<strong>BEAST</strong><br/><br/><strong>CHARACTER NAME:</strong>Beast<br/><strong>REAL NAME:</strong>Henry Philip “Hank” McCoy<br/><strong>AGE:</strong>35<br/><strong>SEXUAL ORIENTATION: </strong>Heterosexual<br/><strong>HEIGHT:</strong>6’10 if fully erect<br/><strong>WEIGHT:</strong>260<br/><strong>AFFILIATION:</strong>X-Men, X-Factor, Avengers<br/><br/><strong>APPERENACE/COSTUME: </strong>(http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/047/5/3/beast___marvel_x_men_david_finch_by_patricknedkeith-d5v83ve.jpg)<strong>APPERANCE WITHOUT COSTUME:</strong>(http://www.unificationfrance.com/IMG/jpg/xmen_beast.jpg)[/spoiler]<strong>POWERS/ABILITIES:</strong><br/>Enhanced Strength: Can lift more than the standard human Olympian<br/>Enhanced Dexterity: Can perform exceptional acts of flexibility and jumping<br/>Enhanced Senses: Can track by smell, hearing at animal level and fells electronic disturbances through solid walls and floors.<br/>Enhanced endurance: Can exert himself many times longer than a human.<br/>Simian Attributes: Beast can use his feet as hands and can use his strength to climb wall and brachiates as well as a primate.<br/><br/><strong>WEAKNESSES:</strong>Hank truly believes in the co-existence of mutants and humans and will go to great lengths to accomplish this. He is very pacifistic resulting to violence only when necessary. Hank cannot except that there is a problem he cannot fix. This leads to an obsessive mood that has made him compromise ethics on occasion.<br/><br/><strong>HISTORY: </strong><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"> Born in Dundee, Illinois, in the United States, to Norton and Edna McCoy. His father, Norton McCoy, is employed at a local nuclear power plant before Henry's birth and was once exposed to intense nuclear radiation, which appears to have caused his son's mutation. Hank is born with a vast intellect, unusually long arms and legs, and unusually large hands and feet for a human; in fact, his body's proportions are comparable to those of a gorilla and later stories reveal his nickname in school was "Magilla Gorilla".<br/>Henry's mutation more fully manifests during adolescence, providing greater strength and agility, and although his powers allow him to briefly excel in athletics during his remaining time at school, he soon attracts the animosity of his fellow students and other non-mutant humans. As he seeks refuge, he is approached by Professor Charles Xavier, who invites him to study at "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters".<br/>Henry recognizes the opportunities such an institution can offer him and accepts the invitation. He finds the school both a fountain of scientific knowledge and a place of sanctuary and is there introduced to the X-Men, who accept him into their ranks and give him the codename Beast. Alongside workouts in the Danger Room, under Xavier's tutelage, he studies subjects ranging from differential equations to Proust.<br/> Hank leaves the X-Men shortly after his twentieth birthday. He becomes a research scientist at the Brand Corporation, a genetics research facility. Hank isolates a "hormonal extract" allowing anyone to become a mutant for a short period of time, and uses the mutagenic serum on himself to disguise his appearance.However, he waits too long to reverse the process, leaving him permanently transformed. He has grown grey fur (which later turns blue) all over his body and acquired pointed ears, elongated canine teeth, claws, the ability to run on walls and ceilings like a spider, enhanced senses, an accelerated healing factor, and a feral side he struggles to control. <br/>Not long after this transformation, he is recruited to join the Avengers as a provisional member. He is later granted full Avengers membership and remains a member for many years. He leaves the team periodically to rejoin the X-Men during times of need.  He returns to the Avengers each time, but eventually leaves so that the team (which has a six-member limit at the time) can be filled out by new recruits.He later joins the Defenders,stays with the team to organize as the "new" Defenders, and is one of the final surviving members at the time of its first disbandment. He and fellow surviving Defenders Angel and Iceman are contacted shortly after by Cyclops and Jean Grey to form a new group, X-Factor. Eventually X-Factor clashes with the ancient mutant Apocalypse.  During the battle, Beast is touched by the Horseman Pestilence, whose touch usually causes incredible pain and viral infection. The infection interacts with the recent serum treatment of Maddicks, and instead of killing him, Hank is affected in such a way that every time he uses his superhuman strength, his intelligence decreases. Though the battle is won, it comes at the cost of Hank's decreasing intelligence, which would not return for a time. Hank’s condition worsens for weeks. He even openly talks to Trish Tilby, a reporter, not realizing she might use the information on TV. Out of respect for Hank's situation, Trish does not mention his name when she reports about X-Factor’s recent battles, only that one of them lost his intellect while heroically defending New York. The Beast is still hurt by her using the information at all, but she is able to convince him that she meant well.<br/>X-Factor finally ends their charade and are hailed as heroes, and they then don costumes similar to their previous X-Terminator costumes. When Hank’s mind is nothing more than that of a child, he intercepts a mutant called Infectia who is trying to kiss Iceman. Infectia has the ability to manipulate molecular structures through touch, creating mutated "monsters". When she kisses Beast, he becomes feverish and begins switching back and forth between his normal and furred forms. Finally, he stabilizes in his furry appearance, keeps his intelligence, and has more strength than ever.<br/>Hank soon resumes wearing his old costume, but now no longer has need for a mask. During the events of Inferno, Beast, along with the rest of X-Factor team up with the X-Men and various other heroes to fight the evil forces invading the city; eventually, they manage to stop a portal between Limbo and Earth from remaining open and peace returns for the survivors. Towards the end of X-Factor's career, they battle the Shadow King during the Muir Island Saga. The final battle leaves Professor Xavier crippled again, which results in X-Factor rejoining the X-Men.<br/>One of Beast's greatest challenges emerges with Stryfe's fatal Legacy Virus. Hank is already despondent, as he is turning thirty and questions his life accomplishments. His frustrations are further compounded when Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert don't ask for his assistance with the Legacy research, but it turns out Xavier is just giving him his privacy. Perusing their data, Hank learns the problem is more difficult than he had initially imagined. Hank has always believed that, given time, he could solve any problem; the Legacy Virus becomes his obsession. He goes as far as making an unethical decision in giving Mister Sinister information on the virus, since he has more resources and fewer morals to inhibit him.<br/>A turning point comes when Dark Beast finishes some of the formula, occasionally prying more information from Hank whom he imprisoned and replaces for a while. However, the cure is incomplete and it takes Beast to design the final cure. Based on Moira's notes, Beast concocts the anti-virus to much elation, but it soon is repaid with a heavy toll—Colossus chooses to sacrifice his life to release the remedy.<br/>As the world experiences a mutant baby boom, much of the mutant community seemingly begins experiencing "secondary mutations", often taking the form of additional or enhanced abilities. In the aftermath of Vargas' attack, Beast's secondary mutation is "jumpstarted" due to the powers of teammate Sage. The further mutation causes Beast to develop a more feline physique, to which he initially has some trouble adapting. A psychic attack by the genocidal Cassandra Nova leaves Beast humiliated, badly beaten and haunted by the possibility that his new form is simply a step in a continuous state of devolution. Additionally, the alteration in form causes his longtime girlfriend, Trish Tilby, to break up with him after being accused of bestiality in the media. Over time, Beast strikes up a strong friendship with Emma Frost, in one incident bringing her flowers to cheer her up. He finds her diamond form shattered into thousands of pieces and spends some time putting her back together. With a final jolt of psionic energy from Jean Grey, Frost returns to life.<br/>When news of a "cure" that would reverse mutations suddenly arises, Beast finds himself seriously considering taking it so he can once again appear human. Hank eventually decides against it after vigorous "urging" by fellow team member Wolverine, as it would send out a negative message to other mutants if an X-Man were to take the cure. After learning that the cure was developed by fellow geneticist Kavita Rao through experimentation on mutant corpses - as well as on the X-Man Colossus - Beast helps take down Rao's operation. When the villainous Hellfire Club attacks the X-Men, Cassandra Nova telepathically strips away Beast's higher human consciousness, leaving him with only his animal instincts. After hunting Wolverine around campus (and even eating his leg), a student named Blindfold faces him down with a device he and Xavier had built in case his consciousness was ever lost. The device is a high-powered sensory stimulant in the form of a ball of string, which Beast had alluded to as being his greatest fear. Once restored, he is quick to put on a suit and tie and help Wolverine with a hyper-magnetic device. He, along with his teammates, are taken from the Mansion by the government agency S.W.O.R.D. and airlifted to the alien Breakworld.<br/>When a Civil War breaks out among Marvel's superheroes, Beast, along with the other X-Men, assumes a neutral stance. However, Beast was not a particular fan of the policy and secretly violates his stance by providing Spider-Man with a holographic disguise to enable him to continue teaching at Midtown High after his secret identity has been exposed. Despite his personal feelings about the Superhuman Registration Act, Beast enlists his services to the Initiative program after the war's end, to assist in the training of the next generation of superheroes.<br/>The X-Men and various other mutants attend the funeral of a young mutant boy named Matt Landru who has been killed in a road traffic accident and muse on what this means for mutant-kind. Beast plans to find a way to reverse M-Day. Despite the 'aid' of his other self (the Dark Beast), along with exploring such diverse avenues of investigation as analysis of alternate timelines or an attempt to track down the Scarlet Witch, he is unsuccessful in his research.<br/>In order to save mutantkind from the effects of M-Day, Beast and Angel had to gather a team of specialists to help them. Beast and the X-Club traveled back to 1906 in order to find Dr. Nemesis' parents and discover the origins of modern mutation. During the mission, they also fought an early version of a Sentinel created by the Hellfire Club, and inadvertently caused the San Francisco earthquake.<br/>Beast later returns to attend the funeral of his friend and teammate, Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) where he confronts Scott Summers and blames Kurt's death on Scott's increasingly militant and extremist attitude to protecting the mutant species at all costs (even at the cost of sacrificing his friends to do so). Despite his issues with Cyclops, Beast remains on Utopia to help deal with the attacks being made by Bastion. Following Bastion's defeat at the hands of Hope Summers, Henry again departs Utopia.<br/>After the separations of the X-Men in two teams, Beast is one of them to go with Wolverine to Westchester to open "The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning".<br/>During the Avengers vs. X-Men miniseries, Beast sides with the Avengers to investigate and stop the Phoenix Force's return to Earth. Hank joins the team of Avengers sent to halt the Phoenix Force's return to Earth, but later temporarily 'resigns' from the Avengers in protest against their efforts to stop the 'Phoenix Five'- the five X-Men who have received the power of the Phoenix Force - as their actions appear to initially be benevolent. He returns to aid the Avengers when Cyclops and Emma Frost begin to be corrupted by the Phoenix's power.  <br/>In the aftermath of the Phoenix War, with Cyclops now actively striking out at government organizations holding mutants prisoner and the X-Men unwilling to actively fight him as they fear the subsequent mutant civil war that might result, Beast - apparently dying due to side-effects of his secondary artificially-accelerated mutation- hits upon a solution after a chance comment from Iceman; he travels back in time to the early days of the Xavier Institute to bring the original five X-Men from that period into the future, hoping that Scott's past self will be able to convince his present self to stand down. Although Beast lapses into a coma shortly after bringing the team into the present, Jean's telepathy - artificially accelerated by the trauma of her trip to the future and witnessing what Scott has become - manages to connect the minds of the two Hanks, allowing the younger Hank to spot a mistake in his future self's calculations and stabilize his physiology to a blue furred ape-like state.<br/></div></div>