Okay, the time has finally come to show respect for quite possibly, the MOST underrated hero on the
forum... The Beast. While everyone freely acknowledges his mental accomplishments and abilities, it
should also be noted that he CAN lay the smack down when properly motivated(and when not put on the
back burner by X-Men writers). All of my initial scans will be of the older versions of the Beast,
because those are the ones I have access to at the moment, but I'm in the process of getting the
more current appearances of the Beast, so there'll be more to follow.
We'll start with some of his basic agility showings from back in the day...
Now this WAS Spidey from back in the day(so he wasn't depicted quite as agile as he is now), but
the admission still says something for Hank.
Now on to strength. This is DEFINITELY his most downplayed feature, both on the forum and by writers. It took some digging, but I did manage to come up with proof that he is stronger than most give him credit for...
First one of the more humorous showings. Apparently, Hank has always had some superstrength in comparison to "Normal" humans, here's one of him as a baby...
Now here's where the strength showings really start. To recap, Hank has been touched by Apocalypse's horseman Pestilence, and because of that, his strength is increasing continuously, but his intelligence is decreasing at the same rate.
Here's some instances of him busting up Apocalypse's ship...
Now here's the reason that all the previous showings have relevance to the more modern beast. Here, the Strength build up has become critical, and it sparks Hank to change into the Blue furry version again(he already had once, and been cured).
So after this transformation, he was actually stronger than he had been in the prior scans.
Now for the good stuff... combat showings. Beast doesn't have many solo because he functions primarily with a team(all of whom is more popular than he), but they do exist, and are impressive in their own right.
Here's Hank getting some good shots in against The Blob and Hulk...
Now this was actually a 1 on 1 battle between Juggs and Beast. It happened right after Hanks initial transformation(it was actually a while before the one I already showed). Not only does Beast get a few good shots of his own, he also manages to TAKE several shots from Juggs. *Note* This version of Beast is actually MORE powerful than later transformations IMO, along with the grey version(which I will show some of next). Both versions have a healing factor which is WAY better than the one he has now(arguably only slightly less effective than Wolverine's). Also, I believe Juggs was a bit powered down from being trapped in another dimension, but it doesn't really take effect until his helmet is removed, so it's still impressive none the less...
This is the Grey version of the Beast. It is what he turned into right after the previous version. This version REALLY emphasizes his healing factor, he actually takes multiple shots from assault rifles, and ALL of the wounds heal within a single panel. Now the ending of his battle with Iron Man is tainted, but I'll get to that in a minute...
So Mastermind created an illusion inside the Beast's head of the end of the fight. However, even though the editorial note says that pages 16 & 17 were imaginary, that would still leave the last two pages of the battle unaccounted for, so I'm assuming that was a mess up, and they meant that pages 18 & 19 were imaginary. So all but the last 2 scans of the battle are valid.
Here's classic Beast, throwing a beating to Kraven the Hunter...
Here a confrontation between Beast and Sabretooth. Now there's interference from Cyclops, but it should also be noted that Beast is trying to apprehend Sabretooth, not put him down. I'm not saying that Beast should take majority over Creed, but it does seem that he could have pulled a solid win in this particular instance if he were going all out.
And finally, it Beast vs Beast. Our Hank vs the evil version of himself from the AOA timeline. There's also a minor strength feat in there, because the "Evil" Beast traps the "Good" Hank in a device that he's sure that he(the evil Beast) can't possibly break out of.
Well that's it for now, but like I said, I'm currently in the process of getting most of the more recent issues of X-Men, so hopefully I'll have some more up to date feats and showings for Hank.
Do you have any scans of his fight with the danger robot in Astonishing X-men 12? There is a great quote in that where Danger threatens Beast about his intelligence or boasts about something and Beast responds with something along the lines of.........
"I'm sure you have many complex scenarios running through your head. Mines simple. I'm a cat and your a bird, and the day I can't out-think a computer, I may as well give up."
It's hard to say for sure, but if his feline version is even stronger than before, I'd say he's in excess of 10 tons easy. The standard "Furry" Beast was probably between 5-10 tons. But I'm really bad at estimating, so I may be off.
Truth be told, I think earliest transformations(the black and grey versions) were the most powerful. They don't have any actual lifting feats to go buy, but the way he was knocking around Iron Man and Juggernaut definitely says something. From the look of those showings(and since those are the only ones he had) he was basically a bit stronger(but a little less agile) than Spiderman, with Wolverines healing factor and ferocity. That makes for a scary combination.
he was originally meant to settle at thing-level strength after his multiple transformations [with infectia and all,] but that wasn't really as lasting as it should be. despite evidences to the contrary, he's often downplayed to generic "superhuman strength," as opposed to a notable level within the numeric class system.
I have no problem in believing that the Beast is as agile as Spiderman, especially seeing his early 60's appearences and recent Astonishing feats.
I don't have the comics to scan, but in the Dark Pheonix saga he lifts a large tree made of solid gold that had trapped Wolverine and human Collosus beneath it.
There's also a late 80's Avengers annual where he helps Hulk and Hercules bend some Adamantium bars, and an earlier Avengers comic where he catches a small missile between his toes, and throws it back at the fighter plane that fired it. Wonder Man is completely awed by this feat.
I also vaguely remember a Beast mini series from the late 90's where he still has some of the extra stregth he had in the X-Factor series.
He didn't exactly lift it, not the way like you describe it. He held a big part of it off the ground for a few seconds (Hurry up... hmmmpff... this is heavvvvyyy hmmmhpffff !!!).
He's still cool though.
__________________ The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Thats from the Avengers annual, I believe it was the "Evolutionaty Wars" not long after he had returned to his blue furry form and still had the strength boost from pestilance and infectia (who's kiss reverted him to his blue form and restored his inteligence, while keeping his strength)
He was at least a Class 70 when he had his strength boost, he took down frenzy who was a class 50 in a couple of shots, Warpath did the same in the New Mutants annual and he was a class 70 at the time.
I really like the Beast, I think his strength is under estimated all the time, they should have kept him at his enhanced levels imo.
I would say he is a class 10 at least personaly, I have read that he could be as high as a class 30 in his cat form, yet I can't get any varifaction of this on any offical websites and the damn roleplaying game still has him listed at class 1!!
Good job on the respect thread, its about time he got one!
" Beast
* The Strength Level of Beast should read that Beast possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift/press approximately 10 tons under optimal conditions instead of 2 tons.
* To reflect the Strength Level of the entry itself, which should state Beast can lift 10 tons (as mentioned above) under optimal conditions, the Power Grid level should be a 4 (800lbs - 25 ton range) and not a 5 (25-75 ton range)…Thanks to Dan Ray for pointing this out."
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Last edited by ExodusCloak on May 11th, 2008 at 11:59 AM
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Nov 18th, 2006 11:28 PM
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