WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #92.BEY, available now from Marvel Comics.
Since its first incursion into Earth-616, the Beyond Corporation has established itself as one of the most influential and insidious forces in the Marvel Universe. Acting as a corporate front for a malicious race of multiversal interlopers known as the Beyonders, Beyond has developed a sinister obsession with the heroes of the Marvel Universe, mercilessly manipulating many of them in their quest to add Earth-616 to the growing list of realities they’ve already conquered.
While Beyond’s actions have gone largely unnoticed by the broader superhero community, the individual heroes who’ve seen the company’s true face have vowed to take the sinister corporation down by any means necessary. After going to impressive lengths to infiltrate the organization, Monica Rambeau (aka Spectrum) has just dealt the multiversal corporation a crippling blow in Amazing Spider-Man #92.BEY (by Jed MacKay, Cody Ziggler, Zeb Wells, Luigi Zagaria, Bruno Oliveira, Fran Galan, Mark Bagley, and Wayne Faucher), and it’s only the first step in the former Captain Marvel’s revenge against the company that nearly destroyed her.
Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (by Roger Stern, John Romita Jr, John Romita Sr., Stan Goldberg, and Jim Novak) as a member of the New Orleans Harbor Patrol, Monica gained the ability to transform her body into raw energy after she was exposed to radiation released from an experimental energy-converting device. Taking on the then-vacant moniker of Captain Marvel, Monica proved herself to be a competent hero and joined the ranks of the Avengers, becoming so respected by her peers that she eventually became the team’s chairwoman. Unfortunately, Monica’s time with the Avengers would come to a tragic end when the traitorous Avenger Doctor Druid used his psychic abilities to turn the rest of the team against her and undermine her confidence in herself before orchestrating an accident that caused Monica to temporarily lose her powers, forcing her to leave the team.
After a long and arduous recovery period, Monica eventually regained her powers and rejoined the Avengers for a short time until she was recruited by Beyond’s “Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort” (or H.A.T.E) division and made the leader of a Beyond-sponsored team of heroes known as Nextwave. Although Nextwave’s “official” mission was to combat global terrorism, Monica and her teammates discovered that they were being used to field-test Beyond’s newly-developed “Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction” (or U.W.M.Ds) and betrayed the company, going rogue and seemingly ending Beyond’s plans after a series of brutal and traumatic battles. However, it was later revealed in Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #6 (by Al Ewing, Luke Ross, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Travis Lanham) that the team’s adventures had occurred in an alternate reality known as Earth-63161, and that the entire experience was nothing but an elaborate and cruel joke that Beyond’s board of directors were playing on Monica and her teammates, whom the company saw as “C-list” heroes that no one cared about.
Outraged by the revelation that everything she and Nextwave had gone through was for nothing, Monica swore revenge against Beyond, hiring Misty Knight and Colleen Wing to infiltrate the company and sabotage its attempts to establish Ben Reilly as the one and only Spider-Man. Upon learning that Beyond was once again creating U.W.M.Ds in a secret facility beneath New York City, Monica stormed the facility herself, freeing her former Nextwave teammate Machine Man and slaughtering the U.W.M.Ds that tried to stop her. Just before the facility was destroyed, a hologram of Beyond executive Maxine Danger attempted to once again undermine Monica’s confidence, only to be bluntly and brutally rebuffed by Beyond’s former pawn, who made it clear that she’ll keep attacking Beyond until there’s nothing left for her to destroy.
Although Monica herself admits that her recent actions haven’t been very heroic, her assault on the Beyond facility deals the company a brutal blow that they may not be able to recover from. Reflecting that it was her dedication to “playing nice” that allowed Doctor Druid to have his way all those years ago, Monica concludes that the threat of Beyond warrants her more ruthless change in tactics. With one facility down, Monica’s new lease on heroism may be what finally brings Beyond to its knees.
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