Did Molecule Man really recreate the universe in Secret Wars (1984/1985)?

Question

I was recently rereading the original '80s Secret Wars comic on Marvel Unlimited, along with all (or most of) the other comics that were going on at the time. It's quite clear that, for the people who didn't get yanked off the Earth, there was no discontinuity in their existence at all.

And yet, in the comic, the Beyonder created a planet from pieces of a bunch of other planets...including a suburb of Denver, whence came the new Spider-Woman, as well as two other women who Dr. Doom gave powers (Titania and Volcana).

Then, at the end, Molecule Man takes that piece of Earth, rips it out of the rest of the planet, makes a dome over it, and then sails it off into space to "take it home". At some point Dr. Octopus notices that there's a bunch of stars in the sky, and Molecule Man says that he recreated them all. Did he really recreate the entire universe, including all of its history and continuity, so that (e.g.) the Shi'ar Empire was in the exact state it was before, with Deathbird on the throne, even though presumably Molecule Man had never heard of them before? Or was the rest of the universe still in existence, just "far away" somehow?

Now, presumably, nobody on Earth noticed a piece of Denver disappearing then floating back from space a while later. The new Spider-Woman returned with the heroes, I believe, and presumably the villains turned up again at some point (though I guess I don't recall having seen any of them yet, as of May 1985, apart from the Enchantress who returned by other means). So did the Beyonder just sort of reset everything? The heroes had to return via a transporter thing, so what happened with Molecule Man and the rest of the villains?

(Don't worry too much about spoilers--there's a lot of older comics I haven't read yet, but I did read at least a few series up until the late 80's, and Silver Surfer for longer than that...)

Answer 1

I believe when Owen Reece recreated the stars, they were stars that the Beyonder had destroyed at the beginning of issue #1, not all the stars in the universe, as you suggest. If I remember correctly, in the 1st few pages of issue #1, you can see the Beyonder wiping out everything (stars, planets,etc.) in space near the heroes and villains, just the ones everyone can see. So when Doctor Octopus sees stars when he looks up, he is surprised to see them, because they are still near the world the Beyonder had created. Owen basically put them back. If Owen never recreated the stars that the Beyonder wiped out, they would have seen more stars as they approached earth.

Answer 2

In issue 10, the Molecule Man does en-dome the Denver suburb and lift it into space to head home. He can do this because Doom using the power of the Beyonder which he then holds has eased Owen Reece's mental blocks on how much of his power he can use. However while in issue 12 Owen claims to have re-ignited the stars, there is no evidence he actually did so a) because we are not shown the Beyonder ever extinquished them (as opposed to creating battleworld in an artificial area of darkness / void) and b) because at the time Doom still has the Beyonders power and [according to Captain America in issue 11, "nothing in the universe can take place without his assent"]. Occam's razor suggests Owen believes he has re-ignited the stars either because he has left the void area, or [at most] because Doom with the much greater beyonder power [functionally omipotent at this point, though later ret-conned in the FF] does it and permits him to believe it his own work. The latter is unlike Doom, and he is not consciously shown to be aware of any such act.