Marvel Just Revealed Why the X-Men’s Darkest Hero Has an Advantage Other Heroes Don’t

The X-Men are about to launch into the “DNX” crossover storyline, and it is all starting thanks to Beast. This is part of the fallout from the “Age of Revelation” event series, where Cyclops ended up in yet another mutant post-apocalyptic future, this one where Douglas Ramsey wiped out much of humanity, and mutants who didn’t follow him were hunted down. However, this also included a moment where the original Beast, who turned evil on Krakoa, returned and saw that future, becoming determined to create it in this timeline. The Beast clone that replaced this original Beast after the hero’s apparent death now finds himself as part of the team trying to stop the original, now known as the Chairman.

When Beast went dark, he quickly became one of the most hated X-Men members in the team’s entire existence. What he did in the name of science showed that the Dark Beast from “Age of Apocalypse” was always there and ready to come out. The cloned Beast, now a member of the X-Men and with his personality from years ago, called on Magik, told her who the Chairman was, and then asked her for help.

Magik Reveals Beast’s Greatest Advantage

The conflict in Beast comes from knowing that he has it in him to go pure evil, and Hank McCoy worries and doubts himself. He needed to talk to someone who could understand, and he called in Magik, someone who had gone through similar moments in her past. The Darkchylde is the powerful, semi-demonic alternate personality of Magik, and this form shows up when Illyana Rasputin gives in to her darker impulses. This turns her into a force of pure evil, and she always fights to keep this darkness under control.

In X-Men #35 by Jed MacKay and Tony S. Daniel, Beast asks Magik how she lives like this, knowing that there is an evil with her face and one that embodies all you “fear and hate and despise.” He wants to know how she deals with the knowledge that she could become this evil thing if she makes just one mistake. That is when Magik does what she does best: she drops a huge truth bomb on Beast and tells him to “appreciate what a gift it is. And you are grateful.”

Beast seemed shocked, but Magik knew what she was talking about. She told him that everyone else in the world thinks they are all good, goes about life thinking everything is fine, and that nothing they do is too cruel. She said most people, mutants included, lie to themselves, believing they are incapable of evil. She said that the two of them don’t have that luxury, and they know exactly what the worst versions of themselves look like and what to do to stop it. Magik has Darkchylde and Beast has the Chairman, and both know how important it is that they don’t become them.

Beast Remains the X-Men’s Most Conflicted Character

There might not have been a more beloved member of the X-Men throughout history than Beast. He was jovial, cracked jokes, and was one of the most optimistic members of the X-Men and Avengers over the years. However, there was always that sense of darkness hanging over the character. When he tried to cure himself, he only made it worse with the blue fur, and then he kept trying to fix himself, believing that being a mutant meant there was something wrong with him.

Marvel did a slow burn over the years, showing Beast getting a little darker along the way. He tried to create a mutant cure, still believing that mutants should try to be human to fit in and remain safe. His anger at Cyclops killing Professor X led him to create a time machine that brought the original X-Men to the present and then stranded them in the present day. His own teammates tried an intervention more than once, but Beast never believed he was wrong. Even seeing the Dark Beast from “Age of Apocalypse” didn’t convince him that he could step over that line.

In Krakoa, Beast did step over that line. As the head of X-Force, he did terrible things, ordered murders more than once, and then he even lobotomized the leader of another country to gain control of its resources. By the end, he had gone so far that the mutant nation had to stop him, and that is what led to his apparent death and the return of the old Beast thanks to the resurrection protocol.

Now, that Beast is back as the Chairman, and the new Beast is unsure of what this means for him. This is important. While the original Beast didn’t learn from watching Dark Beast, this Beast did something his former self never did. He asked for help, and Magik was the perfect person to go to. She was honest and told him that he had to be conscious of what his evil self looked like. It is only by doing so that this Beast can finally return to being the hero that fans once fell in love with.

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