The magician Doctor Strange, who assembled the previous team of Defenders, is dead. But the universe still needs defenders, and a final message from Strange triggers the creation of a whole new Defenders team.
The Blue Marvel, Loki, Taaia, Tigra and America Chavez band together to face the threat. But this time they’ll be facing the Beyonder, one of the near-omnipotent creatures who destroyed the previous multiverse. Wish them luck.
The first issue was released July 20, 2022.
Defenders: Beyond contains the following tropes:
- All There in the Manual: Ewing and Lee Gabrett's Loki story "What Comes Next" from Thor #750 serves as a prelude and sets up Loki's entry into the mini-series.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The Beyonders' actions are to prevent the coming of something called "The Dominion". Which, given these are beings who can kill Celestials and yet are unable to stop this thing, is bad news.
- And I Must Scream: The first thing Glorian does is trap Loki inside a tree, with the implication the same applies to all the odd looking tree things dotted around the place. Loki's no more fond of this than any of the other times they've been stuck in a tree.
- Arc Welding:
- Issue #2 does a lot of welding. The Beyonders are revealed to have been created by the Celestials, are the same beings as the Omega Council from Defenders 2012, and the Beyond is the remains of the second multiverse. The Enigma Force — aka the Uni-Power and God of Light — is revealed to have originated from the Concordance Engine.
- Issue #3 ties together the Phoenix Force and the Tiger God of the White Tigers, which have never interacted in a story before.
- Bold Inflation: As in his previous appearances, The One Above All "speaks" in giant, bolded text without speech bubbles.
- Body Horror: Glorian has chunks missing out of his body, because it's how his reality-warping powers work now.
- The Bus Came Back: Glorian returns for the first time in almost a decade, still stuck in the Land of Never-Was after his death in Silver Surfer.
- Call-Back:
- Much of the Beyonders' history is gone over in issue #2, including their actions in the run-up to Secret Wars, and Adam's own run in with the Beyond Corporation in Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, as well as Monica Rambeau's dealings with the same. The start of the story also recaps the history of the first multiverse as laid down in The Ultimates (2015).
- The Beyonders' appearing as blonde humans refers back to the first time The Beyonder assumed a human form for itself, initially copying Steve Rogers. The Beyonder changed his appearance, including the black hair, shortly after.
- At the end of issue 2, Taaia is badly injured by a Beyonder, and her near-death state summons a cosmic entity to them, the Phoenix. It introduces itself the same way it did to the X-Men back in X-Men issue #100.
- Much of Adam's time in the White Hot Room is a reference to Jean Grey's (or Phoenix that thought it was Jean) afterlife experience in Classic X-Men #44.
- Tigra channeling the Tiger God to challenge Phoenix Taaia is much like T'Challa doing the same to confront Logos in the Superflow.
- Glorian using his own substance to make his "maybe-verses" is similar to Molecule Man using his own molecules to seed the multiverse recreated by Franklin in the aftermath of Secret Wars.
- Concepts from the Kabbalah surrounding The One Above All appear again, just like Ewing's previous Immortal Hulk.
- The idea that The One Above All may not actually be above all was briefly explored in Thanos: The Infinity Conflict, when the Living Tribunal wonders as such after The One Above All admits Thanos's wreckage of the cosmos is starting to spiral out of even his control.
- Continuity Nod:
- On hearing the true identity of the Masked Raider, the major reveal of the previous Defenders series, Blue Marvel says Night Thrasher had already guessed it, a nod to how the two had been investigating the mystery through Marvel Comics #1000.
- As the spell goes over Adam's history, behind it are images of Adam fighting Anti-Man, a headshot of his nemesis Evald Skorpion, the Beyonder-possessed Jason Quantrell, the Infininaut and the First Firmament.
- America Chavez is not happy to see Loki (let alone the pre-Secret Wars Loki) again. It's unsurprising considering their shared history from the Kieron Gillen era of Young Avengers - Loki spent most of that series manipulating the rest of the team for Loki's own benefit.
- Loki offhandedly mentions their maybe-encounter with the Beyonders back in the last issue of Agent of Asgard.
- Taaia asks if death is the "Black Winter", the cosmic entity partially responsible for the destruction of her own multiverse.
- Issue #3 connects the Phoenix Force with Tipareth. Not the first time this has happened, as it occurred way back in X-Men issue #108. Through the issue, the Phoenix uses a lot of lines it's said during its time with the X-Men.
- Among the images Glorian creates for the Beyonder are Dazzler, who he briefly romanced, and Boom-Boom, asking if they're still friends.
- Dead Man Writing: Doctor Strange sends a final magical message to Adam Brashear, delivering a couple of key items from the previous series (the Eternity Mask and the Tarot of the Secret Flame) and appointing him as the new leader of the Defenders.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Face to... well, non-face with the One Above All, Adam's first question is to immediately ask if it is above all. He sets an endless horde of monsters on them, though the characters quickly note that if someone that powerful was truly upset by the question, he could've done far worse.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Twice in issue 2, though it's made clear it's a temporary deal.
- America uses the Eternity Mask to wallop the Beyonder.
- Adam blasts another Beyonder, since his powers make him a Man of Kryptonite for them. However, two pages later that same Beyonder has reconstituted himself and is fine, aside from a sore arm.
- Eldritch Abomination: Beyond the Beyonders and the One Above All, who are Humanoid Abominations, the Dominion fits this to a tee. When the One Above All shows the Defenders a glimpse of what's to come, they can only see a gigantic crown across five realities, with this being the closest thing their human minds can approximate.
- Et Tu, Brute?: America uses the Eternity Mask to fight the Phoenix Force with... the Phoenix Force. Apparently the Force is of two minds about what to do with the non-team.
- Even More Omnipotent:
- The Beyonder, whose race the comic establishes to have unlimited power — case in point them more-or-less effortlessly slaughtering the Celestials and other cosmic entities in the lead up to Secret Wars (2015), admits upfront that he would certainly lose to the Phoenix Force, especially when he's in the White Hot Room.
- In Issue #5, Adam asks the One Above All if he really is above all. The One Above All deflects the question, but he does mention "the storyteller", who Tigra asks if that is him or someone else.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Beyonders take on human form to interact with the humans (and Loki and and Taaia). The Beyonder goes one step further, taking his original appearance from Secret Wars II, jheri curl and all.
- Frame Break: In the second issue, Loki’s narrative powers are shown as a series of small panels surrounding one of the Beyonders, crushing him into the white space between them.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: America notices something's wrong with Glorian's reality when her mothers, previously atomized across space and time, turn up alive with no explanation beyond "just go with it".
- Godly Sidestep: When Adam meets the construction worker in the White Hot Room, he asks if he's God or Death or both. The only response he gets is "I am as I am."
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Loki tries trapping a Beyonder inside a story, which works, but by the same rules drags the Defenders in as well, and in this story there's cosmic consequences and a ticking clock - namely, Taaia's injuries.
- Home Field Advantage: The Beyonder admits that in the White Hot Room, its home, the Phoenix Force can overpower him.
- Inconvenient Summons: Tigra was out in the park when Doctor Strange's spell drags her into the adventure.
- Improbable Weapon User: The Beyonder clocks the Phoenix with a blender. He admits it's odd, given they're cosmic entities, but he didn't feel like creating anything new when the blender was already there.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Being a scienteer, Taaia is overjoyed to meet the Beyonders "in the flesh". Tigra, not so much.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Beyonder writes off his behavior in Secret Wars (1984) as him being a kid who'd learned about the world from watching toy commercials, mashing them together. A pretty apt metaphor since that event was mostly written to improve toy sales.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Glorian traps everyone but Loki in a "what if", where Adam Brashear ignored JFK's order to go into retirement, then became president, Tigra is an adored A-list hero, America has her original backstory restored, has found her sister and saved her parents, and Taaia is the herald to Galactus the Lifebringer.
- Medium Blending: In Issue #2 there were no panels in the Beyond, only the lines from their Concordance Engine. Whenever the Defenders have the upper hand on the Beyonders the panels come back. As utilized by Loki, See Below.
- Mythology Gag: A very meta case. The "creatures of the pre-creation" The One Above All summons are monsters from the horror comics Marvel published from Fantastic Four #1, which established the Marvel Universe as we know it. So they're "pre-creation" not in the sense that they're older than the Marvel Universe in-universe, but out of universe.
- Ninja Prop: Loki is able to briefly trap a Beyonder just by moving around and monologuing until he was surrounded by panels. They are the God of Stories and that Beyonder happened to be in one.
- Not Me This Time: America, having just recently learned her entire backstory was a lie, is suspicious of seeing Loki again. Loki has to assure America what's happened isn't their doing.
- Oh, Crap!: Tigra's reaction to the lead Beyonder informing her that yes, he is that Beyonder.
- Only Sane Man: Tigra didn't have anything to do with this story before the spell dragged her into it, of the team she the only member who hasn't done this sort of thing way too many times.
- Paradox Person: Loki is an impossible person. In issue #3, the Phoenix says if they keep existing, they'll threaten the existence of the current Loki, and it might be required to erase Loki entirely.
- Percussive Therapy: America and Taaia take advantage of being attacked by giant monsters in issue #5 to vent some of their current angst.
- Refusal of the Call: Dr. Brashear tries, but the spell's not taking "no" for an answer.
- Retcon: King in Black established that the Enigma Force was a god of light that appeared at the beginning of the 7th Cosmos to oppose Knull, but Defenders: Beyond #2 retcons its origins to having been created by the Beyonders' Concordance Engine.
- The Reveal:
- At some point, Kosmos turned back into the Beyonder, and went back to the Beyond to rejoin the rest of his race.
- The Fourth Cosmos is also the Queen-of-Nevers.
- Seen It All: Issue #1 begins with Dr. Brashear noting that being contacted by the spell of a dead man isn't even the weirdest day he's had that week.
- Sequel Hook:
- The Beyonder gets annoyed by Loki's decision, and storms off in a temper, refusing to go back to the Second Cosmos.
- Taaia remains in the Eighth Cosmos, determined to retain the knowledge about Galactus somehow.
- Sequel Series: Although the cast has almost entirely changed, it’s effectively a sequel to the Defenders (2021) series, also by Ewing and Rodriguez.
- In addition, it's also a loose sequel to Ewing and Lee Garbett's Loki: Agent of Asgard (as it's picking up pre-Secret Wars Loki's storyline almost literally from where it left off in 2015).
- Spoiler Cover:
- Downplayed. One Variant Cover confirms that there will be a "shocking" sixth member of the team revealed on the final page of the first issue, a surprise that's not in any of the pre-release publicity. It's the Beyonder.
- The cover for issue #3 shows Taaia as the Phoenix, spoiling the reveal and Wham Shot at the end of the previous issue.
- Stable Time Loop: or at least, it will be if Loki goes back...
- Take That!:
- Glorian considers the current (eighth) multiverse a failure because it's a mere continuation of the previous one. He intends to fix this by rebooting it, as many times as he feels is necessary. Taaia tells him that you can't just constantly reboot a universe and hope that'll fix things, because if nothing else, even the people in it will come to feel they don't matter. It's hard not to read this as a swipe at DC Comics.
- Seventh Cosmos Loki considers their current incarnation to be a rehash of their old self, and seriously considers invoking Literal Split Personality in the final issue.
- Take Up My Sword: A Dead Man Writing magical message from Doctor Strange to Adam Brashear appoints him as the new leader of the Defenders.
- There Are No Coincidences: Adam finds the magic tarot deck has automatically picked a card showing the image of America Chavez. Then she calls him. The spell informs Adam it's not coincidence when magic is involved, simply synchronicity.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Adam's reaction on seeing and recognizing the figure of the Ten of Coins card is Loki.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Whatever "The Dominion" is, the Beyonders can't describe it. Even The One Above All can only show a glimpse of an enormous crown hovering over a ruined world.
- Variant Cover: The first issue has six different covers, with variants by a range of different artists. The Lee Garbett variant is also reused inside the comic, serving as a backdrop to the recap page.
- Villainous Rescue: Taaia almost dies fighting The Beyonders in issue two but she's possessed by The Phoenix Force, who in the next issue uses her to attack the rest of the team.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Issue 2 reveals the Beyonders were this. Their actions in Hickman's Avengers were not For Science! but rather to try and prevent something worse coming. And it didn't work.
- Wham Shot: Issue #2 ends with Taaia becoming the Phoenix after the Defenders end up in the White-Hot Room.
- You Can't Go Home Again: In issue 5 the One Above All tells Taaia that she can't take the knowledge of what Galan will become back to her cosmos. Blue Marvel suggests afterward that she might be able go back without it, but Taaia rejects it as hiding from her son's pain.
