused. Pretty much every issue is about The Beyonder trying to understand mortals in another different way, freaking people out with his godlike powers, and learning nothing in the process. Often the plots don't have time to breathe, such as Beyonder deciding to kill Death then restoring it just a few pages later, which is never brought up again. Add in dozens of plot threads that are set up and only resolved in tie-ins, and adds up to a very messy story.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The aforementioned skyscraper of gold had a group of soldiers run interference to help get rid of it. One of them looked suspiciously like Duke of G.I. Joe, which Marvel had made a comic of at the time.
• Literal-Minded: During Uncanny X-Men #196, the Beyonder is taught manners. "Ya want something, ya don't grab for it, ya ask nice, say please, say thank you, that sort of thing." How does the Beyonder ask for his food? "Please, say thank you, that sort of thing."
• Major Injury Underreaction: During a clash with the X-Men, the Beyonder's human body is badly cut by Wolverine's claws. The Beyonder barely even notices, simply standing in place as he bleeds from the wounds.
• Mass Resurrection: The Beyonder kills and later resurrects the New Mutants.
• My Own Grandpa: In the final issues, the Beyonder decides to have a go at being mortal, so he builds an abstract machine, powers it up with his cosmic powers, and the machine develops a human(oid) fetus inside it, making it grow inhumanly fast to adulthood. The resulting being is still the Beyonder, but as a human who announces "he is his own son".
• Nobody Poops: Infamously averted; at one point after becoming human, Beyonder feels a strange pressure between his legs, and it falls to poor Spider-Man to show him how to poop.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: The Beyonder has no concept of gender, which he demonstrates to his short-term girlfriend by briefly turning into a woman. He only sticks with the masculine avatar since it was the first form he took (he based it off of Captain America) and he's attached to it.
• N-Word Privileges: In Uncanny X-Men #196, during a confrontation between Kitty Pryde and a Columbia University student named Phil:
  Phil: You're a mutie then, Pryde—like him?!
  Kitty: Gee, I dunno, Phil—are you a nigger?
  Phil: Watch your mouth!
  Kitty: Watch yours! Especially when you use words like that, and try to be intentionally hurtful!
• The Omnipotent: The Beyonder provides the page quote for the trope. The narrative crux of the story is the Beyonder wrestling with the utter meaninglessness of an existence where literally everything he could possibly want happens as simply as him thinking about it; only a few limits are discovered during the story and it's made clear that any attempt by the heroes of Earth to confront him directly (and the few they actually make) are laughably futile. Molecule Man is a close second, with his immense ability to shape matter and energy, although he comes at it from the angle of a normal person endowed with great power. Only at the very end of the story does the Beyonder become vulnerable enough for all the heavy hitters of Earth to challenge him at once... and then only when he's deliberately diminished himself and the Molecule Man is backing them up.
• Otherworldly Innocents: This is either Played for Laughs or Played for Drama in this crossover, depending on the issue. The Beyonder decides to come to Earth to learn how to be a human being; unfortunately, despite his utter omnipotence, he's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with the mind of a prepubescent child and has no idea how the world works - or even how the human body operates, to the point that Spiderman has to tell him how to use the bathroom. In another sequence, the Beyonder teleports Iron Fist and Luke Cage in to explain to him about money, paper money, gold, and human needs. Luke Cage gives a very succinct view on the subject, which leads to the Beyonder turning an entire New York skyscraper into gold to "satisfy human needs".
• Pals with Jesus: Beyonder tries to befriend Tabitha Smith - him, an omnipotent being; her, a homeless mutant teenager codenamed "Boom-Boom".
• Planet Destroyer: The Beyonder has several galaxy-destroying tantrums, which Molecule Man begrudgingly has to fix.
• Ret-Gone: The Beyonder briefly does this to the New Mutants and the only one who remembers them is Kitty Pryde, thanks to her connection to Illyana.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: The Beyonder's Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds routine came complete with one of these.
• Super-Empowering:
  • One of the first things The Beyonder does in his quest to understand desire is give superpowers to a random misanthropic TV exec, who immediately uses it to try and get revenge on the studio that screwed him over.
  • The Beyonder also saves the life of the Elf Algrim by turning him into the far more powerful Kurse.
  • While trying to woo Dazzler, Beyonder makes her The Omnipotent like him so his power won't be so scary. It only freaks her out even more, and she uses those powers to turn herself back to normal.
• Time-Compression Montage: Done repeatedly throughout the series, along with a heavy dose of exposition. For instance, when The Beyonder mentally dominates everyone in the universe, it is shown with a mere four panels of everyone and everything bowing down in subservience.
• Unequal Pairing: In issue #4, Beyonder chooses mutant heroine Dazzler as a potential date for him. Dazzler feels overwhelmed by the attention Beyonder pays her, since she is a normal human and he is a cosmic being with phenomenal powers.
• Very Special Episode: Fantastic Four #285 is about a kid burning himself to death trying to copy Johnny Storm's Wreathed in Flames style, the news of which nearly driving Johnny himself into quitting his superhero career. It took the Beyonder himself to convince Johnny not to give up.
• Victory Is Boring: In Issue #3, the Beyonder mind-controls everything on Earth, effectively winning. He then decides it's boring and releases them.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Beyonder tries to make the heroine Dazzler fall in love with him, but realizes he can't win her love fairly, with no mind control tricks. This only makes him madder.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: By the end of the series, Beyonder is convinced that he has no purpose and he can never be happy again now that he has the knowledge of mortal life, so he resolves to destroy all of existence and erase his memories of it.