Dark Beast

Dark Beast (Henry Philip McCoy), sometimes known as the Black Beast, is a Marvel Comics supervillain, an alternate reality evil version of the X-Men’s Beast. Created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz, he first appeared in X-Men: Alpha (1995).

In the Age of Apocalypse reality, McCoy was a nefarious geneticist who implemented cruel experiments under the tyrant Apocalypse. He was one of a handful of characters to escape the Age of Apocalypse reality to the regular Marvel Universe, where he has continued his unethical experiments.

Fictional character biography

Age of Apocalypse

In the alternate dimension he came from, Hank McCoy was a mad scientist working for Mister Sinister in his breeding pens, intent on breeding more powerful mutants according to Apocalypse's "survival of the fittest" ideology. However, while Sinister was methodical and rational in his experiments, McCoy (as ruthless as his mentor) sadistically delighted in causing pain to his lab subjects and in the cruelty of his experiments, which is why he was nicknamed the Beast both by prisoners and Sinister's Elite Mutant Force. McCoy also experimented on himself in order to further his mutation, and gained his ape-like bestial appearance. Any mutant that he deemed unworthy was turned into a component of a genetic stew that was used to create Apocalypse's army of Infinites.