X-Men vs Inhumans War Only Happened Because of One Stupid Decision

The war between the X-Men and Inhumans was brutal, costly, and could have been totally avoided for a very dumb reason. This event happened in the very first issue of Inhumans vs X-Men. The book was written by Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire while Leinil Francis Yu handled the art.

Before the war actually took place, there was conflict between the groups months earlier when Scott Summers destroyed one of the two terrigen clouds circling the Earth. Mutants had discovered that the clouds were poisonous to their kind. Scott took the initiative and destroyed one and was killed for his efforts. A truce formed between the two groups so that a peaceful solution could be found with Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, was put in charge of the process. At the beginning, Beast was optimistic that he could find a way to end this standoff in a diplomatic way through science.

As the months went by, it became more and more apparent how hard it would be for Beast to come up with an answer. He worked until the last moments, but he was running out of time because the last remaining terrigen cloud was expanding. It was only a matter of time before it covered the Earth and mutants were left with a choice: leave the planet or become extinct. Hank brought this news to Emma Frost and the X-Men first, and the radically aggressive Emma did not take the news lightly. She instantly decided to enact a battle plan she had put together. When Beast said he would tell the Inhumans of their plan he was incapacitated.

Throughout his work, Beast hailed the Inhumans for their dedication to peace, yet he didn’t bring news of the expanding cloud to the Inhumans first. That’s unfortunate as once the Inhuman queen Medusa found out about the mutant situation (during the story’s climax) she destroyed the cloud herself. If Beast was truly committed to peace then he would have told the queen first rather than the radical mutants Magneto and Emma Frost. Medusa would have just destroyed the cloud right from the get-go, which would have avoided the war entirely.

What’s even more disappointing is that Beast is supposed to be one of the smartest X-Men. During the months he was working on a solution, he was completely oblivious of the fact that his X-Men brethren were developing a battle plan to strike the Inhumans first. He was so optimistic in the scientific process of finding a cure that he became blinded to the politics. The Inhumans can be a formidable force, just like the X-Men, but they are a far more diplomatic group. It is out of character for Beast not to make this calculation, and he triggered the entire Inhuman and X-Men war by making the wrong decision.

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