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X-Men Vol 1 1
History
You know... It's hard to be a beast, sometimes... But as a matter of fact, it's who I am, and it doesn't have to be a detrimental factor to my existence...
- — Beast
- — Beast
Early Years
Henry Phillip "Hank" McCoy was born and raised around the fall of 1946 in Dunfee, Illinois, as the only son of Norton and Edna McCoy. His father had worked non-stop at a nuclear power plant where he was exposed to massive amounts of radiation during an accident. Norton was completely unharmed, but the radiation affected his genes and in doing so, his son was born and grew up as a mutant. Nevertheless of his unorthodox condition of possessing unusually enormous hands and ape-like feet, his parents loved Hank for who he was, often defending him from his conservative and internally-mutantphobic relatives, especially his uncle John, who ironically encourages him to become a football player because of his so-called "condition," much to Hank's annoyance. Because of this toxic environment that he had to endure being raised in, his mother grew tired of her in-laws' racist bickering as she decide to send Hank to Massachusetts in the residence of his grandmother where he eventually became a child prodigy, having properly studied and graduated Harvard University at the age of fifteen and a half in the degree and later, a PhD in biophysics, his true scientific passion.
Division X
As a fruit of his genius mind and its seeded accomplishments, Hank was eventually recruited to work as a researcher for the C.I.A.'s "Division X," wherein he investigated supersonic flight and built the Cerebro prototype. One day, he was approached by the C.I.A. executive simply known as the "Man in Black", along with his new recruits Professor Charles Xavier, Erik Lensherr, Moira MacTaggert, and Raven Darkholme during the early formation of a black ops group that was Division X. When Charles accidentally exposed him as a mutant, the urbane Hank displayed his physical mutation of prehensile feet and agility, greatly impressing Raven. He became instantly smitten with her, and a budding attraction was evident between them. During their mutual connection, Hank became fascinated by Raven's shapeshifting abilities, revealing that he had been working on a serum to cure his physical mutation but leave his abilities intact. As their relationship bloomed, Raven shared her wish with Hank's personal objective in helping make themselves look "normal" again with the serum he's been developing since graduating college.
However, Erik's constant validation of her true beauty and self swayed her view, and when Hank finished the serum she refused to take it. Dejected by Raven's decision, Hank injected himself and his mutation feats seemed transform to a "normal," human-like form. However, they quickly changed back and McCoy underwent a radical transformation which resulted in him manifesting blue skin and fur all over his body and taking on a more beast-like appearance with the addition of fang-like teeth, pointed ears, and claws. While Hank himself felt disgusted simply by looking at new self, his self-hatred was by his teammate, who bantered his look (for the sake of lightening up the gloomy situation) before they genuinely showed their support for him, especially Raven, who convinced Hank to embrace and love himself for who he truly was. As a result, Hank was given the codename "Beast" by her teammate and friend Banshee, something that Beast slightly found offensive the first moment he heard it, but grew to appreciate over time since she actually found his new demeanor and appearance to be "badass."
The X-Men
At the midst of his personal conflict, however, Xavier's mutant group then came into conflict with the notorious Hellfire Club in person, which led to the murder of a few members at the hand of the Hellfire Club's leader, Sebastian Shaw. Xavier resolved to stop the Hellfire Club and began to train his young group in preparation for conflicts to come. During the skirmish against with the Hellfire Club, Erik and Charles' views regarding the path of the emerging mutant race diverged, resulting in the end of their friendship and the fracturing of their already emerging team. Hank was just as heartbroken to hear Raven's decision to follow Erik's direction, embracing her morally-ambiguous, yet mutant extremist identity as Mystique.
Following the Cuban Missile Crisis and the separation of Erik Lensherr from Division X as the now infamous mutant terrorist Magneto, Hank followed and assisted the Professor, especially after the latter was crippled by Erik for attempting to talk his old friend out of his new calling as a terrorist, in founding Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, run from his family's Westchester mansion in New York, which was converted into a base of operations at which he helped taught and trained young mutants for his personal strike force known as the X-Men from the surviving nuclei of Division X, for the benefit of both man and mutantkind. The base included subterranean medical labs, a training facility called "The Danger Room," an aircraft hanger, and the newly-upgraded Cerebro along with its successor, Cerebra.
In his years living as a student teacher and (later) a professor in the mansion, he befriended several mutants including his old friend and teammate Professor Warren Worthington II, two of the academy's teachers, and several other students such as Scott and Alex Summers, Ororo Munroe, Lorna Dane, and Jean Grey, along with a younger batch of students namely Piotr Rasputin, Warren Worthington III, Jubilee, Bobby Drake, Kurt Wagner, and Rogue, whom he all considered to be his brothers and sisters by the very moment they gotten closer and more honest with each other while living in the safest haven of the X-Mansion.
Ultimate War
When the mysterious and diabolical Movement Alliance conducted a series of massive terrorist attacks all over the world destroying several famous and sacred landmarks, killing over 1,500 people on the very first day of their worldwide assault. Consequently, all the Movement's opposing adversaries, the heroes, were united into creating their own Ultimate Alliance, in order to stop and prevent the Movement from commencing its schemes upon world domination and authoritarian rule, before its too late. For the first time in her, Hank and his fellow teammates have never seen a conflict this atrocious and appalling and as they watch the ongoing news being reported across the world, especially after seeing his loved ones and people in danger.
As the attacks all over the world have continued for days and then weeks, more and more casualties are sadly, starting to increase in numbers, due to the extreme terrorism and serious devastation, continuously committed by the conflict between the Movement Alliance and its seemingly unstoppable forces against the combined forces heroes and anti-heroes of the world, the Ultimate Alliance, who are not stopping their fight against the villains until they find a way to make them pay for their irreversible actions and restore back peace in the entire world.
The infamous and notorious villain of the X-Men known as Mister Sinister would intentionally led most of Magneto's loyalists into causing wreak and destruction on the city of Novi Grad, in Sokovia, without having any orders from Magneto, which immediately has gotten the attention of the X-Men, who went at the scene to figure out the situation. Little did the know, this strategy was one of the first known steps of Essex's plan as he would later unleash a larger event along with some the Earth's most powerful and villainous leaders, leading the Great Superhuman Movement. Setting their differences aside, Beast and the rest of the X-Men momentarily sided forces with Magneto's Brotherhood as the core members plan how to take out and defeat Sinister's Brotherhood faction, one of the core factors in forming the Movement.
Mutant Affairs
Shortly after Ultimate War, Hank swiftly became invested in politics due to how half of the public began to put the blame on mutants due to Mister Sinister's frame-up and disguise in Sokovia as Magneto, wherein his genius mind to clarify the misunderstanding brought by Sinister along with his utmost dedication to protect and legitimize mutant rights into the constitution the same league as humanity had given the United States Government the wake-up call to finally bring the initially planned Department of Mutant Affairs in a reality, appointing Hank as the Secretary of the newly-founded organization.
Within the department, he met an mysterious agent by the name Abigail Brand, who claimed to be a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who left for the mutant department. Brand was easily impressed with his scientific knowledge of theoretical physics and basic anatomy, though Hank only became suspicious because of her first friendly impression, with his extraordinary senses giving him the hunch that she has a hidden agenda or an ulterior motive for joining the Department of Mutant Affairs. Unfortunate for Hank, this suspicion turned obsession inevitably became a reason for him to get more personally attached and closer with Brand, forming a genuine friendship between the two despite his personal doubts whether to still trust her or not.
When Hank would eventually find the right evidences to question her purpose and intentions without alerting the rest of the Department, the mysterious Brand merely defended her suspicious actions by warning Hank about an impending great threat coming from beyond, a threat that would end both mutant and the rest of all sentient life on Earth unless he helped her and her allies (with the assistance of Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom) deal with the threat by the time these creatures she speaks of finally initiate their secret invasion on the planet.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Homo Superior Physiology: As a mutant, it is possible that Beast's mutation is a result of genetic atavism (or genetic traits that resurface in a species after many generations of dormancy). He also possesses neotenous (or traits in a descendant that resemble those of an ancestor organism) characteristics, which would explain why he has a big modern brain with an ape-like physique.
- Genetic Atavism
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Speed
- Superhuman Stamina
- Superhuman Durability
- Superhuman Agility
- Superhuman Dexterity
- Regenerative Healing Factor
- Advanced Longevity
- Superhuman Senses
- Pheromones
- Claws and Fangs
- Secondary Mutation
- Cat-Like Features
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| Strength* |
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| Speed* |
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| * Heightened stats during secondary mutation | |||||
Abilities
- Genius-Level Intelligence
- Remarkable Scientist
- Political Savvy
- Hand to Hand Combatant
- Multilingual
- Expert Tactician
- Indomitable Will
Strength level
- Class 15+
Weaknesses
- Animal Instincts
- Vulnerable Senses
- Allergy
Paraphernalia
Equipment:
- Beast's X-Suit
- Eyeglasses
- X-Mansion Laboratory Equipment
- Biological and Material Analysis Devices
- Biological and Material Analysis Devices
Transportation:
- X-Men Blackbird
Weapons:
- Various invented weaponry
Notes
- No special notes.
- ↑ Modern Comics: X-Men Vol 1 15
Trivia
- Hank is implicitly pansexual, having no concern on who he finds attraction to. Before meeting Abigail Brand, the only person Hank has ever truly loved was Mystique, though he has learned to let her go, at least most of the time since he still felt hung up by her countless cases of betrayal.
- While Hank's chronological age is somewhere in the early 70s, Hank slowed aging being the result of his mutation has rendered his body to be at least in his mid-40s during present day (as of early 2020s).
See Also
- Appearances of Henry McCoy (Earth-61615)
- Character Gallery: Henry McCoy (Earth-61615)
- Quotations by Henry McCoy (Earth-61615)
Discover and Discuss
- Search News for: Beast · Henry Phillip McCoy · Henry McCoy (Earth-61615)
Links and References
- None.