Beast Recalls Cyclops as a Commanding Presence: 63 Years Later, a Founding Member Finally Drops His Real First Impression

A memory amid conflict

The original X-Men team included Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel. They debuted with Professor X and Magneto in The X-Men #1 in 1963, and remain among the best-known members of the team.

In DNX #5, Cyclops confronts his former friend after Beast unleashes the X-Virus in Juniper, Pennsylvania. The virus was meant to turn humans into mutants, but instead deformed those exposed to it. As Beast hides in his lair, he remembers the first time he met Scott.

Scott’s early impression

A villain named Conquistador had kidnapped Hank McCoy’s parents to force the young mutant to work for him. Scott intervened to rescue them, in one of his earliest outings as a superhero, and Hank later joined the X-Men as their fourth member.

Hank recalls seeing Scott as “the most impressive person” he had ever met, according to Hank’s recollection in the preview. He viewed Scott as a battlefield commander, rather than as a shy boy. Scott, in turn, remembers that the younger Hank would have felt sick at the idea of hurting someone.

Their present-day stakes

Beast says he is putting mutants first in the face of extinction. He plans to detonate a fusion bomb inside the force field-covered Juniper to prevent the virus from spreading, while Cyclops believes the residents can still be saved and is determined to stop him.

A fight with uncertain outcome

The solicitation for DNX #5 describes a fight between Cyclops and Beast “to the death.” The story leaves open which character, if either, will die; it also raises the possibility that the younger Beast could be the one lost. The X-Virus threatens destruction on a scale resembling the future shown in “Age of Revelation.” Cyclops has killed before to neutralize threats, and the story presents him as prepared to act against his former teammate.