History Characters / MarvelComicsBeast

* TheBigGuy: The strongest and more physically imposing of the original X-Men, though he's gone a bit to seed in the Krakoa era, which is why [[spoiler: Wolverine has very little trouble killing him when he tracks him down.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's suggested that at least up until the Krakoa era, he has some idea of how far he's fallen. Immediately before, he ends up in the prison in ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan'', and when he reacts angrily to having been imprisoned, the reality's creator, [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]] informs him that if he was there it was because deep down he believed it was where he deserved to be.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Although not impossible for him to recover from this trope, the beginnings of his recent moral fall set in after M-Day, when he was desperate to save mutantkind, but it got supercharged after the death of Charles Xavier, when he became increasingly reckless, self-righteous, and destructive. This doesn't stop when Xavier returns - if anything, he just gets that much worse, to the point where Sinister considers him ''worse'' than his EvilCounterpart. See WhatTheHellHero below.
* TookALevelInJerkass: From the death of Charles Xavier onwards, he's become increasingly reckless, self-righteous, and destructive. This doesn't stop when Xavier returns - if anything, it only gets worse. See WhatTheHellHero below.

** He offers his newly awakened clone a chance to join him in his plan, which involves temporarily exiling mutants into a black hole until Orchis is defeated. While the clone Beast can see himself saying the same thing, he considers the original Beast to have become like Magneto, despite otherwise believing he can still save him. The orignial Beast's response is to say Magneto was right, and the world will one day realize the same about him.
* WickedCultured: "Beast turns evil" is kind of a much more common scenario than you'd think. See Creator/GrantMorrison's "Here Comes Tomorrow" arc in ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' for a quintessential one. Beast (under the influence of Sublime) attempts to destroy the X-Men (now led by a reformed clone of Cassandra Nova) once and for all. After his FaceHeelTurn in the Krakoa Era, Wolverine explicitly states that he likes to act all civilised despite being utterly savage.
* YouMakeMeSick: In ''ComicBook/AllNewXMen'', This is what Uatu the Watcher says about the present-day Beast, after he deliberately jeopardized the timeline to bring the O5 X-Men from the past. His specific words are "[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness You]] ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness disgust]]'' [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness me]]".

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He brings the O5 to the present to mess with Cyclops by showing his younger self how far he had fallen. It works for Cyclops (though his younger self ends up admiring him) but it also works for young Beast. And unfortunately (and ironically), while the integration of their past selves' memories does wonders for Scott, [[IgnoredEpiphany it does absolutely]] ''[[IgnoredEpiphany nothing]]'' to Hank.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: In ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'', ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}} ends up blasting Beast with a lightning bolt to stop him from ratting out the X-Men to the Inhumans over their plan to attack them and stop the Terrigen Cloud's effect on mutants. This would be seen as a KickTheDog moment since they're teammates and friends. However, since the end of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', Beast has been written as a major jerkass trying his damnedest to prove that ComicBook/{{Cyclops|MarvelComics}} was some sort of monster and essentially treating his friends like crap. Even more, Beast wasn't going to warn the Inhumans due to moral objections (ComicBook/{{Rogue}} had decided to OptOut of the attack because of this), but because [[DirtyCoward he was scared of any possible Inhuman retaliation.]] And as of ''ComicBook/Wolverine2020 #30 (Feb 2023), [[spoiler: he has been killed by Wolverine, but then given what he ''did'' to him, many feel Hank had it coming.]]

!!Henry "Hank" McCoy

!!! '''Nationality:''' American,
!!! '''Species:''' Human mutant Clone

A clone of Beast made with a back up of memories that only go as current as Beasts time with the New Defenders. He was created as a counter measure against the original Beast who had become a war criminal.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Much like Teen Hank. Not having undergone the gradual moral decline the original beast had gone through, Hank is profited to find out what he is capable of.
* GoodCounterpart: With memories that stop long before his SlowlySlippingInToEvil, Hank is a much more altruistic version of Beast more akin to the teddy bear from older comics.

[[folder: Clone Beast]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: He was attracted to redhead Jean Grey in his teenage years. Mind you, [[DudeMagnet so was literally everyone who didn't later come out as gay]].

** The often gruff and surly [[Characters/WolverineJamesLoganHowlett Wolverine]] also expressed a brotherly soft spot for Hank on a handful of occasions (though that relationship has also turned sour very recently).

* NonSequiturThud: When he gets knocked down by a mind-controlled ComicBook/{{Colossus}}, he goes: "Anyone… get the number... of that [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor uru hammer]]?"

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Beneath the SuperiorityInferiorityComplex is a genuinely kind and decent young man who wants to make amends for both his mistakes and those of his future self - who, by contrast, is a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk. Storm even contrasts the two of them in the prelude to ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'', pointing out that she thought she'd have to teach his younger self that power comes with responsibility, but she's discovered that unlike his older self, young Beast ''knows'' that.

* ABeastInNameAndNature: A rare heroic version; codenamed for his gorilla-like physique, enormous hands and feet, and (later) his blue fur and other animalistic attributes. In sharp contrast to his beastly appearance, Hank is commonly portrayed as a brilliant scientist and a gentleman. Even following his moral decline, his behaviour is less obviously beastly, more cold, and clinically cruel.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Hank, like practically everyone in the original X-Men (sans Bobby), had a crush on Jean Grey and he even stole a kiss but was never a contender for her affections between [[BettyAndVeronica Scott and Warren]]. This only came up ''well'' after the fact when his past self is brought to the present and his love for Jean is explored, with their past versions even starting a relationship, but one that is ultimately broken off-panel.

* AntiHero: Originally Hank was one of the nicest X-Men, but since not that long ago he seems to have gotten into this. Specifically one of his more questionable decisions is pulling out O5 from the past just to show ComicBook/{{Cyclops|MarvelComics}} how Scott has changed since the team’s early days. And as of the present [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge Krakoan Age]] he’s X-Force supervisor and by issue 6 his methods include torture, ordering to kill the creatures (that were once humans), and brainwashing, veering into NominalHero territory.

* BadBoss: As head of Krakoa’s X-force he’s quite verbally and psychologically abusive to Sage, intentionally exasperating her alcoholism. He also turns Logan back into a weapon when he refuses to carry out his orders. Then he clones himself and Logan as part of his ''Weapons of X'' program and abuses all of those clones.

* TheBigGuy: The strongest and more physically imposing of the original X-Men, though he's gone a bit to seed in the Krakoa era.

* FatalFlaw: In [[ComicBook/HouseofM recent]] [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge years]], Pride, to the point of Hubris, wherein he believes that he has the right to play God and that anyone objects to his actions are simply too thick to understand.

* GentlemanAndAScholar: Before his God Complex [[ComicBook/HouseOfM clouded]] [[ComicBook/XForce2019 his]] [[ComicBook/Wolverine2020 judgement]], his politeness and courtesy were on par with his renowned intellect; serving as the voice of reason on many occasions.

* TheHeart: Throughout the majority of his appearances from the 60s to the mid-or-late 2000s, Hank would usually serve this role to the Avengers, Defenders, X-Men, etc. in general or as a backup version of this whenever it was already filled; using his down-to-earth friendliness to keep everyone in check.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Once accused Scott of forming X-Force as a black ops team to do all of his “dirty work”. In ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' he himself became a supervisor of the Krakoan X-Force and his deeds involve torturing, brainwashing, and giving direct orders to kill.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Beast's entire view on his job as head of the Krakoan X-Force. The result is that nobody on the team likes him anymore.
* IgnoredEpiphany: His encounter with Uatu condemning him for his actions and destroying potential futures with mutant utopias caused Beast to reflect on his actions and wonder if he could fix them. However, he then proceeded to continue down his same self-righteous path and decide that only he could judge himself. It happens again when he integrates the memories of his younger self, as the other O5 does. All of the others? They have reason to think, and in Scott's case, it causes positive CharacterDevelopment. Beast? Doesn't even think about it.

* KarmaHoudini: After handing over Threnody, Endangering others by teaming up with Dark Beast in his attempts to undo M-Day, using the legacy virus against the Skrulls, screwing with the time space continuum in a petty snipe at Cyclops, killing several alternate Earths as part of the Illuminati, betraying mutants during M-pox, committing War Crimes as head of X-force, turning Logan back into a living weapon making him relive his trauma, murdering several people, abusing his X-force subordinates and generally being a huge hypocrite, Beast has avoided any real consequence of his actions and the damage he’s left in his wake.

* PowerAtAPrice: During X-Factor Pestilence infected him with a disease that increased his strength the more he exerted himself at the cost of his intelligence.

* StrongAndSkilled: Hank balances brute strength with scientific guile to an excellent degree, in one comic when Juggernaught is middle of a rampage, Hank figured out to use Juggs's mass and inertia against him by literally flipping Juggernaut on his head.

* TookALevelInJerkass: From the death of Charles Xavier onwards, he's become increasingly reckless, self-righteous, and destructive. This doesn’t stop when Xavier returns. See WhatTheHellHero below.

* TheUnfettered: He was formerly the [[TheFettered opposite]]. However, starting from the aftermath of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', when he was trying everything to seek a solution to the Decimation and teaming up with even the likes of [[EvilCounterpart Dark Beast]], he steadily began to become this - exemplified by bringing the Original Five to the present on extremely spurious grounds. By the [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge Krakoan Age]], as the head of X-Force on Krakoa there are absolutely no lines that Beast will not cross to ensure the security of Krakoa. This includes murder, human experimentation, lying to his teammates and sending them to die as tests, and numerous other crimes. Whether or not he breaks away from this trope and gets restored to [[TheFettered The Fettered]] in future books is uncertain.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: His fellow X-Men have all come to despise Beast by the [[ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge Krakoan Age]] viewing him with disdain and only ever reluctantly working with him due to his brutal and corrupt nature. This is particularly notable with Scott, Jean Grey, and Logan. The former who he began to resent after the Decimation and the latter two who he [[ComicBook/XForce2019 recently]] [[ComicBook/Wolverine2020 fell out]] with during the Krakoan Age. Only time will tell if he makes a recovery from his moral fall and somehow (miraculously) rekindle these friendships in future books.

* WickedCultured: "Beast turns evil" is kind of a much more common scenario than you'd think. See Creator/GrantMorrison's "Here Comes Tomorrow" arc in ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' for a quintessential one. Beast (under the influence of Sublime) attempts to destroy the X-Men (now led by a reformed clone of Cassandra Nova) once and for all.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: He had his brains undergo an inflation similar to ComicBook{{Superman}}'s powers going from FlyingBrick in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] to almighty in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]. In the early days, he was just the best and most studious of the school's students. By now he's a world-renowned expert in every science there is, and when it comes to solving the science-based problem of the week, be it a virus, a killer robot that doesn't respond to EyeBeams, etc. he'll be the one to do it. ''Officially'' [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] is the smartest human in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, but Beast really can stand up to him in the ''actual'' count of scientific day-saving moments. Need a device to make the godlike Dark Phoenix's butt temporarily kickable? He'll whip it up in an hour. The BigBad is using an alien spaceship left behind by the {{Precursors}}? He'll pull up a chair and make it work for him in under an hour! Legacy Virus? Get on it, Hank. And somehow, even with the superhero-ing and research work in all fields of science, Hank ''also'' finds time to be a regular on the talk show circuit.

* BreakTheCutie: He is widely known as an energetic and brainy sweetheart. But [[ComicBook/XForce2019 recently]]? It’s implied that [[ComicBook/HouseOfM M-Day]] and any tragedy that followed haven’t done any favors for his mental health.