Our longtime reader will recall that comic books hold a special place in the heart of several Stain Club wrtiers, even when discussing sports. And, it is my firm belief that the Comic Book industry has recently experienced a bit of a renaissance, with both of the big publishers (Marvel and DC) putting out consistently high quality material.My personal favorite group of comic book heroes are the Uncanny X-men, who I reported on previously for those looking for a doorway into comics.
Now, the X-books (as the group of X-Men comics are oftentimes collectively called) are publishing a 17 part story running through the back of the primary X-men titles titled "Endangered Species." The story focuses on the scientist X-men Beast (pictured here) as he searches for a way to cure the fact that mutants are dying out, and in fact number less than two thousand after recent events in the Marvel Universe (it's a long story, trust me).
In the first part of this story, Beast asks for help from several unlikely sources, notably prominent thinkers and scientists in the superhero community. It has yet to be revealed whether Beast's Faustian deal will pay off, but it did get me thinking about the character in general. The X-Man Beast is a scientist before a superhero, but always before he has chosen morality over science in his experiments and efforts. Still, a character called "Dark Beast" (pictured above) from an alternate world (hey, it's comic books, you just gotta roll with these things) was a near Dr. Mengele in his experiments on humans and mutants. (For a wonderful encounter between the two Beasts, and a bonus allusion to Edgar Allen Poe, check here.) It makes you wonder how far the real Beast would actually go in a quest for knowledge.
So, while I am excited to see how the story pans out, I do not think we've seen Beast struggling enough with this issue in the months leading up to it. Part of the problem with this may be that Beast is a part of the Astonishing X-Men team, who spend a lot of time out in space, and ignore the goings-on in the other X-Men comics. Long ago, when Beast was trying to cure the Legacy Virus, he was at wits end trying to solve the problem, and I felt that it was tackled sufficiently in many X-Men comic books (including the issue of X-Men Unlimited referenced above), and when the sacrifice of a mutant life became the only means of releasing Beast's cure, he was ready to, at least temporarily shelve the project (as is detailed here. UncannyX-Men.net is a beautiful site, by the way. God bless 'em.)
The question for me is not how far will Beast go, as the answer is likely however far Mike Carey (the story's writer) needs him to tell a good story. I'm more interested in how Beast has progressed to this point. Some hint of his frustration is given in the Endangered Species one-shot comic book, but it's not enough. Has Beast's own decreasing connection with humanity led him to a desperate attempt to save mutants? I understand that science is largely his drive, but what propels him to find the cure beyond that?
Dear reader, expect more comic-related fun posts in the neat future.
And, on a seperate note on the site in general, we're going to be trying to branch out here at Stain Club. I realize it's almost ludicrous to see a serious post about Iraq followed by one about comic books, but as you can tell, our writers are interested in a multitude of things. I'm tempted to ask what the best approach to solving this is (creating seperate links for Comic Books, Phillies, Politics, etc.? similar to what we have now, but more in-depth) but I'm frightened that no one would respond, and that would be quite sad.
