The Scentless Apprentice

I was 13 or 14 when I started reading the old comics. I was a 5’9” girl with broad shoulders, size 11 feet, who spent class time reading books because the lessons bored me. I was about a head taller than everyone else (before the boys hit their growth spurts) and generally bigger than other girls my age (I wasn’t even really overweight; I was just built bigger). I felt like a monster; girls were supposed to be cute, petite, and dainty… apparently, my body didn’t get the memo.

You can see how an awkwardly proportioned girl was drawn to the character with big, broad shoulders, large hands and feet, and sounded like he ate a thesaurus…even if he was rather dull for a superhero. (Again, the 60s comics, blech!)  

When I saw Hank McCoy, I saw myself.

Sure, I was far from being a genius, I didn’t have super strength, and I couldn’t scale buildings with my bare hands and feet. But I knew what it was like to have my physical features stand out -- on the “higher end of normal”. 

I developed more empathy for him as a result. I truly cared about what happened to him in storylines. My self-absorbed, desperate-for-validation teenage self drew some wild mental gymnastic parallels between us that only increased my attachment. When Henry was transforming himself into the furry blue (originally gray) character we all know, I was in the throes of puberty and experiencing all the changes that entailed. When I got to his 80s adventures as an Avenger, I had finally found my niche of friends where I truly belonged. By the time I reached the 90’s and found myself rereading stories like AoA, I had reached my edgy, rebellious phase, and Dark Beast was right there. My life experiences streamed alongside reading experiences with Hank.

Eventually, I got older and busier. I was preparing for graduation, then attending college, and eventually earning my bachelor’s degree. I mostly stopped reading comics, and the comics I did read were either indie publications or more obscure titles like Great Lakes Avengers (Hello, Squirrel Girl!). There were no more parallels for me to draw with Hank, but I no longer needed to anyway.

But my love for Hank/Henry/Beast never went away. In fact, I became embarrassed by it. X-Men wasn’t exactly popular among my college peers (Marvel movies were juuust becoming more popular with the release of the Avengers in 2012, so a lot of people didn’t even know Marvel well), and any time I began talking about it, I would get a weird blank stare. I wrote a blog post called Nature vs Nurture: Comparing Beast and Dark Beast on WordPress and then deleted the account. I threw away the majority of the fan art I drew in my sketchbooks -- but I’m thankful a couple of drawings escaped the culling. I almost wrote my 401 Literature paper on “The Uncanny of the Uncanny X-Men” and then didn’t because I was embarrassed, and I instead wrote one on Queer Coding in Harry Fucking Potter, AND I HATE THAT I DIDN’T JUST WRITE THE DAMN X-MEN ONE.

The only time I felt okay with letting my X-Men freak flag fly was during the two years I was blessed with San Diego Comic-Con passes. I commissioned one of OG Hank in 2013 and one of Henry in 2014, and kept them tucked away in a binder to keep them safe and out of the way.

It wasn’t until after 2015, when I graduated and returned to my bubble, that I resumed my hobby. I caught up with All-New X-Men -- back to OG Hank. I couldn’t help but feel like I had come full circle in some way. 

I’m in my thirties now, and I’ve gotten over myself; I like the X-Men and I have a particular fixation on Hank McCoy. I’m content, my husband is supportive, and now I run this blog.   

So, you can imagine how I’ve felt for years about what Marvel Comics has been doing to Hank…and to Henry. Oh my stars and garters! 

Yes, in a way, it is ‘too late’. They have written him into the ground.

When we meet Hank in Astonishing X-Men, he's at a very rough place in his life, still. His best friend, Jean Grey, has recently died, he's still struggling with his anxieties and insecurities over his secondary mutation, still reeling from the psychic attack by Cassandra Nova, and, as if to rub salt in the wound, he's presented with the simplest solution to at least most of his problems.

A cure.

Because let's be real here - we can call it a mutant gift all we want, but some people have it worse than others. Beak, Glob Herman, Maggott, Dummy, Forget-Me-Not, Beast - these people have powers that suck exponentially more than Storm or Cyclops or Emma Frost. They just do. And I am well aware of the fact that this is a nuanced discussion, that Scott has to wear his glasses/visor, and that Ororo has to maintain control over her emotions so that she doesn't wreck the weather systems, I get that. I know that.

But.

It always hits me, the fact that Logan cannot respond to Hank's point specifically. He cannot argue that Hank's X-gene specifically makes him dangerous, because to do so would be fucking insulting - all he can do is blow it out to a macro level, and make it about Hank's status as an X-Man, about the fact that an X-Man admitting that some mutants just want to be cured and all that implies would be a massive blow to everything they represent.

And that is a point, one that has to be weighed up, but you can't act like this isn't literally dehumanising for Hank. Logan literally says he's not a human being, he's an X-Man - his duty outweighs his right to peace of mind and humanity.

Also, no, I don't care that Hank 'did this to himself.' Hank turned himself blue and furry, yes, and he made his peace with that.

But he did NOT choose to mutate into a feline monster with less fingers, new predatory instincts, less humanity. This is a nuance that is almost always lost in this conversation - Sage made this choice for him, and that will always colour this stage of Hank's life. It's very well likely that he might've chosen to go ahead with the mutation anyway, to save his life, but it doesn't matter because he never got the chance.

Treating Hank's different mutations as broadly the same, despite the fact that they are eminently different and they make him feel differently, is one of the many nuances that is often lost by both writers and the fandom at large, and it makes him a less complex character as a result. It is important that classic Hank would not have chosen to cure himself, but feline Hank would. That is important.

This probably seems like I'm getting off track, but I promise you I'm not. This is all vital context for this relationship.

So, the cure is destroyed, although Hank has one sample of it sitting in his lab by the end of the story.

Now, by this point, Abigail Brand has entered the story. She is, to put it bluntly, an asshole - Nick Fury with less warmth.

It's also vitally important that you know that Hank and Abigail's literal first interaction is him making fun of her. I'm not kidding.

So, we fast forward a little bit, and Cassandra Nova comes back, and. Well.

Hank's literal stated worse fear. Thanks for the second dose of trauma, Nova! Really love that!

This is also very important to their relationship. Swear down. Hank is, unfortunately, an unwilling cannibal, and it's all continuing his increasing alienation and isolation and dehumanisation. For someone who is, I would say, best characterised as a humanist, to become, if you'll forgive the ghoulish joke, a humanitarian, is ego shattering.

Anyway, Hank and Abigail begin to interact more and more as S.W.O.R.D forcibly recruits the X-Men to help them with their problems.

And thus, a. Tension, begins to develop.

Anyway, remember how I said cannibalism would be important?

And things continue to roll along . . .

Oh my . . .

Ouuaughhhhh . . . I love heart on his sleeve Hank . . .

So, what is this all building to? Well . . .

And there it is.

Abigail Brand is a massive monsterfucker, confirmed. Love her for that.

Now, this exchange kinda reads differently now, after all the mud that Hank's been dragged through since the mid-00s, especially with X-Force and everything, but at this point in continuity, Hank was still very much one of the most moral, ethical, well regarded heroes in the entire Marvel Universe. He would often be given maxed out stats for conscience and wisdom in expanded material, people would repeatedly state that he didn't have it in him to kill, that he could be trusted to do the right thing - he was a moral counterweight.

And the fact that Abigail wants him on her side because of that? To be her professional bullshit caller? To bring her up to snuff? That speaks a lot about her, honestly. She is not just a thug. She feels. She cares. She has a sense of right and wrong, it's just distorted sometimes by the wider scale of dealing with intergalactic politics and all the attendant bullshit that goes along with them - and Hank gives her perspective. He grounds her.

And to Hank, this is a fucking brand new epoch. He's just coming off a relationship with Trish Tilby where she explicitly rejected him because his form repulsed and scared and unsettled her - and now, this woman wants him because his form is familiar to her. Because it conforms to her sense of attractive. It gives him an all new perspective. He looks like her people. What must that feel like to Hank?

Suddenly, it isn't, I'm a monster to my fellow humans, it's, to the right people, I look beautiful.

(Well, Abigail would likely not use the word beautiful, but.)

That is immensely attractive! And let's be real here - this is all kinda mercenary, to begin with. Abigail wants to fuck Hank because he's hot, and she wants to work with him because she's trying to be a better person but can't trust herself to do it properly; Hank wants to fuck Abigail because he's lonely and isolated and wants to feel wanted, and he wants to work with her because it's a chance to be a contrarian full time!!! What more could he goddamn want?! Feelings have not yet begun to enter the equation.

But that's fine, because this is fun.

And we can let things cook . . .

And it's clear that it takes a little bit. Feelings are entering the equation, but it's not impossible for things to take a backslide here and there. They don't quite completely trust each other yet. They're cute together! But they're still brittle at this stage.

Things could still break apart - except, Abigail does have a heart.

Look at that smug motherfucker.

What really seals it for me is this, though, from a later arc of Astonishing X-Men.

For someone like Abigail Brand, for whom work is everything, there is no clearer way to say 'I love you' than this. She wanted to protect Hank from the consequences of his actions. She wanted to protect him from the perversion of his work, done with good intentions but perverted for ill. She worked, for months, off the books, on things that weren't her jurisdiction, because of Hank.

There's so much that she's not saying here, but this is the EXACT SAME WOMAN who, if you scroll up, just panels ago, was saying there was NO-ONE she would not sacrifice, no enemy she would not sleep with, if it meant that Earth was safe.

The Earth . . . and Hank, apparently.

That is huge.

Also, they kinda have a kid together? Sort of?

That's Broo, Hank's protege. He happens to be around because of a whole adventure where Hank pulled the X-Men into a Brood related nightmare that ended up producing a mutant Brood with compassion and emotions and empathy.

A Brood related nightmare where Abigail was in danger. And why was she in danger?

Because she was being heroic, huh?

And then there's this . . .

Now, this is from Siege (2015), part of Battleworld, so it isn't quite 616 canon, but it's the exact same writer as S.W.O.R.D, so I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that this is exactly how Abby feels about Hank in 616 as well.

"After McCoy, she will never let herself love anything."

Ouauuhhghhhhh . . . they complete each other, quite frankly. He's the moral counterweight to her pragmatic solutions. She's the realist that reminds the optimist that the world isn't sunshine and daisies all the time. He's the bright, colourful, bounding genius, she's the insanely deadly workaholic who hates you. Enemies to lovers.

This is crack to me, friends. This is crack cocaine.

Also, I reject the idea that they're on-again, off-again. These two were locked in from S.W.O.R.D onward, and I refuse to hear otherwise.

It's incredibly clear to me that the X-Men never understood this relationship, just like how they never really understood what makes Hank tick in general, and so they just make assumptions based on what they think they know, because we're literally never shown these two in the middle of one of their supposed arguments. Every time they're on panel together, they're flirting and backing each other up, consistently, every time. Even during X-Force, Abigail is pretty much the only person that Beast treats with respect, and love, and care. They hug, which is unheard of for that version of the character.

Well. There is one other character evil Beast treats with care.

Man, X-Force #50 was all kinds of gay . . .

Anyway. If it weren't for Simon, Beast/Brand would absolutely be Hank's One True Pairing. As it is?