Before Beyond ever came up against Spider-Man, they were the central threat to Nextwave — one of Marvel’s best cult comedy classics.
Across the Marvel multiverse, there are some consistent business ventures that have intentions to heavily influence other realities — with Roxxon perhaps being the most consistent in recent years. But the Beyond Corporation currently takes the concept to a genuinely terrifying (and sometimes hilarious) degree.
The Beyond Corporation might currently be the driving force behind Spider-Man’s woes, but their most iconic — and absurd — appearance remains their role as the primary antagonists of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.
The Beyond Corporation — a multiversal conglomerate that spreads its influence across various realities — has been playing a major role in the recent Ben Reilly arc of The Amazing Spider-Man. Recruited by the company as their official Spider-Man, their technological and psychiatric assistance was seen as a major boon for the previously unstable Reilly. But his work with the company has highlighted how terrifying they can be — with Beyond regularly wiping portions of Ben’s memories and even developing their own supervillains. But this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to use the heroes of Earth-616 to their advantage — resulting in the creation of one of Marvel’s most absurd teams ever.
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen focused on the unlikely team of Monica Rambeau, Boom-Boom, Elsa Bloodstone, Machine Man, and the Captain. Nextwave was hired by the SHIELD-like organization H.A.T.E. to serve as a superhero team dedicated to anti-terrorism missions. But when the group discovered that H.A.T.E.’s primary monetary investor is the Beyond Corporation — who’d previously operated as the terrorist cell S.I.L.E.N.T. — they also learn of Beyond’s plans to test their superpowered creations on the general public. Furious at the truth, the five unpredictable heroes went rogue and sought to bring down both — while also just being all-around dangerous powerful but morally bankrupt superheroes.
A gleefully over-the-top take on superheroes, Nextwave ultimately threw down with clones, aliens, Mindless Ones, religious zealots, broccoli men, Forbush Man, Wolverine/monkey hybrids, and ultimately an evil version of Devil Dinosaur in a smoking jacket. Even by the standards of the rest of the Marvel Universe, it’s weird — which is exactly why the comedy has become a cult classic among Marvel fans. Although the series’ canon-status was initially a bit of question mark due to its extreme natures, storylines like Captain America and the Mighty Avengers revealed the true identity of the Beyond Corporation — and that Nextwave was in fact canon, just that the heroes from Earth-616 had been dragged into an alternate reality as a joke.
While Beyond returning in a series like Amazing Spider-Man is exciting, it’s been slightly underwhelming to see them trying to operate on a realistic level. One of the things that made Beyond Corporation such a fun force was it’s inherently bizarre creations and goals. Beyond was a straightforward threat that utilized increasingly absurd tactics, allowing Immonen to go wild with amazing action and comedy sequences alike. But with Beyond increasingly backed into a corner while its creation of the Goblin Queen and a massive version of the Lizard run amok, it might be time for the old chaotic version of Beyond to come back more into play — which especially seems to be the case now that Monica has revealed the full extent of her attempts to bring down Beyond.
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