20 Of Our Favorite X-Men Characters

Different iterations of Beast (Image via Marvel)

19. Beast

If you enjoyed the beast/man dichotomy presented by Nightcrawler, then you may also want to learn more about Beast. He’s also an inhumanly blue and furry mutant with surprising depth to his character.

Unlike many other mutants, Henry Philip “Hank” McCoy was born with some mutations already in place. His father, Norton, was exposed to intense nuclear radiation and may have passed on some mutation to his son. Young Hank had unusually long limbs and large hands and feet, as well as a genius-level intellect.

Later, as Hank ages, his mutations become more and more pronounced. He briefly teams up with the X-Men, but leaves to become a research scientist at the Brand Corporation. While there, he starts messing around with a mutagenic serum that lets anyone become a mutant for a short period of time. Hank briefly forgets that he is a smart person and starts to test the serum on himself.

Surprise: he screws up. He grows blue fur all over his body and starts to acquire more animalistic characteristics, such as large teeth, claws, and pointed ears. He can also climb up walls, has better senses, and heals much faster, so it’s not a total tragedy. However, Hank now struggles to control a newly emerged feral side. This struggle will inform much of his later time as a comics character and makes him a truly fascinating individual within the X-Men franchise.