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There’s a lot to be said as one of the first of something. Hank McCoy, for instance, is one of the original X-Men. What started with just a team of five teenagers and their professor became a global movement and he’s been there since the early days. So, who is Hank McCoy? Let’s find out!

Henry “Hank” Phillip McCoy was the only son of Edna and Norton McCoy. Norton worked at a nuclear power plant and was exposed to high levels of radiation during an accident, this is believed to be partly why Hank may have expressed his X-gene powers and bodily features at a young instead of his powers coming into effect at puberty, as often happens with mutants. Hank was born was very large hands and feet, looking similar to that of a neanderthal or gorilla but without all the hair. By the time he was a teen, his powers had begun to develop even further, capable of great feats of strength, agility, and durability. Hank also proved to be quite the genius, going to college by the time he was sixteen.

It was in college that he would excel at his studies and become a terror on the football field as a star player. The school would eventually discover Hank was a mutant and ask him to leave. Professor Charles Xavier would hear of the mutant athlete and invite Hank to join his school so he could further his schooling with others like himself. He would meet fellow classmates, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, and Warren Worthington III, who would also be his teammates, as Xavier revealed his plan of the X-Men. This team would work to aide the world and show that mutants were not a threat to humanity, they were able to make the world a safer place.

While their adventuring was just beginning, Hank and the others were whisked away to the future by a blue-haired, ape-like, older version of himself. It was here that Hank would learn his future self was dying and he would help develop a cure to save himself. The young X-Men would go on to have many adventures in this future as they were temporarily stuck here. Hank tried his best to find a way to send them back, even learning magic and unlocking a magical, goat-man form he transformed into temporarily. When they were finally able to return to their own time, Jean would block their memories of this era, only unlocking for their future selves once the younger versions went back home.

Unaware of any of his time travel, Hank would go on to fight fellow mutants who believed that Xavier’s plan was too flawed. While working with the X-Men, Hank would get his doctorate in biology. His fascination with mutation leads him to develop a formula that might be the source of mutation, but when a colleague was going to steal his work, Hank took it himself. While he was able to stop the thief, he would fail to get his antidote in time, this formula would turn Hank into a furry ape as his new permanent form.

The X-Men would become Hank’s family, but like many families, that means that sometimes you have to leave each other for great lengths of time before seeing one another again. Hank would get to join the Avengers and become a member for a time, befriending fellow teammate, Wonder Man and the two becoming known trouble makers. During one of his missions, he would realize he needed the assistance of Doctor Strange and would realize the Defenders, a team Strange was a part of, should have a larger roster and offered to help grow their ranks.

Hank found himself often working on a team of heroes, whether it was the Avengers, Defenders, or the X-Men, but he would find himself coming back to the X-Men again and again. Instead of being a student at the school, he was now a teacher, alongside his original team. Hank would still go on missions but would also stay in his lab, solving mysteries for not just the X-Men but other heroes as well, with his scientific genius.

Adventuring, along with scientific research and discoveries are Beast’s forte and he is often seen in a lab coat as he is any sort of X-Men uniform. While Hank is often a blue-furred ape, he’s also developed secondary mutations that lead to him taking on other forms, like a giant cat man, but he seems to have returned to his ape-like form, thanks to his younger self’s help. When things were at what appeared to their bleakest, Hank would finish the time loop and bring his younger self, along with his old classmates, into the present. Things did improve, even with more problems arising, but now Hank, along with most mutants, have relocated to the mutants’ new home, Krakoa.

There you have it! Beast is one of my favorite X-Men of all time, there’s something about a genius that looks like a blue gorilla. He’s been animated on the small screen, seen on the big screen in live action, plenty of video game appearances, and people are wondering how he and his fellow mutants will be introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. See you next time!

Suggested Reading
X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
Astonishing X-Men
House of X

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net