Uncanny X-Men Backup Story #49-53: Origin of Beast

And with issue #53 finished up, we also finish up the Origin of Beast backup story! This one covers a lot of time, from before he was born to the point he was recruited by Prof X. We start with Beast's parents getting married, with his dad being a worker at a nuclear plant. During a meltdown, he heroicly saves the day but is injured by radiation. Despite this he recovers fine. On the other hand, his child is affected because at this point they were making a big deal that "mutants" came from radiation to the parents, rather than being just random like it is in later comics.

Hank is born, and from the beginning he is obviously different, unlike most mutants, his hands and feat are enlarged and he is remarkably acrobatic and strong. He's also remarkably SMART. As a freshman he becomes a star QB for his football team. And then on live television (wait, is he a freshman in college? I can't imagine a live high school game being shown to five million people nation wide as is stated in the comic. I know he is older than the others but I thought he was still high school age at the start of the comic? He might have graduated high school early as he is super smart), he defeats a group of robbers who had attempted to rob the ticket booths at the game.

This attracts the attention of a villain called the El Conquistador, who kidnaps Hank's parents and forces him to steal an experimental nuclear reactor, which he does. Back at El Conquistador's base, the X-Men show up to save Beast, they all join together in a fight, beat the villain, Hank saves his parents, and then again, Prof X does his "mind wipe fucking everyone except us" routine.

X-tra Notes: Early Professor X LOVES to just mindwipe everyone, and it is a staple of the "Origins" stories. I suppose it is because it has been established in other early comics that none of the characters parents know about their powers, and that the X-Men were not yet known, but man does it seem like an abuse of power.