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Beast
Gender	Male
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Origin	Dunfee, Illinois
First Appearance	X-Men #1 (1963)
Creator(s)	Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Alter ego	Henry (Hank) McCoy
Aliases	Blue Gorilla
Abilities	Superhuman strength, agility, dexterity, speed, and speed.
Affiliations	X-Men, Defenders, Avengers, X-Factor

The Beast is a fictional comic book superhero associated with the X-Men, a superhero team owned by Marvel Comics. The Beast is a mutant, born with animal-like abilities and attributes.

Dr. Hank McCoy is an accomplished biochemist and scholar, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him. He is covered with bluish black fur, and has a leopard-like face and teeth, and weighs over 350 lbs. His leg muscles are so pronounced that he can leap up to 14 feet straight up, or 22 feet in a standing broad jump. He can climb up a wall by wedging his fingers and toes into the smallest cracks and holding on with a vice-like grip. He can walk a slack or tight rope with minimal effort, walk on his hands for miles, write or tie a knot with his toes, and hold a racket and play ping-pong with his feet. He has the acrobatic skill and strength on a large gorilla, enabling him to perform incredible acrobatics and lift almost a ton under optimal conditions. He can run on all fours at approximately 40 mph, and can easily withstand a fall from about three stories.

In contrast to his appearance, Dr. McCoy is known for his genius-level intelligence and scientific ability, as well as his jovial personality and colorful use of language. He is incredibly well-read, and serves as the X-Men’s medical doctor. His team-mates often turn to him for biological questions and chemical cures or treatments. His favorite explicative, “Oh my stars and garters!” has become a kind of trade mark expression.

Kelsey Grammer portrayed the Beast in the live-action movie X-Men:The Last Stand (2006).

Character Origin

When Hank is born, he looks relatively human, but already possesses a large extent of his mutant abilities. This is unusual, as most mutants in the Marvel Universe don’t gain their mutant abilities until they are in their teens. This may be due to the fact that Hank’s father was exposed to a large amount of radiation during an accident at a nuclear plant. By the time he is a teen, Hank is famous locally for his ability on the football field, which is no challenge for him with his inhuman strength, speed, and agility. As his abilities increased, he began to be feared and shunned by his peers. Professor X hears of him and invites him to join his School for Gifted Youngsters, partially erasing the memories of him from his high school community. As such, he takes the code-name “Beast” and becomes one of the original members of the X-Men.

After graduating, he leaves the X-Men and gets a job at the Brand Corporation doing genetic research. At the corporation, he isolates a chemical catalyst that triggers mutations. In a pinch, he takes his own formula hoping it will change his appearance and enhance his abilities enough for him to catch some enemy agents at the facility. This begins the process of Hank changing to his feral-like appearance that we know him today. First, he grows brown fur over his entire body, and canine-like teeth and claw-like finger and toe-nails. His already amazing abilities were indeed enhanced, but he is unable to reverse the process. He continues to mutate over time. His fur eventually turns blue, and his face appears more feline, like a jungle-cat, today.

After leaving Brand, he has a long stint in the Avengers. There, he develops a long-standing friendship with the Avenger, Wonder Man. He then joins The Defenders, helps found a group called X-Factor, and eventually rejoins the X-Men, where he remains today.