Cloning himself into the body of Steve Rogers, the Beyonder experiences humanity for the first time. New York City looks quite different through alien eyes, as Beyonder discovers the challenges Earth's heroes face.
The Beyonder appears in Manhattan. He decides to take on a more permanent human form, and uses Captain America's body as his model. He feels that in order to understand people, he must be one of them. He steps off a building, and falls toward the earth. Realizing that this would negatively impact his new body, he temporarily changes back to energy before he hits the ground. It hurts; this is another example of an "intense experience" like when Wolverine cut him. He walks around New York, observing human habits like clothes and eating, making naive and humorous attempts to copy them.
Meanwhile, the Psycho-Man and the Hate Monger are causing a near-riot, and the Fantastic Four attempt to calm things down. However, the Hate Monger turns Susan Storm into Malice, releasing her inner wild, dark side.
The Beyonder sees some of the turmoil, and wonders at its cause, and at human customs. Someone tells him to ask a friend, so he seeks out Peter Parker, chasing him down at the Daily Bugle. Startled at the strange appearances of the mysterious stranger, Pete turns to Spider-Man, but the Beyonder turns invisible and follows him back to his apartment. The Beyonder then reappears and begins asking questions a mile-a-minute, freaking Peter out. He then realizes that this is the Beyonder. He recommends talking to someone smarter, like Reed Richards, and the Beyonder goes off to find him, after first using Peter's bathroom.
The Beyonder shows up in the middle of the Fantastic Four's fight against the Hate Monger. Sue has turned back to normal, although she is still wearing the Malice costume. In the confusion caused by his appearance, the Hate Monger runs away, but is rejected by the Psycho-Man. He is subsequently shot by Scourge in front of the heroes' eyes. Reed wants to talk to the Beyonder, but Sue wants Reed's attention because of what she has just gone through as Malice. The Beyonder disappears.
He decides to try on a suit from a department store window, and meets a homeless woman who explains to him how to alter the suit so it fits him better. They walk and talk for a while, and are confronted by a gang of punks, who beat up the Beyonder. The punks leave threatening to come back later, and the Beyonder heals himself, wondering at the number of intense experience he has had. She gives him the card for the Heroes for Hire, so he teleports to their office.
They are not there, so he grabs them from the past and brings them into the current time. They attack, but he knocks them around, starting to play with the idea of physically fighting back. Cage asks him to step outside, and the Beyonder takes it literally, walking out the window. Cage jumps after him to help, but crashes into the pavement after the Beyonder turns into energy before hitting the ground. Iron Fist takes the elevator and stops Cage from hitting the Beyonder any more. Iron Fist is interested in talking about philosophy with the Beyonder, but Luke Cage says all that is worthless, and all that matters is money, which Cage incorrectly thinks stands for gold. The Beyonder decides to reward them, and turns their entire building to gold as Spider-Man shows up. The Beyonder then teleports away once again.
The story is continued in Web Of Spider-Man 6, Amazing Spider-Man 268, and Fantastic Four 282.
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