Today in Comics History, September 14: "Three: Bobby Drake, Scott Summers, and Vera Cantor (inactive)."

from "Look out! It's Tabitha Smith and She's Looking Good!" in X-Men: Manifest Destiny #1 (Marvel, November 2008), script by James Asmus, pencils and inks by Chris Burnham, colors by Nathan Fairbairn, letters by Joe Caramagna

Comics Do Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well, Act 3: "Nature teaches Beasts to know their friends."

from The Amazing Spider-Man newpaper strip (King Features Syndicate, February 26, 1992), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Larry Lieber, inks by Fred Kida

Comics Do Shakespeare: The Henrys (#5), Act 6: Once more unto the breach, bub

from "Follow the Leader" in X-Men Unlimited (2004 series) #5 (Marvel, December 2004), script by Scott Killinger, pencils by Rael Lyra, inks by Jay Leisten, colors by Transparency Digital, letters by Dave Sharpe
Eh, maybe not, Wolverine. Here's let's let a literate X-Man recite Shakespeare, shall we?


deleted scene from X-Men: The Last Stand (20th Century Fox, 2006), directed by Brett Ratner, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Kelsey Grammer as The Beast
You tell 'em, Hank! Er, Henry.

Today in Comics History, April 10, 1981, 2:17 PM: At last somebody remembered about Hank McCoy's high-school girlfriend

from Avengers #209 (Marvel, July 1981), script by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Dan Green, colors by Barry Grossman, letters by Janice Chiang

365 Days of Defiance, Day 66: The Beast slowwwwwwwwly challenges himself

Sometimes you're not fighting against Nazis or bad guys or injustice. Sometimes you're battling hard to preserve your own humanity! As when Hank McCoy, the Beast, turns himself into a...well, a Beast! His only salvation: some really kinky-looking bondage gear!


Panels from Amazing Adventures (1970 series) #12 (May 1972), script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Tom Sutton, inks by Mike Ploog, colors by Steve Englehart, letters by Artie Simek
Still, one rubber mask courtesy of his pal Jim Phelps over at the I.M.F., and one body-stretching harness that makes the one worn by Warren Worthington to hide his wings look like the gentle caress of a red-haired female teammate later, and...


Hank swears that he will not rest until he's turned himself back from the blue=grey fuzzy gorilla that he is into a human again! Which means it must be only two or three months that he remains in his bestial form, because the quicksilver mind of the world's most brilliant mutant who couldn't figure out how to reverse M-Day or the M-Pox of Hank McCoy won't take long at all to save himself, right?

Fourteen years later:


Panels from X-Factor (1986 series) #3 (April 1986), script by Bob Layton, pencils by Jackson Guice, inks by Joe Rubinstein, colors by Petra Scotese, letters by Joe Rosen
Then, 2 years later, he was back to being blue and furry again. A Beast just can't catch a break.

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 68: The Hairy Knuckles of J. Jonah Jameson

Panels from Uncanny X-Men #339 (December 1996), script by Scott Lobdell; pencils by Adam Kubert and Cedric Nocon; inks by Jesse Delperdang and Scott Hanna; colors by Steve Buccellato, letters by Richard Starkings

Captain America, Master Battle Strategist

So, let's take a look at the brand-new, surely-not-released-just-to-tie-in-with-a-major-motion-picture Marvel Avengers graphic novel, in which they face off against their deadliest robot foe at a late-night electronic/dance party with lots of young people on Ecstasy! Oh, wait, no, that's Rave of Ultron. What we're perusing tonight is Rage of Ultron.


Panels from Avengers: Rage of Ultron graphic novel (June 2015); script by Rick Remender; pencils by Jerome Opeña; inks by Pepe Larraz with Mark Morales; colors by Dean White, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Dono Sanchez Almara; letters by Clayton Cowles
As in, man! That Ultron is certainly raging! Right in Manhattan, home of the Mighty Avengers! Circa the period when Hank McCoy, the Beast, was on the team, also known as The Best Era of the Avengers. Captain America is right there, to help evacuate the city by telling the panicking crowd to make their way peacefully and patriotically to the bridge. (Say, Cap, which bridge? Ah, he'll tell ya, just hang around.)

The panel above gives only a rough guesstimate of where the destruction is a-happening, but I'd place it as roughly in Midtown Manhattan, which is pretty much where all the destruction in comics books tends to occur. We're not told the precise location in the comic, but I'm making an educated guess that it's Times Square, mainly because of the sheer excess of X-rated movie theaters there. So: they're in Times Square in the 1970s!





Also, because Times Square is pretty much the only place in New York that has a street area that looks half a mile wide.



To be fair to Times Square during the seventies, it wasn't all girly theaters. Just around the corner on 42nd Street is located revival house the Gem Theater, where on the fourth floor you can find the offices of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire! (More recently, the Gem has served as the HQ for Luke's Mighty Avengers team! Who says this isn't the bountiful Bully age of edifying enlightenment? Except I can't explain why Luke Cage isn't running up to help fight Ultron, too. Maybe it's during that glorious issue where he flew to Latveria to demand of Dr. Doom "Where's my money, honey?"


Panels from Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #2 (August 1972), script by Archie Goodwin, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Billy Graham, letters by John Costanza
By the way, check out which mildly magnificent Marvel mag is being perused by ticket taker Bertha!


Cover of Our Love Story #18 (August 1972), pencils by Gene Colan, inks by John Romita, Sr., alterations by Marie Severin
Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is that Captain America does direct the fleeing crowds of civilians to evacuate Manhattan by heading east to the George Washington Bridge.



Um. Cap. The George Washington Bridge is west of Manhattan. (And, pretty darn far north of Midtown.)



Cap's sorta of between a rock and a hard place here even if he wasn't directing panicky people in the wrong direction. There's no easy escape route from Midtown that doesn't involve going into tunnels (the Lincoln Tunnel to the west of Midtown, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel to the east, both in orange), which I can't imagine is the best place to send folks during a crisis. But honestly, Cap? "Keep moving downtown on Broadway, head for the Manhattan Bridge." would probably be the fastest evacuation he could hope for.

Y'know, it's too bad Spider-Man wasn't an Avenger during this era, because if Spider-Man knows anything, he knows where the George Washington Bridge is.



Panels from Amazing Spider-Man (1963 series) #121 (June 1973), script by Gerry Conway, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by John Romita Sr. and Tony Mortellaro, colors by David Hunt, letters by Artie Simek
Then again, that's probably the Brooklyn Bridge that's pictured there, but improperly described as the George Washington (especially since he's show swinging downtown from the United Nations). Does no Marvel Manhattanite know the bridges of New York?

But hey, it's not like Steve Rogers was born in New York City or has lived there ever since he got de-Cap-sicled. Oh wait. Yes, he has.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 46: The Beast's Power-Increaser Ray

Turns out that Reed Richards isn't the only one who can create a mechanism that increases superhuman power. Teen X-Man and Comics Oughta Be Fun! favorite Hank McCoy (a.k.a. the boistrously bouncing Beast!) here shows some of his immense potential for science, when the Strangest Teens of All face off against the mutant villain who not only has one of the most terrible costumes in Marveldom, he's got the absolute worst name: Unus the Untouchable! he's the mutant that cannot be touched not that you'd wanna what with a name like "Unus".


Panel from [Uncanny] X-Men (1963 series) #8 (November 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Sam Rosen
Since Unus (giggle!) can't be beaten by brawn, he's got to be defeated by brain! Which pretty much leaves out Iceman, Angel, and what the heck, Cyclops too. Beast takes to Professor X's lab ("You kids don't touch my tools!") to design and construct the only possible defense against Unus...


...a device to increase Unus' power. Hey, wait, what?

Based on an Original Idea by Stan Lee

Hi, everybody! (There will now be a slight pause for you to say "Hi, Bully!") I'm back. And I hope you had a very merry holiday season of your choice and that you got to read some fun comics over the seasonal break. Me, I'm diggin' Marvel Now. Well, I mean, I've always digged Marvel. I mean I dig Marvel Now. Now.

One of my surprise new favorites is Brian Michael Bendis's All-New X-Men. Favorite because I loves me the five original X-Men, surprise because I'm not a biiiiiiig little stuffed fan of Mister BMB's patented decompression. (Seriously, it takes four issues to get to that point? Ooooookay.) But I like the concept: Comics Oughta Be Fun-favorite The Beast brings the first X-Men (not to be confused with the Neal Adams miniseries The First X-Men) forward in time to meet the All-New X-Men (not to be confused with the All-New All-Different X-Men of X-Men #94). Although I think Thunderbird was involved with the decision of both.

But hey, we're all wondering, just where did Future/Now Beast pluck Previous/Past Beast and company from? And after a trip down to the Bully Temperature-Regulated and Climate-Controlled Vault o' Comics to the "X" section, aisle 1, we can find that Henry McCoy-2013 picked up Henry McCoy-1964 from page six of X-Men #8. Very precise time travel there...hey when did the X-Men get a time machine?

Let's see this Quantum Leaping in action, shall we? Just peer through the time-scope with your chronal-adjusted goggles...or, if you don't have those on hand, take a look at the panels below. Here's the past...


Panel from The [Uncanny] X-Men v.1 #8 (November 1964), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chic Stone, letters by Sam Rosen
...and here's the present. (And as we all know, I love presents!)


Panel from All-New X-Men #1 (January 2013), script by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Wade Von Grawbadger, colors by Marte Gracia, letters by Cory Petit
Looks like Mister Bendis also has a comic book vault he can consult (as does artist Stuart Immonen), because here's an...uncanny...(heh heh heh!) new interpretation of the saga of Hank McCoy's ripped jacket. (What the story doesn't tell you: he bought a new one at Robert Hall the very next day.)



Whoops, Bendis-decompression™ kicks in (vrrrrroooooom!) as Bendis finds a way to stretch a single Lee/Kirby panel into three. Well, it's not as drastic as expanding eleven pages from Amazing Fantasy #15 in six issues in Ultimate Spider-Man.



I'd suggest that the juxtaposition of these two scenes is like the movie Rashomon, but you may have a different story.



AND THEN THIS HAPPENS.


Timeline: successfully derailed! Now, as it has been rendered no-longer-happened through the wonders of time travel, please throw out your copies of X-Men #8. Do it! Do it now!

Say, let's see what this same scene looked like in the 1990s, through the medium of the Marvel series Professor Xavier and the X-Men, which (bwah-ha-ha!) attempted to (haw-haw!) "do Stan 'n' Jack right" (HA HA HA HA HA HA!)


Page from Professor Xavier and the X-Men #9 (July 1996), script by Jorge Gonzalez, pencils by Nick Gnazzo, inks by Ian Akin, colors by Matt Webb, color separations by Malibu, letters by Phil Felix
It's good to know that Hank McCoy will have a successful career away from the X-Men smuggling coconuts in his shoulder pads. What can we say...it was the nineties.

Hey, just for fun, here's the entire script to All-New X-Men #1...in convenient word cloud format.


Click image to imBeasten
So, whatever else, we know what's happening in this story: mutants like going mutant. Also, humans need war. Same as it ever was. Play us off, all-new X-Men theme song!

One Night in Rutland: 1972, Part 1

Welcome to 1972, the year one of my favorite comic book characters of all time made a startling leap forward on the evolutionary ladder? Who is it? Geez, you oughta guess...I only devoted an entire year to him...the boisterous, bouncing, blue-maned Beast! Say, what's he doing in Rutland, Vermont, home of the famous (c'mon, you know it by heart by now) Rutland Halloween Parade?


Panels from Amazing Adventures v.2 #16 (January 1973), script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Marie Severin and Bob Brown, inks by Frank McLaughlin, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Charlotte Jetter
Why, he's...hitchhiking! (After donning his ever-trusty rubber Hank McCoy mask and meeting up with girlfriend Vera Cantor, no relation to Eddie.)


And the kindly folks pickin' Hank and Vera up are none other than Marvel Comics creators Steve Engelhart, Gerry Conway, Len Wein and Glynis Wein! And Steve, who has written The Beast's solo series, doesn't recognize Hank McCoy's name. But I bet he would recognize the Juggernaut dropping out of a hole in the air...or, at they like to call it on Earth-616, the Crimson Corridor of Cytorrak. Please note this improbable but vital plot point: Steve Englehart's Mustang is a piece of junk. How important is this? So important that it will eventually span two comic book earths. Of such cosmic matters are missing mufflers made on.


Engelhart and Co. are, of course, in Rutland this fine Halloween night to attend the annual Parade and party at Tom Fagan's, where comic book characters are the costume de rigeur! Hey, check out that first panel...it's Superman, Batman...um, Aquawoman...and I think that's Vladek Spiegelman just above Batman there.


In the commotion, Glynis Wein disappears! Oh no! Where'd she go? And who will color X-Men now?


It's not a Rutland Halloween Parade comic book without an appearance from pal Tom Fagan, is it? (No. No, it is not.) And let's all say it together...when the Juggernaut crashes a party...he really crashes a party! Meanwhile, Roy and Jeanie Thomas are at the to-do as well and as usual, and Roy's doing a callback to Avengers #83. He really is the ultimate fan!


The Juggernaut attempts to steal Steve Engelhart's car, but he's foiled by faulty...um...(looking in my thesaurus)...fundamentals of his Ford!


Well, that certainly is exciting, and it's not even the whole story! Nope, for more you have to step with me over to the other side of Rutland, Vermont, for an encounter with the Super Friends Justice League of America! Next time! Next post! Nextwave!

The Beast transfers to J. Jonah Jameson University

Farmer's Insurance ad tie-in with X-Men: First Class

We gather together to watch cheesy movies

If you're not out partying this fine New Year's Eve, Bully-fans...and even if you are...then don't miss my guest stint over at my pal DBBurrough's blog Unseen Films all night and well into the first day of 2011: because I'm watching those bot-riffed cheesy movies that you don't often get to see: "Unseen Turkey Day," the seldom-seen episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that aren't released on DVD!



I'll be watching 24 straight hours of MST3K from 6 PM tonight until 6 PM tomorrow, until I run out of movies, until my VHS machine burns out, or until I fall asleep (whichever comes first). Join me (won't you) for Unseen Turkey Day!

And now, to get in on the fun, Dr. Scott Cyclops and TV's Hank reenact one of their favorite comedy bits from the series:

365 Days with Hank McCoy, Day 365

Two-page spread from Avengers v.3 #14 (March 1999), script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by George Pérez, inks by Al Vey, colors by Tom Smith, letters by Wes Abbott

(Click picture to in-your-face-size)


So, how did you like 2010? We've had a lot of fun, and we've looked at a lot of Beast. And on this New Year's Eve, I think it's important to remember the general philosophy of Dr. Hank McCoy: be smart, be furry, be blue, and and be loved. Gosh, you wanna just hug the big blue galoot, doncha?


Panels from X-Men #70 (March 1998), script by Joe Kelly and Joe Casey, pencils by Jeff Johnson, inks by Dan Panosian, colors by Steve Oliff, letters by Richard Starkings and Emerson Miranda

The Beast was actually my "entry character" into the Marvel Universe: I first read and loved the origin of the X-Men in the Son of Origins of Marvel Comics trade paperback I found in the library. Barely a couple weeks later, I picked up my first Marvel superhero comic: Avengers #197, which featured a bouncing furry blue superhero named...Hank McCoy. It was both my introduction to the evolution of the Beast himself as well as to the grand history and comprehensive changes in the Marvel Universe. And I've been hooked on Marvel...and Dr. McCoy...ever since. For a furry little beast like me, you couldn't ask for a better role model.



At the end of that Avengers #14 story from which the big double-page spread above comes from, there's a nice little bit with scripter Kurt Busiek and artist George Pérez about the possible return of Hank McCoy (or, as George calls him, "that funny little monkey-man." Busiek's got the right idea: Hank will always be back. And I'll always be happy to see him.



So, in conclusion, ladeez and germs, let's give a big hand to The Beast. If he's enjoyed the past 365 days half as much as me...well, you do the math. (It's difficult with hooves.) Thank you, Hank!


Final panel from X-Men '95 (October 1995), script by J.M. DeMatteis and Ralph Macchio, pencils by Terry Dodson and John Paul Leon, inks by Jon Holdredge and Shawn Martinbrough, colors by Mike Thomas, letters by Richard Starkings