Who is the Marvel character with short black hair and a huge collar on this button?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.

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, become 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.

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.

Answer 2

It's the Beyonder in one of his forms.

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.

Answer 3

Just for completeness, it seems that the image was taken from Avengers #261 (August/November 1985) cover. Pencils by John Buscema, inks by Tom Palmer.