The X-Men Just Betrayed One Of Their Own

Spoilers! Warning for X-Force #15 below

Original X-Men member Beast just directed X-Force to perpetrate a harsh betrayal of longstanding member Colossus. The move came as part of X-Force’s campaign to protect the mutant nation of Krakoa from external threats. In X-Force #15, on sale now, that mission shatters the trust of one of the X-Men’s own and pushes Beast down a dark path.

When Charles Xavier declared to the world that mutants were forming their own nation, there were many who felt threatened by this action and tried to take the mutants down. As X-Force has battled these threats, they encountered a group of Russian super-soldiers. Even after these soldiers were defeated, it was discovered that they had been implanted with bombs and smaller agents who have continued to wreak havoc on Krakoa. This attack was carried out by the organization XENO, a group that wants to bioengineer humans with mutant powers in order to make mutants obsolete. The villainous organization also has a connection to Mikhail Rasputin, the brother of Colossus.

Beast decided to go on the offensive, and identified mutants with connections to Russia and to Mikhail. While few objected to Beast’s decision to detain the former villain Omega Red, the members of X-Force were less receptive to his arrest of Peter Rasputin, the mutant known as Colossus. Not only was Colossus arrested, but he was taken from the farm where he had found peace, handcuffed, and paraded in front of his fellow mutants. This was a calculated move on the part of Beast, who wanted to make a spectacle of the arrest so that no mutants would even think about acting against the interests of Krakoa.

After Colossus was arrested he was tied up and subjected to psychic interrogation by Jean Grey. Both she and Wolverine had serious reservations about this action, and her one condition was that Beast not be allowed to take part in the interrogation. After a thorough and painful search of Peter’s mind in an effort to find out if he knew anything about the Russian super-soldiers, she determined that he was clean. As Colossus silently walked off, Jean demanded that Beast apologized to him.

Beast did bring some paints to Colossus later by way of an apology, but he had an ulterior motive: he wanted Colossus to join X-Force. Before he could request this, he was attacked by Peter’s friend Kayla, who was furious about what Beast had done. Colossus intervened, saying, “I understand why he did what he did. He made the wrong decision for the right reason.” Adding that he was going to use the paint to relieve his bad feelings, he refused to hear anything more that Beast had to say. “I’ve forgiven you. So you can go now. In peace.”

In his time in X-Force, Beast has shown that he is more than willing to adopt an “ends justify the means” attitude when it comes to Krakoa’s protection. He has put teammates in harm’s way and given brain damage to the son of an enemy. He had no problem using the arrests of Omega Red and Colossus to  quash any kind of dissent on Krakoa. And even when he got Jean to interrogate Peter, he complained that she was not being forceful enough. It is possible that his betrayal of Colossus is just one more step down a dark path for Beast.

X-Force #15 is written by Benjamin Percy with art by Joshua Cassara and is on sale now.