01 – BEAST
8 Jan
Subject: Beast
Real Name: Henry “Hank” McCoy
Height: 5’11″ Weight: 350 lbs.
Group Affiliation: X-Men (Blue Strike Force)
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1, September 1963
Power Ratings:
- Energy Projection: 1/7
- Mental Powers: 1/7
- Strength: 4/7
- Fighting Ability: 4/7
- Intelligence: 5/7
Beast is an interesting choice for the 1st card in the series, because while he is consistently a top-ten placer in many criteria (his being one of the original members holds a lot of clout), he is hardly ever the first that comes to most fans’ minds, not when he appeared in (Uncanny) X-Men #1, all the way to 1992 when the series came out.
That’s not to say that he doesn’t deserve the spot. Henry McCoy embodies much of what is so enduring about the X-Men legacy, namely the balance of strength and intellect, power and vulnerability, and humor and sophistication. Regardless, despite being one of the most, shall we say, symbolically fitting, of the active roster, and his physical appearance being ripe for exploitation by Jim Lee and the gang (as in he’s hulking, has fangs/claws, and has Wolverine‘s haircut), he hardly ever had the spotlight shine on him during this era, usually merely being a foil for everyone else.
As far as the art, it’s serviceable in portraying Beast’s primary visual appeal (as we’d already gone through), though the broad cross-hatching and minimal background work borders on Liefeld-esque (sadly this comment will probably echo through in more subsequent cards than I’d like). Also his feet look too small for being one of the Beast’s original unique features, at least back before he turned blue (incidentally the X-Tra Fact nicely reveals that his current appearance was a result of a self-experiment gone wrong, not his original mutation). Luckily the portrait on the card’s backside rounds out Beast’s personality, and for some reason I always thought he looked super cool wearing the John Lennon shades.
As far as power ratings go it’s pretty accurate, and succeeds in the most important goal of the Power Ratings, which is to visually rank and highlight the character’s unique strengths (in this case, Strength and Intelligence), and weaknesses (Energy Projection and Mental Powers).
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Being generally unfamiliar with this line of cards, I’m curious to see more. If Beast is a 5/7 intelligence, I’m wondering who, if anyone, is a 7/7. Is the scale confined to mutants, or the entire Marvel universe? Because yeah, Hank McCoy would probably be a 5 to, say, Reed Richards’s 7. But I can’t think of a mutant who would be that much smarter than Beast.
Cool post, looking forward to seeing more.
I actually can’t remember off the top of my head who in these cards has a higher Intelligence rating than Beast, but believe me if I had to pick on thing that’s most entertaining about these cards it’s how inconsistent the Power Ratings are. Just wait.
cool and thanks for these……..