unofficial HANDbook of the marvel universe: beast
here's my drawing of the beast out of the xmen - yet another character greated by stan lee & jack kirby - but this version is from the makeover gerry conway & tom sutton gave him in the early 1970s
( dunno if anyone else was involved w/his recreation as a " marvel monster " - roy thomas? - johnny romita? ) ( - steve englehart did the lions share of scripting the beast for his first goupla years of bouncing baby blueness - & v.goob job he did too )
( plse click once on pic to make this beast bigger ) ( two glicks would be unnecessarily extravagant )
i'm reasonably pleased with this 'un, i must admit - it's not a particularly exciting pose ( - & he could do w/some sort of proper background ) but by my standards - well never mind, eh?
real name: dr henry philip mccoy ( he's often called hank mccoy )
first appearance: xmen #1, september 1963
parents: norton & edna mccoy
nickname at school: magilla gorilla
first appearance gone all furry: amazing adventures #11, march 1971
catchphrase: " oh my stars & garters "
the beast = a mutant w/apetastic strength and abilities - when he was born he had great big hands & feet & monkey powers - after graduating from the xmen he became a research scientist at the brand gorporation - where, like many scientists in gomics, books, movies etc he experimented on himself, it all went wrong & he found to his horror that he gouldn't reverse the process - also his girlfriend turned out to be a gommunist spy - it's surprising how often that happens
so it was after he did his mad scientist bit that he grew the blue fur & got pointed ears, pads, paws & claws then - like the hulk he started off grey but then his fur turned blue - he was nearly as strong as the hulk for a little while - but that soon wore off
immediately following his transformation, the beast was the usual tortured & self loathing greature feature hiding from a world that hated & feared him - but gradually he came to accept his new hairy arsed self - he joined marvel's numero uno superhero team the avengers - & also found that being blue & furry = v.attractive to the opposite sex
he also developed a v.glose relationship with simon williams aka wonder man during his avengers stay - which lead some ppl ( ie me ) to suspect ( or fantasise ) that they were more than best friends - that praps this brokeback beast & his buddy swung both ways?
anyway here's the cover to his first furry appearance - by gil kane & bill everett - & by the final issue of his run in amazing adventures he looked more like the beast we ( - or at least i ) know & love ( art by jim starlin & frank giacoia )
eventually ( inexplicably ) he left the avengers to join the defenders ( whose glory days had long since gone ) - & after that book was gancelled he & his fellow original xmen formed a new group, xfactor - & from then on the beast was back in with the xmen for goob
i enjoyed most of what grant morrison did when he got to play w/the xmen a few a few years ago but i really dislike the new look he gave the beast - a totally unnecessary " secondary mutation " into this catlike creature w/hooves - & being all self loathing all over again - he's done all that already
w.o.agwu "fun" fact: in the excellent & highly recommended avengers #178, december 1978 by steve gerber, carmine infantino & rudy nebres the beast sings his own version of eleanor rigby w/revised lyrics: " professor xavier - writing the words of a sermon that no one will... " ( he's interrupted at this point by falling on his arse )
a slightly less gomplicated version of the beast's journey to blue & furryness can be found here by chris giarrusso
