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Please help me identify this character. He's on a button that only says "1986 Marvel comics" on the back.

Blue gray metal armor? Looks like David Hasselhoff... Lol

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    It's clearly Peter Quills dad, David Hasselhoff.
    – AAlig
    Sep 21, 2018 at 17:15

2 Answers 2

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It's the Beyonder, a godlike being from Marvel Comics in the eighties. He was responsible for the Secret Wars events which occurred during that time.

enter image description here

Despite his hokey and completely contrived origin for the Secret Wars Sagas, he has by virtue of materials written about him after the Secret Wars, the second most powerful being in the Marvel Multiverse. I will keep it brief:

  • The Beyonder was originally from an infinite realm beyond the Marvel Multiverse, called the Beyond-realm, and was the sum of everything outside the multiverse (our multiverse was a drop in the sea compared to the Beyond-realm). It became self aware and formed a being of immeasurable power. (He was originally described as millions of times more powerful than the entire multiverse.) ~Comicvine
  • The Beyonder was, at one point in his history more powerful than all the conceptual beings in the Marvel Universe and even manages to kill Death itself.

enter image description here

This picture shows The One Above All (Celestial), The Stranger, The Living Tribunal, Master Order and Lord Chaos, Eternity, The Watcher (lower left) The In-Betweener (in black and white) The Beyonder (in the orange jumpsuit), Mephisto (in red) and Death.

The Beyonder was vain, arrogant, annoying, petty and capricious. But there was no denying his powers. At his peak he would have certainly been considered omnipotent, his raw power having the ability to do anything he wanted, but he lacked a clear understanding of the Universe so he is not omniscient (unless he wanted to be) and not omnipresent (unless he thought about it).

One final note: The Beyonder has been retconned MANY TIMES. His origins are no longer clear to anyone and his recent appearances claimed he might be a mutant or he might not. Don't think too hard on it. If you're lucky, you'll never see him again.

One other note: The Molecule Man who depending on when you ask, derived his powers from the Beyonder or the Beyonderverse as well, so he would also be in the same class as the Beyonder, capable of creating entire universes if he so desired. He's currently dead, but since he has resurrected himself in the past, his death is "relative" and likely not permanent.

One final note: With the impending new Secret Wars II, there is the possibility the Beyonder may return. Heaven help us all.

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  • Molecule Man is not dead. He was in a recent issue of Hickman's Avengers working for Dr. Doom, who is also not dead despite being irrevocably destroyed by dimension hopping Celestials, in Hickman's FF about two years ago. Basically, no one ever really dies in the Marvel Universe. Just add six months and their back, no explanations needed, apparently. Feb 10, 2015 at 14:14
  • Wasn't there some talk that The Beyonder was supposed to represent Stan Lee? Or was that a separate character?
    – TylerH
    Feb 10, 2015 at 21:47
  • “he was […] the second most powerful being in the Marvel Multiverse” So who was the first most powerful?
    – PLL
    Feb 10, 2015 at 23:32
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    @PLL - The One-Above-All is the most powerful being in the Marvel Omniverse. It is the power which created everything including the Beyonder. See: Are there any actual gods in Marvel comics? Feb 10, 2015 at 23:39
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It's the Beyonder in one of his forms.

The Beyonder, a white man with black curly hair, wearing a silver white armour, with huge arches around his shoulder. Pure energy seems to be radiating from him, in a faint yellow cloud with black bubbles.

He came into existence in the same incident that created Molecule Man; when Owen Reece tapped into another dimension, part of the energy from that dimension gave him his powers, while the rest of it gained sentience and became the Beyonder. His powers were nearly unlimited.

Fascinated by the eternal battle between good and evil, he created a planet "Battleworld" and abducted a number of superheroes to it, so they could fight while he could observe. It's where Spider-Man got his famous black costume, which turned out to be an alien symbiote. This event was known as the Secret Wars.

More information can be found on the Marvel wiki.

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