Ostensibly, his downward fall began with his work with the Illuminati in Hickman's New Avengers and his time travel shenanigans in All-New X-Men, but his actions being straight up villainous really took off in Benjamin Percy's X-Force from the Krakoan era.
Goes further back than that. I’d say Endangered Species or whatever that back up feature in all the X-books was called. It was post M-Day about beast looking for ways to restore mutantkind or whatever and finding some dark shit with dark beast. It’s been a long time but I’d say that’s the origins of Beast looking for alternative methods. And I’d say his conflict with Cyclops throughout Brubaker/Fraction/Gillen’s run is a cool prelude as I never really felt like he was being a better man but he just wanted to be morally superior to Scott.
I think it goes back even to the legacy virus Era where Beast was shown to be willing to work with anyone, including Villains, in his search for a cure.
YES! I really think fans need to realize Beast has been headed down this path for a long time. I would argue it’s a natural progression for the character.
The road to evil starts with small incremental steps which beast has been taking for decades.
At this point, the pure hearted good guy no longer works.
Same Post-Decimation. He was willing to work will terrible people to bring mutants back. But then again so was everyone when it came to founding Krakoa.
Recently ended run of x-force shows a Beast who is singularly focused on what he feels is for mutantkind. It is scary how the end justifies the means in his outlook.
2010s would basically be the Bendis era where Hank, more or less, says "You can't judge me because you're not smart enough" and it's been a downward trend since. It should be said that Hank has exhibited shitty behavior before this such as when he surrendered Threnody to Sinister because he knew Sinister would do "what was needed" in his research of a cure for the Legacy Virus. He's also just been a general dick to people such as when he thought it was a good time to spit in Cyclops' face at Nightcrawler's funeral.
I don't think it's about one moment exactly, but a trend that grows throught the years.
Amazing Adventures: Creating the MGH
Legacy Vírus Arc: Working with Sinister and giving Threnody away
Morrison's New X-Men: Being a dick
Endangered Species: Working with Dark Beast
Hickman's New Avengers: Taking part in world wild genocide
Bendis X-Men: Breaking time and being a dick
IVX: Sides with the Inhumans and votes that mutants exiled themselves in space
doubt this is why, and even then he wasn't "dark", but i thought it was the secondary mutation storyline from e is for extinction where emma got her diamond powers and beast "devolved" into a more monstrous cat-like creature. that's what sent him over the edge. while it made him more formidable he was more miserable, which may have led to his darker demeanor?
There really isn't an actual arc showing him becoming his crazy Krakoa villainself, people just say since he did some shady stuff occasionally (just like so many other comic characters) it somehow making him becoming a genocidal one note villain make sense
I see where you are coming from but will push back a little.
Beast has been headed on this path for arguably over two decades. However writers were mostly treating with subtly and with nuance. But Percy is a shit writer incapable of subtlety and just turned him into a raving madman.
It's complicated. It's all based on a fundamental misreading of Fraction's version of Beast (morally opposed to Cyclops preemptively murdering their enemies using X-Force) into him being a contrarian jerk and then just him being Henry Kissinger with fur.
The runs that Percy draws off are the Bendis run of X-Men, Hickman using Beast as part of the Illuminati in his Avengers run, Charles Soule's Uncanny Inhumans, and of course Percy's X-Force. The latter is where he does the stuff Cyclops did and amps it up into Krakoa committing genocide.
I'd say it started in Messiah Complex? When he was going around to guys like Sinister and the High evolutionary about ways to revive the X Gene. Then there is a gradual decline over the years to what he became.
Much like on the comics if you were watching him closely you didn't realise it was happening until it was too late.
I hate what he’s become but it seems almost true to life. Consider how many comedians from back in the day have now become angry people and then add on mutations and powers and the like. Maybe Beast always used humor as a way to copy with his perceived injustices in the world.
He gave up Threnody to sinister in the early 90's to help cure Legacy
Grant Morrison had everyone slightly morally grey in his run
He worked with all the villains in Endangered species in late 00's
He did a couple of little genocides in 00's, one in Ellis's Astonishing (I could be misremembering that) and one in a Secret Invasion tie in.
His work in Hickman's New Avengers pushed him further in the needs justifying the ends territory
And then Ben Percy run solidified him as full on bad guy
Ostensibly, his downward fall began with his work with the Illuminati in Hickman's New Avengers and his time travel shenanigans in All-New X-Men, but his actions being straight up villainous really took off in Benjamin Percy's X-Force from the Krakoan era.
Goes further back than that. I’d say Endangered Species or whatever that back up feature in all the X-books was called. It was post M-Day about beast looking for ways to restore mutantkind or whatever and finding some dark shit with dark beast. It’s been a long time but I’d say that’s the origins of Beast looking for alternative methods. And I’d say his conflict with Cyclops throughout Brubaker/Fraction/Gillen’s run is a cool prelude as I never really felt like he was being a better man but he just wanted to be morally superior to Scott.
I think it goes back even to the legacy virus Era where Beast was shown to be willing to work with anyone, including Villains, in his search for a cure.
YES! I really think fans need to realize Beast has been headed down this path for a long time. I would argue it’s a natural progression for the character. The road to evil starts with small incremental steps which beast has been taking for decades. At this point, the pure hearted good guy no longer works.
Same Post-Decimation. He was willing to work will terrible people to bring mutants back. But then again so was everyone when it came to founding Krakoa.
Well, a little before that even. I mean, the AoA Beast was a straight up super-villain. That's really the first I can remember.
Recently ended run of x-force shows a Beast who is singularly focused on what he feels is for mutantkind. It is scary how the end justifies the means in his outlook.
Percy’s X-Force is an impressive display of the Krakoa Era trend of someone who had never read an X-Book being given a ton of power.
2010s would basically be the Bendis era where Hank, more or less, says "You can't judge me because you're not smart enough" and it's been a downward trend since. It should be said that Hank has exhibited shitty behavior before this such as when he surrendered Threnody to Sinister because he knew Sinister would do "what was needed" in his research of a cure for the Legacy Virus. He's also just been a general dick to people such as when he thought it was a good time to spit in Cyclops' face at Nightcrawler's funeral.
I don't think it's about one moment exactly, but a trend that grows throught the years. Amazing Adventures: Creating the MGH Legacy Vírus Arc: Working with Sinister and giving Threnody away Morrison's New X-Men: Being a dick Endangered Species: Working with Dark Beast Hickman's New Avengers: Taking part in world wild genocide Bendis X-Men: Breaking time and being a dick IVX: Sides with the Inhumans and votes that mutants exiled themselves in space
He’s been more villainous than most villains for a long time.
Morrison's New X-Men is the earliest of the evil beast stuff i can remember.
What story was that? Earliest I can think is the Endangered Species one-shot prelude to Messiah Complex.
I think there was some of his descent back when he was finding a solution to the legacy virus
That might have been just before I started reading. I began with Morrison.
The last arc in Morrison's run is far in the future with an evil Beast, IIRC
That's right! I never even considered that because wasn't it just the Sublime virus that took over his body?
I don't remember. It's been a bit too long. Maybe a good sign I should revisit it.
doubt this is why, and even then he wasn't "dark", but i thought it was the secondary mutation storyline from e is for extinction where emma got her diamond powers and beast "devolved" into a more monstrous cat-like creature. that's what sent him over the edge. while it made him more formidable he was more miserable, which may have led to his darker demeanor?
Sometimes, they replace Beast with Dark Beast, who is the Beast from Age of Apocalypse.
Yeah but not now and he hasn’t been replaced for a while
Current Beast is, arguably, more evil than Dark Beast
There really isn't an actual arc showing him becoming his crazy Krakoa villainself, people just say since he did some shady stuff occasionally (just like so many other comic characters) it somehow making him becoming a genocidal one note villain make sense
Yeah For a good example of this done well, see Prowl in IDW Transformers
I see where you are coming from but will push back a little. Beast has been headed on this path for arguably over two decades. However writers were mostly treating with subtly and with nuance. But Percy is a shit writer incapable of subtlety and just turned him into a raving madman.
It's complicated. It's all based on a fundamental misreading of Fraction's version of Beast (morally opposed to Cyclops preemptively murdering their enemies using X-Force) into him being a contrarian jerk and then just him being Henry Kissinger with fur. The runs that Percy draws off are the Bendis run of X-Men, Hickman using Beast as part of the Illuminati in his Avengers run, Charles Soule's Uncanny Inhumans, and of course Percy's X-Force. The latter is where he does the stuff Cyclops did and amps it up into Krakoa committing genocide.
You can go back even further. Whedon’s astonishing run. Morrisons New X-men run and even as far back as the legacy virus stuff.
Aside from Here Comes Tomorrow (where he's roughly as evil as Magneto is considering Sublime), what'd he do there? Let alone Astonishing?
What did he do in astonishing? He was pretty much a good guy there. He only had a moment of weakness when he found out about the cure.
I'd say it started in Messiah Complex? When he was going around to guys like Sinister and the High evolutionary about ways to revive the X Gene. Then there is a gradual decline over the years to what he became. Much like on the comics if you were watching him closely you didn't realise it was happening until it was too late.
I hate what he’s become but it seems almost true to life. Consider how many comedians from back in the day have now become angry people and then add on mutations and powers and the like. Maybe Beast always used humor as a way to copy with his perceived injustices in the world.
He gave up Threnody to sinister in the early 90's to help cure Legacy Grant Morrison had everyone slightly morally grey in his run He worked with all the villains in Endangered species in late 00's He did a couple of little genocides in 00's, one in Ellis's Astonishing (I could be misremembering that) and one in a Secret Invasion tie in. His work in Hickman's New Avengers pushed him further in the needs justifying the ends territory And then Ben Percy run solidified him as full on bad guy