Real Name: Henry "Hank" P. McCoy

Occupation: Biochemist, Adventurer.

Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record.

Identity: Publicly known.

Place of Birth: Dunfee, Illinois.

Marital Status: Single

Known Relatives: Norton (Father), Edna (Mother), and Robert (Uncle).

Group Affiliation: Former member of the Defenders and X-Factor 1, reserve member of the Avengers, current member of the X-Men.

Base of Operations: New York.

Henry McCoy is a mutant whose mutant powers have been evident since his birth. The probable cause of his mutation was his father's exposure to massive amounts of radiation during a nuclear power plant "incident".

As a youth, McCoy's superhuman agility and athletic prowess earned him recognition in school as a star football player. It was then that Professor Charles Xavier learned of him and invited him to his School for Gifted Youngsters. As a founding member of Professor Xavier's original X-Men, McCoy was given the code-name Beast.

Upon graduation, McCoy got a job as a genetic researcher at the Brand Corporation. (The Brand Corporation was a subsidiary of the corrupt Roxxon Oil Company.) There, he isolated a chemical catalyst that triggered mutations and sampled the serum in the hopes of changing his appearance enough so he could ferret out enemy agents working at the facility. McCoy's serum worked all too well and caused him to grow fur over his entire body, pointed his ears, enlarged his canine teeth, gave him claw-like finger and toe nails and increased his already prodigious athletic ability. With these boosts to his already impressive mutant powers, the Beast became more like his namesake in appearance than ever before, and managed to route out the corrupt agents that has infiltrated the Brand Corporation facility.

By remaining too long in this altered state, McCoy learned too late that he could not reverse the mutation to its previous state. At first, McCoy tried desperately to conceal his duel identity from the world and withdrew becoming deeply depressed.

Eventually, though, the Beast's high spirits resurfaced and he cam not only to accept but also to enjoy his new animal-like appearance. After he believed his fellow X-Men to have been killed, the Beast decided to become an Avenger.

The Beast received provisional membership and after several months was granted full membership. It was during this time that the Beast first met the recently revived Wonder Man and the two became fast friends. Throughout his tenure as an Avenger, the Beast and Wonder Man became inseparable teammates and best friends.

The Beast moved on from the Avengers, initially taking the opportunity to reorganize the Defenders after most of their original members went their separate ways. Though he did a good job regrouping the team, it eventually collapsed and the members went their separate ways.

After the Defenders disbanded, the Beast joined the other four founding members of the original members of the X-Men, Cyclops, IceMan, Marvel Girl and Angel to form the first incarnation of X-Factor. This team lasted until their mentor Professor Xavier returned from his long travels in outer space with the adventurer team known as the Starjammers. Upon his return all the original members of X-Factor returned to the X-Men full time.

The Beast also visited Wonder Man a few times while he was living in Los Angeles helping him against the armored felon known as Rampage and then again when Wonder Man ran afoul of the hero wanna-be called Hit-Maker.

The Beast was one of the many heroes present at Wonder Man's funeral after an exploding Kree Ion Cannon in outer space had disintegrated him.

After Wonder Man's permanent return to life thanks to the Scarlet Witch, the Beast took time off from curing the mutant killing Legacy Virus to welcome him back and show him a night on the town. The Beast was surprised that Wonder Man was morose after his resurrection and blaming himself for events that had transpired before his death that where clearly not his fault.

When Wonder Man set out to go back to Los Angeles to make amends for the slights he'd felt he'd done, the Beast, in disguise, tagged along with Wonder Man to Los Angeles aboard his commercial plane flight and helped him stop terrorists from high-jacking the flight.

When they arrived in Los Angeles, the Beast helped Wonder Man sort out many of the things that had been haunting the hero since his resurrection and helped bring his friend out of his depression.

Since then, the Beast has returned to the X-Men and helped cure the dreaded Legacy Virus that had been killing dozens of mutants worldwide. The Beast still remains a close friend and confidant to Wonder Man and

Height: 5' 9"

Weight: 250 lb.

Eyes: Blue.

Hair: Bluish Black.

Other distinguishing features: The Beast has larger than normal hands and feet, thick blue fur covering his entire body, pointed ears, enlarged canine teeth, and claw-like finger and toe nails.

Strength Level: The Beast possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift (press) 2,000 pounds.

Known superhuman powers: The Beast is a mutant who possesses superhuman strength, agility, endurance, speed and dexterity. His legs are powerful enough to enable him to leap fourteen feet high in a standing high jump, and twenty-two feet in a standing broad jump.

The Beast is able to crawl up brick walls by wedging his fingers and toes into the smallest cracks and applying a vise-like grip on them. He has enough power to smash through a four-inch thick oaken door with a single blow or tie a three-inch solid steel bar into a knot.

The Beast has the agility of a great ape and the acrobatic prowess of the most accomplished circus aerialist and acrobat. He can walk a tightrope or a slackrope as easily as most people walk on the sidewalk. He can also walk on his hands for many hours, or perform a complicated sequence of gymnastic stunts such as flips, rolls and springs. He can easily match or top any Olympic record at gymnastic apparatus (such as parallel bars, flying rings, climbing ropes, horizontal bars, and trampolines).

Furthermore, the Beast's manual and pedal dexterity is so great that he can write legibly using both hands at once or tie knots in rope with his toes.

The Beast is quite fast, able to run on all fours at approximately forty miles per hour for short sprints. His stamina is approximately triple that of a well-trained athlete in his prime. His Physiology is durable enough to permit him to take a three-story fall without a broken bone or a sprain. (Providing he lands on his feet.)

At the time of his further mutation into the furry form, his metabolism underwent a period of accelerated change. As a side effect, he was able to metabolize and recover from penetration wounds to his body within a matter of hours. Since then, his body's metabolism has stabilized and he no longer has quite the recovery rate he once possessed, but he is still able to recover from a wound at about twice the normal human rate.