Summary
- Hank McCoy, the iconic X-Men hero Beast, has been officially killed off by Marvel in a dramatic fashion.
- The death happens in X-Force #50, as Beast's slide into villainy culminates in a dark plot involving nuclear devices and betrayal.
- A new Beast is taking over the codename, and will be part of Cyclops' main X-Men team in the 'From the Ashes' era.
Warning: contains spoilers for X-Force #50!Six decades since their 1963 debut, Marvel has officially killed off a founding hero from the next era of X-Men comics. Stick around for our end-of-article poll to vote on how Marvel handled this major death.
In X-Force #50, from Benjamin Percy and Robert Gill, the 'Target: Beast' storyline concludes with the death of Henry 'Hank' McCoy, the team's resident genius and former moral com. As the X-Men battle the anti-mutant extremists Orchis, Beast has come up with a dark solution - using a black hole bomb to trap all of mutantkind in a pocket reality, where they'll wait until he has personally defeated Orchis (and set himself up as the only remaining world power.) But when X-Force and Hank's former best friend Wonder Man damage the nuclear-powered device, Beast can't allow them to die, and Hank McCoy is atomized while preventing a larger explosion.
The event marks a significant moment in X-Men history, as the franchise kills off one of its most famous heroes. However, Hank McCoy doesn't just die - he dies in disgrace, having betrayed all those close to him and committed unforgivable atrocities.
X-Men: The 10 Most Powerful 'Beyond Omega Level' Mutants, Ranked
X-Men's most powerful mutants are termed 'Omega-level,' but there IS a category beyond even that - one precious few heroes have achieved.
When X-Force turned against him, Beast went rogue, setting up a series of failsafes for the future which would have destroyed the majority of life on Earth.
X-Men Officially Kills Off Hank McCoy's Beast
After a Slide into Evil, the Founding X-Men Hero Is Dead
Over the course of X-Force volume 6, Beast has gone from pure-hearted hero to despicable villain. In the 2019-2024 Krakoan Era, all mutants gathered together to found the mutant nation of Krakoa. Beast was put in charge of this new nation's answer to the CIA, and he was quickly corrupted by the power. Beast led an attack on the economic rival nation of Terra Verde which resulted in countless innocent deaths. He interrogated and tortured his fellow heroes, and even established a space station laboratory where he could experiment on imprisoned aliens and mutants.
However, Beast pushed his X-Force team too far when it emerged he had been deliberately cloning versions of Wolverine with brain damage, turning them into living weapons in his new 'Weapons of X' group. When X-Force turned against him, Beast went rogue, setting up a series of failsafes for the future which would have destroyed the majority of life on Earth. Now, his evil deeds have finally caught up with him, as Wolverine tracks down Hank McCoy and the former mutant icon is killed in the resultant battle, his plans to imprison all mutants for their own 'safety' left in tatters. But with Beast's reputation destroyed and his body blown to smithereens, why does Marvel's tease for the next era of X-Men show him front and center?
X-Men Officially Settled the 4 Most Powerful Beings in the Marvel Universe
X-Men has officially clarified the four ultimate forces in the Marvel Universe, from a godlike AI to the Devourer of Worlds himself.
X-Force have created a new clone of Hank McCoy, but this new Beast is a very different person...
X-Men's New Beast Is Missing 40 Years of Marvel History
The Clone's Memories Stop at 1985's New Defenders #142
When Beast broke from X-Force, he left behind stored imprints of his memories, back from when he was working with the New Defenders as a mutants rights activist. Beast itted that while he didn't want X-Force to have access to his later psychic imprints, he couldn't bring himself to delete what he saw as the best version of himself. Thankfully, X-Force were able to recover a clone body from Beast's Weapons of X base, and using the memories created a new clone of Hank McCoy.
This Hank is the one who will carry the 'Beast' name forwards, however he only has memories of the Marvel timeline up until stories released in 1985 - that's forty very eventful years of mutant history erased. However, this Beast isn't just a rollback - the experience of discovering his evil self's plans has changed Beast, showing him how evil he can become if he follows his paranoia rather than his hope.
X-Men: Cyclops' New Costume Gives His Iconic Visor a Menacing Redesign
Cyclops' dark new costume has us looking back at his most intimidating outfits from X-Men history, as Scott Summers upgrades his iconic visor.
It's this Beast who will be part of Cyclops' new team when X-Men's 'From the Ashes' era begins in summer 2024, having apparently won back enough trust to find a place on the main X-Men roster. There are other positives to this huge redefinition of the character - his mission to stop the original Beast reconnected him with Wonder Man, his former best friend, and finally showed Hank that he's not always right. In the past, Beast has done some truly risky things - like bringing the original teen X-Men forward in time - because deep down he believes he always knows best. Fans can expect to see that self-righteousness knocked out of the new Beast.
Even if Marvel brings back the original Hank McCoy, it will be as a new take on the evil Dark Beast - the character has no path back to heroism...
The Original Hank Can Theoretically Return, But Not as the Beast
The Original Is Too Far Gone to Be Redeemed
The original Beast's death - atomized by a nuclear device - is a little convenient, and constitutes what the X-Men themselves refer to as a "Magneto moment" - a rule which dictates that if a villain's body isn't found, they'll be back. So far, there's no evidence the original Beast survived his fate, however even if he does return, it will never be to his original place in the X-Men franchise. While a lot of heroes have 'gone evil' at one time or another (including all the original X-Men), it's always been because they were under the influence of an outside force. Beast doesn't have that excuse, and X-Force has reminded fans again and again that this is simply who Hank became when given too much power. After engaging in torture, slavery, murder and more, Hank McCoy can never be the "bouncing blue Beast" ever again.
However, it is possible that Hank McCoy could return as a new 'Dark Beast.' This character was a product of the Age of Apocalypse - a ruthless mad scientist who will do anything in the name of science. A longtime enemy of the X-Men, Dark Beast died fighting against the team, but was recently revealed to still exist as a conscious, severed head in the lab of Mister Sinister. Sinister told the head that "You're not even the darkest Beast anymore," suggesting the original Hank had grown worse than his own dark reflection. If X-Men does bring back the original Beast, it will likely see him claim the 'Dark Beast' moniker, redefining this sixty-year-old hero as a full-time villain.
X-Men Reveals Iconic Villain's True Origin, Permanently Rewriting 46 Years of Marvel Lore
X-Men just exposed the true origin of an iconic villain, establishing them as one of the most powerful forces of evil in the multiverse.
For now, that's just speculation, and what fans know for sure is that the original Hank McCoy is considered dead, and he has been permanently replaced on the X-Men by his clone - missing 40 years of Marvel memories and now conscious that his personality flaws could turn him into a genuine monster.
X-Men has long dealt in metaphors for oppression and alienation, and Beast was often the focus of some of its darkest reckonings with self-hatred...
Is Beast's Death a Good Idea?
X-Men's Hank McCoy Is a Beloved Character Who Will Be Missed
Beast's villainy and death will be a blow to fans who saw themselves in the conflicted mutant. X-Men has long dealt in metaphors for oppression, with different writers using Marvel's mutants to discuss racism, sexism, ableism and more. Beast was often the focus of this discussion. As someone whose powers transformed his body from a young age. Hank was canonically bullied because of his appearance, and his later transformations (including his blue fur) were a result of him experimenting on his own body. Grant Morrison's celebrated New X-Men explored how Beast sees himself as grotesque, unlovable, and even inhuman because of his mutant status, but how he still works to uplift and protect others in the same situation.
In that context, it's a dark fate that Beast is one of the few Marvel heroes to be permanently rendered a villain. For fans who saw their own struggles in Hank, a clone missing 40 years of history (including Grant Morrison's run) is no replacement. At the same time, Beast's darker personality quirks have their own metaphorical significance - Hank McCoy was a science-minded genius who frequently acted as if his specialist knowledge trumped the perspectives and agency of his closest friends. His fall is a potent example of how a 'logical' viewpoint can quickly turn immoral, especially when individual power outstrips ability.
Hank's death hammers home the lesson that anyone can be corrupted, no matter how righteous their intent or keen their intellect. That's a dark perspective that's even more potent in superhero media, where the boundary between 'good' and 'evil' can often feel so clear. Many X-Men fans will regret that Marvel sacrificed the original Beast to make this point, and especially that with his clone now firmly established as a replacement, there's little chance of future creative teams rewriting this tragic ending.
X-Force #50 is available now from Marvel Comics.
- Movie(s)
- X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- First Film
- X-Men (2000)
- TV Show(s)
- X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
- Character(s)
- Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Video Game(s)
- X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Comic Release Date
- 213035,212968
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
