Era #8, Part 05: Beast Limited Series

Grade: F

Karma lost her younger brother and sister during a mysterious explosion of her apartment during the Mutant Massacre back in New Mutants #46 (Era #4, Part 04). Leong and Nga Coy Manh have been forgotten characters for a decade, so I am glad that there is an attempt to address their disappearance. With that much time to plan, they couldn’t come up with a better story than this?

The twins recently resurfaced in X-Force #62 (Era #8, Part 04) where they were again kidnapped -- from their kidnappers. Viper contracts Spiral to take the twins and transform them into weapons that can be used against Karma. With so many enemies that Viper has to deal with, she chooses a special, high-cost plan against ... Karma?

Why is this series even called Beast? While he plays an important role in this series, it isn't a solo adventure. It focuses on Karma with Cannonball and Beast rounding out the team.

The twins are transformed by Spiral into grown adults with some odd (and kind of creepy) powers. It is made even more disturbing when Viper makes sexual innuendos with the adult Leong who was a pre-adolescent boy just a few hours earlier.

[2 Stars] Beast #1 - "Bad Karma" Viper arrives to meet Spiral and set in motion a plan to take revenge against Karma. Karma possesses Beast to force answers out of the Hellfire Club regarding the whereabouts of her brother and sister.

[1 Star] Beast #2 - "Body Shopping" Beast, Cannonball, and Karma are transported to Spiral's Body Shoppe where they find the twins grown up, transformed by their unusual mutant powers, and under Viper's control.

[1 Star] Beast #3 - "Closing Shop" Beast, Cannonball, and Karma versus Viper, Spiral, and the twins.