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"Well, I think we should hope for the best. And prepare for the worst. But, even still, I still think the world needs the X-Men."
―Hank McCoy[src]

Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy, also known as Beast, is a class 3 mutant with a bestial appearance who possesses superhuman strength, durability, endurance, speed, agility, dexterity, stamina and longevity.

Hank is also a member, later the leader of the X-Men.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Hank shared the history of his counterpart, until 1973.

X-Men: Days of Future Past[]

"I probably shouldn't be asking this sort of thing, but in the future, do I make it?"
―Beast to Wolverine[src]

When Wolverine arrived in 1973, he drove to the decrepit school that has been shut down. He knocks on the door anyway and a human looking Hank opens to answer the door. Hank asks Logan to leave but he refused and gets in. He tells Hank that they will be good friends in the future and punches him in the face. Hank was provoked by Logan's arrogance and transformed into his mutant form. When Logan starts to look for the professor, a transformed Hank attacks him, fighting him until Charles intervened and stops the fight.

After the rough encounter with Beast, Logan then tells them both that he's sent the future by Charles, which they obviously don’t believe. Logan explains what happens in the future but Xavier simply laughs until Logan then tells Charles something that Charles tells Wolverine years in the future. How Charles powers manifested at an age of 9 and how he thought he had gone mad. But at the age of twelve he understood that the voices in his head actually came from the minds of the people around him. This makes Charles wonder if Logan might be telling the truth, as how Charles discovering his powers was something no one else knew at the time, but still says he's busy and walks away. After Xavier explained his personal dilemma to Logan, causing Hank to state that "there is no professor", Wolverine asks Beast how Charles can still walk and he answers that the serum he used to control his powers could be modified to fix Charles's spine. But it had the side-effect of changing Charles' DNA in a way that sapped him of his powers. Charles had misused the serum over the years to shut out the voices in his head.

But Charles changes his mind and reluctantly agrees to help Logan. Logan then says that they will need Magneto as well. Learning that they would need Charles and Erik's help, Charles reveals that Erik is held prisoner beneath the Pentagon in a concrete and plastic prison for being involved in the assassination on John F. Kennedy. Wolverine knows someone that could help with breaking out Magneto. After Xavier was finally convinced to assist Logan in freeing Magneto, the trio picked up Quicksilver, a mutant with the power of super speed that says that he is willing to help and join them. At the Pentagon, Charles, Wolverine, and Hank take a tour of the Pentagon, acting as tourists, but Charles and Wolverine sneak away as Hank shuts down the cameras. Hank continued to act as a tourist while the other three infiltrated the lower floors. Hank assisted them with rescuing Magneto, by fiddling around with the Pentagon's security systems, and activated a fire alarm throughout the building.

Soon afterward, the group would go to Paris to prevent Mystique from assassinating the Sentinels' creator, Bolivar Trask. As Hank piloted the group's jet on a flight to the Paris Peace Accords, Charles and Erik engaged in a brief fight that almost resulted in Erik's anger and fury almost crashing the plane, but he eventually calms his mind and they get safely to Paris.

When the group reached the summit, Bolivar Trask was giving a presentation on the Sentinels when he identified Mystique, who was disguised as a South Vietnamese general. Erik was able to save Trask, and paralyzed William Stryker with taser darts. Magneto understands that Mystique could be a danger to all mutants and he tries to kill her with the gun. Deciding that the dark future could be prevented if Raven were simply killed, Erik shot at her, but doesn't succeeds though as Mystique jumps out the window. Although he manages to bend the bullet so that it hits her in the leg and wounds her. Shrugging off Charles, Erik chases after Mystique by gliding to the front of the building in the presence of a large crowd, dragging Raven towards him, removing the bullet and preparing to throw it into her head and kill her, but he is attacked by an enraged Hank, who mutated himself, and stopped Erik from doing so, while Mystique escapes. Almost being drowned by Hank in a fountain, Erik manipulates several metal artworks, restraining Beast for the public to see. But when the police arrive the mutants are forced to scatter.

Returning to the X-Mansion without Erik, who had gone on the run, Charles resolves his issues and chooses to not suppress his powers any longer. Xavier is accompanied by Logan and Hank as he uses Cerebro to locate Raven, and he finds Mystique in an airport and uses the people around her to talk to her, trying to convince her to come to her senses, but to no avail, she refuses to listen. Charles does, however, learn that she is going to Washington D.C. Hank had been monitoring the channels and found out that that's where the Sentinels will be revealed, which is where Raven attempts to kill Trask again. Hank says that there still might not help whatever they do. Hank briefly addressed the prospect that the future could not be changed saying that time is unchangeable. That it's like a river and a pebble; throw a pebble into the water and the water will just go around it. But Charles doesn't believe in that. They take the jet to D.C. and on the way there Logan makes Charles promise that no matter how it goes he will still bring together the X-Men in the future.

The trio make it to DC, where Trask is preparing to present his creations. Raven disguises herself as a Secret Service agent, waiting to strike, but it once again foiled by Charles, who speaks to through telepathy, pleading with her to consider her choices. As the Sentinels activate, a still-disguised Raven joins the cabinet, Trask, and President Nixon in a bunker inside the White House. Unknown to them, Magneto had taken control of the Sentinels, as Magneto places an entire stadium around the building, placing seven of the Sentinels as guards and ordering a lone one to preoccupy Wolverine and Hank. Beast asks Wolverine if he makes it in the future and Wolverine says no, but he also states that they can change that. They get assaulted by a Sentinel and Beast says he got it.

Hank defeats one, tearing out its fuel lines, and is thrown into the wreckage of a car by another. As another Sentinel approaches him, Hank injects a pocketful of the mutation-suppressing drug, altering his appearance, making the Sentinel ignore him.

Using the serum, Hank managed to avoid being detected by a Sentinel and encouraged Charles with persuading Raven from killing Trask and showing the humans a better future. Following the apparent "malfunctioning" of the Sentinels, Trask was placed in prison while society began to think more positively about mutants, thus changing the future.

X-Men: Apocalypse[]

"The world needs the X-Men."
―Beast to Mystique[src]

In 1983 ten years after the events in Washington D.C Hank and Charles reopened Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters taking in students such as Jean Grey and Jubilation Lee. When Alex brings his younger brother Scott to the school to help control his newfound powers he meets up with Hank who takes him to the Professor. After seeing Scott's abilities first hand Charles accepts Scott to the school. One night during an earthquake that affects half of the planet Jean has a nightmare. As Charles tends to Jean, Hank keeps the rest of the students outside the room. Later the two decide to use Cerebro to locate the source of the earthquake where Charles finds Moira at the center of it. Knowing Moira will have answers Charles leaves with Alex to D.C.

Hank later helps Scott by making special sunglasses out of Ruby Quartz that allow him to see without risk of his powers activating. Sometime later Raven arrives at the mansion with a young mutant named Kurt Wagner. As he shows Raven around and tells her about his ideas to reestablish the X-Men, Raven reveals to him that she is there because Erik has resurfaced much to Hanks dismay. When Charles and Alex return to the school along with Moira the group heads to Cerebro to locate Erik. However, Apocalypse manages to take over Charles' mind and by extension Cerebro and uses him to disarms the worlds military. Under Charles' orders, Alex proceeds to destroy Cerebro in order to stop Apocalypse. However, as they exit, Apocalypse and his Horsemen capture Charles. Alex attempts to stop them and fires a blast, which misses and hits the X-Jets engine causing an explosion in the mansion that kill Alex immediately. However, Hank and the others along with the rest of the students are saved by Quicksilver.

However, Hank along with Raven, Moira, and Peter are captured by William Stryker and taken to Alkali Lake to be interrogated. While imprisoned they hear Charles physic message to the entire world. They are then rescued by Scott, Kurt and Jean (with some unexpected assistance from Logan who had been captured and put through the Adamantium bonding process). Grabbing a plane from the base the group flies to Cairo, Egypt to stop Apocalypse and save Xavier. Arriving, Raven and Peter go to Magneto to stop him from disrupting the Earth's magnetic field which will kill millions while Hank, Jean, and Scott hold off the Horsemen while Kurt goes to save Xavier. Hank takes on Psylocke and manages to hold his own until Kurt having saved Xavier retrieves him and the others. As the group tries to flee their plane is attacked by Angel and Psylocke, however, Kurt manages to teleport everyone to safety while Angel is killed and Psylocke is knocked unconscious.

As Apocalypse searches for Xavier, Raven and Peter try to stop him but are beaten and nearly killed until Xavier decides to use his new psychic link to Apocalypse from when he attempted to take over his body to take on Apocalypse while Hank gets Peter and Raven to safety. They are assisted by Magneto who has had a change of heart thanks to Raven, but are still no match for Apocalypse until Jean unleashes the power of the Phoenix and with help from Storm, Apocalypse is killed. After this, Hank and Raven become the new field commanders of the X-Men, consisting of Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, and Quicksilver and begin training them for the battles ahead.

Dark Phoenix[]

"This whole time, we've been trying to protect these kids from the world, when really, we should've been protecting them from you."
―Hank McCoy[src]

In the year of 1992 nearly ten years after the X-Men’s defeat of Apocalypse, the team had been bearded as national heroes and icone much to Charles Xavier’s pride and unfortunately his ego as Xavier had been pushing the team to take on more and more risky missions. Hank and Raven reconciled their feelings for each other during this time and finally entered a romantic relationship and became the co leaders of the X-Men field team.

When the Space Shuttle Endeavor was in danger of being struck by a solar flare Hank and the rest of the X-Men were sent into space to rescue them. As the solar flare grew near Hank began the timer of how much time they had before it struck. While Nightcrawler and Quicksilver managed to save the majority of the crew one of them revealed that their captain had been left behind. Xavier much to Ravens chagrin insistsed they go go back and rescue him. Despite the team having little to no time to extract him before the flare hit.

Charles told Raven that Jean would hold and shield the Shuttle while Nightcrawler would teleport them into rescue the captain. In the end while Nightcrawler was able to rescue the captain He was unable to get to Jean in time and to the horror of Hank and the others were forced to watch as Jean was struck by the flare. However in a case of seemingly miraculous fortunate Jean managed to absorb the flare and survived. Returning to the X-Men with praise from Xavier and the students Hank did a medical examination of Jean at Charles behest where he found that not only was aJean seemingly perfectly fine but that her power levels were "off the charts" and that whatever happened in space had apparently made her stronger.

Later while the the others celebrated at a party outside the mansion Raven and Hank discussed moving on from the X-Men. Hank was reluctant pointing out that they were making the world a better place as X-Men but Raven told them that now was the time that they indulge themselves to live in it and enjoy it and that the X-Men were no longer about them but Charles instead. Their discussion was interrupted when Jean suffered an apparent nervous break down and unleashed a wave of energy that sent several students back before passing out.

Hank, Raven, and Charles went to Cerebro to find the root of Jeans problems as her mind proved to powerful for Xavier to enter on his own. Inside Jeans mind Hank and Raven discovered that Xavier had placed mental barriers in Jean's mind that we're being broken down by an unknown force inside her. Through this they discovered that Charles had lied to Jean about her parents. When Jean suddenly awoke she managed to eject Xavier from her mind critically injuring him despite Hank pushing Cerebro to its maximum power.

In the medical bay, Charles revealed that Jean was changing. Scott then ran in and told them that Jean had left. Hank and the team pursued Jean and tracked her down to her childhood home of Red Hook, New York where her once thought deceased father lived. Arriving The team attempted to talk Jean down but this however failed when Jean ended up attacking policeman that had come to investigate the scene resulting in a battle between Jean and the X-Men. When Jean proved to powerful Hank attempted to subdue with a weapon he had made, but Charles telepathically restrained him as Raven attempted to talk Jean down. Wanting to give his sister a chance at bring Jean back to her normal self. However, tragically the opposite effect was achieved as Jean lost control and accidentally impaled Raven on a piece of wood fatally injuring her.

Hank ran to Raven and attempted to try and tend to her wounds. As she died Raven told Hank that she loved him before passing away. Jean horrified by what she done fled the scene. Returning to the X-Mansion a funeral service was held for Raven. After the service, Charles found Hank in the kitchen. As Charles recounted fond childhood memories with Raven, Hank told Charles that Raven's death was his fault. Charles, however, insisted that his memory blocks on Jean's mind were what was best for her. Hank, enraged that Charles would not admit that he was wrong, told Charles about Raven's plans for them to leave the X-Men and that Charles himself was more of a danger to the students than the world ever was.

Enraged, in mourning and wanting vengeance for Raven's death, Hank traveled to Genosha, the new home of Erik and safe haven for mutants that Jean had visited the other day, and had also attacked as well. Hank revealed to Erik that Jean had killed Raven and the two decided to work together to kill Jean in order to avenge Raven and end the threat she posed.

That night, Erik and Hank bonded over their shared love for Raven as both had a romantic connection with her. When one of Erik's mutants Selene discovered that Jean was in New York City. Traveling there, Hank, Erik, and Erik’s Brotherhood of Mutants we’re stopped by Charles and the remaining X-Men who were determined to protect Jean. A fight soon broke out between the two sides where Scott and Hank fought each other. Hank managed to gain the upper hand but was subdued when Xavier used his powers to freeze him. Soon after the Mutant Control Unit arrived and outfitted all the mutants with Mutant Inhibitor Collars and proceeded to take them into custody.

On the train heading towards a containment facility where they would be imprisoned, Charles finally admitted to Hank his fault in Jean's actions but insisted that a powerful force had taken over Jean and was corrupting her and that alien beings known as the D'Bari planned on taking Jean and using her for their own gains. When Erik showed complete apathy to Jean's fate, Scott reminds both Hank and Erik that what they planned on doing to Jean was not what Raven would want. Scott's words noticeably touched Hank and when the D’Bari arrived for Jean; Hank stood by the X-Men again declaring that he would protect Jean just like Raven would want.

During the battle Hank fought off numerous D'Bari with the others until He was easily beaten into submission by Vuk the leader of the D'Bari. Fortunately Jean finally awakened having gained almost complete control of her powers. Using the, Jean obliterated the remains of the D’Bari including Vuk who Jean personally killed by overloading her with the Phoenix Force.

In the aftermath, Jean left Earth to roam the stars. Hank became the new dean of the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, now renamed the Jean Grey School For Gifted Youngsters and the new leader of the X-Men, as Charles, still filled with guilt about his role in Jean's transformation and Raven's death, found himself unable to be the dean of the school and lead the X-Men anymore.

Deadpool[]

While Hank doesn't appear, Deadpool mentions Beast, jokingly asking Colossus to tell him to quit pooping on his lawn.

X-Men: Days of Future Past 2023[]

"Morning, Logan, late start."
―Hank McCoy[src]

As Logan walks down the hallway of the school, he sees Hank, who greets him, reminding him that he has a class to teach. With Charles returning, Hank presumably stepped down as the dean.

Character traits[]

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, despite the fact that mutants had been treated unfairly by humans, Hank was moral and honorable and never gave into his inner darkness.

Hank was extremely brave and selfless to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his own life in order to protect both his friends and family alike.

Hank was extremely polite, respectful and well-mannered, unless he was aggravated or provoked, becoming extremely aggressive and violent.

In Dark Phoenix, when Hank was about to shoot Jean Grey with a firearm, Charles Xavier telepathically froze him, which resulted in Mystique being killed by Jean who was possessed by the Phoenix Force.

Hank blamed Charles for Raven's death as the firearm that he going to use against Jean would have only incapacitated her and not killed her. If Charles had not acted to paralyse Hank in that moment, then Raven would still be alive.

Hank became extremely enraged with Charles over his refusal to acknowledge that he was responsible for Raven's death and attempts to justify what he did to Jean, by erasing her memories, including those of her father, John Grey, giving her away and claiming that it was for the greater good.

An enraged Hank criticized Charles for his actions and even went as far as to call him a villain, proving that Hank had completely lost any trust and respect that he once had for his former friend and team leader.

If provoked enough, Hank can be quite aggressive, cold, callous, cruel, ruthless, vengeful, and violent. For example, after Raven was killed by Jean, he informed Erik of Jean's role in Raven's death, knowing full-well that Erik would try to kill Jean, regardless of the fact that she was not in control of her actions at the time.

Hank even joined forces with Erik and the Brotherhood of Mutants, partly to get revenge for Raven's death, but mainly because he felt that Jean was a threat to both humans and mutants alike, due to the fact that she was possessed by the Phoenix Force, as he wanted to have Jean eliminated before she became a danger to everyone.

During the Brotherhood of Mutants' confrontation against the X-Men, Hank willingly fought against his allies, friends, and teammates without hesitation. He even went as far as to attack Cyclops and would have killed him if Charles had not incapacitated him with his mind control powers, proving that Hank would not hesitate to attack or even kill his allies, if they are presented as obstacles between him and his agendas.

It wasn't until Charles and Scott reminded Hank that Raven would not want him to do this, that he stood by the X-Men to protect Jean from the D'Bari aliens.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

  • Mutant Physiology: Beast is a very powerful mutant who possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, dexterity, stamina, longevity, retractable razor-sharp teeth and claws. Beast also has a bestial appearance with blue skin and fur, bright yellow eyes, and razor-sharp teeth and claws.
    • Transformation: By 1992, Beast has become powerful to the point, that he is now capable of transforming between his human and bestial forms at will. Beast also no longer requires his serum to suppress his bestial appearance.
    • Superhuman Strength: Beast is much stronger than normal humans and most other mutants. He can lift objects that weigh up to 10 tons relatively easily. He is also able to overpower several individuals simultaneously and send them flying several feet away with little to no effort at all. Beast possesses enough strength to destroy the original Sentinels; albeit with some effort.
    • Superhuman Durability: Beast is far more durable than normal humans and most other mutants. He was able to withstand several blows from Azazel and was completely unfazed by them.
    • Superhuman Endurance: Beast's endurance is far more greatly developed than normal humans and most other mutants. He continue to fight back against Azazel; despite the fact that he had received several blows from the latter.
    • Superhuman Speed: Beast is much faster than normal humans and most other mutants. He can run at speeds up to 40 mph over short distances. Even before Beast's second mutation, he was capable of running around the entire X-Mansion in a matter of seconds.
    • Superhuman Agility: Beast is far more agile than normal humans and most other mutants. He is able to perform acrobatic and gymnastic stunts; such as flips, rolls and springs.
    • Superhuman Dexterity: Beast's dexterity is far more greatly developed than normal humans and most other mutants. He is able to grab objects with his hands and feet like an actual ape, as well as runs on all fours like like an actual cat.
    • Superhuman Stamina: Beast possesses far more stamina than normal humans and most other mutants; allowing him to remain physically active for long periods of time.
    • Superhuman Jumping: Beast can jump much higher than normal humans and most other mutants. He can jump more than 15 feet off the ground.
    • Superhuman Leaping: Beast can leap much further than normal humans and most other mutants. He can leap 25 feet in a single bound.
    • Superhuman Immunity: Beast is immune to most, if not all types of diseases, illnesses, sickness, drugs, poisons, toxins, radiation, disorders, disabilities, etc. As noted by Wolverine when he encountered Beast as a young adult; even in his human form, he is still very strong, implying that Beast's body is significantly resistant to his own serum.
    • Superhuman Longevity: Beast ages much slower than normal humans and most other mutants. By the year 2023, despite being at least 80 years old, he still maintains the physical appearance of a man in his prime.
    • Razor-Sharp Teeth: Beast possesses razor-sharp teeth, that are capable of biting through most other materials, such as flesh, wood, stone and metal.
    • Retractable Razor-Sharp Claws: Beast possesses five retractable razor-sharp claws on each of his hands and feet, that are capable of cutting through most other materials, such as flesh, wood, stone and metal.

Abilities[]

  • Genius-Level Intellect: Hank is a highly intelligent individual and considered a genius.
  • Master Scientist: Hank is an expert in the fields of science, genetics, biochemistry, electronics, mechanics, technology and several other subjects.
  • Master Engineer: Hank is an excellent engineer, he was able to successfully design and construct the Blackbird, the X-Jet, the X-Men uniforms, as well as several different types of gadgets and vehicles for the X-Men.
  • Master Acrobat: Due to Beast's superhuman agility, he is highly skilled in several different types of acrobatics and gymnastics.
  • Master Hand-To-Hand Combatant/Martial Artist: Beast is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist. He was able to best Azazel and Magneto relatively easily. Beast's combat skills combined with his superhuman physical attributes, makes him a formidable opponent alone in single combat.
  • Expert Pilot: Hank is a highly skilled pilot. He is capable of flying most aircrafts; such as the Blackbird, a war plane and the X-Jet.

Equipment[]

  • X-Man uniform: Hank wears a protective suit, when he is out on the field in battle.

Relationships[]

Appearances/Actors[]

Behind the scenes[]

To be added

Trivia[]

  • In the comics, Hank McCoy along, with Charles Xavier, is one of the founding members of the X-Men, but he later leaves the team to joins the Avengers.
  • In some versions of the comics, Hank's bestial form physically resembles a cat, instead of an ape.

Gallery[]

X-Men: Days of Future Past 1973[]

X-Men Apocalypse[]

X-Men: Days of Future Past 2023[]

See Also[]

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