My best guess - Rabum Alal is a Doom tainted Beyonder! The Beyonder from the original Secret Wars didn't just get his powers back when taking them from Doom, this would be Onslaught done Doom style.
Either that or it's Willie Lumpkin.
I haven't yet read a Hickman story that I didn't enjoy. Some are better than others, sure, but I've enjoyed it all.
I enjoy most of King's stuff too.
He'll be back. But in the meantime, you should definitely get into East of West and his other Image books. In my opinion, East of West is superior to his Marvel work. Dragotta's art doesn't hurt either.
That cover with Doom an the Gauntlet is badass. I don't think I ever saw that book or I probably would have grabbed it based on the cover alone. Was the story any good?
ok...been reading S.H.I.E.L.D.... I definitely don't see RA being Newton, or even an alternate Newton. I found some interesting connections though- Franklin Richards "ascended" at some point in the future, and Michelangelo also "ascended" with somewhat similar powers... They both can exist in multiple times, but Michelangelo seems to exist in multiple times simultaneously, while Franklin travels through time. Also, Franklin seems to be able to alter reality and create pocket universes, which michelangelo does not seem to be able to do.
Maybe they belong to a "class" of superbeing that we havent really seen as being classified yet. Maybe RA is this type of being (but on the evil axis) and he snuffed out his universe, which caused the domino-effect of multiversal collapse
As I have read in previous posts, I agree that RA is more of a chaotic figure, while the Ivory Kings/Beyonders are trying to reach some kind of orderly end to the multiverse, but they are purposefully preserving bits and pieces of each destroyed earth/universe to create a new reality/multiverse through the formation of the upcoming Battleworld....
jesus I can't wait until March 11!!!
Doom. With Molecule Man.
Hickman said it was a new character. And we know the incursions began on an alternate earth...but perhaps doom & Owen's journey into the space between universes leads them back in time to an alternate earth and somehow they cause the initial collapse, creating a causality loop...but I doubt it based on the NA 32 cover. Doom is laying there crumpled with his mask blown off. Someone rocked him hard.
I want to see Black Panther get into a fight with Rabum Alal, and win! There has to be vindication for T'challa...