Warning! This article contains spoilers for X-Force #48 Beast, a founding member of the original X-Men, has recently completed his descent into villainy that had been building for more than a decade in Marvel Comics canon. After a failed attempt to take over the world, Beast was defeated by the team he once led, the X-Force. And now, Hank McCoy is striking back, and he’s doing so with the perfect anti-healing factor weapon.
The preview for X-Force #48 by Benjamin Percy and Robert Gill reveals that this issue picks up right where the previous one left off. Beast has successfully tracked the X-Force to their secret base in the North Pole known as the Greenhouse, and he’s watching them through the sight of his sniper rifle. When he has Omega Red in his sight, standing all alone, Beast pulls the trigger. Rather than simply being momentarily phased, the impact of this weapon actually puts Omega Red down indefinitely, which is shocking due to his well-known healing factor.
The gun Beast used to take down Omega Red was a telefloronic rifle that he developed on Krakoa back when he had unregulated access to every piece of scientific research equipment he could ever need. Now that Krakoa is no more following the mutant massacre that took place during Hellfire Gala 2023, Beast is using this secretly-developed gun against his former teammates – and it’s alarmingly effective.
Even Wolverine’s Adamantium Can’t Survive Fantastic Four’s New Weapon
The Fantastic Four essentially just stumbled upon a powerful new weapon that could easily beat Wolverine’s adamantium – and that’s a good thing.
Wolverine Isn’t Safe So Long As Beast Has This Anti-Healing Factor Weapon
While Wolverine currently has his hands full with Sabretooth’s multiversal army during the ongoing Sabretooth War event, Logan shouldn’t discredit Beast as perhaps an even more detrimental threat than Creed, especially given their recent history. Not too long ago, Beast sabotaged Wolverine’s resurrection pod with a mind-control device, turning him into a mindless killer. Now that Hank has a weapon that can incapacitate Wolverine just as it did with Omega Red, Beast can potentially do so once again, and even force Wolverine to turn on his friends and family.
Of course, even if Beast doesn’t want to risk using Wolverine as his own personal living weapon again, he could always use this telefloronic rifle to simply kill him. While the shot itself may not kill him – though the grotesque nature of Omega Red’s fate implies that it would do the trick – Beast already proved that decapitation is more than enough to kill Wolverine, which could easily be done after Logan is taken down with Beast’s rifle. Either way, so long as Beast has this weapon, Wolverine is not safe.
X-Men Already Proved Beast’s Weapon Would Work On Wolverine
Beast’s telefloronic rifle effectively mutates anyone shot with it into a plant-like organism. It worked on Omega Red in this preview, and Dark Avengers #11 proved that it would work on Wolverine as well as every member of the ‘Snikt Family’. In that issue, Molecule Man used his powers of molecular manipulation to transform Wolverine’s son Daken into a tree. While Beast’s weapon can’t be as strong as Molecule Man’s abilities, it’s an oddly specific similarity in regard to defeating someone with a healing factor – and in every case so far, it’s proven effective.
Beast has every reason to want revenge on the X-Force, and Wolverine in particular is in a significant amount of danger given his recent history with Beast and the proven effectiveness of Beast’s anti-healing factor weapon, as shown both in this preview and in Dark Avengers. In other words, based on everything revealed so far, Wolverine, his family, and every member of the X-Force/X-Men should be terrified, as Beast is on a vengeance-fueled rampage with the perfect anti-healing factor weapon.
X-Force #48 by Marvel Comics is available January 24, 2024.
