The X-Men have been in an interesting place lately. While many of their greatest former enemies have found new peace within their shared nation, longtime heroes like Colossus have been turned against the island. Another major mutant might be on a similar path, paving his way to hell with good intentions.

The X-Men's Beast has increasingly been inching towards embracing a dark path, all in the name of protecting the mutant nation of Krakoa. But could this arc push him to become a genuine villain?

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An image of Hank McCoy/Beast while serving on the team called X-Force.

At the formation of Krakoa, Beast was positioned as a commander of X-Force. Reimagined as the mutant nation's primary security organization, Beast has increasingly embraced a ruthless edge to help contend with the perils of his job. He's betrayed the trust of colleagues, sent his team on suicide missions, and has inadvertently gotten an entire nation assimilated by a new plant-life form. It's reached the point where Emma Frost, the cold-hearted and pragmatic former White Queen of the Hellfire Club, has called out Beast. Even Sage, his effective right-hand in X-Force, has expressed reservations about his recent actions to the Quiet Council, which saw him turn to his former lover Abigail Brand for comfort.

What makes this so worrisome is that Brand has been secretly working against Krakoa as a member of Orchis, and she expressed admiration that Beast has seemingly lost the "spineless" aspect of his personality. If the spymaster Brand is starting to think Beast is finally "growing up," then he's on a dark path indeed. This wouldn't even be the first time Beast has gone down a dark path. His Age of Apocayplse Dark Beast variant proved how far he could go, but his time with the Illuminati ahead of Secret Wars and his brief corruption by the Black Vortex showcased how even acting for the greater good could push Beast to become a fearsome figure.

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X-Men X-Force Beast Brand Romance 1

This stands as a stark contrast to Beast's earlier history as one of the most friendly and openly heroic of the X-Men. It's important to remember that Beast became such a fixture within the superhero community at large that he earned a place among the Avengers, technically the first mutant to do so given retcons about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's heritage and powers. He was a founding member of the X-Men, a frequent champion of human/mutant relations, and was on the path to more or less take Charles Xavier's place as the future leader of young mutants. But if Beast were to officially break bad, he wouldn't be the first of the original X-Men to do so with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Archangel all having stints of becoming villains in their assorted histories.

Beast's future could end up taking him further down a dark path, however. Brand has already quietly confirmed her belief that the Quiet Council isn't fit to rule the mutant nation as it further expands across the universe, and is already plotting to replace it. While her attempts to bring Storm to her fold may have backfired and set the stage for an Arakko version of the Brotherhood, it's likely that she can still use her old bond with Beast to bring him to her side. While its unlikely Beast will ever overtly turn against the X-Men and the rest of the mutant race he's fought so hard to protect, his own recent comments about the Quiet Council becoming weak might lead him to decide the entire mutant future should be determined by him and those he deems on his level, This would set Beast up to truly take a step towards becoming an overt threat to Krakoa instead of just a misguided leader. In doing so, Beast could become one of the great tragic villains of the modern era, proving some of the greatest threats to the mutant future are the mutants themselves.