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For the Beast from the Wolverine and the X-Men TV movie, see Beast (Yost series)


"In the future, do I make it?"
―Beast[src]

Beast (Hank McCoy) was a mutant who has super strength. He was one of Charles Xavier's students and was also a teacher in the Xavier Institute.

Biography

X-Men: First Class

Henry "Hank" McCoy was a child prodigy, having graduated Harvard at age 15. He was eventually recruited to work as a researcher for the CIA, wherein he investigated supersonic flight and built the Cerebro prototype. One day in 1962, he was approached by The Man in Black, Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Moira MacTaggert, and Raven Darkholme during the early formation of the X-Men as a black-ops group. 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.

Hank revealed that he had been working on a serum to cure his physical mutation but leave his abilities intact. He believed that Raven's ability to alter her appearance would hold the key to perfecting it. He requested a sample of her blood, during which they shared each others' wish to appear "normal" as well as a kiss. However, Erik's constant validation of her true beauty and self overturned her opinion, and when Hank finished the serum she refused to take it. He returned to his lab and injected himself and his animal-like feet seemed to revert to normal. However, they quickly changed back and McCoy underwent a radical transformation which resulted in him manifesting blue fur all over his body and taking on a more beastial appearance with the addition of fang-like teeth, pointed ears, and claws. The serum had the opposite effect he'd intended, it enhanced his mutation instead of dampening it.

After trashing his lab, he left a note and a box containing the team's suits and met them at the hangar holding the Blackbird of his design. Not long after meeting up with the others, Hank was given the codename "Beast" by Havok. He piloted the team to stop Sebastian Shaw from starting WWIII between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After they crashed on a nearby beach, he and Havok battled Azazel until Lehnsherr managed to infiltrate the Hellfire Club's damaged submarine and kill Shaw. When the remaining mutants left to form the Brotherhood of Mutants with Lehnsherr, Raven told a saddened Hank to remember to be proud that he was a mutant before being teleported away.

Between X-Men: First Class & X-Men: Days of Future Past

In 1965, when Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters opened, it is likely that McCoy took up a teaching position there. During that year, however, America assumed a direct military role in the Vietnam War. As the war escalated throughout the mid-late 1960s, many students and staff at the school were drafted into the military, and ultimately, the school was unable to function. It is uncertain if McCoy was drafted or not. By the early 1970s, Xavier's school was defunct, and Xavier reverted his mansion to a private residence once again. His estate had also fallen into considerable neglect and disrepair.

By the early 1970s, McCoy resided at the mansion, helping a reclusive Xavier tend to the affairs of his estate. Also during this time, McCoy developed a serum that not only regulated his own mutation, but enabled Xavier to walk again. However, it also weakened Xavier's telepathic abilities.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Hank McCoy has been looking after Charles since the school closed. He had been dosing him up with a serum he made that gives Charles the ability to walk, but suppresses his powers.  He uses the same on himself to make him appear human.  He has a brief fight with Wolverine after he refused to leave and Beast getting punched in the face.

He and Charles team up with Wolverine and Quicksilver to break Magneto out from prison by interfering with the Pentagons security system. When Magneto tried to kill Mystique in France, Beast fought with him and saved her. Back at the X-Mansion, Beast discovers that Trask had gathered some of Mystique’s blood from the scene in France. Beast attacks a Sentinel, rips its wires out and helps Charles Xavier.

X2: X-Men United

During the events of X2: X-Men United, Dr. Hank McCoy appeared in a TV show along with a Dr. Shaw, debating on the necessity of registering the mutant citizens. McCoy declared that a registration act was not a plausible solution, and defends the rights of the mutants, as well as proposing a peaceful way of cohabitation between mutants and humans. 

X-Men: The Last Stand

In 2006, under the new President, Dr. Hank McCoy becomes the Secretary of Mutant Affairs in the U.S. Government. When Magneto and Callisto join forces and attack the security truck holding Mystique as prisoner, McCoy becomes acknowledged of the existence of a "cure" for mutants developed by Worthington Industries' Kavita Rao. He visits the facility and meets Jimmy (also known as Leech), a mutant whose DNA is the source of the cure.

Later, he visits Xavier's Mansion to warn his ex-teammates about the threat that the cure represents. McCoy says he could understand why some mutants would want to be free of persecution, citing his lingering desire to be normal. Once the weaponization is made without his knowledge, McCoy resigns from his position in the government and returns to Xavier's Mansion, where he feels he should be due to his principles.

When Professor Xavier is killed by the Phoenix, Beast attends his former mentor's funeral. He is then contacted by Wolverine, who has discovered that Magneto is heading to Alcatraz Island to kill Jimmy and destroy the cure. Beast joins the team and participates in the battle at Alcatraz, donning his old uniform. During the fight, he seems to revert to a more primal state, often roaring as well as defeating his opponents with a savage fighting style. While Wolverine acts as a distraction, Beast injects Magneto with multiple cure darts, rendering him powerless. After the battle, McCoy is appointed by the President as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (Original Timeline)

In 2015, Hank McCoy is dragged from his home and murdered by an angry mob of Human Majority protesters outside his home in upstate New York.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (Revised Timeline)

In the altered timeline of 2023, Beast is seen alive at X-Mansion.

Powers & Abilities

Powers

  • Superhuman Strength - Beast has always possessed some degree of superhuman strength, the limits of which have varied at times due to subsequent mutation. After mutating into his simian form, his strength was increased.
  • Superhuman Speed - Beast can run and move at speeds that are slightly beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. He can run at speeds up to 40 miles an hour over short distances.
  • Superhuman Stamina - Beast's highly advanced musculature produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than that of an ordinary human. He can exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.
  • Superhuman Endurance - Able to take hits will try to get back to continue to fight back.
  • Superhuman Acrobatics - Beast's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. His agility has varied at times due to ongoing and subsequent mutations. While in his simian form, his agility is much more pronounced. He can also walk on his hands for many hours, or perform a complicated sequence of gymnastic stunts such as flips, rolls, and springs.
  • Superhuman Dexterity - He can perform many tasks with his feet as easily as a human could do with his/her hands.
  • Superhuman Leap - Can jump high very high.
  • Claws and Fangs - Beast sports retractable, razor sharp claws at the tip of each finger and toe. Their natural edge, coupled with his strength, are sufficient to rend most conventional materials - including flesh, wood, stone, and even some types of metals. He also possesses elongated canines that he can use, if he chooses to do so, as effective weapons in close quarter combat situations.

Abilities

  • Genius-level Intellect - McCoy's greatest asset is his keen scientific mind. He possesses a genius-level IQ, with extraordinary expertise in genetics, biochemistry, electronics and other subjects.
  • Hand to Hand Combatant - Beast is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter.

Relationships

Friends

Enemies

Trivia

  • Beast was supposed to appear in X-Men but was cut out. Elements of Beast were incorporated into Jean Grey (she serves as a medical doctor as well as a political supporter of mutant rights).
  • In the Dark Cerebro scene, Beast was supposed to appear turning blue in agony on the T.V seen in the bar, this was cut and did not make it to the DVD.  However, the event is incorporated in the X2 novelization.
  • In X-Men: First Class, he has yellow eyes but in X-Men: The Last Stand, he has green eyes. This would be because of his mutation after he tried to go back normal (as seen in X2) and then when he went back to blue form, the eyes would have stayed the same color.

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