#and the fans who are here for good brotherhood and tragedy born of it

[cienie-isengardu]

I think the problem here is that some people seem to think Kuai is just idolizing his brother through rose tinted glasses because he was the only family he had left and that what 'love' he was seeing simply wasn't returned. Some people think Bi-Han simply didn't love Kuai or was straight up abusive to him.

I read a fan story once and basically in a flashback Kuai held back against Smoke despite winning the battle in front of the Grandmaster and Bi-Han got pissed since he was holding back and told Kuai they needed to talk in his room. And by talk, he meant get beat and the dialogue and Kuai's uneasy reaction made it clear this wasn't the first time he hit him.

Yeah Bi-Han fans are getting it rough even before MK1 came out.

Sorry to hear you come across such fanfic and I understand the frustration at fandom how at times it mistreats Bi-Han. Even if people will argue there is no direct source material for him being a good brother (not true), there is no direct mention when alive he was a bad brother either. Of course it would help if fans get the point that Noob Saibot is the twisted by dark magic version of Sub-Zero, not his true character but alas, the same as I or you have our own idea what ice bros should be, everyone is entitled to their own imagination. Fans sometimes go out of their way to demonize characters because they hate them or can’t relate to them and sometimes do that solely to have the story they wished to get, whatever it makes sense for said characters to act that way or not - and good lord only know how fans love to traumatize and put through abuse their favorites. No lie there, we really do love doing that.

Being a fan of Bi-Han may be at times feel like a hardship and the best way usually is just to ignore widespread fanon take on elder Sub-Zero as the vile brother and just go with your life not frustrated over things (other people’s creativity / pleasure / venom) we do not have control over.   

As for Kuai Liang idolizing his brother, it makes sense, both for idolizing the family he knew the best as he was raised alongside Bi-Han in the pathological system and as idolizing Lin Kuei of great renown as Grandmaster personally praised the Sub-Zero. Those two factors for sure influenced his opinion about brother (while Bi-Han probably had a less idealized version of Kuai Liang, as the older and more advanced cryomancer, his life experiences and expectations for the family may differ from those of younger brother). However both original/Mythologies and alternative timelines imply Kuai Liang had contact with other family members, be it a father whose title of Sub-Zero Bi-Han took at some point or mentioned in intro dialogues Grandfather respectively but also has a Smoke whose friendship was always a vital part of his life. If Bi-Han was the only person influencing Kuai Liang, then yes, Tundra could be unable to distinguish brotherly love from abuse because there was no other relationship to compare his and Bi-Han’s. However, source material makes it clear that Bi-Han is not the only person Kuai Liang had a strong loyalty to. Mortal Kombat 9 went so far and stated Smoke was so close to Kuai Liang, he considered Tundra to be his brother and when Kuai Liang is on his quest for revenge, Tomas has never tried to talk him out of this task. Quite the contrary, he aided younger Sub-Zero and on his friend’s behalf sought out Shang Tsung to learn the truth about Bi-Han’s death. As far as I’m aware, fans have never considered Smoke to be an abusive asshole for Tundra and Tomas is usually painted as this supportive and loving friend. But as a loving and supporting friend, shouldn’t he at least make a remark about Bi-Han being not worth such effort if elder brother in fact was abusive and cruel? Coming further with that logic, if indeed Bi-Han was such bad brother like some part of fandom like to claim while Tomas (the good brother/friend) either doesn’t notice it or doesn’t spare that any second thought, they maybe fans should question not just Kuai Liang’s love for brother and Bi-Han’s imagined actions, but how far abuse was in integrable part of Lin Kuei that even its own members can’t recognize it as something questionable and wrong in the first place. And by that logic, Bi-Han’s abuse could be also less of being evil and on purpose hurting brother for his own amusement but acting within the frame he was taught to act.

We have some idea about Tomas and Kuai Liang’s relationship because we could see them interact for limited time while alive Bi-Han and Kuai Liang rarely had this chance is source material, however there is little direct examples about either of relationships when the three of them were still children/young people trained to be assassins. If fans are willing to take at face value that Smoke was Kuai Liang’s best friend / another brother since day one just because Kuai Liang says he considers him as such, then I don’t see a reason to doubt his feelings for elder brother without any vital source material contradicting that in the first place. I know this may be difficult to some people to understand, but Tomas and Bi-Han don't need to be treated as opposites - the good brother vs evil one - as both of those men were an important part of Kuai Liang’s life. The relationships are different but that does not mean one of them must be abusive for others to matter. Tomas and Bi-Han were the two people that mattered to Kuai Liang the most for decades, and he did not stop care for them even after their death and change by dark magic into demonic beings. So maybe it is time to give some benefit of doubt, if not to Bi-Han then at least to Kuai Liang.

[wwwps4]

Watch Dogs two

When Ubisoft announced its promising project Watch Dogs two years ago, most of the gaming community arrived in wild ecstasy at the mere sight of a beautiful virtual Chicago and the unusual abilities of the main character, hacker Aiden Pierce, deftly wielding his phone. "Here it is-a natural killer of GTA, Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row combined" - people shouted, but in the air hats with caps were thrown. But another year passed, a beautiful CG video with screwed elements of the gameplay unnoticed by everyone turned into a more realistic game build and the public began to slowly remove the "pink glasses" put on by the smart PR people of the French publishing house. A year later, the air lock created by Ubisoft gave a major crack in its Foundation, when the developers decided to demonstrate the third demo of the project. Stripped-down graphics, monotonous, simplified gameplay and the notorious towers from the Assassin's Creed series-that's what could please players from several talented studios. Alas, with the same result, they came to the final version of the game, released at the end of last month.

Who is our protagonist Aiden Pearce? Hero or villain, cold-blooded killer or decent family man? Forgive me for being so tactless, but the devil knows. From the very first moments of passing the game, there is a strong feeling that the project's writers themselves did not fully realize who was looming in front of them and what to do with this character. It seems to be simple: Aiden is an unemployed professional hacker who for a while engaged in illegal money manipulation, until one day his partner in a menial job decided to stick his nose where it would not be worth it. A few days after the incident, unknown persons did not just come out to our hero, but were able to arrange a real car accident through their henchmen, in which the niece of the protagonist was killed. Of course, our guy was not one of the timid and after such a terrible tragedy like "reborn", becoming another avenger in a mask (cap), like a bunch of his predecessors before, whose exploits were repeatedly sung in comics, games and movies. And this simplicity and subsequent zashtampovannost project history — one of the main irritants that do not give you a good feel for Aiden and his constant experiences. Every time you see the next" turn " of the plot, you want to shout in impotent anger at the screen that all this has already happened, that the piece was taken from there, and this one from here.

Nor do Mr. Pierce's motives and aspirations lend themselves to normal logic. Why is he on the warpath against crime in the city? Why does he say one thing and then do another? Why is he so indifferent to his own relatives? And believe me, there are a dozen or more such questions for the final credits. Sometimes writers feed players small flashbacks and short dramatic videos with a child's voice and a plush toy flying in the air. But you don't really believe them either, when after another terrible nightmare, the hero with an unruffled face gets out of bed and mumbles something about honor, dignity and his own feelings about what is happening. In General, Aiden has something wrong with his facial expression — it is impenetrable and cold, and for the entire game you will see at most three hypostases of the hero: overflowing with anger, arrogant and frankly not caring. Unfortunately, this is all that the animators, the actor who gave his appearance to the main character and the people responsible for the script could afford. But God help him, with Pierce, the plot could have been drawn out by his competent delivery, or at least, minor characters. But even then, the authors stepped into a puddle: well-mounted production scenes did not cry, many storylines are far-fetched, and all the other villains and heroes are like two drops on their other comrades in the shop. The same owner of the South club of Chicago, philanthropist and rich man Dermot Quinn in his manner of speech and character strongly resembles the main villain of Uncharted 3 Catherine Marlowe — the same cruel, merciless and ready to do anything in order to get his own. Other assistants or friends of the main character are too one-sided and do not have their own internal spark, each time squeezing out portions of dialogues. Little is known about them, as well as about the Pier, and it is also very difficult to understand why they help him. As you may remember, once the company's managers intoned to show the game the real conspiracy theories of big corporations, the secret sale of people on the black market and all the most unpleasant side of the community living in the age of new technologies. As a result, we got the most superficial narrative about the events taking place behind the scenes of a huge metropolis.

After such a weak plot, you expect that Watch_Dogs can save its other components, and then the developers try not to let the players down, giving them a huge range of all possible actions. In fact, we have a continuation of the previously mentioned series about Assassin's Creed, only this time not in the past, but in the futuristic future. Hidden blades were replaced by mobile phones, crossbows were replaced by full-fledged weapons, and instead of the Brotherhood of silent killers, a secret hacker community flaunts, which gathered around itself at first seeming colorful characters. The General concept of Watch_Dogs came in handy at the time, just hitting the sometimes unconscious fears of modern humanity, just entered the post-industrial era. It was able to absorb all the best aspects of the dystopia about the terrible technological future, the decline of normal human relations and total state surveillance of its own population: from the works of ray Bradbury to the British TV series "Black mirror". Imagine if one person could hack any computer, ATM, or security system in the world at any second with just their mobile phone. What if he is also a madman who wants to create real chaos in a fragile society? It's scary, isn't it? And this is the cherished device that our hero has. It is good that he uses it only for the good, without any back thought, and this is how a new type of "heroes" is born against the background of a tasteless plot, which does not stand out from the crowd in any way, but even merges with it. Forget about the pretentious, brave and desperate lads rushing to the aid of anyone, their time is long gone. Now the ball is ruled by such "Piers", which can also stack enemies in stacks (while it remains a mystery when and where our protagonist learned so skillfully to handle large guns and famously fight in hand-to-hand battles), but prefer to do their business quietly and quietly, with a single touch on the screen sensor. Why kill a man if you can easily upload his encrypted archive of child pornography and condemn the bastard to eternal torment in prison in the company of hardened criminals? It is this" superpower " Aiden more than compensates for his faded appearance and weak character, giving you a lot of interesting features associated with the gameplay.

Almost everything in the city is connected to the ctOS network, which pierce hacks in two seconds in the very first mission. Of course, there is a reasonable question: how did he do it, if this system is considered one of the most secure in the world, and the mini-game of hacking looked too unconvincing. But we will write off this defect to the authors of the script, who struggled to somehow reduce the gameplay and the overall plot. After gaining full access over the city, the pier becomes almost a mini-God. Using his smartphone, he can pull out any information he is interested in about any other person — who and where works, how much he earns and what he is currently doing. Helpful developers give a little more information about some key characters, allowing you to get into their virtual correspondence, listen to phone conversations, get their money, or information about upcoming crimes. Although after half an hour you will frankly get tired of watching all of them, and the overloaded interface with tons of unnecessary information can not be turned off in the menu, because this is the main feature of the game — the ability to spy on all at once. In addition, most biographies are secondary or simply uninteresting.

Other aspects of the game process are also interesting and varied only in the first two hours of passing, then a real carbon copy of the same thing begins with slightly changed conditions. Aiden can do a lot: disable or enable car alarms, hack surveillance cameras, traffic lights and trains, play poker or thimbles, chase criminals on their own two or a car, even fight with strange robots (the developers send a separate Hello to Trevor from GTA 5 and his crazy waking dreams) and even switch construction cranes that will lift him to the roof where the next ctOS tower is located. But all this works according to the same "hacked, tracked, caught up, finished off" scheme, which does not change itself until the very end of the game. The creators of the game clearly did not learn anything after admitting one of the main mistakes in the Assassin's Creed series — quantity does not mean quality at all. Speaking of towers, when you first glance at the map of the city, it becomes a little bad from the total number of these in any particular area of Chicago. Maybe this is, of course, and will appeal to fans zamorochennym collect everything and everything, but I'm more than sure that even their "variety" will enter into a slight stupor. Few people will be amused by the idea of endless repetition of the same actions just to fully open the entire map and complete all the additional tasks.

[aion-rsa]

Beast Mode: Marvel’s 16 Most Bestial Baddies

Even though, more often than not, Marvel characters tend to stick to (sometimes literally) bustling urban areas, there are a shockingly large number of characters that model their alter-egos after members of the animal kingdom. Sometimes it’s just part of their appearance and how they want to be perceived. Other times, that bestial ferocity and likeness is a deep-seated part of who they are.

RELATED: Strangled Web: The 15 Deadliest Spider-Man Villains

A lot of the time, it is those very animalistic qualities that lead these villains to a life of crime. Here, we’ll be exploring 16 of Marvel’s most bestial comic book villains in order of how animalistic they actually are. We’ll also take a look at the instances where the villainous character wears the beast and where the ferocious beast wears the character.

SABRETOOTH

We just had to kick this one off with a band. Certainly one of the most vicious of this bunch is the mutant, Victor Creed, better known by his alias, Sabretooth. Armed with powerful claws and enormous canine teeth, when he first appeared in “Iron Fist” #14, Sabretooth gave us just a taste of his savagery, a quality of his that has only worsened as the characters has evolved. He’s a mercenary who kills for pay as well as for his own twisted amusement.

How does someone turn out like Creed? Well, he suffered through multiple traumatic events throughout his childhood. He killed his brother, for example — an act for which his father chained him up in a basement like an animal and constantly pulled out his mutant fangs. It seems Victor was meant to become the creature he is, though he has tried to become more. He once had a sidekick, the mutant Birdy, who aided him through telepathy in controlling his more animalistic, murderous urges. More recently, it seems he’s genuinely turned over a new leaf and is more actively trying to do good with Magneto’s X-Men, at least, for mutantkind. Sure that happened after his personality was switched in the “Axis” storyline, but whatever works, right?

PORCUPINE

One of the earliest animal-themed criminals, first appearing in “Tales to Astonish” #48 (written by Stan Lee and H.E Huntley, with artwork by Don Heck), Alexander Gentry was a weapons designer who decided to turn to a life of crime to get rich quick. He designed a battle suit equipped with quills, which, unlike an actual porcupine, could be shot at opponents. He wasn’t especially strong, intelligent and his suit didn’t actually help much, so he became a laughing stock among criminal and super hero society. That’s what led him to temporarily giving up his suit and his life of crime until he donned it once more to try and sell it to the Avengers, who he had faced before. He died before that could happen, impaled on one of his own quills.

Despite the undeniably wild appearance, Porcupine is definitely not as animalistic as he looks in the suit. He was just a guy trying to make some money through illegal methods. It’s a perfect example of the name being used to describe what he had created and not who he was as a person, or even as a criminal.

KANGAROO

Next on the list is one alias used by two colorful characters straight out of Australia’s outback. First, there was Frank Oliver’s Kangaroo. He first appeared in “Amazing Spider-Man” #81, bouncing around like the kangaroos he so intensely studied. Wanting to make a name for himself, Kangaroo found himself in a battle against the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. SPOILER: he lost. Throughout his career, he kept trying to gain infamy as a criminal, right up until he died unceremoniously via gamma radiation poisoning.

Not long after, there was Brian Hibbs, who idolized the original Kangaroo and desperately wanted to become a supervillain. He trained and eventually fought Spider-Man, who hilariously beat him with one punch. Still, he went on to create a more elaborate kangaroo-themed suit. At one point, he even tried to force mutations on himself, which eventually worked, though he was throwin in prison and couldn’t escape, thus negating any thrill of his powers. Still, Hibbs was different to Oliver in that everything he did was done so he could emulate the animal he named himself after.

RHINO

Fans of the “Amazing Spider-Man” series will probably recognize the Rhino as being one of Spidey’s most enduring foes. Aleksei Sytsevich was a bad guy from the very beginning. He was part of the Russian mob, chosen to undergo various procedures that would bond a thick armored suit to him, modelled after a rhinoceros hide. This subsequently turned him into the strongest, toughest thug they had. The moment that separates the person from the animal is in “Amazing Spider-Man” #625, written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by Max Fiumara and Fabio D’Auria. We find Aleksei out of the suit, trying to just be a human being. He’s in love and married to Oksana, who tragically dies when a new Rhino emerges, forcing Aleksei to don the suit again, after which he quickly destroys his new adversary.

It’s a symbolic moment when we see Aleksei choose to become a completely destructive force, much indeed like an angered and rampaging rhino. It’s an easy line to cross, even though throughout his many appearances, we see him constantly swaying from one side to the other. Was it life that forced him to be the Rhino or was that beast just a symbol of who he really was?

ARMADILLO

Villains born from tragedy don’t always become the creatures they wear. For example, Antonio Rodriguez, who first appeared in “Captain America” #308 (written by Mark Gruenwald and illustrated by Paul Neary, Dennis Janke and Ken Feduniewicz), became a villain because he needed a means to cure his ill wife. He eventually found Dr. Karlin Malus, who offered to cure Rodriguez’s wife in exchange for his consent to becoming Malus’ test subject. Rodriguez was turned into a creature armed with a thick hide and long, sharp claws.

Rodriguez is, however, an animal in appearance only. The mind and man within is still very much in control, albeit misguided and a little violent. He doesn’t act out of instinctive rage, he just needs a purpose in his new form and though he’s tried, he just can’t be a hero. If he really was more animal than man, there’s no way he would have ever even tried to be decent.

SCORPION

One of Spidey’s many animal-themed foes, former private investigator Mac Gargan was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to become the villain to take Spidey down. Gargan, now a monster, grew enraged and insane, hating Jameson for what he had done and Spider-Man for basically just being Spider-Man.

Gargan has a tendency to give in to his anger and, like the animal, literally lash out at those who show him the slightest aggression. We can see this in everything from his irrational hatred for Jameson, to his willingness to embrace the more violent aspects of the symbiote when he becomes the new Venom, going so far as to eat and enjoy the flesh of humans, skrulls and of course, the bones of Swarm (who we’ll get to in a bit). That’s pretty animalistic and more than enough to weigh against the few more humane things he’s tried to do, like stop a bank robber, since right after that, he ate the robber.

MAN-APE

Hailing from the jungle city of Wakanda, M’Baku became the ferocious Man-Ape after trying to usurp the throne of his rival, T’Challa, with the help of the White Gorilla Cult. He received his powers and abilities after consuming the flesh of a white gorilla and bathing in its blood. He first appeared in “Avengers” #62 (written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by John Buscema and George Klein), and he makes his purpose more than clear. He doesn’t just want to rule Wakanda, he wants to change it. Where they worship the panther and strive for progress, M’Baku would have them worship the white gorilla and return to a more primitive era instead.

That alone isn’t exactly animalistic until you compare Man-Ape with the behavior of an actual gorilla. He’s wild and unpredictable, but he’s not entirely unsociable. He was seen at T’Challa’s wedding, after all. That’s not unlike any predatory animal of the wild, which can be vicious or friendly depending on what mood it’s in.

TIGER SHARK

Lurking in the depths of the deep blue sea is Tod Arliss, also known as Tiger Shark, a long-time foe of Namor. You might not have guessed it, but Arliss was actually a hero before turning into a ferocious supervillain. He was an Olympic swimmer, who, while saving someone’s life, damaged his spinal cord and therefore lost his ability to swim. In desperation, he turned to a scientist who experimented on him with a mixture of Namor and a tiger shark’s genetic material, turning Arliss into a monster.

Over time, his mutation has grown worse and it’s undeniable that he has embraced the deep sea predator for which he is has been named. Armed with razor-sharp teeth and gills, as well as a terrifyingly predatory nature, he is now more shark than man in both mind and body. It’s why he cannot stop hunting something after his keen senses have locked onto it and why he needs a special suit to remain on land.

TOAD

This wart-covered mutant, first appearing in “X-Men” #4 (written by Stan Lee with artwork by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman), was undeniably one of the more primitive-seeming mutants, at least, at first. While in earlier comics he appears to just be a lackey for the Brotherhood, we’ve come to know him as being far more complex than his simple name implies. Beyond his elongated amphibian tongue and abilities, his creature-like stance and mannerisms, Mortimer Toynbe is actually just a mutant trying to be more than what he’s perceived.

Maybe he does it because, as he said before trying to kill Cyclops (to change the timeline), he doesn’t want to be a monster, or maybe he tried for the affections of those who might see him as more, like Wanda Maximoff or later, Husk. He’s not wild or even unpredictable. Mortimer is just trying to find happiness, and when you really get down to the man beneath the slime-secreting skin, there’s very little animal-like about him… well, other than his look, powers and codename.

JACKAL

Ladies and gentlemen, Miles Warren. Most people might remember that name because it belonged to the culprit who cloned Peter Parker, beginning the infamous “Amazing Spider-Man” Clone Saga of the mid-90s. Aside from being a genetic genius, Warren also became a mutated green jackal-like creature, reflecting the madness that sprouted within him. In the recent “Dead No More: Clone Conspiracy” story arc, he went so far as to resurrect Ben Reilly only to kill him and resurrect him once more, more than a dozen times. That sort of cruelty or devotion to science (depending on how you look at it) is not animalistic, it is unfortunately very human; a warped take on the scientific method.

Jackal was akin to his namesake animal only in the symbolic sense. He was cunning and lurked in the shadows, watching his schemes unfold with shining eyes and gleaming teeth. He was insane, sure, but he definitely was not animalistic on the inside; predatory, perhaps. He was barely animalistic on the outside just… really, really weird looking, and his motivations show that he’s far from being a simple animal at heart. He’s been involved in the rise and fall of criminal empires, tangled emotional trauma and has successfully executed contingency plans to avoid ever truly dying.

GRIZZLY

Maxwell Markham donned the Grizzly exoskeleton from Jackal, in order to get revenge on Jameson for writing an unflattering editorial on the former wrestler; an editorial that ruined Maxwell’s career. Aside from bearing the look of a gargantuan grizzly bear, the suit augmented Maxwell’s strength, allowing the wrestler to begin his career as a supervillain. He was constantly defeated by Spider-Man, even when working with other villains in the infamous Legion of Losers. That’s just about where his animalistic or generally wild qualities end.

Despite the savage look of his suit, Maxwell isn’t a particularly animalistic person. He’s gruff, not too bright and capable of unspeakable violence, but is he primitive and wild at heart? No. In fact, he’s even been seen trying to reform himself in “The Superior Foes of Spider-Man” #11, when he attended a Villains Anonymous meeting alongside Porcupine (Roger Gocking), Looter and others lesser known villains. He also recently made a switch to the side of the angels in the “Astonishing Ant-Man” series by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas.

SAURON

You’re probably thinking that this one just has to have lost his humanity. He’s a cold-blooded pteranodon-man well known in the Savage Land. It can’t get any wilder than that, can it? Surprisingly, Karl Lykos is more human than he appears or even acts sometimes, though he is evil in his pteranodon form, taking the name Sauron after the evil elven overlord of J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy novels. In his earlier stories, he was in constant conflict with his bestial side, going so far as to starve himself in isolation just to fight the urge to drain the life energy of others.

Though he usually retains his intelligence in his monstrous form, there have been instances when he lost all control and ability to think like a human being, as he did when Lykos and his alter-ego clashed on the astral plane following a psychic intervention by Phoenix. Lykos slowly returned later on, but that moment did highlight an important fact about Sauron. In his battle for control, Lykos just barely pulls through. Like the animals of the jungle (or of the Mesozoic era), it’s the hunger that drives him and that usually means danger for others.

LIZARD

Since his first appearance in “Amazing Spider-Man” #6, we’ve seen Curt Connors evolve (or devolve, depending on how you look at it) over the course of his long and arduous battle against his green, scaly alter-ego, the Lizard. It was never an easy battle for the brilliant scientist. His family has been placed in harm’s way multiple times and he’s lost friends because of his tendency to transform into the surprisingly manipulative Lizard persona. Not only does the Lizard embrace its predatory nature, it’s capable of appealing to the “reptilian part” of the human brain, compelling others to act like animals, too.

Thankfully for Connors, he was cured in part thanks to Otto Octavius, who freed Connor of the Lizard persona, though Connors was still trapped in the reptile body, which was revealed in “Amazing Spider-Man” #699 in one of Connors’ defining moments. Remembering all the death and destruction he’d caused as the Lizard, Connors resigned to his imprisonment even when presented with the opportunity for escape, declaring that he had nowhere to go and that he deserved his punishment. That one moment shows that even after all the mutations and madness, Connors is still a good man inside.

ROMULUS

For those who are familiar with this particular bestial baddie, you probably already know that Romulus is in no way human. Unlike the rest of the villains on this list, he is one example of what happens when an animal tries to emulate a man. He first appeared (completely) in “Wolverine” Vol 3 #50 as the shadowy figure manipulating Wolverine, Sabretooth. In later issues, we find out he’d also been manipulating Logan’s son, Daken. He’s a member of the Lupine, a species that Black Panther postulates quite possibly evolved from canines rather than apes. So far, Romulus’ every action has reflected that. He’s not after world domination, not really. He just wants to create a new breed of predator.

As wolves need an alpha to lead them, Romulus had been preparing Logan and Daken for a battle against each other to see which one could take his place at the top. You could argue that his motives are human in a very small way, but for the most part, it’s the kind of basic survival instinct you see in wolf packs. He might look almost human, but when it comes down to it, it’s just the skin the beast wears.

SWARM

In a freak accident involving killer bees, a Nazi scientist and “radioactivity,” Fritz Von Meyer’s consciousness was dispersed among a swarm of bees. Thus, Swarm was born, first appearing in “Champions” #14 (written by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne with artwork by Byrne, Mike Esposito and Glynis Wein). As you might imagine, Swarm is driven by one thing: to see the swarm thrive and therefore, humanity eradicated. It may still possess the consciousness of Fritz, but there’s nothing human about it (except for maybe his odd need for a cape… bees get cold too). It attacks seemingly at random, as it did when it attacked the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in “Wolverine and the X-Men” #19, just like a pest.

As a collective of insects using Fritz’s expertise to ensure their own survival, it’d be difficult to argue that Swarm is anything more than a bunch of malicious insects now. They have completely engulfed his mind and therefore, while he can still be seen using technology (to wipe out all other technology), he’s now just a collection of animals.

WENDIGO

A Wendigo is the product of a curse created by the extradimensional being, Tanaraq. Any who consumes the flesh of another human being in the Canadian wilderness will turn into a ferocious, furry, sasquatch-like creature with strength enough to stand their own against the Hulk. Unfortunately for them, once a human has been turned into a Wendigo, there’s very little left of their former humanity.

Of course, while at least one Wendigo was shown to be capable of speech (albeit broken and simple), most others are generally dangerous and animalistic, generally unleashed as opposed to co-operated with. They’re more like the dogs you send to hunt rather than a partner you fight alongside (although some of you dog owners might argue otherwise). Wendigos are the perfect example of the form of a beast consuming the identity of the man who was once behind it. There are no clever schemes hatched from Wendigos, there aren’t even any complex emotional motivations, just raw animal instinct.

Who is your favorite animalistic Marvel malcontent? Let us know in the comments!

The post Beast Mode: Marvel’s 16 Most Bestial Baddies appeared first on CBR.com.

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