In the wake of the Age of Revelation, the gene-terrorist group 3K has been revitalized. But will their internal schemes undo them? X-Men #24 is written by Jed MacKay, penciled by Tony Daniel, inked by Mark Morales, colored by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
For many years, I have been a vocal proponent of what I call “Unified Beast Theory.” This theory holds the following truths to be self-evident:
- Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, has one of the most consistent character arcs in the history of X-Men storytelling.
- The iterations of the Beast vary in many ways, but are even more compelling when compared or combined.
- Regardless of the iteration or the combo, the Beast’s long and evolving storyline should always end with an obvious payoff: The Beast becomes one of the X-Men’s most challenging supervillain foes.
With Jed MacKay and Tony Daniel taking the Age of Revelation Finale reveal to another level this week, this is a great time to talk about why Beast’s evolution over the decades works so well, and why it’s the perfect time to capitalize on his next heel turn.
The Unethical McCoy
One of the unfortunate side effects of X-Men: The Animated Series is that it caused casual readers of X-Men comics to think that Hank McCoy was simply a jolly and playful brainiac who bounded about as a cute furball spouting his “Oh my stars and garters” catchphrase. And it’s not that a version of that happy-go-lucky figure doesn’t appear in the comics — he frequently does — but Hank’s dubious scientific and medical ethics stem far back into his canonical history.
The entire reason the Beast has blue fur at all is because he experimented on himself in his search for the chemical cause of mutation (Amazing Adventures #11), an experiment that some argue created the oft-weaponized Mutant Growth Hormone. He would go on to express admiration for and even jealousy of Mister Sinister’s cloning labs, endangering Threnody in the process instead of helping her (X-Men Vol. 2 #27 and #34). And while he was able to create a cure for the Legacy Virus, he left the only sample in an unlocked storage fridge knowing whoever took it would die (Spoiler alert: Colossus took it, and died.) (Uncanny X-Men #390).
Other notable Beast crimes include stealing Dr. Rao’s “mutant cure” for himself and then refusing to destroy it, partnering with a cadre of Marvel supervillains in an attempt to reverse M-Day in “Endangered Species,” his willingness to commit genocide against Skrulls in Secret Invasion: X-Men #4, his willingness to commit mass murder in Secret Avengers #16, and messing with the fabric of reality by bringing the original five X-Men to the present.
They’re the Same Picture
But honestly, if you’re reading this, you’re likely an X-Men obsessive who already knows Hank McCoy is a terrible person. X-writers surely do. It’s why Chris Claremont rarely feigned interest in him to begin with, Louise Simonson made him dumb to keep him out of trouble, and every writer since has had him do all these awful things for so long.
It’s also why, when writers fully go for it and depict Beast as a villain, it’s not much of a stretch because he’s already there. Take Dark Beast, Hank’s “Age of Apocalypse” counterpart created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz. Designed to show a worst-case outcome for the character, Dark Beast isn’t all that different from Earth-616 Beast, he’s just way more into torture and has different colored fur. Or Future Brotherhood Beast from Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen’s All-New X-Men, who was driven insane by witnessing the assassination of President Alison Blaire, which suggests it’s not if but when Hank is going to lose his marbles.
Even the wildest of evil Beasts, Grant Morrison and Marc Silvestri’s White Beast from New X-Men’s “Here Comes Tomorrow” arc, became possessed by Sublime because he lost his grip as headmaster of Xavier’s school and started taking Kick. The other White Beast came about after the time-displaced Hank McCoy became obsessed with evil sorcery in an effort to shortcut his knowledge base to match his present-day counterpart, resulting in a demon-esque white alter ego (All-New X-Men Vol. 2). We could call these “dark reflections” of Hank McCoy, but what we’re really looking at is just what the mirror already shows: a deeply flawed ticking time bomb of a man.
A Modern White Beast
The writer who exercised the most malevolent take on the Beast is Ben Percy, in the pages of his Krakoan X-Force and Wolverine runs. Percy’s Beast extends the ego we saw on display in the pages of Bendis’ All-New and Uncanny and boosts it further as the de facto leader of Krakoa’s version of the CIA. War crimes abounded and escalated until finally, in one of the most badass moments of the Krakoan era, the X-Force HQ literally gets up and walks away, filled with a team of Beast clones to do the thinking and a team of Wolverine clones to do the stabbing.
In an attempt to reset the chessboard at the end of that story, Beast was seemingly reverted to his more innocent days, a version of the character we have seen on the X-Men roster since the start of the “From the Ashes” era. What’s refreshing is that while that move may have seemed regressive at the time, MacKay has used this setup as an opportunity to pull a bait-and-switch on us, revealing that the evil leader of the secret organization known as 3K is none other than Percy’s evil Beast serving as Chairman.
This week’s X-Men #24 took this reveal another step, with Daniel illustrating that not only had Beast returned from his time in the Age of Revelation, but he had taken the white-haired form visually separating him from his blue counterpart and establishing him as an honest-to-god supervillain again. I was already shouting, “Hell Yeah,” at the Chairman reveal. This? This is the most excited I’ve been about an X-book in a good while.
Why Is This a Big Deal?
Rogue, Magneto, Marrow, Deadpool, Juggernaut … the list of one-time X-villains who have ultimately joined the side of actual X-Men was already long before the nation-state of Krakoa welcomed all mutants good or bad to their portals. But the number of long-standing X-Men heroes who have turned to true villainy are few. What’s great about Beast “breaking bad” is that it happened so gradually over hundreds of comics, with multiple writers and artists picking up where their predecessors left off and continuing to drive Hank McCoy down a path to evil. It’s a true feat in serialized storytelling to have such a large character arc over such an extended period of time actually pay off.
With so many of the X-Men’s rogue’s gallery ultimately “breaking good,” it also presents a severe lack of actual supervillain threats. The major players who the X-Men have battled for so long (Magneto, Apocalypse, etc.) are largely off the board, creating a bad guy vacuum. A villainous Beast presents a real threat. He possesses a genius-level scientific intellect, zero scruples, endless backup plans and a conviction that he’s doing the right thing for the future of mutantkind (plus, if anyone dares to remember, he’s still an evil sorcerer!). Not to mention he now commands a small team of extremely nasty baddies, including the extremely powerful Cassandra Nova.
Now, what MacKay & Co. do with this newest incarnation of evil Beast will be interesting to see. As exciting as his mere presence is, I’m hopeful this is not a temporary adjustment but a permanent fixture that reignites the Cyclops-Beast rivalry and establishes Hank McCoy as a formidable adversary to all ends of the X-landscape. Only time will tell, but given his first order of business appears to be the recreation of the X-Virus, the X-Men are going to have their hands full. Which is just the way it should be.
X-traneous Thoughts
- I didn’t include ALL of Beast’s war crimes here. We’ve covered more than a few on Battle of the Atom. Try episodes 234 and 275 for more.
- What does all of this mean for the reset blue Beast? Probably nothing good.
- Given Beast’s penchant for messing with time travel, will he assemble his own evil council of Beasts?
- Still unanswered: What exactly was the body the Chairman previously inhabited, and how did he create his new big furry form?
Buy X-Men #24 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom. Follow him @adamreck.bsky.social.
