Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: Beast, m'koy, major x, marvel, rob liefeld, x-men

Why is the Water in Major X's X-Istence So Polluted, Anyway?

Before Jonathan Hickman's big X-Men relaunch was the talk of the internet, another X-Men comic book was reinventing the objectively best franchise in comics at Marvel. Of course, we're talking about Major X, the six-issue mini-series first imagined by Rob Liefeld back in the 1990s which sees the titular Major X travel back in time to said 90s to save his future alternate universe mutant utopia, The X-Istence, from X-Tinction.

The X-Istence was created by a mutant called The X-Ential as a place for mutantkind to flee from the real world. But mutants didn't travel to the X-Istence alone. They brought the Atlanteans with them, led by King Namor and his offspring, Nomar and Lora. The main plot of Major X sees Major X and his companion, a possible future Beast called M'Koy, travel first back to the early nineties heyday of X-Force and later to the late nineties era of The Watchtower, in order to locate the X-Ential and save the X-Istence. They're followed by Nomar and Lora, who appear to behind the disappearance of The X-Ential and the destruction of The X-Istence.

But why?

Well, various flashbacks throughout the series have shed some light on this. A flashback in Major X #2 showed a tense council meeting where the Atlanteans accused the mutants of abandoning them as the Oceans suffer.

And in another flashback in the most recent issue, Major X #4, we get it straight from the seahorse's mouth, as Namor explains…

But why are the waters so polluted? If The X-Ential can create an entire X-Istence out of nothing, why can't he keep the waters clean? Presumably, since this world is populated only by mutants, they don't have to deal with things like overpopulation and heavy industrialization that might create a lot of pollution. What's going on?

We have a theory. M'Koy is clearly in good shape, even for a very old Beast, and he still has color in his fur in the form of red streaks on grey. While this is a change from Beast's normal blue color, some fans might not know this was the original color of his fur. Back in the 1970s comic Amazing Adventures #11, the then-mostly-human-looking Beast invented a formula that could activate mutant powers, but when bad guys tried to steal it, he drank the motherf***er himself, turning into a grey-furred Beast with enhanced powers. A few issues later, Beast lost and regained his life force, his fur turned blue, and his powers diminished. Aside from the cat-like appearance introduced as a secondary mutation during the New X-Men era of the early 2000s, so has Beast remained until this day.

But Beast is notoriously unable to stop messing with science to catastrophic results. During the early 2000s Astonishing X-Men series, Beast invented a cure for mutants that has plagued the X-Men on and off to this day, recently resurfacing during the X-Men Disassembled storyline and leaving the mainstream Marvel Universe a mess for mutants that weren't sent to the Age of X-Man. And who can forget Beast traveling back in time to bring his past self, along with the other four original X-Men, to the future in All-New X-Men, seriously threatening the timeline and forcing a younger version of Cable to come back in time and kill his older self in order to set things right. And that doesn't even take into account the time-displaced past Beast messing with magic and causing other difficulties during his time in the future.

So it's safe to assume that, whatever is going on Major X, it's probably M'Koy's fault. Maybe M'Koy, desperate once again to alter his physical appearance, continuously bleached his fur with toxic chemicals which bled into and polluted the oceans. Maybe he was working on another mutant enhancement drug or mutant cure. Whatever the case, it would make sense that M'Koy, who seemed annoyed with Major X when they first met up right before the X-Istence faded away, would so readily join him on his mission. M'Koy feels guilty. As well he should.

One thing's for sure… Beast will pay for what he's done. Or, as Namor would put it…

That's our theory, anyway. We'll learn more when the remaining issues of Major X hit stores in June. Until then, feel free to post your own theories in the comments.

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