X-BEASTX-BEAST
Real Name: X-Beast
Identity/Class: Undefined potential aspect of the a human mutant/mutate (possibly alternate reality version or a duplication thereof)
Occupation: Would-be ruler of Cyclaedea; predator
Group Membership: "Gods" of Cyclaedea (Id-Sister, others)
Affiliations: Formerly Manmaker (M'Lish, Veneer)
formerly Red Skull (allegedly Johann Shmidt; see comments)
Enemies: Angels of Death, Crone, Die-Cut (Czorn Yson), Id-Sister, Red Skull (allegedly Johann Shmidt; see comments), other Beasts created in the Beastswarm
(Cerebro-Beast/S'Reeb was the only other one identified, and it's not
clear if he directly interacted with X-Beast or not); unidentified
human victim
formerly the Kull robots (including M'Lish)
Known Relatives: Beast (Hank McCoy) was his core being, and the other Beastswarm creatures were similar variants;
genetically, he's likely somewhat related to the
Beast's family, but you can see his handbook profile for those
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
formerly Cyclaedea, a secret sanctuary in the Greek Islands;
formerly Manmaker's mobile Swarmcenter, apparently Manhattan, New York
First Appearance: Die-Cut#1 (November, 1993)
Powers/Abilities: X-Beast was strong and durable, significantly larger and more powerful than his host-being, Beast (Hank McCoy).
He could whether powerful energy assaults; even a combined/simultaneous "full atom
scramble," "thermal overburn," and "all frequency sonic body-warp" only briefly stun him, but he swiftly recovered and attacked anew.
He at least considered himself to be a master brawler, "nature's last word on streetfighting," and he was certainly able to outfight Die-Cut.
He also considered himself to be "born on a survival overdose," presumably meaning he can adapt to situations and is designed to survive almost anything.
Somewhat cannibalistic (he ate a human (leaving behind only bones) and at least part of another Beastswarm variant), he was calmed somewhat after satisfying his appetite; otherwise, he was more savage.
He presumably shared the Beast' genius intellect, but he was much more hostile and violent.
His claws and fangs were durable
and razor sharp. He was covered with thick dark blue fur and had
pointed ears. He also had large paired spinous processes bulging
against the skin on his back.
Height: Approximately 6'2"
Weight: Approximately 295 lbs.
Eyes: Solid white
Hair: Dark blue
(Die-Cut#1) - Having captured
the Beast (Hank McCoy) and imprisoned him within their mobile
Swarmcenter, the organization Manmaker used their technology to unlock
the whole spectrum of his potential, accepting the worst outcomes with
the goal of using the best outcomes to create a race of gods.
Manmaker's Kull robots and their ally Die-Cut (who apparently allied
with them in hopes that they could help humanity out-evolve machinery)
supervised the generation of the Beastswarm.
When
the Kulls prepared to slay one of the more monstrous Beastswarm
creatures, Die-Cut turned on the Kulls, noting that he saw more value
in the living creature than their mechanical bodies; however, that same Beastswarm creature then
slashed Die-Cut's back, noting that he could look after himself pretty
well. The Beastswarm creature then pronounced itself the X-Beast, the ultimate
resolution of man and beast, and Manmaker's Mr. Veneer told Die-Cut not
to reality, as this was indeed the being they had sought.
(Die-Cut#2) - As X-Beast fed on one of the other Beast's legs, Veneer told him they would forgive him anything and asked him to come with them to paradise, but X-Beast refused, noting he didn't hang around with losers. He then departed, noting there was a whole world out there that he wanted to bite. Veneer sent Kull robots after him, instructing them to recover but not kill him.
(Die-Cut#2 - BTS) - Veneer explained to Die-Cut that the other creations from the Beast-Swarm were being taken below but that they would soon fade, as the chaos-swarm could not sustain all of its children.
(Die-Cut#3 (fb) - BTS) - Cerebro-Beast, aka S'Reeb was taken to the Dump; constructed under the surface of Mars, this was where rejects from the swarm process were secretly preserved by M'Lish.
(Die-Cut#2 (fb) - BTS) - Die-Cut used his psythe to cut out recent memories of Manmaker's swarmhost from the Beast.
(Die-Cut#2 - BTS) - His task completed, Die-Cut noted that the
Beast could resume his place in society. Veneer was impressed, although
he noted that normally they just kill the swarmhost.
(Die-Cut#2) - X-Beast smashed into a restaurant
window, proclaiming his hunger, and a man offered him his sandwich, but
X-Beast tried to take his arm instead. However, the Kulls blasted and
subdued X-Beast, after which they turned up their weapons to "full atom
scramble," "thermal overburn," and "all frequency sonic body-warp,"
using all three assaults on the fallen creature simultaneously. When
they stopped, noting that that should have killed him 5000 times over,
X-Beast jumped up and tore them apart, noting they were going to have
to do better than that.
(Die-Cut#2 - BTS) - X-Beast ate the man he had previously grabbed.
(Die-Cut#2 - BTS) - Veneer
assured Die-Cut that the X-Beast would return to them and that he would
make a charming addition to their panoply of gods at Cyclaedea; it was
just a matter of getting him to understand his destiny.
(Die-Cut#2) - Die-Cut and
Veneer followed the trail of the X-Beast; with his hunger sated, he
realized he liked the pair of them. While Veneer gently scolded the
X-Beast for his behavior, the X-Beast told him he was welcome to
<try to> stop him. Noting that he could sense DNA and realized
that he didn't belong with normal people, the X-Beast then agreed to
accompany Veneer to paradise.
Veneer took X-Beast, Die-Cut, and M'Lish (the remaining Kull) by aircraft to Cyclaedea, but as they approached, they were confronted by locust people who tried to warn them to go back, revealing that they were people transformed thusly by a great god because they were not worthy to worship her. They were next confronted by the Angels of Death, sent by their master to greet them, but Die-Cut swiftly dismembered one of them, after which they vanished.
After they landed, a worker rushed up and noted the series of apocalyptic visitations. When the Angels of Death returned and attacked anew, the X-Beast, Die-Cut, and M'Lish teamed up to overpower them. A group of newly-created Cyclaedeans then approached and thanked them for and complimented them on their victory, with one of the women embracing X-Beast. Voicing his approval for this new order, X-Beast asked if he was sure he wanted some of his arrogance and appetites there, but Veneer assured him that they needed his unique animal vivacity.
They were then interrupted by one of the Cyclaedeans, Id-Sister (or the god-like being Id-Sister had evolved into), who had been causing the transformations and who mutated some of the other Cyclaedeans before she lost control of her power and blacked out. After Die-Cut leeched off some of her power, she was taken to recover.
(Die-Cut#2 (fb) - BTS) - X-Beast and M'Lish formed an alliance to take over, with the X-Beast ruling in the heavenly Cyclaedea while M'Lish ruled the hellish Dump.
(Die-Cut#2) - X-Beast and M'Lish ambushed, subdued, and restrained Die-Cut, revealing their plans.
(Die-Cut#3) - In Cyclaedea's
Manmaker Central base, Veneer asked X-Beast about the missing Die-Cut
and M'Lish, but -- complimenting Veneer on his office -- X-Beast
assured Veneer he loved those guys. However, with them both missing, he
noted that Veneer was going to need a new security chief...and since
there was no one to stop him, he declared himself "more or less boss
around here." X-Beast continued that since all matters involving their
mutual safety were his concern, he suggested they start by making sure
that Id-Sister never woke up. Veneer countered that despite her
unpredictable nature, Id-Sister was their most beautiful creation, but
X-Beast interrupted, intimidating Veneer and reminding him who was in
charge; nonetheless, he assured Veneer that he wouldn't kill
anyone...unless he absolutely felt like it. Considering how many things
were going wrong at once, Veneer resolved that he needed to speak to
the master.
(Die-Cut#3 - BTS) - Veneer
reported X-Beast's plans to kill Id-Sister to the master -- some
version, robotic or otherwise of the Red Skull (Johann Shmidt; see comments) -- who
noted that he saw all and knew everybody's secrets and that even in a
community of gods, the strong must quash the weak.
(Die-Cut#3) - Having decided that rather than execute Id-Sister that she should serve as the next host for the chaos-swarm, the X-Beast had her transported to the Swarmcenter. Veneer interrupted him, insisting that the Master had forbade any of the spawn of the chaos swarm from being re-spawned. X-Beast argued that he had heard that the master had literally lost his head (he did, but that didn't stop him), and he lifted Veneer into the air, telling him to get out of the way as he was blocking progress.
Watching remotely, the master
considered that the chaos forces were too unstable and that any attempt
to use a goddess as a host was unthinkable. He further resolved that
because he kept himself hidden, his creations had begun to doubt his
existence. The decapitated head then burst out of its containment box
and forced Die-Cut's ally Santa to follow his orders (see comments).
They joined up with Die-Cut, at which point the Red Skull head revealed
its identity and named itself as the master/creator of Man-Maker.
(Die-Cut#4 - BTS) - The Red
Skull head apparently slew everyone in the Dump, except Die-Cut and
Santa, for defiling his vision, after which the real(?) Red Skull
showed up and deactivated the robot head, noting that it had believed
itself to have been him.
(Die-Cut#4) - Veneer told
X-Beast of the master's message, a warning that if he tried to use the
chaos-force on Id-Sister he would be punished. X-Beast then delivered
his own message by slashing Veneer's abdomen, but Veneer maintained his
composure, assuring X-Beast that he knew that deep down he was a caring
person. Veneer further asked X-Beast to consider that while the master
was seeking to advance society, X-Beast might hit the end of human
evolution and create something from the very edge of existence that
might devour them all. X-Beast ignored Veneer's warnings, noting that
he was the only one with the guts to take the project to the max and
insisting that Veneer's master was dead and that he (X-Beast) was the
natural successor.
X-Beast prepared to activate the chaos-force and learn what all was in Id-Sister.
(Die-Cut#4 - BTS) - Watching remotely, the Red Skull noted his amusement at X-Beast's arrogance as he prepared to flick a switch that would purge that whole section just as he had purged the Dump. However, unwilling to see Id-Sister sacrificed as well, Die-Cut blocked Red Skull, delaying him until the chaos-force had been activated.
(Die-Cut#4) - As X-Beast struggled to resist the force that rendered all those around him insane, the chaos-force unleashed the Crone -- the winter and decline of mankind, the awful aftermath of godhood -- who told X-Beast that he had opened a door that should never have been opened. As the Crone spread into the sky above Cyclaedea, preparing to destroy everything and subsume it in fear, Die-Cut appeared with the Red Skull. Die-Cut struck X-Beast to get his attention and told him that if he didn't listen to his master, they were all dead.
The X-Beast denied him, telling
him he didn't need their help, as he had released pure terror and he
gloried in it. Wanting to see who deserved to survive, he shouted,
"Feed, baby, feed!"
As Die-Cut suffered from visions
of his past, X-Beast asked his "great master" if he
couldn't feel dread eating his soul. The Red Skull countered that fear
was his tool, trade, and science, but he was briefly tormented by fear
of becoming a lackey again before overcoming this. As the Red Skull
sought out the other gods of Cyclaedea to deal with this crisis,
Die-Cut overcame his fears and punched X-Beast, who seemed pleased that
Die-Cut had it in him. X-Beast then savagely assaulted Die-Cut noting
how he was "nature's last word on streetfighting, born on a survival
overdose." Unable to defeat X-Beast in combat, Die-Cut used his psythe
to cut a portal into the planet's molten core, burning them both.
(Die-Cut#4 - BTS) - However,
when the gods of Cyclaedea rejected the Red Skull as their master and
noted that they had evolved above him, he returned to his chambers,
where he sent out a final chaos-wave to destabilize their young and
somewhat unstable nature.
(Die-Cut#4) - As the chaos-wave caused the X-Beast and the rest of the gods of Cyclaedea to fade away, X-Beast insisted that he was a perfect creation and that it was his destiny to survive.
(Die-Cut#4 - BTS) - The
Red Skull then departed, leaving Manmaker and Cyclaedea to be consumed
in flames. Veneer escaped the destruction, but Die-Cut apparently left
him there as he teleported away with Santa.
Comments: Created by Glenn Dakin and Bernard Custodio under the Marvel UK imprint.
So...this Hydra or AIM member -- called Santa because of his white beard -- had
been part of a group that assaulted Manmaker, decapitating their master, the Red Skull
(actually a robot duplicate of him) and keeping his head in a box. Santa recovered the box after hooking up
with Die-Cut but spent most of the series trapped just outside reality
by Die-Cut to hide him. And then the "real" Red Skull exposed the head as a robot duplicate and revealed his involvement.
It's cray.
I'll profile the rest of the characters from this
series in the coming months, but I don't know that it will be any more
clear.
I am very skeptical that this was the "real" Red Skull (Johann Shmidt)
This profile was completed 04/10/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
X-Beast should be distinguished from:
Die-Cut#1, pg. 18-19 (beast-swarm);
pg. 22, panel 1 (kneeling, with bloody leg in hand);
#2, pg. 2, panel 1 (leaping through ceiling);
pg. 4, panel 2 (profile; blasted);
#3, pg. 10, panel 2 (spinal processes seen from font);
panel 4 (spinal processes from behind);
#4, pg. 18, panel 5 (destruction)
Appearances:
Die-Cut#1 (November, 1993) - Glenn Dakin (writer), Bernard Custodio (artist), Jacqui Papp (editor)
Die-Cut#2 (December, 1993) - Glenn Dakin (writer), Bernard Custodio (penciler), Paul Scott (inker), Jacqui Papp (editor)
Die-Cut#3 (January, 1993) - Glenn Dakin (writer), Bernard Custodio (penciler), Paul Scott (inker), Jacqui Papp (editor)
Die-Cut#4 (February, 1994) - Glenn Dakin (writer), Bernard Custodio (artist), Jacqui Papp (editor)
First posted: 09/25/2021
Last updated: 09/24/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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