Fan Casting

After Wanda Maximoff’s reality-altering powers reduced the mutant population to only 198 known survivors, Beast becomes obsessed with finding a way to prevent the extinction of mutantkind. Working alone, Hank studies the remaining mutant gene, searches through old research and attempts to understand exactly what happened when Wanda declared, “No more mutants.” Every experiment fails, and the pressure of knowing that an entire species could disappear begins to consume him. His investigation eventually leads him to an abandoned laboratory containing genetic research unlike anything he has ever seen. There, Hank discovers Black Beast, a twisted version of himself from another reality who has spent years experimenting on mutants and humans. Black Beast claims that Beast’s attempts to restore the mutant population are pointless. Instead, he intends to use the genetic material of the remaining 198 mutants to artificially create a new generation of mutants under his control. Horrified but briefly tempted by the possibility of saving mutantkind, Beast realizes that Black Beast represents everything he could become if his desperation overcomes his morality. The two versions of Hank clash, and Beast destroys Black Beast’s laboratory, saving the genetic samples before they are lost. Among the recovered research, Beast discovers a crucial revelation: Wanda did not completely erase the mutant gene. There may still be a way to reverse the Decimation. Alone in his laboratory, Hank begins working again, determined to find it before the last 198 mutants disappear forever.