Tom Brevoort to become X-Men's Senior Editor

[Dante Milton]

I don’t agree that how Percy has been writing Beast wasn’t building off of previous stories, I also wouldn’t categorize it as character assassination. Beast has been on a dark path since Decimation, Percy’s iteration of the character is the culmination of over a decade of previous stories showing him making increasingly unethical choices. Also there seems to be a lot of fans who think his portrayal in the 90s cartoon is comic accurate and it really isn’t. Hank has always been a bit of a jerk who thinks he knows best since as far back as the 60s.

What I object to about the Percy Beast story is, and this could turn out to not be the case the story hasn’t ended yet, how it seems like they are setting up a blank slate clone to take his place. It feels lazy to essentially redeem the character without having to do any of the hard work of writing an actual redemption story. A get of jail free card.

[davetvs]

His comments about moving characters forward while keeping them true to themselves is nice, but I'll see how it plays out. That tends to be one of the biggest issues is that characters don't really evolve or things that happened in the previous run get ignored.

This is why I didn't want Scott and Jean back together in the comics, tbh.

I don’t agree that how Percy has been writing Beast wasn’t building off of previous stories, I also wouldn’t categorize it as character assassination. Beast has been on a dark path since Decimation, Percy’s iteration of the character is the culmination of over a decade of previous stories showing him making increasingly unethical choices. Also there seems to be a lot of fans who think his portrayal in the 90s cartoon is comic accurate and it really isn’t. Hank has always been a bit of a jerk who thinks he knows best since as far back as the 60s.

What I object to about the Percy Beast story is, and this could turn out to not be the case the story hasn’t ended yet, how it seems like they are setting up a blank slate clone to take his place. It feels lazy to essentially redeem the character without having to do any of the hard work of writing an actual redemption story. A get of jail free card.

I agree that Beast had been on a dark path for years, he became irredeemable to me after fucking with spacetime to bring the O5 into the future just to wag his finger at Scott, because he was pissed about what Scott did as Dark Phoenix even though Jean herself gets a perpetual pass from everyone but the Shi'ar. Initially I thought positioning him as the CIA Director of sorts was a perfect place to explore what the character had become, but Percy did it in such a hamfisted, nonsensical, over the top way that it became complete character assassination. Similar to Emma in IvX, which everyone rightfully ignores.

[RAWRlrus]

I don’t agree that how Percy has been writing Beast wasn’t building off of previous stories, I also wouldn’t categorize it as character assassination. Beast has been on a dark path since Decimation, Percy’s iteration of the character is the culmination of over a decade of previous stories showing him making increasingly unethical choices. Also there seems to be a lot of fans who think his portrayal in the 90s cartoon is comic accurate and it really isn’t. Hank has always been a bit of a jerk who thinks he knows best since as far back as the 60s.

The early stuff with beast tracks with how Beast had been leading up to Krakoa, but more of the current stuff just feels too far.

What I object to about the Percy Beast story is, and this could turn out to not be the case the story hasn’t ended yet, how it seems like they are setting up a blank slate clone to take his place. It feels lazy to essentially redeem the character without having to do any of the hard work of writing an actual redemption story. A get of jail free card.

I think if they want Beast back they kind of have to just wipe everything away. Its been too long and at the end too far for to do it any other way. I think that's part of why Beast got to this point in the first place. Writers how liked the heroic version just didn't want to deal with what he had become so they left him alone but then writers who liked villain Beast kept writing him that way so it just became his default.

But I am concerned that other characters will be written to just be fine with this new Beast. If I were to do it I'd either but him on the Avengers and away from the X-Men or with characters who haven't been x-characters for as long (Firestar) or who have been dead while he was more villainous (Synch). Let him reestablish his heroic side before being with the regular cast.

I agree that Beast had been on a dark path for years, he became irredeemable to me after fucking with spacetime to bring the O5 into the future just to wag his finger at Scott, because he was pissed about what Scott did as Dark Phoenix even though Jean herself gets a perpetual pass from everyone but the Shi'ar. Initially I thought positioning him as the CIA Director of sorts was a perfect place to explore what the character had become, but Percy did it in such a hamfisted, nonsensical, over the top way that it became complete character assassination. Similar to Emma in IvX, which everyone rightfully ignores.

Maybe that's my issue, not with what Percy has had Beast do but how he got him to do it. Beast's been on this path for too long (IMO) to do anything but ignore it, but Emma and Bishop should have their character assassinations addressed and retconned. Emma just suddenly being back as an X-man at the start of Krakoa didn't sit right with me because if Hickman can just ignore it whoever comes after can just do the same.

[davetvs]

Bishop's at least was just addressed in the Cable/Bishop mini.

[Frontier]

I'm assuming the Brevoort era is moving back to the X-Men being more straight-up Superheroes in general rather than dealing with a nation and government that just happened to have a Superhero team, so I feel like they'll want to get characters in a place to facilitate that (like Beast).

[RAWRlrus]

Bishop's at least was just addressed in the Cable/Bishop mini.

I didn't fully paying attention to that series but didn't Bishop's genocide get brought back up, not retconned. Which is my complaint about ignoring rather than retconning. It doesn't exist until a writer wants it to, so all the issues of the character assassination come back.

I'm assuming the Brevoort era is moving back to the X-Men being more straight-up Superheroes in general rather than dealing with a nation and government that just happened to have a Superhero team, so I feel like they'll want to get characters in a place to facilitate that (like Beast).

Yeah, I think it will be more traditional than compared to Krakoa, even though Krakoa felt like it was getting more traditional as time went on. Hopefully there are still some weird/unique books even if there aren't as many. But I doubt Beast getting reset is because of Breevort. It would weird for characters like Apocalypse/Exodus to get a face turn and to bring Emma back into the fold and pretty much ignore the past 3 years for her but to leave one of the O5 villainous.

[JB]

In the case of Bishop it's been addressed and he and Cable made peace. They're certainly not friends but they respect each other and fought well alongside each other. It's water under the bridge now.

[Devaishwarya]

All that said...which wasn't much, at all...I'm still waiting for concrete information before I send my mind into a tailspin of hopes, wants, expectations and disappointments.

I will say this though...The hated and feared being prevalent in all the X-Men stories sounds depressing as Frock. Yes...It's the tag-line, their raison detre but we've had decades of decimations and fighting on the brink of extinction it would be nice if Brevoort and Co. might focus more on the "Fighting for a world" part in the new era.

[Frontier]

In the case of Bishop it's been addressed and he and Cable made peace. They're certainly not friends but they respect each other and fought well alongside each other. It's water under the bridge now.

Hope punched him once and let it go, I think .

[DurararaFTW]

I agree that Beast had been on a dark path for years, he became irredeemable to me after fucking with spacetime to bring the O5 into the future just to wag his finger at Scott, because he was pissed about what Scott did as Dark Phoenix even though Jean herself gets a perpetual pass from everyone but the Shi'ar. Initially I thought positioning him as the CIA Director of sorts was a perfect place to explore what the character had become, but Percy did it in such a hamfisted, nonsensical, over the top way that it became complete character assassination. Similar to Emma in IvX, which everyone rightfully ignores.

The thing that SHOULD prompt Beast to go on his redemption arc for this already happened though. Teen Beast returned to the past, Beast gets his past memories, of seeing his actions from the outside, and being ashamed of his future self, asking him when he completely lost his way. Beast is left regretting his actions and toast to Scott. Then Percy happened. I dunno how you write Beast Prime to actually recognise himself to be evil at this point without utterly ignoring his established characterisation and how resilient to any opportunity for self-awareness he is. The hard reset is needed here at this point. They've had a cosmic entity call him out and a public group intervention and private telepathic intervention already. Secret Wars starts with Beast and Amadeus Cho chosing death over leaving Earth on the Raft for their sins in the Incursion Crisis and it didn't mean anything either.

[Kingdom X]

The thing that SHOULD prompt Beast to go on his redemption arc for this already happened though. Teen Beast returned to the past, Beast gets his past memories, of seeing his actions from the outside, and being ashamed of his future self, asking him when he completely lost his way. Beast is left regretting his actions and toast to Scott. Then Percy happened. I dunno how you write Beast Prime to actually recognise himself to be evil at this point without utterly ignoring his established characterisation and how resilient to any opportunity for self-awareness he is. The hard reset is needed here at this point. They've had a cosmic entity call him out and a public group intervention and private telepathic intervention already. Secret Wars starts with Beast and Amadeus Cho chosing death over leaving Earth on the Raft for their sins in the Incursion Crisis and it didn't mean anything either.

I agree. Also even when Hank was being a bit of a dick after that period, it wasn’t in line with Percy’s characterization. In IvX, him telling the X-Men that mutants should leave the planet instead of go to war with the Inhumans is pretty much the opposite of Percy’s Beast who will commit war crimes at the drop of a hat for the sake of mutantkind. In fact, Hank did a LOT of siding with other people over mutants and shying away from Cyclop’s more impassioned pro-mutant rhetoric.

To me Hank was in line with Marvel’s other morally ambiguous, but good-hearted scientists like Reed and Tony. They may mess up badly, they may come off as assholes, and shoot they may even be full on evil in an AU but turning Hank into a full on Bond villain was about 8 steps too far.

[RAWRlrus]

In the case of Bishop it's been addressed and he and Cable made peace. They're certainly not friends but they respect each other and fought well alongside each other. It's water under the bridge now.

Its nice that its water under the bridge but it's still my complaint that its ignored until it isn't rather than actually retconning it. And this time it was fine but next time when they want drama it won't be.

The thing that SHOULD prompt Beast to go on his redemption arc for this already happened though. Teen Beast returned to the past, Beast gets his past memories, of seeing his actions from the outside, and being ashamed of his future self, asking him when he completely lost his way. Beast is left regretting his actions and toast to Scott. Then Percy happened. I dunno how you write Beast Prime to actually recognise himself to be evil at this point without utterly ignoring his established characterisation and how resilient to any opportunity for self-awareness he is. The hard reset is needed here at this point. They've had a cosmic entity call him out and a public group intervention and private telepathic intervention already. Secret Wars starts with Beast and Amadeus Cho chosing death over leaving Earth on the Raft for their sins in the Incursion Crisis and it didn't mean anything either.

And somehow in all of that teen O5 mess he actually convinced someone he was right.

I agree. Also even when Hank was being a bit of a dick after that period, it wasn’t in line with Percy’s characterization. In IvX, him telling the X-Men that mutants should leave the planet instead of go to war with the Inhumans is pretty much the opposite of Percy’s Beast who will commit war crimes at the drop of a hat for the sake of mutantkind. In fact, Hank did a LOT of siding with other people over mutants and shying away from Cyclop’s more impassioned pro-mutant rhetoric.

To me Hank was in line with Marvel’s other morally ambiguous, but good-hearted scientists like Reed and Tony. They may mess up badly, they may come off as assholes, and shoot they may even be full on evil in an AU but turning Hank into a full on Bond villain was about 8 steps too far.

You bring up a good point about Beast's motivations changing but always being villainous. I wonder if they just had him be on the opposite side of the X-men for whatever reason just to have him villainous.

[DurararaFTW]

And somehow in all of that teen O5 mess he actually convinced someone he was right.

Who?

10char

[RAWRlrus]

Who?

10char

Tempus. It was in 600 I think? Whenever the intervention was that coincided with Scott being at DC. Everyone left the intervention to go to DC but she was there and implied that she agreed with him that Scott was bad.

[sunofdarkchild]

Tempus. It was in 600 I think? Whenever the intervention was that coincided with Scott being at DC. Everyone left the intervention to go to DC but she was there and implied that she agreed with him that Scott was bad.

Tempus didn't say a word about Cyclops then. What she said to Beast was that in her travels through time she'd been told multiple times that McCoy must/would stand trial and asked him if the intervention was it or if a real trial was coming. Separately she became disillusioned with Cyclops during the Last Will and Testament story, but that had nothing to do with Beast or her appearance in Uncanny 600. If anything she was continuing the intervention.