A number of characters were born as counterparts to their pre-existing forms from Marvel’s Prime Earth in the Age of Apocalypse, another dimension in the Marvel continuity. Beast, the X-fourth Men’s member, now possesses an evil version of himself as well. Dark Beast is a genetic genius with unrivaled abilities. He is every mutant’s greatest nightmare, and he lives up to the word Dark in his name.
Dark Beast is a lunatic who puts experimentation before humanity, constantly developing new terrible tactics to experiment on mutants. His experiments, mentored by Mister Sinister himself, are more vicious than those of his master. In his own twisted manner, he may make a mutant yearn for their death. So, without further ado, let us watch the video and learn more about this terrifying character.
The first comic book appearance in a shocking alternate reality!
Away from Marvel’s Prime Earth and set in the alternate universe of Earth – 295, Dark Beast made his first comic book appearance in X-Men: Alpha which was published in 1995. His character was created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz. This issue marks the beginning of the Age of Apocalypse storyline.
In Seattle, a hooded figure walks among the sea of dead bodies lying around. All the humans in North America were warned to flee. But the ones who did not, all became victims of the horrific culling executed by Apocalypse’s Infinites. The Infinites are the soldiers of the mutant villain Apocalypse, who were created by Mr. Sinister and the Dark Beast. They carry gene-trackers that are set to track all homo sapiens.
The hooded man was soon attacked by the Infinites but was able to absorb their powers, which means that he is also a mutant. However, before they could make another attempt at killing the stranger, the X-Men, Sabretooth, Blink, Wild child, Morph, Rogue, Magneto, Quicksilver, Storm, Iceman, and Nightcrawler all arrive on the scene. They fight and defeat the Infinites, but it is a sad victory for these were just some of the Infinites, and the others still continue to kill humans who come in their path, ruling over them.
Confessing his thoughts to Quicksilver, Magneto tells him that there was a time long ago when even he greatly believed in the mutants ruling over the humans. But the death of his friend, Charles Xavier, helped him see a new dream. Had it not been for Professor X’s death twenty years ago, Magneto surely would have become the greatest foe known to mankind. Xavier’s dream was a vision of racial unity: mutants and humans living in harmony.
Before dying, he entrusted Magneto with making this dream a reality. On the other hand, none of the X-Men seemed to know this mutant stranger they had just saved. He has been as silent as a rock for the past 20 years. But when he saw Magneto, he somehow recognized him and started yelling and saying that Magneto was a murderer and everything was his fault. Obviously, none of this made sense at the time, so Magneto slowed the blood flow of iron in his brain, which put him to sleep. And they all returned to their secret compound in Westchester.
This stranger is actually the sole survivor from Prime Earth, who has been trapped in this reality for two decades now, and his memories are scrambled due to the reality warp.
Meanwhile, in Apocalypse’s breeding pens, we see Dark Beast, also known as Black Beast, for the first time in the comic. Henry McCoy, a.k.a. Dark Beast, is the evil, sadistic version of one of the founding members of the X-Men, Beast from the Prime Marvel Universe. In this alternate reality of the Age of Apocalypse, Dark Beast is one of Apocalypse’s most treasured geneticists, who spends his time working on genetically amplifying the powers of homo superiors that are deemed unfit for Apocalypse’s cause.
In fact, along with the creation of the Infinites and experimenting on other mutants, he has also experimented on himself over time, mutating himself into a blue-grey furred figure. He got the name Dark Beast because of the drastic and brutal experiments that he does on others. And so, showcasing his genius to us, he is at it once again, conducting endless experiments on Mr Dukes. Dukes attacks Dark Beast in a frenzy, and Prelate Alex Summers, called Havoc, arrives just in time to lend him a hand.
But Dukes was not going down without a fight. And to join them, the other brother, Scott Summers, known as Cyclops, appears and defeats Dukes with a powerful optic blast from his one good eye. He is furious to find out that Dark Beast is still continuing his experiments despite the Kelly Pact, which is a non-aggression treaty between the Human High Council and Apocalypse that specifically halts genetic experimentation.
But as it turns out, Dark Beast’s mentor, Mister Sinister, is not all too surprised by this discovery. Close by, Angel, the owner of a nightclub that serves as a neutral ground for both humans and mutants in Apocalypse territory, meets Gambit, a member of the X-Men. Gambit wants to know where Magneto is, and Angel tells him, not knowing that they are being watched by Sebastian Shaw, a spy who works for Apocalypse.
In Apocalypse’s palace, he has summoned his four horsemen, Mister Sinister, Abyss, Mikhail Rasputin, and Holocaust, the son of Apocalypse, to discuss the Armageddon. This genetic civil war will accomplish Apocalypse’s ideology of survival of the fittest. As for Apocalypse’s son, who was initially known as Nemesis, Holocaust’s physical body was previously destroyed by Magneto. After that, Dark Beast fixed him with a transparent armor that would not only harness his energy but also prevent him from disintegrating.
It looks like other than torture, the Dark Beast can also fix things. Anyway, back in Westchester County, at the X-Mansion, Magneto and Rogue decide that the only way to find out about the stranger’s accusations toward Magneto is for Rogue to head dive into his mind through her touch. This will leave her to be overwhelmed by the stranger’s memories.
In flashes, both Magneto and Rogue see visions of another reality where Professor X did not die. And because Magneto was no longer responsible for Xavier’s aspirations, he chose a darker path for the future, one where he stood against Professor X and the X-Men. This is the reality of the stranger, the story of what happened in Marvel’s Prime Universe.
How did Dark Beast infiltrate the main reality and clash with the X-Men?
When the Age of Apocalypse came to an end, there were four people from that reality who managed to escape to Marvel’s Prime Earth. These were the Holocaust, Sugar Man – who was a student of Mister Sinister from that reality, Nate Grey – who was genetically engineered by Mister Sinister using the DNA of Cyclops and Jean Grey, and last but not the least, Dark Beast.
They were able to do this by teleporting into the center of the M’Kraan Crystal. The M’Kraan Crystal is a huge, pink gem that houses the nexus of all realities and also has the power to destroy or create an entire universe. Now, Dark Beast was presumed dead by all the X-Men because before landing on Prime Earth, Quicksilver had meddled with his set trajectory.
But the effects of this interference only resulted in the Dark Beast landing 20 years in the past on Prime Earth with a wiped-out memory. But thanks to a young Emma Frost, he managed to restore all of his memories. He then started doing what he was best at. He went on to manipulate and experiment on the Morlocks, the mutant outcasts living in the underground subway tunnels of Manhattan.
However, soon the Mister Sinister of this main reality found out that his techniques were being used unauthorized on the Morlocks. So, he gave the order to eliminate them. Dark Beast then devised a plan to kidnap the X-Men Beast and steal his identity by altering his mutation to resemble his blue-furred counterpart. As expected, he successfully infiltrated the X-Men, but sadly for Beast, none of them even realized that this Beast was not actually their friend.
He continued to fool the X-Men by helping them deal with various conflicts. Dark Beast’s trick was going as planned until the arrival of Onslaught. Onslaught is a sentient psionic entity that initially resided in Professor X’s mind. He was created due to the psionic contact between Professor X and Magneto during Xavier’s attempt to stop Magneto from destroying everything.
The onslaught was the first one who was always aware of the Dark Beast’s true identity due to his own telepathic powers. In fact, he shielded Dark Beast’s presence from other telepaths at the X-Mansion. Onslaught soon took full possession of the Professor’s mind and body in order to execute his plans for the mutant rule, and Dark Beast joined forces with him. But when he became aware of the events that took place during the mutant rule in Dark Beast’s reality, he decided to slaughter both mutants and humans. However, he was destroyed by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in the end.
How was the monstrous Beast variant executed?
The most shocking thing about the X-Men was their decision to join hands with the Dark Beast. After years of clashing and fighting, there came a time when Dark Beast was forced to work for the X-Men as their scientist. During that time, he has even saved Cyclops from a deadly injury. In the Uncanny X-Men storyline, we were introduced to a vaccine that halted the next generation of mutants from gaining any powers or becoming mutants in the first place.
So, the very existence of the X-Men was in danger. But if you are wondering how the X-Men were able to trust Dark Beast for help, you can thank Mister Sinister for that. It was his idea, after all! The Dark Beast was looking for a cure to prevent this catastrophe from occurring. So, in order to avoid mutant extinction, the X-Men and Dark Beast formed an alliance. Dark Beast was able to create the cure, and it only needed to be dropped airborne in a few places for it to work.
But as it turns out, Dark Beast had weaponized the cure to make it fatal for potential mutant children, and the X-Men found out about it a little too late. He had already injected a child without consent from the X-Men, and the kid almost died. Enraged by this, Illyana Rasputin, who is known as Magik, killed Dark Beast with her teleportation disc, sending his head into the ceiling.
What made him so powerful?
As we have seen multiple instances of his genetic intelligence, it is evident that Dark Beast is a talented geneticist who is capable of a wide range of experimental methods for genetic manipulation and mutation. A lot of his physical attributes are quite similar to those of his Prime Earth counterpart, Beast. However, since Dark Beast regularly experiments on himself with genetic mutations, his superhuman strength surpasses that of Prime Earth Beast.
It was clear in a fight between the two when Dark Beast successfully defeated Beast and imprisoned him. During strenuous activity, the Dark Beast’s muscles generate fewer fatigue toxins than the muscles of a regular person. He is able to push himself physically to his maximum capacity for several hours before growing tired. And if wounded, Dark Beast can recover from minor injuries faster and more accurately than a normal human. His body can heal nearly twice as quickly as the average human’s body.
Moreover, his self-experiments have also resulted in an unspecified amount of lifespan by reducing his natural aging process. If that was not enough, Dark Beast has the capacity to produce pheromones, which lead people of the opposite sex to be attracted to him. This is probably Marvel’s version of a love potion. This ability is actually possessed by his mainstream counterpart, so it is safe to assume he has it as well. As for his appearance, Dark Beast has extended fangs and razor-sharp claws at the tips of his fingers and toes. It allows him to cut through practically anything.
While working for Apocalypse, performing endless experiments on mutants, Dark Beast has made sure that he gets handsomely paid for it. However, he is one such supervillain who never gets bored of his pesky experiments. He loves his work to such an extent that he is willing to do it for free, even in this capitalistic world. Well, free or not, the Dark Beast is definitely a threat to any mutant.
Well, guys, that is all for today; we have come to the end of another origin video with Marvelous Videos. We hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Make sure to drop a like and hit that subscribe button on your way out so that you never miss out on more such videos. Also, comment down below and tell us what you liked most about this character. Until then, everyone, stay safe, take care, and see you in the next video. We hope you have a fantastic day!