Beast (Henry McCoy)

**Henry Philip McCoy**, also known as the **Beast**, is a character from the *Marvel* comics.

A founding member of the X-Men, Dr. Hank McCoy is a mutant possessing animal-like strength and agility. Despite being covered in blue fur and resembling a ferocious beast, Hank possesses an astounding intellect and a superb wit. He is currently helping run the Jean Grey School, while also serving with the Avengers.

In the AWA fics, Hank is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Hank is a muscular man with his body covered with dark-blue fur and has sharp claws and feets. He has a yellow eyes, canine-like teeth and his hair is combed backwards with two parts sticking out like horns. He wears a yellow and black spandex pants with a x-shaped pattern design.

## **Personality**

Henry McCoy wondered why he wasn't one of the "lucky ones." If he had to remain a mutant, why did he have a power that made him look and sometimes feel like a beast? He continued to struggle for the acceptance of others. As a man of arts and letters and the sciences, Beast was very much the Renaissance man, and while his peers in the intellectual community knew this, they still considered him very much a mutant. He even knew what it was like to be jilted by the proverbial Beauty, his recent fear of human emotion had caused him to turn away from longtime lover Trish Tilby, who had finally seemed to find the error in her ways as far as attitude towards his secondary mutation.

Despite his ongoing battle with the demons of loneliness and rejection, he was an inveterate prankster and wit, and besides his brutish exterior, Beast was the most literate and eloquent of the X-Men, possessing a million-dollar vocabulary. Henry was every bit a human being plagued by duality: man/beast; genius/sports star; gentle giant/feral aggressor. Equal parts biochemist and activist, Beast focused on the X-Men's goals of building better relationships between man and mutant. In immersing himself in this campaign, Beast held hope that in the world he and the other X-Men dream of, he'll finally be known more for the genius within than for the creature outside.

## **Abilities**

Beast has superhuman strength, agility, endurance, senses, durability, speed and has a genius level IQ. In his human form, Beast could lift 1 ton. His simian form could lift 10 tons. Even though he mutated to his feline form, he can still only lift about 10 tons. He has strong fingers and toes, using his razor sharp claws on his hands and his feet to scale walls. He has thick blue fur all over his body. Hank has great manual and pedal dexterity and can perform several complicated tasks using both his hands and feet such as tying knots with his feet. He has long appendages that allow to him to walk on all fours. Beast has superhuman durability, though he is very far from invulnerable. He can survive a fall from 3 stories if he lands on his feet and being struck by superhuman strong foes that would kill an average human. Beast can run for short sprints at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. He has enhanced senses such as night-vision and a sense of smell that can track a human and also has a slight healing factor. This healing factor allows him to recover from slight sicknesses like colds quickly. He also heals broken bones in a couple days, where it takes regular people weeks, even months. Furthermore, in contrast to his superhuman powers, he is extremely intelligent. He is one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. He is a world authority in biochemistry and genetics as well as being the X-Men's medical doctor (though he never received an M.D.) which shows his vast intellect.

Later on, when he has taken on a secondary mutation, his smelling, strength, sight and reflexes are enhanced even further. The secondary mutation gave him the a feline appearance. The downside to this mutation is that Hank has lost his super human dexterity. He has stated that he used to play the guitar but now plays the drums as a result of the lost dexterity. Beast is a capable hand to hand combatant. He has been trained by Captain America and Professor Xavier, in a fighting style that makes good use of his agility, strength and speed. He has an incredibly high pain intolerance and can manipulate his own pheromones

## **Trivia**

* One of the original X-Men, Beast has appeared regularly in X-Men-related comics since his debut.
* In *Amazing Adventures* #11 (March 1972), written by Gerry Conway, Beast underwent a radical change and mutated into his now familiar 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*.
* 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.