The original five members of the X-Men are some of the most iconic superheroes to be introduced in the pages of Marvel Comics, but in an especially dark future within an alternate timeline, one of their codenames is completely redefined in the most sinister way imaginable.
The X-Men were introduced in X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a team of young mutants who were being taught how to use their powers by Professor Charles Xavier. Not only that, but Xavier was training them to be a mutant strike-force/superhero team dubbed the X-Men whose mission it would be to protect the innocent from malicious mutants (among other threats) and prove to the world that mutants aren’t to be feared. While the lineup and focus of the X-Men have changed over the years, this was the team’s original mission–and the mutants who were first tasked with carrying it out were: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman, and Beast.
In Factor X #1 by John Francis Moore and Steve Epting, readers enter the Age of Apocalypse, and this issue allows them to see the ultra-violent world from the villains’ perspective–specifically, from that of Cyclops. While Cyclops was originally the brave and valiant leader of the X-Men, he is a sick and twisted villain in the Age of Apocalypse as he is Apocalypse’s main enforcer of mutant capture and containment–and the mutants who are contained are subject to forced breeding and cruel experimentation. Cyclops even held Jean Grey–someone he loved in the 616 timeline–in Apocalypse’s breeding pins, which is proof enough of how evil this alternate version of character really is. However, Cyclops isn’t the original member whose codename was redefined by his newly-acquired evil nature as that honor goes to none other than Beast.
Beast’s Age of Apocalypse Codename Defines His Cruelty, Not His Mutation
In the original timeline of Earth-616, Hank McCoy is given the codename Beast because of his unique mutation and (eventually) because of his physical appearance. In the Age of Apocalypse reality, however, McCoy is only called Beast by the prisoners he experiments on in his laboratory as his apathetic cruelty could only be compared to the Beast of biblical legend. Throughout his time working for Apocalypse, Beast has created the Infinites–which are Frankenstein-like amalgamations of dead mutants merged into half-life foot soldiers–and has also taken pleasure in the torture of his fellow mutants for the sake of many other scientific endeavors. Essentially, the nickname ‘Beast’ may be too kind of a descriptor, even if it is in reference to the ultimate evil in the universe.
While the codename definitely still fits for the original reason, as Beast still has the same look and powers as the Earth-616 version, the origin of that moniker in this dark future is completely different and utterly redefines this X-Men member’s iconic codename forever.