The Beast wan't originally furry.

In the original run of Uncanny X-Men (from 1963), #1-66, the Beast was a reasonably normal looking character with some sort of ape-like qualities. He was strong, had big hands and big feet.

After the X-Men was cancelled/put on hiatus, a monster craze swept the comics industry in the 70s. Ghost Rider, Tomb of Dracula, Man-Thing -- that kind of stuff.

So Marvel took Hank McCoy, The Beast, and made him into a Mr. Hyde type of charcter. He was working in his lab, doing experiments that had to do with mutation and drank some kind of solution. (Always a bad idea for scientists to test an experiment out on themselves.) Anyway, the solution mutated him further into the big blue furry beast we know and love today. He ended up joining the Avengers for a time, and was always on the periphery of the X-Universe as well.

Then in the mid-80s, when X-Factor was to reunite the original five X-Men in their own team, someone did something to Hank that turned him human again. The catch was, he would get stronger and stronger, but he also got dumber and dumber. This went on for a couple of years until they changed him back into the blue-furred Beast. Was it professor Maddox (Artie's father) who reverted the Beast back to a human appearance? I know it was too early in the run for it to have been Apocalypse, though Apocalypse might have had something to do with his return to being blue.

Currently, Grant Morrison had him undergo a second mutation at some point before he started his run on New X-Men. The Beast is still blue-furred, but has taken on feline qualities. He has a cat-like face and paws for hands and feet.

Ever since his change to the blue-furred Beast, he has occasionally used some kind of little device to give himself the illusion of a human appearance.

Thanks Josh,

Yeah I remember the original Beast and I've seen the recent physical changes.

It's been 5 years since I last bought a comic book. I wish there was some type of book to update me on all the happenings since.

You can check out the recent release of Marvel's X-Men Encyclopedia, researched and partly written by my friend Eric Morells, of the X-Fan website.

hmm i would love to know the details of the x-men traiter thing too.
i rmember it being hinted at that it was gambit, they were alll very suspisious of him.

i havent read an x book in 5 years.

No kidding.

The only good X book these days is Mike Allred and Peter Milligan's X-Statics. Allred is a gifted artist and though Milligan's writing isn't as inspired as Allred's own, the two make for a very interesting team. I was a HUGE X-Men fan for decades but all the X books have pretty much sucked for the last eight to ten years now. X-Statics is the only X book I buy and Spiderman Blue is the only other Marvel publication I've had any interest in lately.

Oh boy, oh man, oh Chavitz! I was going to bed, but I didn't know this was Thread Redivivus. Now I must respond.

X-Men books blow nowadays. Can't agree on Allred...I think his artwork is horrible. Looks like something drawn by a 12-year old. Jim Lee is king. The best Marvel book out now is Amazing Spider-Man, hands down.

Not singling you out, yecul, just saw a lot to comment on...

Actually, I loved Onslaught. Coming off the heels of Age of Apocalypse, these were my 'glory days' of comics. I didn't even mind the...oh, boy...Spider-Clone. Here's my favorite stories, in order:

1. Dark Phoenix Saga. Duh.
2. Age of Apocalypse.
3. Days of Future Past.
4. Fatal Attractions.
5. Onslaught.

I agree that X-books now are crap. You can blame that bastich Morrison, too. The only cool thing he did was re-fuel the Logan/Jean relationship, and rekindle the Phoenix. Other than that, he is *****. HE is responsible for every mutant on earth mutating again. (Ugh.) He is the cause for Professor X's dead twin sister. He is overrated and his stories are horrible. I stopped reading the X-books because of this moron.

It was 350, fyi. I thought Gambit's reason was pretty justified. Needed to control his tail-spinning powers, Mr. Sinister had the cure. All he needed to do was recruit some people for the pale-skinned dude. He didn't know what they were going to do, and he didn't even know who the X-Men were. I was disappointed in that it wasn't more damning.

No need to drop the rant...it's all opinion, after all. I'm sure there's somebody out there who disagrees with me, too, of course, they're wrong....

Some of the other topics, I'll explain Origin. Spoilers, by the by.



Juggernaut stories...X-Men issues immediately prior to Onslaught are good, as well as the Onslaught story itself. Surprising, to say the least. Also, the Age of Apocalypse book, X-Calibre, shows you an Alternate Juggy, which was interesting, IMO. Just a couple from a man who's not that big a Juggernaut fan.

Cable has taken a turn for the suck, too. He supposedly killed Apocalypse, in one of the most absurd comic book scenes ever. Man, if I could only write this book, people would drool. Seriously.

I'm probably missing some stuff, but I'm tired. C-ya'll.

His work looks a LOT like Jack Kirby's. It's very much in the tradition of the early Fantastic Four. Allred rocks.

I know Jack Kirby is legend... to be honest, I can't stand his stuff.

There, I said it.

As long as you can acknowledge his contribution to the comic book industry, that shouldn't be a problem..

I appreciate Kirby a lot more now than I once did (I loathed him in the mid 70's, when I was @ 10...), but I'd still generally prefer to look at Curt Swan, or John Buscema or almost anyone else (other than Ditko) from that era.

Sure.

As long as you can give props to Todd "I'm a rich bitch" McFarlane for giving the industry a much needed shot of "Viagra" many years back

I know many hate McFarlane( I don't) and since dvdtalk is becoming "the place to post your hatred of whatever you hate" , I figure many here probably hate him

I love McFarlane. Allred too.

cool

How did he kill Apocalypse?

isn't Apocalypse "near god" powered.

He killed Apocalypse in his 'spirit' form, using a sickle that was powered by the Askani, or some stupid crap. Apocalypse was leaving Cyclops' body. Oh, if they'd only shot HIM in the head to kill ol' Apocalypse, then it would have all been worthwhile.

See what I mean when I say, 'absurd'?

Sorry so long to reply.

Didn't know X-Men was stopped for awhile. Was threre another book going or was the X-team books totally done for a few years?

The run of the original team (Cyclops-Marvel Girl-Angel-Beast-Iceman) was from #1-66.

At that point, Marvel stopped producing new X-Men comics and the series continued as a series of reprints of the earlier stories. These ran from #67-93.

By this time -- the mid-70s -- it was decided to bring the X-Men back as a multi-national team with some all-new characters and some previously-seen minor characters like Banshee, Wolverine, and Sunfire. The new team was introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and new stories with the new team follwed from X-Men #94 onward.

Man, this is the first time I've been back to this forum for a while and I find this thread? Its like finding a $100 on the beach... Okay maybe more like $1.00.

But any way for you comic fans out there, maybe you could answer some of my other questions. After X2 I was dying to catch up on some stuff so I've been hitting comic sites looking for info on my favorite people:

1. How/When did Wolverine get his adamanitam back? Wasn't his healing power on the decline as well?

2. Nightcrawler? Wasn't his powers also failing him?

DC questions:

1. What the heck happened with that whole superman is a lighting bolt and dresses in white story?

2. What ever happened to Hal Jordan after he went crazy and stole everyone else's rings?


Misc questions:

1. Does Image still publish comics? Right when they started up is when I stopped. I still have the first 10-15 issues of Spawn, YoungBlood, Wildcats, Maxx, Dragon and something else somewhere... Where'd Lee, Mcfarlane and Lindfield(?) go?

Thanks for easing my pain...

I hated McFarlane before hating him was popular :-)

I'm more of a story-driven fan than an art-driven one, and McFarlane's dismissal of the importance of a writer, not to mention his total dismissal of the necessity to LEARN how to write, turned me off.

The man's a liar, an egotist, and he cares about his bank account more than he does comics.

I'll give him credit for two things though - revolutionizing page layouts and action figures. Now if he could get his quality control on the figures to the point where they don't fall apart when you take them out of the package.

Oh, God, I stopped reading the X-Men comics around that time.

I think Apocalypse gave it back to him so Wolverine could be his "Death" horseman.

Quote:

2. Nightcrawler? Wasn't his powers also failing him?

The only time I really remember Nightcrawlers powers failing was after the injuries he sustained during the Mutant Massacre. Presumably, he just got better sometime during his membership in Excalibur.

Unless there's another spate where he was having trouble with his powers.

Quote:

DC questions:

1. What the heck happened with that whole superman is a lighting bolt and dresses in white story?

Sorry. Don't read Superman. I think what you're referring to is the Superman Red/Superman Blue storyline from a few years back.

Quote:

2. What ever happened to Hal Jordan after he went crazy and stole everyone else's rings?

He spent some time as a villain, Parallax, and was involved in one of DC's big crossovers.

He eventually became the Spectre.

Quote:

Misc questions:

1. Does Image still publish comics? Right when they started up is when I stopped. I still have the first 10-15 issues of Spawn, YoungBlood, Wildcats, Maxx, Dragon and something else somewhere... Where'd Lee, Mcfarlane and Lindfield(?) go?

Thanks for easing my pain...

Yes, Image Comics is still around, but in a very reduced and different capacity.

Of the original founders...

Rob Liefeld was forced out of Image Comics several years ago.

Jim Lee sold Wildstorm off to DC Comics, where they are still publishing some of the more popular titles, but in very different incarnations. WildCATS and Stormwatch are both mature readers books. WildCATs has a very different mission, and Stormwatch is about a team of soldiers who hunt superheroes. They're also still publishing Gen-13.

Todd McFarlane is still putting out Spawn and a few related books, but he isn't creating Spawn anymore. I think he's just co-writing it now and maybe inking the covers. Lately, he's been more concerned with running his toy company.

Jim Valentino is working behind the scenes in an editorial capacity.

Mark Silvestri is still running his Top Cow studios, which is currently putting out second generation titles like Witchblade and Darkness. Cyberforce hasn't been seen in quite some time. Silvestri rarely does artwork anymore.

Erik Larsen is still writing and drawing Savage Dragon. He's the only Image founder who's still doing what he was doing back when the company was formed.

So as you can see, Image is now a very different entity than it was ten years ago. There are also a good number of books coming out of Image Central. They're currently attempting to start a new super hero line, and they've been publishing "alternative" comics for some time now, such as A Distant Soil, Kabuki, and Powers.

Thanks Josh. You are the man.

Now if anyone reads DC...

1. The short answer is that mutant genes were first manipulated by an alien race called The Celestials. Another alien race, The Kree, attempted to duplicate the mutation and created the Inhumans. The Inhumans need to be exposed to something called the Terrigan Mists to have any powers.

2. I don't know what Galctus is doing these days. The juggernaut has been powered down and joined the X-Men (Don't even ask about that whole "we're enemies for life" thing). As far as New X-Men writer Grant Morrison is concerned, Magneto is dead. But that won't last too long.

3. Professor X survived The Onslaught stoty, lost his powers, was captured by the U.S. government, was freed at the end of a summer crossover, went into space, saved some alien teenage mutants... After that my mind wandered.

3. No. The Phoenix started out as "the ultimate expression of Jean Grey's mutant paowers." Ten years later, Marvel writers and editors needed to bring her back for X-Force. It was decided that the being who was Phenix was a powerful alien nomad who took Jean's identity and fooled everyone, including itself to believe that it was the real McCoy. The recent scenes of Jean using the Phoenix powers in the comics haven't been explained yet.

Actually, the two events are related. This great crazy being called the Sun Eater (mindless threat that goes around eating worlds) targets earth. The sun slowly goes out, but Hal Jordan, as Parallax, sacrifices himself to relight the sun. The events leave Superman powerless and somehow he becomes a being of pure energy, only able to contain himself in the blue and white suit. I don't remember how he got his ordinary powers back, but it probably involved some noble act of courage and/or death. But the DC universe being what it is, no one stays dead for long. I even heard some rumors of Barry Allen returning. I really hope they don't stoop that low.

Hope that helped a bit