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Marvel's Beast is one of the founders of the X-Men. He's also a brilliant scientist, a Shakespeare aficionado, and a political activist. But if you haven't been reading X-Men comics lately, you might not know that he's also now an out-and-out villain - and later in 2026, attempting a comics supervillain level plot that would change the world. 

To help mutants and humans live together more peacefully, founding X-Men Henry 'Hank' McCoy has created a virus to make all humans into mutants... whether they like it or not. 

The Beast is Marvel's newest big bad (under a domineering new code name of 'The Chairman'), and it's coming to head in a five-issue event series this fall titled DNX. The event, named for a play on the initials DNA and the X-Gene that differentiates humans from mutants, will also see a crossover between Marvel Comics' X-Men line of comics and its Fantastic Four title, and you can bet Reed Richards has some thoughts about this.

"DNX is the next big milestone event of our X-Men run," says DNX (and X-Men) writer Jed MacKay. "Age of Revelation showed the future, and DNX shows that future’s impact on the present! The X-Men and [Beast's supervillain team] 3K are on a collision course that has been set since issue one—and only one will survive. And with the Fantastic Four joining the fray, this is going to be an event that will transform the X-Men dramatically."

DNX will be drawn by Federico Vincentini, who previously worked with MacKay on his X-Men run, and also has a long run on Miles Morales: Spider-Man.

"I'm so happy to be working on DNX. "I love what Jed is doing with X-Men, and I've been telling him for a long time that I wanted to work with him," says Vincentini. "Now the opportunity has arrived, and it’s an even bigger challenge because I finally have the chance to work on the Fantastic Four too!"

The idea of something that would make anyone a mutant isn't new; a "hormonal extract" McCoy discovered decades ago is what gave him the blue fur we know him for today. That concoction was transform anyone into a mutant temporarily, but had long-term effects on McCoy - but now he's appeared to have perfected it for use on... well... anyone.

In all of this, the Beast has not only gotten older and meaner, but his fur is now white - leading some to call him 'White Beast.' Meanwhile, there's another Beast in his classic blue-fur look at his still an upstanding part of the X-Men. He's a clone based on years-old records of the Beast back during a stint on the Avengers, and before his villainous tendencies came to light (or so we are led to believe).

DNX #1 (of 5) goes on sale on Septermber 2.

To me, my X-Men fans. Want more about Marvel's mutants? You don't need Cerebro to find what you should read next... we made a list!

• The best X-Men comics
• Every Omega-Level X-Men mutant ranked by power
• How to read the Marvel Comics' X-Men in order following the Krakoa era
• Why the Krakoan Age of X-Men was ended by Marvel
• How to watch the X-Men movies in order