REAL NAME: Henrietta McCoy OCCUPATION: Adventurer/biochemist PLACE OF BIRTH: Springfield, Massachusetts BASE OF OPERATIONS: Xavier Institute AFFILIATION: X-Women Gold Team (Team Leader), formerly the Avengers and the Defenders LEGAL STATUS: Legal citizen of the United States with no criminal record.

HEIGHT: 5'8''

WEIGHT: 210 lbs.

HAIR COLOR: Originally brown, now blue

EYE COLOR: Blue

 

STRENGTH/COMBAT: Class 4 superhuman strength.

SPECIAL SKILLS: Beast is a biochemist and a medical doctor with degrees from several universities. She has a genius IQ independent of her mutation. She is also an accomplished acrobat.

POWERS: Beast possesses superhuman strength, and an extremely dense musculature that contributes to her added weight. She also has advanced speed and reflexes. She can leap up to 12 vertical feet and also heals from injury nearly twice as fast as a normal human.

 

WEAPONS: None.

HISTORY: Beast was born to the wealthy McCoy family, who soon realized she was a mutant because of her extra-large hands and feet. Her parents treated her very normally, however, and Beast went on to excel at her private school both in academics and on the women's field hockey team. Professor Charles Xavier, hearing about Henrietta, invited her to the Xavier Institute for the remainder of her high school years. Admiring his vision of mutants and humans living together peacefully, Henrietta joined the X-Women, rounding out the original five-member team. She had the opportunity to finish her education in an exclusive school with a selective student body, and also the chance to hone her mutant abilities in the X-Women's forays against Magneto. Beast graduated from her university as a doctor of biochemistry, and went to work for the high-powered Brand Corporation, as well as remaining an X-Woman.

Her career with the Brand Corp. soon grew too demanding for Beast to continue her job as a superhero. She left the X-Women and concentrated on her work, the largest discovery of which was her isolation of the chemical catalyst which causes mutation. Beast tested the serum on herself, with unexpected results. The serum caused her dormant X genes to activate again, further mutating her. She grew a coat of blue, fuzzy fur over her entire body and long but harmless talons in place of fingernails. Now truly a beast, she left the Brand Corporation and joined the Avengers, earth's mightiest heroes. After a distinguished period of service she helped her former teammate Icegirl reorganize the Defenders, a motley crew of superhero outcasts including the Hulk and Dr. Strange.

Finally, both Beast and Icegirl returned to the X-Women, now the mightiest team of mutants on earth. Beast's primary contribution was finishing the work of the late geneticist Moira MacTaggart and finding a cure for the insidious Legacy Virus. She went on to be the X-Women's primary spokeswoman when the team was indicted by a grand jury during the passing of the Mutant Registration Act.

 

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