Warning: contains spoilers for X-Force #40!
An original member of the Beast) becomes “the God of All Mutants.” In X-Force #40, Old Man Omega (Quentin Quire) sends the team forward in time, to a dark and dystopian future, ruled over by a founding member of the X-Men, who has declared themselves a god–but will X-Force be powerful enough to stop them once and for all?
X-Force #40 is written by Benjamin Percy, drawn by Paul Davidson and Robert Gill, colored by GURU eFX, and lettered by Joe Caramagna. Old Man Omega has sent X-Force, including Sage, Domino, Omega Red, and Wolverine, to the future. Soon after their arrival, they are attacked by blue, tentacled creatures–who resemble the Beast. After hacking and slashing their way through the monsters–which Quire calls “Beast Priests,” Omega Red is captured by one and whisked away to a sinister-looking lair. Quire explains to the rest of X-Force that in this timeline, Beast cultivated fear between humans and mutants, channeling that power into his own religion. Quire says that, over time, the Beast has morphed into “the God of All Mutants.”
Beast's Ascension To Godhood Reveals His Dark Nature
The Beast’s “ascension” to God of All Mutants is but the latest development in a shocking fall from grace that has played out across the pages of X-Force. Beast, as head of the team, began making morally questionable decisions, including experimenting on fellow mutants. Beast has even cloned Wolverine (Logan), creating an army of mindless killing machines. The Beast has justified his crimes for the good of Krakoa and all mutants, but it has become clear he has abandoned reason and his morals. The scope of his crimes has become known to Krakoa’s Quiet Council, but the Beast has created a number of fail-safes, should he be caught. In a previous issue, it was revealed that the Beast made clones of himself, and would not hesitate to kill them if they ever got out of line–and now, in the future, readers are seeing the bitter fruit that has sprung from the seeds Beast sowed in our time.
The Beast’s ultimate dark form, and the creatures he has created in his image are shocking. So far, the Beast’s clones of himself have been just that–clones, with only minor variations in appearance. Yet as time progresses, Beast’s clones become so removed from the original that they develop new types of physical features, such as spider-like legs. These creatures are a gross perversion of everything Beast once stood for, and his ultimate form, the so-called “God of All Mutants,” is this corruption carried out to its extreme, reflecting the ego and hubris of the Beast in the present day.
The Beast Has Crossed Too Many Lines
Furthermore, the Beast’s ascension to a self-styled god marked the point of no return for the character. The Beast’s duty to Krakoa and his fellow mutants has blinded him, causing him to forget his moral com. The Beast was a founding member of the X-Men, and used to be once a beacon of comion and empathy, but his ascension to godhood shows that his dark side has definitively prevailed.
X-Force #40 is on sale now from Marvel Comics!
