Beast (Marvel Comics)
Beast is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is a founding member of the X-Men. The character was introduced as a mutant possessing ape-like superhuman physical strength and agility, oversized hands and feet, a genius-level intellect, and otherwise normal appearance and speech. Eventually being referred to simply as "Beast", Dr. Henry Philip "Hank" McCoy underwent progressive physiological transformations, gaining animalistic physical characteristics. These include blue fur, both simian and feline facial features, pointed ears, fangs, and claws. Beast's physical strength and senses increased to even greater levels.
Despite Hank McCoy's feral appearance, he is depicted as a brilliant, well-educated man in the arts and sciences, known for his witty sense of humor, and characteristically uses barbed witticisms with long words and intellectual references to distract his foes. He is a world authority on biochemistry and genetics, the X-Men's medical doctor, and the science and mathematics instructor at the Xavier Institute. He is also a mutant political activist, campaigning against society's bigotry and discrimination against mutants. While fighting his own bestial instincts and fears of social rejection, Beast dedicates his physical and mental gifts to the creation of a better world for man and mutant.
One of the original X-Men, Beast has appeared regularly in X-Men-related comics since his debut. He has also been a member of the Avengers and Defenders. Various storylines over the years have hinted that Beast has capacity to become a supervillain; his alternative universe counterpart Dark Beast was a recurring character in 2000s and 2010s comics. During the Krakoan Age 2020s X-Men storylines, Beast assumes an antagonistic role to the other X-Men, becoming an outright villain. At the end of the Krakoan Age, the original Beast dies in an act of last minute redemption, and is replaced by his younger clone whose memories stop short of the events which corrupted the original Beast.
The character has also appeared in media adaptations, including animated TV series and feature films. Beast has been a cast member in all X-Men animated series, most notably in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by George Buza, a role he reprised in the series' revival X-Men '97. Kelsey Grammer played the Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, while Nicholas Hoult portrayed a younger version of the character in X-Men: First Class. Both Hoult and Grammer reprised their roles in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Hoult reprised the role in X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix, while Grammer reprised the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Marvels. Grammer will also reprise his role in Avengers: Doomsday.
Publication history
1960s
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist and co-writer Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in X-Men #1. Stan Lee writes in the foreword to X-Men: The Ultimate Guide that he made Beast the most articulate, eloquent, and well-read of the X-Men to contrast with his brutish exterior. Further, the book opines that the Werner Roth–Roy Thomas team garnered admiration for their "appealing and sensitive characterizations of the original X-Men". Roth, under the alias Jay Gavin, had taken over for Kirby fully by issue #18, and Thomas was a new talent. Along with the rest of the X-Men, Beast was given an individualized, colorful new costume in issue #39.According to writer Will Murray, a possible inspiration for the Beast was Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, a companion of pulp hero Doc Savage. Both are possessed of an apelike appearance and are brilliant scientists. Before becoming more erudite in later issues, McCoy also used a great deal of slang in his early appearances much like Monk.
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
In Amazing Adventures vol. 2 #11, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Tom Sutton, Beast underwent a radical change and mutated into his furry, blue appearance. The concept originated with Roy Thomas, an effort to make the character more visibly striking, and Beast also became more werewolf-like to capitalize on the success of Werewolf by Night. Steve Englehart, who wrote the remainder of the Beast's short-lived spotlight in Amazing Adventures, emphasized the character's wit rather than the tragedy of his transformation into a more monstrous form, reasoning that the Beast's intelligence and sense of humor would allow him to see his misfortune in perspective. Over the next decade the Beast would appear on the roster of several teams in titles ranging from The Avengers to The Defenders to X-Factor. It was not until 1991, in X-Factor #70/X-Men #1, that the Beast finally returned to the X-Men.Englehart later said that he added the Beast to the Avengers roster because he wanted to write the character again and thought his funny, down-to-earth personality would make him a good foil for Moondragon. Succeeding writers of The Avengers similarly found that the character's lightheartedness made a good balance to the team's generally serious tone, resulting in the Beast's run in The Avengers outlasting his earlier run in X-Men. His friendship with fellow Avenger Wonder Man would likewise come to eclipse his friendship with X-Man Iceman for the comics fandom. The Avengers #137 debuted the Beast's catchphrase, "Oh, my stars and garters," and The Avengers #164 was the first to depict him as a sex symbol, a take which writer Jim Shooter said resulted in very positive mail from female readers in particular.
In 1986, Beast re-joined the original X-Men in a new team, X-Factor. In 1991, he re-joined the X-Men along with the rest of the original team.
2000s
In X-Treme X-Men #3 he experienced a further mutation into a feline being, first shown in the introduction to New X-Men, by Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison. As evidenced on the back cover of X-Treme X-Men Chris Claremont, writer of that series in addition to both The Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor, contributed much to the Beast's characterization. Citing Claremont as inspiration for his run on New X-Men, Morrison explains Beast as a "brilliant, witty bipolar scientist". Morrison continues, "I saw Henry McCoy as an incredibly clever, witty, cultured, well-traveled, experienced, well-read character so I brought out those parts of his personality which seemed to me to fit the profiles of the smartest and most worldly people I know—his sense of humor is dark and oblique. He's obviously quite clearly bipolar and swings between manic excitement and ghastly self-doubt. He has no dark secrets, however, and nothing to hide."Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men: Gifted" story arc featured a "mutant cure" designed by Indian Benetech scientist Dr. Kavita Rao, and the prospect of "real" humanity arouses the interest of a heavily mutated Beast, who visits Rao only to discover that the drug is the product of illegal human experimentation on an unknown victim. The idea of a mutant cure, which had previously appeared in the 1992 animated series, was also the basis of the X-Men: The Last Stand movie plot and the series was even made into a motion comic. IGN called the arc focusing on Beast "best X-Men run in a decade" and lauded Whedon for flawless character dynamics. According to BusinessWeek, Beast is listed as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics.
2010s and 2020s
Beast appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010–2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #1 through its final issue #37.In X-Men Legends Vol. 2 #1-2, taking place between The Incredible Hulk #181 - 182 and Giant Size X-Men #1 starring Wolverine, it is revealed that Beast was responsible for the existence of Wolverine's will-be iconic X-Men mask, when Beast was manipulated by Mesmero into his amnesiac masked servant, Wildlife.
Fictional character biography
Youth
Henry Philip "Hank" McCoy was born in Dundee, Illinois, in the United States, to Norton and Edna McCoy. His father, Norton McCoy, is employed at a local nuclear power plant before Henry's birth and was once exposed to intense nuclear radiation, which appears to have caused his son's mutation. Hank is born with a vast intellect, unusually long arms and legs, and unusually large hands and feet—a rare although not unique case of mutant powers manifesting before puberty. His bodily proportions are comparable to those of a gorilla, and later stories reveal his nickname in school was "Magilla Gorilla".With the X-Men
Henry's mutation more fully manifests during adolescence, providing greater strength and agility, and although his powers allow him to briefly excel in athletics during his remaining time at school, he soon attracts the animosity of his fellow students and other non-mutant humans. After defeating the villain Conquistador with the assistance of some X-Men, Hank joins the group and begins studying at Professor Charles Xavier's Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.Henry recognizes the opportunities such an institution can offer him and accepts the invitation. He finds the school both a fountain of scientific knowledge and a place of sanctuary. There he is introduced to the X-Men, who accept him into their ranks and give him the codename Beast. Alongside workouts in the Danger Room, under Xavier's tutelage, he studies subjects ranging from differential equations to Proust.
With the rest of the X-Men on their first field mission, he battles Magneto for the first time, and later Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. He became stressed because he had to keep a secret identity while in the X-Men team, so he briefly left the team to become a professional wrestler. While he was a professional wrestler he met Unus the Untouchable, and helped the X-Men build a directed-energy weapon to make Unus completely untouchable, resulting in Unus not being able to feed himself. Beast then rejoined the X-Men team. With the team, he also visits the Savage Land, and meets Ka-Zar. Beast battles the Juggernaut, but he is badly hurt. He subsequently fights the Sentinels with the X-Men, and he and Iceman battle the Maha Yogi.