BEAST
Real Name: Hank McCoy
Powers: None to speak of. Mutancy indicated by oversized hands and feet, and incredable strength, agility, and intelegence. Blue fur exterior caused by artificial serum.
Significant reletives: Norton and Edna McCoy, his parents, are often mentioned and occasionaly shown.
Hank grew up in Duffee, Illinoise. His father, Norton, woked in a nuclear power plant and was exposed to high dosses of radiation. When he and his wife, Edna, had a child (Hank), his only flaws at birth was over developed hands and feet (the doctors expected some sort of monster). Hank also possesed great strength and intelect, and in high school became valid victorian, and captain of the football team (he even got an offer from the Dallas cowboys!). That's where the fairy-tale ends. A cheesy-poof villian named "El Conquestador" deduced Hank as being a mutant and kidnpped his parents. Unfortunatly for the villian, the X-Men (Prof. X, Cyclops, Iceman and Angel) were also looking for Hank, and were soon hot on the villian's trail. E.C. Used Hank to steal a nuclear power device so that he may threaten the world. The X-Men find Hank (via Proffessor X's telepathy), kick the villians 15th century wannabe's ass and Hank rescues his parents and joins the X-Men.
Then Hank, proving his intellegence, leaves the X-Men a few years later to pursue his scientific studies. However, durring a break-in at his lab, he's forced to down an experiment so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. He ends up all gray and hairy, but fails to cure himself. His fur later turns blue, and he joins the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes. He goes on all sorts of exploits but decides it's not for him. Over the years he's been on the Defenders, on-and-off the X-Men, the Avengers again, and finaly ended up back with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Iceman on X-Factor, a government team of mutants designed to locate and train new young mutants, under the cover of mutant bounty-hunters. But the public didn't like the idea of government-paid mutants having to go out and kill other mutants, and things got bad. By this time he had been back to his "normal" self for a while, but another stupid accident just waiting to happen reverted him to his blue-furred glory.
With the public demanding X-Factor be shut down, Hank and the others went back home to the X-Mansion, and joined up with the weird, darker people that had joined the team in their absence. Hank, in all his intelegent wittisisms and light-heartedness, played a good counter to Wolverine, Psylocke and Gambit, who's dark-n-gritty portrails were the order of the day. Soon, however, Beast would be forced to look at life a little less care-freely, when Stryfe (Proof that cloning is bad, see CABLE for details) unleased the Legacy Virus. This virus is one that attacks only mutants, or maybe just specific mutants. See LEGACY VIRUS for more details. Beast has worked almost non-stop, even in leisure time, his mind was working on a cure (Once in a poker game, something seemingly irrelevant Gambit said sent Beast loopy, making him think he was attacking the virus wrong). Then the virus infected Moria McTaggart, a human. Trish Tilby, Beasts on-and-off Significant other, broke the story on the news, and sent the general public into an uproar. Beast felt reasonably betrayed.
Not much has happened with "Edna McCoys favorite son", except constant medical squabbles with new X-person Dr. Reyes, but word has it he's set to leave the X-Men to hang with those Avenger-types again. However, being a well respected Bio-chemist, doctor, hero, and partyer supreme, you'd better let him do whatever he dang-well pleases.