Who is Rabum Alal?

[Rosebunse]

An updated look at who this guy may be. Is he really an original character? Or is he an original character in the same way AoA Wolverine is different from 616 Wolverine?

[Songbird/Diamondback]

I think it's Oblivion.

[Deniz Camp]

Hickman's comments emphasize that this is a 'horror' story rather than a 'whodunnit' so whoever/whatever it is I don't think it will be particularly revelatory.

[vitruvian]

Hickman's comments emphasize that this is a 'horror' story rather than a 'whodunnit' so whoever/whatever it is I don't think it will be particularly revelatory.

I haven't read too many horror stories that don't reveal the nature of the monster by the end, honestly. Can't think of any good ones, honestly.

So, if that's not revealed, the story may well fail as a horror story.

[Songbird/Diamondback]

Hickman's comments emphasize that this is a 'horror' story rather than a 'whodunnit' so whoever/whatever it is I don't think it will be particularly revelatory.

Seeing how the Beyonders were these weird aliens guys, I believe it. Kinda weird to spend all this time to just state over and over "YOUR LIVES ARE FUTILE"

I haven't read too many horror stories that don't reveal the nature of the monster by the end, honestly.

Black Christmas.

[peterporker]

I haven't read too many horror stories that don't reveal the nature of the monster by the end, honestly. Can't think of any good ones, honestly.

So, if that's not revealed, the story may well fail as a horror story.

Maybe he just meant that knowing who is behind all of this is not meaningful in the sense that won't help in any way solving the problem. In certain stories discovering the enemy means discovering his weakness and the key to his defeat. If you discover the bad guy and all you understand it's that he is too powerful for you, knowing who is won't matter that much. He's just someone who for some reason wants the end of everything and has the means to achieve it.

[vitruvian]

Maybe he just meant that knowing who is behind all of this is not meaningful in the sense that won't help in any way solving the problem. In certain stories discovering the enemy means discovering his weakness and the key to his defeat. If you discover the bad guy and all you understand it's that he is too powerful for you, knowing who is won't matter that much. He's just someone who for some reason wants the end of everything and has the means to achieve it.

The whole weakness thing often applies to monsters as well, of course. Dracula is vastly more powerful than Van Helsing and company, yet who gets it in the neck in the end, eh?

Of course, we know that everybody will fail to stop the last Incursion and the multiversal collapse, yet at the same time we know that next comes Secret Wars and Battleworld... and I seriously doubt that a company that wants to keep publishing comics with these characters will then have the Great Destroyer proceed to destroy this new setting, even if he tries. So, if he continues to exist beyond the collapse, he will necessarily have to be defeated or driven off or otherwise thwarted... and his precise nature will be important to doing that, surely.

Besides, the whole 'horror' vs. 'mystery' thing doesn't ring true in another sense... even if the Great Destroyer is not revealed until after the collapse, that doesn't take it out of the mystery genre, really, and especially not because the knowledge doesn't help stop the destruction. In fact, the vast majority of whodunits take place after the murder has already taken place, don't you think? And we know that Battleworld will contain plenty of survivors/witnesses/suspects for this 'locked universe' mystery.

[teepee]

An updated look at who this guy may be. Is he really an original character? Or is he an original character in the same way AoA Wolverine is different from 616 Wolverine?

My guess is that he might be a Doom/Molecule Man hybridised character. I just think it's too late in the story to introduce a new character with absolutely no relevant back story. It would just seem too random.

[peterporker]

Besides, the whole 'horror' vs. 'mystery' thing doesn't ring true in another sense... even if the Great Destroyer is not revealed until after the collapse, that doesn't take it out of the mystery genre, really, and especially not because the knowledge doesn't help stop the destruction. In fact, the vast majority of whodunits take place after the murder has already taken place, don't you think? And we know that Battleworld will contain plenty of survivors/witnesses/suspects for this 'locked universe' mystery.

There is always the chance Rabum Alal is nobody, just the name the Black Swans gave to the phenomenon behind the start if the Incursions, maybe the multiverse was just meant to end and that's it. In one of the first episodes of NA Tchalla and Reed said there were two possibilities, that the multiverse collapse was natural and so impossibile to solve or that someone was working towards the end of everything. While it's true that Hickman said Rabum Alal was something new, it's also true he just said they lied presenting the story as a mistery.

[MyriVerse]

Still sticking with Hickman's Galactus Seed from Fantastic Four.

[vitruvian]

Still sticking with Hickman's Galactus Seed from Fantastic Four.

I suppose we've never seen the entity that's supposed to emerge from the seed, only the 'unborn' seed, so that could work.

It would be the Galactus Seed of another universe, of course.

Oh, and why do you call it Hickman's from Fantastic Four? It was introduced in and has only ever actually appeared in Fraction's Mighty Thor. It was mentioned in Fantastic Four #600, but hardly introduced there.

And if its origin story is correct, and Bor planted it to create the World Tree and the current universe, then there's a reason to believe that the destruction of the current universe can't take out whatever realm Bor and his people were living in at the time.

[Rosebunse]

Still sticking with Hickman's Galactus Seed from Fantastic Four.

I'm guessing more that that will the catalyst for Battleworld. Every healthy universe must have a Galactus anyways.

I suppose we've never seen the entity that's supposed to emerge from the seed, only the 'unborn' seed, so that could work.

It would be the Galactus Seed of another universe, of course.

Oh, and why do you call it Hickman's from Fantastic Four? It was introduced in and has only ever actually appeared in Fraction's Mighty Thor. It was mentioned in Fantastic Four #600, but hardly introduced there.

I think just because Hickman is more likely to use it, and considering how long Hickman stages stories, it could have been his idea anyways and they just needed a way to introduce it.

If his identity doesn't matter, then why would Hickman bring him up? You don't bring something up and just leave them. Hickman is too good for that.

[MyriVerse]

I suppose we've never seen the entity that's supposed to emerge from the seed, only the 'unborn' seed, so that could work.

It would be the Galactus Seed of another universe, of course.

Of course. We know that the source of the problem began in another universe.

Oh, and why do you call it Hickman's from Fantastic Four? It was introduced in and has only ever actually appeared in Fraction's Mighty Thor. It was mentioned in Fantastic Four #600, but hardly introduced there.

Because I wasn't aware of that.

[Rosebunse]

No reason to get short. It's all speculation.

OK, could another contender is the Chaos King from the Chaos War thing a few years ago?

[SickAlice]

" if " this isn't a unique character I'd be lost as to a shot in the dark myself. Hickman centered the character (established as entity, male gendered with motive/malevolent) around several newly introduced races which are rather mysterious or at least newly sprung enough from Hickman's well to make a proper judgement call. As well any facts and details were relayed by another mysterious and perhaps untrustworthy person, Black Swan. I would lay out a list of all details and factors about said character that have been presented thus far, whether their truth be static or questionable by way they may have been askew though the view of a fanatical type (again Black Swan). Noting myself are the recent reveal that the Ivory Kings are also the Beyonders and in direct competition with Rabum Alal over the destruction of the mutliverse in the Game Of Worlds. I would use deductive reasoning and look for correlation in those related to the character. That said is there anything in the back history of the Beyonders that would line up consistently with all observations listed?