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| Old school Beast- right after graduation. |
I first became connected with the Beast when X-factor got started. The idea of that comic was to bring together the original X-men in an attempt to keep Professor X's dream alive. They did this because of a variety of odd circumstances. First, the Professor had gone of into space to hang out with his love interest the Empress Lilandra. It had something to do with his clone body needing to stay with the alien technology or something. Next up, there was also the unexpected return of Jean Grey who had supposedly died quite a while back in the comics, but it turns out she'd been replaced by the Pheonix force and left in a recovery cocoon at the bottom of the bay. (Yeah, I'll explain more about all that nonsense later.) Anyway, all these circumstances came together for X-factor where the original X-men pretended to be mutant hunters in order to collect mutants and help them learn to use their powers. (Yeah, it was a stupid idea, but it led to some worthwhile events.)
Wow, so that ended up being more of a detour than I intended. What all of that was supposed to get to is that the Beast has gone through many transformations. (See most of them on the left.) Henry McCoy started off as an almost normal looking boy with larger hands and feet. He was able to use his feet as extra hands when he was a baby. As the storyline of the X-men continued, Hank graduated (partly because he was super smart) and moved on to work with the Avengers. At some point, he was experimenting with something and unlocked a further mutation giving himself blue fur. While he was with X-factor something odd happened and he lost the fur and later lost his intelligence for a period of time. (The more he used his strength the stronger he got, and the dumber he got.) After some plot contrivance, he got better and bluer again. Recently he got another mutation that changed him from a furry human to more of a cat.
OK, now we can talk about why he's on the list. The Beast is a powerful ally who bring a lot to the team in terms of raw power and scientific knowledge. More importantly to me, he brings humor and wisdom to the mix. He can be pummeling an opponent and quoting Aristotle at the same time. I love the combination of the beast and the brain. Hank has recently left the X-men again. This time because of differences he has with Cyclops about the direction the team is taking. (Including leaving the blue fur ball at the mercy of Norman Osbourne and his Dark Beast from another reality.) It was a good move for the character and hopefully for the book.
Well, that's all for the Beast for now, but be on the lookout for the #10 X-person coming soon. Feel free to comment below.
Hiya!!
ReplyDeleteYour entry reminds me of a comment Nostalgia Chick made in her XM Animated series video: "HUG ME BEAST, UR SO BLUE!" ^^ Good choice and ranking. I like Hank a lot, for the reasons you just mentioned (and even more so now that you tell me he walked out on Cyclops), and also...I don't know how to express it, there's something reassuring about Hank. This impression might come from the Animated Series actually; his French voice was very soft and he was presented as a big teddy bear really. I also think that he allows for interesting debates around primitivism, humanity and the like. He pushes buttons.
My reason for agreeing with the ranking comes from my trouble imagining him taking center stage in any circumstance. He's more of a background character isn't he? I like him regardless.
:-)
I definitely agree with you Elodie. Hank will never be a team leader, but there's nothing wrong with that. He's a solid character and adds so much to whatever book he's in at the moment.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I'll decide who's #10 soon and get that one up. It's a hard process, but I'm enjoying it.