Beast, at one time, was the most beloved of the X-Men. He was the jovial and happy blue “furball” and was a loyal member of both the Avengers and several mutant teams throughout his life. However, something started to happen to him as time went on. After Age of Apocalypse, he saw what could happen if he went evil when Dark Beast showed up from that world. Things got worse after Cyclops killed Professor X while possessed by the Phoenix Force, and Beast began to exert his will more and more on other mutants. By the time Krakoa arrived, and the Quiet Council mistakenly put Beast in charge of X-Force, he finally went off the deep end, becoming a despicable villain, but believing he was doing it in the name of protecting mutants.
From mercilessly killing people to attempting genocide and forcing other mutants to follow his orders regardless of merit, here are the moments when Beast was easily the worst hero in the mutant world.
1) Bringing The Original X-Men To The Future & Stranding Them There
Beast went through some dark times after Cyclops killed Professor X in the 2012 Avengers Vs. X-Men storyline. While possessed by the Phoenix Force, it was still Scott who killed the mutant’s longtime mentor. Already struggling with his sense of ethics, Beast came up with a plan that was wrong on many levels. In All-New X-Men (2012) #1, he traveled back in time to bring the original X-Men (the young version of himself included) to the present day to show Cyclops what he had turned into. The problem is that he didn’t think it out, and the team ended up stranded there. The present-day X-Men were not happy about it either, as they eventually had an intervention with Beast and asked him to leave the team until he could understand that what he was doing was unethical and wrong.
2) Began Working With Dark Beast To Bring Back Mutants
Beast has always done immoral things in the name of science. The Legacy Virus was wiping out mutants worldwide, and it seemed that there was no cure in sight. At that time, Beast sacrificed a young mutant to Mister Sinister to attempt to find a cure. Beast then did something even worse years later. After the Scarlet Witch depowered most of the world’s mutants following House of M, Beast found a dangerous ally. In the storyline X-Men: Endangered Species (2007), Beast, seeking a way to restore everyone’s powers, reached out to brilliant superheroes, and when they couldn’t figure anything out, he turned to villains. However, the turning point came when he began collaborating with his evil counterpart, Dark Beast, from the Age of Apocalypse timeline. The purpose Dark Beast served was to show what would happen if Beast gave up ethics and morals completely, and working with that version of himself showed he was on his way to that moment.
3) Beast Mind Controlled Wolverine & Forced Him To Kill His Allies
Beast made a lot of enemies when he went bad in Krakoa, but the one mutant who wanted to kill him the most was Wolverine. Even when the Avengers-era Beast was brought back in the resurrection protocol, Wolverine tried to kill him too, since he could eventually turn bad like Prime Beast. The reasoning was expected. Because Wolverine disapproved of his actions, Beast sent him on a dangerous mission, knowing it was a trap. Beast then showed up and killed Wolverine. This happened in Wolverine (2020) #26. After Wolverine’s death, Beast secretly resurrected him in a feral state and then used him as a personal assassin to attack and kill Wolverine’s allies and Beast’s enemies. It was no wonder Wolverine hated Beast above any other mutant.
4) Beast Helped The Illuminati Destroy Several Alternate Earths
The Illuminati formed when Earth’s most powerful heroes decided they needed to pull strings behind the scenes to shape events and protect the world. They committed numerous unethical acts and were also responsible for the Secret Invasion storyline and World War Hulk, among other notable events. They also knew that incursions were coming, which would cause alternate Earths to collide and face destruction. By this time, Professor X had died, and the Illuminati recruited Beast to replace him to represent mutants. In Worlds Collide, the Illuminati, with Beast as a member, chose to destroy several alternate Earths to save their own, committing mass genocide on a large scale.
5) Beast Unethically Overthrew Terra Verde
The eventual downfall of Beast came in the Krakoa storyline, and he became a genuine villain in the Wolverine comic book series. After mutants on Krakoa learned that Beast was holding Wolverine captive and forcing him to kill, they came to Logan’s rescue and then tried to discover the truth. At this time, Beast began murdering more people to conceal his secrets, which ultimately led to his greatest war crime. Beast used Krakoa to take over the country of Terra Verde because they presented a competitor to Krakoa for plant exports. He then lobotomized the President’s son, but that ended up accidentally causing the people of the country to become infected by a plant virus, destroying the people there. Beast then mind-controlled the entire country and used the citizens like puppets as the ultimate colonizer. It took Jean Grey to psychically show him the pain he was causing to get him to reprogram the country, but the damage was done.
The post 5 Times Beast Was the Actual Worst appeared first on ComicBook.com.
