Flashback Friday: Remember That Zany Occasion Where Beast and Dark Beast Teamed Up?

"X-Men: Endangered Species," could have been a mostly forgettable series of backup strips that explained a chunk of plot holes before a big X-Men event, but it managed to be pretty darn cool. It kicked off with a one-shot before being a series of strips in the back of X-titles. The comic followed Beast of the X-Men as he tried to explore any avenue he could to undo how Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch) had turned most mutants into humans at the end of, "House of M." 

This all led to what was called, "M-Day," and various comics that spun out of the event. "Endangered Species," essentially set up, the "Messiah Complex," event which slowly began reintroducing mutants to the Marvel Universe and a thankless task of answering why the X-Men hadn't undone Wanda's spell. The series followed Beast stopping by various old hangouts of mutants only to find nobody could help him with science, magic, or anything else. Old mutant blood samples had turned human, even most dead mutants had reverted to human, and so forth. Then, right as Beast is about to give up he discovers how someone else has been working trying to figure everything out--him, sorta.

Dark Beast was an evil version of Henry McCoy from the, "Apocalypse," Universe. He ended up in the main Marvel Universe and was in some series off and on but hadn't been heard from for a bit, until, "Endangered Species," which midway through turns into a twisted and dark buddy-comedy with the two beasts trying various avenues to figure out what can be done. Eventually, the evil McCoy's more extreme methods result in them going their separate ways and we reach a conclusion-of-sorts where Beast sees he's out of options (right before, "Messiah Complex," begins and changes the so-called, "Rules," of everything). Still, for the period of time Beast and Dark Beast are together it is a hoot witnessing the little metaphorical devil on Beast's shoulder (who is literally a twisted version of him) suggesting how extreme they could be to save mutants.

After, "Messiah Complex," Beast kept getting increasingly questionable in his actions. During the whole, "Krakoan," era of X-Men we essentially saw Henry become enough of a villain that towards the end of the arc a bunch of messy plot trickery was done to erase how much of a baddie he'd become (clones were involved) As for Dark Beast, he died, came back, and died again, with Mister Sinister preserving his head because that's how that zany character rolls. 

The most recent years have been pretty rough for fans of any version of Beast with him being so dishonorable in any reality, but at least back in 2007 the, "Main," Beast wasn't yet too morally corrupt and it was fun to see him struggle with right-and-wrong alongside a more mischievous form. I also am glad the, "Endangered Species," one-shot and back-up strips were all collected as well so that the other handful of fans of this comic can read it without having to track down various assorted comics.