#o5-8 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-true-boomer · 22 days

Text

(since I'm on an absolute tirade with my o5 council posts, I figured I'd make a single post with all of them and their backstories. this'll be updated gradually so you might wanna check back sometimes for updates)

Please enter credentials. Processing... Welcome, Administrator. What files would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "O5 Council Personnel Files" What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-1"

Full Name: James Aaron Siegel Designation: O5-1 Codename: The Founder Purpose: Guiding most base foundation operations. Age: 51 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: The United Kingdom Accent: British Medical Information: 89% of his body is composed of mechanical replacements because of the an attack by SCP-682 during the Anomalous War. Social Relationships: Romantic partner of The Nazarene (O5-2). Closest platonic relationship is The Administrator (O5-0). Other Information: In a romantic relationship with the previous Administrator before her untimely death. Founded the Society for the Preservation of Humans during the anomalous war to save as many people as they could. On one of the missions, he came into contact with SCP-[PENDING] (The Gate Guardian), which told him to "protect". Constantly carries SCP-0462 (Lucifer’s Sword) What file would you like to access? What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-2"

Full Name: Ezra Nahir Designation: O5-2 Codename: The Nazarene Purpose: Chief information on interdimensional travel. Age: 49 Gender: Female Pronouns: She/her Country of Origin: Iraq Accent: Arabic Medical Information: Nothing of Note Social Relationships: Romantic partner of The Founder (O5-1). Closest platonic relationship is The Psychiatrist (O5-3). Other Information: She was brought into our universe via unknown means from another one. She is the alternate version of one of the researchers at the foundation. Her counterpart native to our timeline has not been made aware of her existence. First encountered The Founder (O5-1) during the same period of time in which he met SCP-[PENDING] (The Gate Guardian). Enjoys gardening. Former head of the ethics committee. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-3"

Full Name: Dr. Hoga Kenshin Designation: O5-3 Codename: The Psychiatrist Purpose: Chief of the Ethics Committee, in charge of quality of life. Age: 37 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: Japan Accent: Non-Discernable Medical Information: Nothing of Note Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationships are The Nazarene (O5-2) and his assistant (Deborah Syphus). Other Information: Assisted in founding the Ethics Committee. A more recent addition to the council as a new person was needed after The Nazarene (O5-2) stepped down. Got a Ph.D. in bioethics while on the council. Firmly believes that therapy on personnel and anomalies could solve many issues the foundation faces. Constantly butts head with O5-6 (The Cowboy) due to his method for keeping the world safe is to “shoot it until it dies.” Enjoys gambling as a hobby.

What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-4"

Full Name: Kai Taylor Designation: O5-4 Codename: The Ambassador Purpose: Serves as a liaison between The Foundation and other GOIs. Age: 36 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: Australia Accent: Australian Medical Information: Slight anxiety. Social Relationships: Unconfirmed romantic relationship with O5-7 (The Unlikely). Closest platonic relationships are O5-10 (The Archivist) and O5-0 (The Administrator) Other Information: Worked at the foundation before the anomalous war, after which he gained a seat on the council. The reason for the speculation on his romantic entanglement with O5-7 (The Unlikely) is that while he has denied it, O5-7 (The Unlikely) confirmed it. Assigned female at birth. A former actor, which could possibly explain his absurd charisma. Confirmed to have super-speed, capable of crossing the entire globe in seconds at a speed of 3496330 miles an hour, or 4556.85 times faster than sound. While he works with O5-5 (The Blackbird), they are not close friends. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-5"

Full Name: Gabriel Lucien Designation: O5-5 Codename: The Blackbird Purpose: Chairman of the Department of Paranormal Organisation Review. Age: 42 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: Turkey Accent: Turkish Medical Information: Nothing of Note Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationships are O5-6 (The Cowboy) and O5-7 (The Unlikely). Other Information: Has a pension for birds for an unknown reason. Constantly doodles birds, goes on birdwatching tours, has a signature with 5 blackbirds, and incorporates birds into his outfits. Has a pet raven named Edward, or Eddy for short. A skilled artist. One of the more laid-back members of the council, known for his level-headed decision-making. Uncle of Calvin Lucien, Special Agent of the Chaos Insurgency. Extremely regretful of what he did to their family. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-6"

Full Name: Jasper Morgan Designation: O5-6 Codename: The Cowboy Purpose: Commander and Field Leader of Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 (The Red Right Hand) Age: 43 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: United States of America Accent: Southern America Medical Information: Smoker. Social Relationships: “Friend with benefits” too O5-11 (The Liar). Closest platonic relationships are O5-5 (The Blackbird) and O5-7 (The Unlikely). Other Information: While they are still friends, he and O5-7 (The Unlikely) are antagonistic towards each other due to his connection with the Chaos Insurgency, which was founded by former Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 (The Red Right Hand) operatives. Founding member of the new O5 Council. Only ever seen wearing a bright white suit and wearing a white cowboy hat. Holds an office in the Pentagon. Suspected of not knowing how to ride a horse as, anytime he’s tried, he’s quickly fallen off. Wears a black and red suit when on missions with Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 (Red Right Hand). What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-7"

Full Name: Victor Dreyfus Designation: O5-7 Codename: The Unlikely Purpose: Head Director of the Chaos Insurgency Age: 38 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: United States of America Accent: Neutral American Medical Information: Scar over left eye. Social Relationships: Unconfirmed romantic relationship with O5-4 (The Ambassador). Closest platonic relationships are O5-5 (The Blackbird) and O5-6 (The Cowboy). Other Information: Has survived a curious number of assassinations, which likely means anomalous interference. Catholic. Tallest member of the O5 Council. The Council is aware of his relationship to the Chaos Insurgency which has led to many arguments with O5-6 (The Cowboy). What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-8"

Full Name: Ethan Monroe Designation: O5-8 Codename: The Lesser Purpose: Chief Contingency Coordinator Age: 31 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: United States of America Accent: Neutral American Medical Information: Heavy Anxiety, PTSD Social Relationships: Romantic partner of The Outsider (O5-9). No close friends to speak of. Other Information: Extremely cautious due to a mistake in the past which led to the assassination of Dr. Ivans. Wears a large metal mask that resembles a skull. He’s denied telling the reason as to why, but the two prevailing theories are either shame or heavy scaring. If the scaring theory is correct, they likely came from the train crash that took the lives of his brother and 97 others. Extremely scared of O5-0 (The Administrator) due to a previous encounter after the assassination of Dr. Ivans. This event has also led him to severe caution in decision-making. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-9"

Full Name: Lorelei Aroha Campbell Designation: O5-9 Codename: The Outsider Purpose: Serves as an interpretation of what Foundation actions look like to civilians. Age: 29 Gender: Female Pronouns: She/her Country of Origin: New Zealander Accent: Kiwi Medical Information: N/a Social Relationships: Romantic partner of O5-8 (The Lesser). Closest platonic relationship is O5-11 (The Liar). Other Information: Carries a cane for no reason as she does not have any medical problems that would require it. Her appointment barely passed, with a Council vote of 5 to 4. When not working for the foundation, she is a geology professor. Initially developed a relationship with O5-8 (The Lesser) out of pity, but she claims she grew to love him genuinely. May be cheating on him, however, he hasn’t been made aware. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-10"

Full Name: Asha Sinclair Designation: O5-10 Codename: The Archivist Purpose: Keeps the records of the foundation and its operations. Age: 44 Gender: Female Pronouns: She/It Country of Origin: Botswana Accent: Neutral American Medical Information: Wings Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. No close friends. Other Information: There have been multiple archivists before the current O5-10 (The Archivist), even before the Anomalous War. Has wings, and has denied telling anyone where they came from, though that, coupled with the markings on her face, leads to several religious theories. Has access to a Way, leading to the Wanderer’s Library, the base of operations of the Serpent’s Hand. An unconfirmed contempt for humanity as she rarely ever talks to anyone outside of her duties. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-11"

Full Name: Lorelei Vale Designation: O5-11 Codename: The Liar Purpose: Chief Disinformation Officer Age: 39 Gender: Female Pronouns: She/her Country of Origin: Unknown. Accent: Varies. Medical Information: Nothing of Note Social Relationships: “Friend with benefits” to O5-6 (The Cowboy). Closest platonic relationships are O5-9 (The Outsider) and O5-5 (The Blackbird). Other Information: Most definitely a shapeshifter, with all her forms being conventionally attractive and donning expensive clothing. A quite sizeable risk to the foundation prioritizes their self-interests over the good of the council and others. Sometimes rumors around the foundation for the fun of it. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-12"

Full Name: Cyrus Neuros Designation: O5-12 Codename: The Cerebral Purpose: Anomaly Rotation Officer, Personnel Interviewer. Age: 33 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: America Accent: Uses a computer to communicate. Medical Information: A brain in a jar. Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationship is with his caretaker (Margret). Other Information: Possibly the inventor of the current amnestics the foundation uses. Was initially known as The Physician before his injury that forced him into the jar he now sits in. Was a victim of SCP-106 (The Old Man) which caused his body to fail, leading to a rushed council vote to save his life. Currently trying to have a robot body built, progress remains stunted. Right now, in his own words, “we’re just kinda going with the flow of things.” Has a malaysian striped coral snake named Shesha. Has a collection of model trains. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-13"

Full Name: Yalmü-Garbha Designation: O5-13 Codename: The End Purpose: Prisoner of the council. Age: Existed since the beginning of time. Gender: Inapplicable. Pronouns: He/they/it Country of Origin: Inapplicable. Accent: Varies Medical Information: Nothing of Note. Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationship is O5-6 “The Cowboy.” Other Information: The earthly avatar of The Brothers Death. In the event of any form of end-of-the-world scenario where next to or all of humanity perishes, O5-13 (The End) has 48 hours to return them all to life. Extremely uncaring on foundation matters unless they involve death in some form. He and O5-6 (The Cowboy) occasionally go on bar dives in the middle of the night, when patrons are tired or drunk. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-14"

Full Name: Dresden Oakland Designation: O5-14 Codename: The Overseer Purpose: Oversees the universe the foundation operates in. Age: 44 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: United States of America Accent: Neutral American Medical Information: Half skin is covered in molten rock. Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationship is O5-1 (The Founder). Other Information: May take his job the most seriously out of any of the other council members. Had a wife (Hakaru Nakamuri) and an unborn child who was killed by SCP-682 (The Hard-to-Destroy Reptile). Obviously, he hates SCP-682 (The Hard-to-Destroy Reptile) very much because of this fact. The reason for his skin condition is because the previous overseer of this universe (Tarsa) did it to him before being slain by O5-1 (The Founder). Worked for the foundation before the Anomalous War. What file would you like to access? Processing... Accessing "File O5-0"

Full Name: Eidolon Zephyr Designation: O5-0 Codename: The Administrator Purpose: Contingency in case any of the council step out of line, tiebreaker vote. Age: 46 Gender: Male Pronouns: He/him Country of Origin: France Accent: French Medical Information: Nothing of Note Social Relationships: No known romantic partner. Closest platonic relationships are O5-1 (The Founder) and SCP-343 (God). Other Information: Consistently wears SCP-262 (The Coat of Many Arms). Said numerous times by various members of the council to be the best-dressed member. A bit sorry about giving O5-8 (The Lesser) PTSD, but he tries to not dwell on it. Brother of the previous administrator, taking over after she passed. Quite kind as far as people working for the foundation go as he occasionally checks in with both D-Class, scientists, mobile task force operatives, and some anomalies.

8 notes · View notes

pixelatedvoid · 23 days

Text

Sorry to my followers but I just needed to throw these out there

Picrew is https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/644129

in order:

O5-1 The Founder, Aaron Siegel O5-2 The Nazarene, Sauron Light O5-3 The Kid, Orion Smith O5-4 The Ambassador, Alexander June O5-5 The Black Cat, Lyca(n) Muradov O5-6 The Cowboy, Mikell Marigold O5-7 Teeth, Teeth Summers O5-8 The Newbie, Rayne Garcia O5-9 The Lovers, Daniel McKay & Mikael Erin O5-10 The Archivist, Yunio Diarez O5-11 The Liar, Treble Clef O5-12 The Accountant, Omar "Cyrus" Alawe O5-13 Tamlin, Joey Tamlin The Administrator, Ezra Light

Finally, all the official designs and names for my O5 Council!!! <3

sorry for the massive tag list

#o5 council #scp foundation #scp #scp o5 #scp fandom #scp community #o5 1 #o5 2 #o5 3 #o5 4 #o5 5 #o5 6 #o5 7 #o5 8 #o5 9 #o5 10 #o5 11 #o5 12 #o5 13 #The Administrator #The Admin

7 notes · View notes

toacho · 1 year

Text

More O5-6 "The Cowboy" =/= O5-8 "Dogwood" Propaganda. [Click for better quality!]

#my art #scp #scp fandom #scp fanart #scp o5 #scp o5 6 #scp o5 8 #cowboy mikell #mikell bright #this version of Dogwood turned out a little more accurate to my concept of his appearance then the last one dfgdr

40 notes · View notes

irene0008 · 1 year

Text

how doesn o5-2 “Rayan” hates ppl: 🌔

🌕: hating o5-8 “Ayato”

🌑: hating o5-8 “Ayato” but in an another colour 🌚

#scp au #scp o5 #o5 2 #o5 8 #not a ship

2 notes · View notes

o5-17-ii · 1 year

Text

Well shit now there are eight billion ungrateful assholes for us to protect from the anomalous

#o5 17 #o5-17 #8 billion people #Scp

2 notes · View notes

o5-the-daughter · 2 years

Text

Warnings: nightmare; manipulation, repetition, death, unreality, repeated gun violence, gore?/mention of multiple severe injuries, blood, drowning, panic attack, brief mentions of unintentional self harm

Word count: 1.557

Only visible to Experimenter (@o5-blackbird).

"It is okay to be afraid", Mikhail speaks, his deep, accent-heavy voice coming from somewhere behind him.

"But you will need to learn to control it."

He nods, shifting in his spot ever so slightly.

"Fear will stop you, sooner or later. Get in your way at important moment. So you have to turn it into something more.. useful. Turn the pain around, make it a tool, make it strength."

Heavy hands grab his wrists, guiding him on how to hold the gun previously resting loosely in his right.

"There is a small line between fear and anger - flight or fight. I want you to step over the line. I want you to ignore every instinct to flee, and I want you to remember that you are a monster too. They should be scared of you."

He tenses up, though only slightly so.

A monster..

"You see, anger is better than those tears of yours,"

He doesn't turn to look. Only another nod.

"Anger is better than grief,"

A deep breath. His hands are steady this time, much too steady for his own comfort.

"And anger is better than guilt, too."

He takes aim, carefully, precisely.

"And guilt will come. But if you want to survive in this business, you need to deal with it. Taking a few lives is nothing if it means saving thousands - even if the lives are dear to us."

A short pause, just a heartbeat's time of silence.

"You understand that, kid, don't you?"

His finger rests on the trigger now. Under his breath, a barely audible "yes". He hates how easy it comes to him.

He can hear the old man smile, and the uncomfortably tight touch disappears.

The faceless something a few meters from him tilts its head. It is tall, taller than him, with no distinct features to tell who - or what - it is. It seems normal in the moment.

Inhale. Two, three, four..

Exhale.

The gunshot is deafeningly loud, but he doesn't flinch at the noise; instead, he stares in silence as bright red blood starts to drip out of the figure's head, pouring down its paper-white face in a slow, steady stream like a melting river in spring.

A perfect ten.

He turns around now, hands numb from the recoil of the gun, waiting for that poison-sweet praise he had grown so accustomed to.

Yet, he finds himself alone, no matter how many times he turns around himself with growing confusion.

Suddenly, behind him, as if coming from the something he had just shot, "Prove it", in that deep, disembodied voice.

He turns again, brows furrowed in confusion, though he doesn't have the time to question it; the creature is still standing, still bleeding, more than it possibly should have been able to. The pool of blood around it is growing quickly, steadily, seeming to reach for him with liquid fingers, sharp as talons.

The figure itself, the monster, changes meanwhile, changes into her, who had been killed, murdered, for bearing his name so long ago already, blood gushing still from the deep cut clean across her throat. She opens her mouth, attempting to speak through the gurgling sound it makes; he doesn't let her, pulling the trigger once, then a second time, just to be sure.

He steps back when she doesn't fall, cringing at the faint sound of his boot stepping into something wet. He glances down, just for a second, at the growing sea of red that has swallowed the ground below, with more and more of it coming from her anyway.

Though, when he looks back up, she is not herself anymore, she has become a much taller woman with golden hair and cold eyes. When she takes a step in his direction, he pulls the trigger again, giving himself no time to stare at the blood red flower blooming from her chest - an awfully familiar sight.

Another step back, his feet move slower now, held back by the ever-growing amount of liquid that reaches up to his ankles. With the blink of an eye, it's higher yet again, high enough to pour into his boots, seeming to lock him in place with the extra weight. He hates the feeling, he hates it, hates it so much, he wants to scream.

But he can't.

He can't.

Grey eyes stare at him, a child's face, blood dripping from her blue lips. She reaches out, a plea for help, one he can't answer. Not this time.

Why not..?

He whispers a soft "I'm sorry", thanking whatever God there may be for returning his voice after all. Gunshot number five leaves an awful ringing in his ears.

More blood. He doesn't know how there can be so much by now, where it even comes from, but everything in him is screaming to run finally. Yet, the ghost of Mikhail's fingers lingers on his wrist.

They should be scared.

They should be.

He's a monster too, after all.

But why do these words sting so much-?

Another step back, then he freezes.

He doesn't know why this one hurts so much, their oddly fragile-looking frame drenched in sweat, auburn hair sticking to their face, eyes dull from fever - but he hesitates, stepping back and back and back until his shoulders hit a wall he wasn't even aware of before. They follow suit, paying little mind to the still-raised weapon, to the slight trembling of his once so calm hands.

"You're not my mistake", he mumbles slowly, his voice barely above a whisper, then, a bit louder, "You're not my fucking mistake."

Finger back on the trigger, he stares a moment longer, at this awfully familiar figure barely a meter or two away. His eyes are closed before the bullet leaves the barrel, a desperate attempt at self-preservation.

The effort doesn't last; it never does.

Sticky fingers, or what remains of them, grab his throat, not yet tight enough to cause real damage, but an unspoken threat no matter what. The sickly sweet smell of burned flesh threatens to drown him then and there, wrapping itself tightly around every fiber of his being, claws digging into his flesh and the fabric of his clothes.

The thing leans closer, even without opening his eyes, he can feel its cold breath on his skin, even without opening his eyes, he knows of the death-blinded sapphires staring into his very soul.

A voice disrupts the increasingly loud heartbeat echoing in his ears, one hissing of death and ashes;

"Your sins will catch up to you sooner or later. Don't you see?"

Then, he is pulled under, burning red filling his lungs as he tries, again, to scream.

It doesn't work.

Why won't it work?

Why won't it stop-?

Make it stop.

Please-

The first thing you feel when you regain control of your body is a boney hand tightly gripping your wrists, holding them together somewhere away from you; for a moment, it feels like the dream is not yet over, as if this terrible thing is still trying to drown you. Then, you're pulled close against a thin fabric, a warm chest underneath, and your desperate struggle for air slows a little as you notice a vague, rhythmic tap against your skin, one drawing your attention away from the suffocating panic.

Okay.

It's okay.

You know this game, you know it well, just count, just count and try to breathe along-

It takes a while until you finally manage to open your eyes and even after you do, your sight is blurred by burning tears, another thing that won't fucking stop, no matter how much you want it to.

Just now, as your sight slowly clears, you realize that you're sitting up - more or less, at least, half-collapsed still against the other person's chest. You don't have the energy to complain. You can feel his heart beating, vaguely, hidden away, but so clearly, undeniably alive that you almost want to start crying again.

He pulls his hand from yours after a while, allowing you a glimpse at the bit of red underneath your nails. You know it's yours, this time at least, and it makes it a little better; it's a certain kind of relief that tastes sweet in just the same manner a hauntingly deep voice still speaks in your mind some days does. Sweet as poison.

Another shaky breath.

He runs his fingers through your hair with a gentleness that numbs the burning of your throat and the aching of your fingers still cramping slightly from the previous lack of oxygen. You lean into him almost by reflex, it's a second nature to you at this point. He doesn't comment or laugh, he just keeps taking slow, steady breaths, and you keep listening, feeling the rise of his chest, the beating of his heart.

Alive.

He's alive.

He's so painfully alive, right there, right next to you, you somehow wish time would stop for you just this once, grant you a minute, an hour, a day longer, to stay right there and do nothing at all.

Didn't you deserve that, too, after everything?

A moment to relax, a moment to breathe, to forget, to live?..

#a story told #vivamus; moriendum est.#comfort in the chaos #tw nightmare #tw manipulation #tw repetition #tw unreality #tw death #tw gun violence #tw injury #tw drowning #tw panic attack #tw implied self harm #[Figures in order: O5-8-B ‘Green’; Seven; London; Experimenter (GS011); Two]#[throwback to Alexander's wrist thing! ;>]

3 notes · View notes

positivelybeastly · 5 months

Note

Do you think you can explain in explicit detail why Percy's version of beast doesn't work?

All right, so, hopefully you can forgive me for taking a bit of time to come to this ask, because it's quite the subject matter, and it's one I take very seriously. I want you to have a good answer or no answer at all.

In order to explain why Percy's Beast doesn't work, we first need to establish a continuity for Beast, and why and how he works.

Which is why it's a good thing I have a 14 page Google Doc that goes into detail about all of this, which I'm going to drag and drop here:

Beast in the Krakoan era is a fascist mutant supremacist, who believes that the ends justify the means; he's cold-hearted, cruel, endlessly self-justifying, unfunny, shortsighted, and overall, a bastard. He is without nuance - and it's not just me saying that, that's both the writer and the characters saying that. He has, apparently, always been evil, and all it took was power for his true self to come out.

This does not jive with any of his characterisation prior to this point. Don't believe me? Let's deep dive.

Hank McCoy was born in Dunfee, Illinois to two very normal human parents. His mutation was apparent from the moment he was born, due to his father taking an enormous dose of radiation after an accident at the nuclear power plant he worked at, and while it would occasionally raise an eyebrow, he was able to hide what he was for the first 15-17 years of his life (Marvel ages are vague, but Hank is usually portrayed as the oldest of the O5, so we'll just say he was 17). He was recruited for the X-Men by Charles Xavier after his parents were taken hostage by a Z-list supervillain called the Conquistador, who wanted Hank to steal components from his father's place of work.

I should note that already, pre-X-Men, Hank did not believe in giving obvious supervillains nuclear power plant components, and gave the Conquistador a box full of flashbangs that disoriented him and his goons before defeating them in a fight. He did the right thing, at potential great personal cost to him and his parents, whom he loves very much.

Xavier then proceeded to step in, and, depending on the continuity, wiped the minds of everyone Hank had ever loved of the memory of him, so as to keep him 'safe,' or wiped the mind of Hank's first love, a girl called Jennifer Nyles, who is consistently depicted as being the woman who encouraged Hank to step out of his shell and do something with his obvious natural physical and intellectual gifts. Either way, this quite irritated Hank, and mere hours after he had put on his X-Men uniform, he was already about to fight the Professor over an egregious breach of mental privacy and security. But because he believed in what the Professor espoused, he let it slide.

It's worth noting that this mindwipe was seemingly undone later, because there are comics released both before and after Mike Carey's Origins issue that depict Hank having a deeply loving relationship with his parents. This will be important for later.

Now, a lot of people love to point to Uncanny X-Men #8 as the first evidence that Hank has always been a supervillain in disguise, and while I think it's a little egregious to point to any issue of any 60s comic book and say that anyone acts in a way that is sensible, moral, or decent, it's worth noting that the act in question, dialling up Unus the Untouchable's powers to a point where he can't control them, is in direct response to Unus attempting to defeat/kill the rest of the X-Men, or at the very least, hand them over to Magneto (who, let's not forget, in the 60s was a homicidal maniac happy to nuke entire countries). Is the response of threatening Unus with a slow death by starvation disproportionate? Yeah, it is.

Scott and the rest of the X-Men seem completely fine with it.

So, now you have to ask yourself - do we accept the morality of the time, and assume that Hank was basically justified to do what he did, to save his team and stop a dangerous mutant, or do we judge him for acting like a supervillain would, and thus everyone else on the team is fine with it? Iunno. That's a personal judgement. It's 60s X-Men, it's shit. I basically hardly regard it as canon, and given that any time anyone comes on to the Reddit board looking to start X-Men gets waved away from starting there, it clearly isn't regarded as very well written, is it? Maybe we regard it as a point for him to grow past? After all the very next issue, Cyclops starts a fight with the Avengers over jack fuck nothing, just because Professor Xavier told him to, and he clearly outgrew that.

All right, so let's speed forward a little bit. Hank's been an X-Man for around 3 years when he gets a job with the Brand Corporation, a scientific research company in Long Island. People love to bring up the fact that it's a subsidiary of Roxxon, who are notoriously evil, or that it has its own nefarious plans going on, but we don't judge people who work at Cat Chow for the fact that Nestle is fucking evil, do we? Hank didn't know. He was a 20 year old scientist with budding aspirations of helping the world in ways he couldn't with the X-Men. So, what was he researching?

Now, this is where we get into a bit of a sticky wicket, because this has been retconned to hell, but in the original version of events, set in the early 1970s, Hank is working as a scientist at Brand when he finds out that the Secret Empire want to steal his research into genetic mutation. Understandable thing for him to want to research, given his father's accident and his own obvious mutation, and an understandable thing for the Empire to want to steal, especially given what his research had resulted in.

In the process of Hank's research, he manages to isolate the chemical/hormonal extract that causes mutation - naturally occurring, it's also the basis for MGH, or Mutant Growth Hormone, which later becomes used by humans all around the world to obtain temporary mutant powers. But this can't be attributed to Hank, especially since he goes to great efforts to destroy all of his research, rather than let it fall into the hands of spies.

Now, this is the point that everyone likes to point to as the moment that Hank reveals his true colours, as a true mad scientist, a Jekyll hiding a Hyde - except that even just hours after his mutation, even in the midst of a rage at his own stupidity, Hank attacks Professor Maddicks, one of the Empire spies, and tries to kill him. He has him dead to rights, he's strangling him, it would be easy.

He stops. He can't bring himself to do it.

It's worth noting that Hank already starts to show signs of a marked personality change here. Gone is the long winded, stuffy, Superman curled Beast of the 60s - now we have the grey furred Beast of the 70s, soon to turn blue due to the limitations of comic book printing. He cuts himself off from the X-Men, starts to fall into depressive slumps and fits of mania, which is a personality pattern he falls into regularly, leading to a lot of people, including myself and Grant Morrison, to consider Hank bipolar. Obviously, here, it's exacerbated by his mutation and his extreme circumstances, but it's something he comes back to, again and again. It also explains why he decides to attack Iron Man, also investigating Brand, and nearly kills him.

It's also worth noting that this is the first appearance of the Beast - not just Hank's codename, his mutation has now given him an animal bloodlust that he struggles to keep control of, not unlike Wolverine. This is something to keep in mind because it helps frame Hank's self-hatred, which is often brought up but not really examined as a character trait, and especially later on, it becomes clear that Hank hates himself for a good number of reasons.

For one, he makes dumb, impulsive decisions, usually with the best of intentions, and he chews himself out for one he made already, turning himself into a furry monster. For another, he hates the part of himself that wants to hurt people. To call forward many, many years into the future, Hank doesn't believe in the law of the jungle. He believes in art, and literature, and music. He believes in humanity. He desperately wants to maintain his own, and he hates his mutation because it literally makes him less human every time, it makes his impulses harder to control, it makes him dangerous - and oh, it does make him dangerous.

And here's the thing. Beast nearly kills Iron Man (or at least, he thinks he has, Mastermind is in play), and the moment he realises what he's done, he screams in anguish and runs away, hating himself. "Humans can't catch me there." He believes himself to be less than human - not because he's a mutant, but because he regressed to animal behaviour and thinks he's killed someone. What a monster, right? What a villain!

"During that fight, I saw his face up close - and got a hint of what's behind it. I saw a soul in torment - and I can't play God with that."

All right, so now we have to take a sideways trip, and go to X-Men Unlimited vol 2 #10, which depicts Hank going home to his parents right after he turned grey. It's honestly a kind of hard read, because if the Beast's rampage was his mania ramped up to eleven, this is his depression ramped up to twelve. He staggers through the streets like a ghost, unwilling to let anyone see what he looks like. "I could have been someone, Jennifer. A lonely high school kid with big, big fears and big, big dreams, I could have done something really wonderful. I could have become anyone, done almost anything. But now, Jennifer, now just look at me."

The story is called Ghost in the Graveyard, and it's aptly named because this is the moment Hank grows into who he's truly meant to be. His ego, which drove him to consume his research and nearly kill, is dead. He believes he is worthless, he believes he's fit only to flit between the waking moments of the living when they aren't looking. "What would you think of me if I was to tell you how terrified I am of everything right now, Jennifer?"

He saves his hometown, incidentally. Even while sleeping for days, depressed, barely eating, he still has enough curious spirit and intelligence to work out that the radiation coming from the bodies of people who worked in the same plant as his father has contaminated the water table, the soil, even the townsfolk. Jennifer tells him they should go to the newspapers, and he tells her he can't. He can't bear to. He can't bear to be seen. He reveals his appearance to her, and she tries to kiss him softly on the forehead, but he still can't bear it. He runs.

"Perhaps, then, a ghost is nothing more than a memory. A memory of who we once were, before we become what we must."

And this is the moment that Hank McCoy decides to run back to New York and join the Avengers.

Out of a moment of sheer despair, out of a moment of shame and guilt, out of a moment of self-hatred so deep he can barely get out of bed, he grasps onto hope, and the desire to do good, and he does it. He goes to New York, and he decides he's going to be a good man. And he is. He's a very good man.

He saves the Avengers from the Stranger at his team tryout. He becomes a master of disguise so adept he passes himself off as the President of the United States and gives a speech that makes the Squadron Supreme question their own spurious morality. He saves Henry Pym's life from a super-microbe. He's almost singlehandedly the reason that Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat, a storied superhero in her own right. He's the one who reaches out to Simon Williams, Wonder Man, former villain, and becomes his best friend in the whole world. He becomes the third mutant Avenger (technically first, depending on Wanda and Pietro's current genetic status), and the first X-Man to cross over. He becomes one of the most popular, celebrated, and beloved mutants on the planet.

Yet, he still cares enough for his friends that the moment the X-Men need him, even though they don't think to call him, he puts it all at risk. He catches the Hellfire Club's police call during the middle of the Dark Phoenix Saga, wipes the tapes, and abandons his post as a prestigious Avenger, a position Cyclops says he loves . . . to be with his original team. He's integral to them standing a chance against her, fashioning the diadem that immobilises Jean and gives Cyclops and Xavier the chance to shut away the Dark Phoenix for a short time - enough that Jean, or the Phoenix, or whatever is walking around in that story, can put together a plan to deal with herself.

He gets zapped to an alien spaceship, and the first damn thing he does is make a Wizard of Oz joke, then he calls Lilandra out for lack of due process.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Hank becomes one of the most popular heroes in-universe, instantly recognisable and on first name terms with almost every hero. He goes through his hardships. His own mother struggles with his mutation, calling him a freak in a moment of despair, only to realise that no matter what he looks like, he's still her boy - still the man who throws himself in the direct path of Professor Power's attack to save a child.

One of my favourites is Avengers 209. Hank's girlfriend is poisoned by a Skrull, and he's forced to go back in time and fetch the two halves of the Resurrection Stone back to save her. One of the pieces is in the hands of a concentration camp prisoner in 1945, who keeps using it to try and hold on to his dead family, and Hank breaks down into sobbing tears as he begs in Yiddish for the man to please let go and be at peace. His heart breaks for a man he's never met because his pain is so mighty and so vast and it's so damned unfair.

But even when he has the Resurrection Stone in his hands, and he can use it to save Vera, he destroys it instead, rather than give it to the Skrull and risk the power being in any one man's hand. He puts his own wants and desires to the side, and hopes that another man smarter than him can save Vera, who's put in suspended animation and later saved by Daimon Hellstrom. Hank joins the Defenders at around this point, and goes through quite a bit, including quite the humbling as he realizes that he may be cock of the walk, but he's not yet a leader - or maybe never a leader.

One of the accusations I've seen aimed at Hank is that he resents Cyclops for being made leader of the X-Men, and I honestly don't see where this comes from, but it's not something I think has any truth to it. Hank almost actively avoids leadership where he can, because he knows he can't make hard decisions like who to leave behind, who to let die, who to hurt. Indeed, the one time we see him lead the X-Men, it's in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, where the strain of it causes him to break down and turn to Kick just to keep going. X-Club, a team of his creation, is barely in its infancy before he leaves, and it's pretty clear that Beast just . . . doesn't, care, about being a leader. He knows he's not good at it. He knows he can't inspire like Captain America. He knows he can't strategise like Cyclops. He knows that.

It's also at this point that Hank is called out in public for not doing enough for mutants, coasting on his celebrity and acting the clown - and he takes on the criticism. He becomes more politically active, forming an advocacy group. As we learn later on in Secret Avengers, he also becomes fast friends with a secret mutant politician by the name of Leonard Gary, and he's present at multiple meetings of Congress where Lenny blocks Senator Kelly's anti-mutant legislation. Way later on, he helps Lenny push through workers rights laws during Fear Itself, and makes sure that he can give a speech inspiring the nation at a time when they needed it most.

Now we move on to X-Factor, where Hank has his ups and downs, but it's significant that it starts with him being publicly discriminated against by no less than 15 universities for his visible mutation. His response? To call them a bunch of racists, strip off his clothes, and tell them to go hang. He doesn't descend into self-pity, he gets angry and embarrasses them the only way he knows how. But it's interesting, because Hank starts the series wanting to teach, and in a way, he gets to do precisely that. Enter young mutants Fire Fist, Boom Boom, Skids, Wiz Kid, Artie Maddicks, Leech, and Rictor.

Rictor is the kid that Hank becomes closest to. He teaches him to read, encourages him in learning how to use his powers, plays with him - when his intelligence is reduced by a quirk of mutation, he's still aware and good enough that he attacks someone scaring Julio. He fucks up a ton in this series, especially with Boom Boom, with him and Iceman being downright dicks to her, and there's no real excuse for it - but it's kind of important that Hank wants to learn to teach, and he has to learn. He's not immediately good at it. He softens. He gets better. In fact, in an alternate universe not dissimilar to 616, Forge remarks that no-one was quite as patient and as good a teacher as Hank.

Then we come to the 90s, where Hank is faced with his biggest challenge yet - the Legacy Virus - and his biggest moral failing yet - Threnody. Now, this is where I kinda have to call out the Cerebrocast, because there's this narrative that Hank is an Avenger narc who will sell mutants down the river at the drop of a hat, and I'm fairly certain it stems from the moment when Hank surrenders Threnody over to Sinister.

It's not a great look, tbh. I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't touch Sinister with a thirty foot barge pole. I certainly wouldn't leave a vulnerable woman with him. But Sinister is an excellent manipulator, and he plays Hank like a fiddle here. He points out that Hank won't cross certain moral and ethical boundaries. "Admitting it, and despising the choice are the first steps toward changing the indecision that has ruled Xavier's roost of late." Sinister is very canny about playing Hank's fear of inferiority, of not being good enough to save everyone, of not living up to his potential, against him. It's also worth noting that Rogue and Iceman don't seem to disagree with Hank's decision, and while I believe he's acting as field leader here, these are not people who would let something like an 'order' stop them from doing what they feel is right.

It kills Hank to do this. He feels dirty, unwashed, like a piece of shit on humanity's shoe, for doing this. He risks Infectia's - or rather, Josephine's - powers infecting all of them with the Legacy Virus she's dying of, because he needs to do something human, something good, something compassionate, or else all he's left with is the bad. "Henry McCoy holds her, tears flowing freely, not just for the loss of another life, but for what Infectia's death has meant to him. For in granting her last wish, Hank contradicted the scientist in himself for the sake of the man."

What a villain, right?

It's also worth noting that we see Threnody again, in X-Men #34. She's lucid, in control of her powers, vibrant. "Threnody, dear lass! I am both pleased, relieved, and - I must confess - a bit surprised to see you so lucid? No offence meant, of course." "And none taken, Dr. McCoy. When we first met, I was rather a headcase, wasn't it? I want you to know, Doctor, that going with Sinister was the best thing that could have happened to me."

Hmmmmm.

"I've thought about you and worried quite a bit over the decision we made to allow Sinister to take you with him. Seeing you here and doing so well, rather uplifts my spirits - but it beggars the question, why do you stay?" "Dr. McCoy. You're sweet. But isn't this a better life than the one I had?"

HMMMMMMMM.

"Thren, I'm concerned about you. You seem to be playing a very dangerous game here. I cannot in good conscience allow you to stay here and play in this danger zone any longer." "You have no choice, Hank. There's knowledge and glory [here] . . . and I want that, too."

HMMMMM???

All right, whatever, let's keep it moving, on to the point where Hank undergoes his most drastic change yet.

It's the year 2001. Hank is on the X-Treme X-Men team, and they're searching for Destiny's diaries foretelling the future. Putting himself in harm's way to try and save Psylocke's life, telling her to go on and leave him, he's forced to watch as Vargas kills her - and poses her on top of his own fatally wounded body for the rest of the team to find. Barely hanging on to life, he sits in a Spanish hospital room, until Sage decides to take matters into her own hands.

"But despite your appearance and the name they call you I will assume you are a man and not a beast . . . and that you have a soul - !"

"He has a soul, padre. Bright and shining as the stars."

She jumpstarts the next evolution of Hank McCoy, and he becomes feline. He loses a finger on each hand. His animal instincts explode into the forefront of his brain. His hormones are blazing. His brain is on fire. He's doing the best he can to cope, but it's - hard. Yet he still finds it within himself to be there for others first of all. He mentors Beak, serving as an example of a physical mutant who's made something of himself. He tries to counsel Scott and Jean through their ailing marriage. He reaches out to Emma, and they become fast friends. Meanwhile, Genosha burns, students are killed, and Cassandra Nova rips him to pieces and picks on those fears of devolution that have been skirting in the back of his mind for decades, bringing them right back to the front of his mind.

"Remember when you looked almost human in the mirror? Then it started. The fall from man to ape, from ape to feline. Poor ugly Henry McCoy. There's no place for you in ANY mutant future. You're a devolver! Zoo animal. Stumbling backwards down the tree of life."

This, coupled with Trish Tilby's decision to break up with him over allegations of bestiality from her coworkers, shatters his psyche, and he arguably never recovers until his body changes again in All-New X-Men. He covers up his body almost all of the time, he overdresses in human clothes and uniforms that are a stark contrast to his old X-shorts, he becomes more verbose, more mature, more bipolar, more depressed, more lonely. And yet, even through all of this, with the help of his friends, especially Jean Grey, he starts to recover. He starts to become more like his old self.

In Astonishing X-Men, he even starts to show a bit more skin and fur as time goes on and he gets further away from Cassandra Nova's attack. And then it gets worse. The mutant cure. "I used to have fingers, a mouth you could kiss." Cassandra Nova, living on in his friend Emma Frost's guilt, attacks him again, and pushes him further, causing him to feast on human flesh and nearly kill students. Pushing him further down the tree of life. And not only that, but he has to come face to face with the ghost of one of his greatest failures, that should have been his greatest success.

Roll it back to 2001. Just before the whole X-Treme X-Men thing, Hank manages to piece together a Legacy Virus cure, using fragments of his own research and Moira MacTaggert's - but he immediately regards it as a failure, not because it doesn't work, but because it would require a mutant to metabolise it and kill themselves in order for it to be released into the atmosphere. Hank regards the cost of one life to be too high, and locks the cure away - but not securely enough that Colossus can't get at it and use it anyway.

Colossus dies because of Hank, and it kills him inside. When he matches the mutant cure sample to Piotr's DNA sample, it mortifies him. It shames him. It deadens him. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Even while Scott and Emma are faffing around with relationship problems, Hank is quietly wallowing because this is his fault. He killed Piotr.

Well, he didn't. But he might as well have, right? He put the 'gun' in his hand.

But then we get to Abigail Brand, and man is this dynamic just Hank as hell. She's a government fist in green haired body suited form that doesn't care about your feelings, he's a blue furred idealist who constantly blames himself for everything and can do nothing but feel. They connect. Not because they're both awful people . . . but because they see in each other something that they like. For Hank, it's something base - she finds him sexually attractive, not in spite of but because of his mutation, and honestly, at this point? Being fetishised sounds kind of nice to Hank. For her?

She wants someone to keep her honest. Someone who will question her decisions. Someone who does nothing but question her decisions, in fact, because she fucked up, and she needs someone to call her out on her bullshit. Hm. Almost sounds like there's a human being behind those green shades.

More on this later.

Because we've started to reach the point where I'm told Hank's descent into villainy has started, and quite frankly, I'm not seeing it. He got sadder? He got more lonely (yes, the cat story happened, it's tragic and embarrassing, move on)? But villainous? "I always saw him as vulnerable," said Grant Morrison. "The thing about Hank McCoy is that he was always presented as the loquacious, happy-go-lucky character and then he became a little darker when [he turned into] the furry Beast, but then he became happy again in Avengers. Basically, I'm looking at this bipolar kid. It's not so much that he's a villain; he just falls into bad situations and that makes him more human."

If people mean Here Comes Tomorrow, then I invite you to read that story again and remember that Hank is only really present in maybe eight panels of that story. The rest of the time it's Sublime piloting his body, and Hank has nothing to do with it. You might as well blame anyone ever possessed by Malice for what they did while under her influence.

But anyway.

The Decimation.

What a time for mutant kind. 198 mutants left, and falling. And everyone is looking to Hank McCoy for answers. He'll do almost anything to get them . . . right? In comes Endangered Species by Mike Carey, wherein Hank scours the corners of the Earth and gets his hands dirty trying to find a way to kickstart the mutant race again. He consorts with villains, he exhumed corpses, he nearly kills a drug dealer who wants fresh MGH from him and Bishop's bodies. He's on very thin ice, and in danger of cracking. He is, quite literally, facing his darkest impulses.

Enter Dark Beast.

Now, Dark Beast has been a thing since the mid-90s, and honestly, I kind of love the guy because he's so incredibly and over the top evil - but I also kind of hate him because his very existence seems to make people think that Hank always had evil inside of him, that he was just born that way. How very Graydon Creed, to believe that evil is something people are born to be rather than something that people do or become. The truth is that Dark Beast was born into a world completely different from Hank's, and while we don't know the exact divergence point for him, X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #10 provides us with some clues - namely, that he never knew his parents.

Hank's incredibly loving, incredibly guilty, incredibly proud parents.

The parents that Dark Beast, violent psychopath, mutant supremacist, literal killer of children and Age of Apocalypse's own Dr. Mengele . . . couldn't bring himself to kill, because they loved Hank McCoy so much, and on some level, Dark Beast recognised that. Felt afraid of it. Felt weakened by it. Felt infuriated by it. Had to kill a random passerby just to feel more like himself. Because they were just so damned good, and maybe if he'd had parents like that, maybe?

It's also worth noting that Dark Beast, both here in the 90s, and later in Endangered Species (2008), points out that Hank isn't him. "I told you when we started on this that we'd have to think the unthinkable, Henry. I knew you'd let me down. But I didn't think you'd reach your limits this quickly. [...] You're fighting for the future of your species. Did that slip your mind? It's the only fight that matters, Henry. It's the war in which nature enlists every last one of us. And you're a deserter."

Hmmm.

Where have I heard that before.

So, Hank gives up. He stops searching for a cure, because one doesn't exist - or if it does, it requires a moral sacrifice that he isn't capable of. He disappoints mutant kind, and it won't be the last time. He fails to find answers in 1906 San Francisco, he fails to keep the faith at Utopia, he fails to stop things from escalating at a demonstration and ends up captured by Osborn - and Dark Beast. What a pathetic sack of crap, right? How dare he fail. He should be more like Cyclops.

"We make the choice for ourselves. And we have to live with the consequences afterwards."

"I'll live with it."

"I said we. I need to live with it."

Hmm.

"Sometimes in war you have to do things that you hate. Things you can't even bear to think about. This is one of those times. [...] I'm not making that choice for any of you. If you have any doubts about what we're about to do, stand out of the line. No one will blame you or question you. Ever."

Hmmmmm.

"All's well that ends well, Scott?"

"Looks that way from here. Why? Something on your mind?"

"Something, yes. The fact that you decided to use the Legacy Virus before you asked me if I had a working antidote."

"Your conscience is one of the things I value about you, Hank. Really. Never stop challenging me on that."

HMMMMMMMM.

#CyclopsWasRight?

But whatever, let's keep moving on. Utopia's X-Force happens. It's bloody. It's messy. It's grim. Hank doesn't approve. Scott tries to keep him on side, but it's not easy. Eventually, it reaches a boiling point. Hank decides he can't stay anymore, because he's not effective in his current capacity. Scott doesn't need him anymore, he needs more guns and soldiers and mutants, and Hank can't make those anymore. He deserts. What a piece of shit, caring about morals at a time like this. What a traitor. Oh, it's also worth noting that before he died, Kurt found out about X-Force, and was on the verge of quitting the X-Men, just like Hank. Just a sidenote, by the way.

Now, I believe in fairness, and I don't believe in whitewashing Hank's actions, especially when he wouldn't want me to, so it's only fair to bring up the Ghost Box laser strike and the Secret Avenger nuclear bomb that Hank constructs. Clear examples of the slow erosion of his moral fibre on his way to becoming a villain.

Or he feels massively guilty, sickened, and disgusted about what he had to do, while both times, the leader that he tries his best to believe in and follow tells him not to lose sleep over it. Except, Hank does. Because that is the kind of character Hank is.

Hank McCoy is a "superheroic overcompensating altruist [...] perfectly nice people who think the universe is full of perfectly nice people." Hank McCoy is Scott Summers' "biggest brain and [his] oldest friend. Moment comes you have to take action, I'll never question it." Hank McCoy is "the most hard working, brilliant and heroic [person] I know." Hank McCoy is "a name well known in the great game of worlds. Others yous have done this before [...] simply evacuate this world, and then destroy it completely," rather than risk the destruction of two. Hank McCoy is "no killer [...] and no force, however great, could make you kill."

Hank is the man who reaches out to villains, and tries to help them. He did it with Wonder Man. He did it with Emma Frost. He did it with Infectia. Hank is the bleeding, dying heart of the X-Men. He believes in second chances. He believes in art, and literature, and music.

He doesn't believe in the law of the jungle.

I'd also like to point out, that even though he was called a traitor, and met with a frosty reception by the other X-Men when he asked for their help, he still came when they called for medical aid. He still held out hope that he and Scott would reconcile. He was one of the few people to look at the Phoenix Five and remember who they were before they got power, and believe that they could possibly control it. Even after Scott kills the Professor, even though Hank is furious with Scott, even though Scott literally says, "I've done abominable things. I don't ask for forgiveness. I don't deserve it. [...] But I'd do it all again"?

I guess you could read this a few different ways. Is Hank just pushing Scott out forcefully? Is he gentle? Is he squeezing his shoulder in a moment of what could almost be comfort? I don't know. I kinda think it's the latter. I think the best of Hank where I can.

"Thank god, Hank. You're alive. I was lost. I thought I killed y - "

Hank is still a man that Scott Summers wants to be alive, because Hank is good. Yeah, he can be FUCKING ANNOYING, and he can be hypocritical, and he can be an asshole, and he can be flawed, and he can be a nuisance, and he can be insufferable, but he is good.

Enter Brian Michael Bendis.

This is the point where Hank's character wrecks and arguably never recovers, to be honest. It's not just the small details. It's not just stupid things, like 17 year old Hank apparently being a medical doctor, or modern day super genius ultra mechanic Hank being incapable of putting a motorcycle back together for the sake of a joke. It's not even the egregious things, like Uncanny X-Men #600 and All-New X-Men #25 being a double header of literally everyone in the universe kicking Beast in the shins because Bendis wanted to write teenage Jean Grey as just the worst. It's just a fundamental misunderstanding of the character.

"Somewhere along the way you convinced yourself that your brilliance allows you the right to do whatever you want whenever you want to do it."

I'm sorry, fucking what?

If you're this far deep in this thesis - and it is a thesis, and I don't apologize for that - do you think this is the same character? This man who is obsessed with consequences, obsessed with guilt, obsessed with being perfect, obsessed with controlling himself, obsessed with morality . . . is convinced that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it? He learned this lesson 40 years ago! Beast is not like this!

Now, Bendis' Beast might be like this. But I have to ask you, reader, who presumably frequents comic book boards, or Reddit, or Tumblr tags, or Twitter . . . is Bendis the guy you go to for thoughtful, evocative, well considered characterisation? Is he on the level of Mark Waid, or Al Ewing, or Jonathan Hickman, or Grant Morrison, or Louise Simonson, or Marjorie Liu, or Rainbow Rowell, or Kelly Sue DeConnick? Is he known for respecting what came before and creating a throughline of character and continuity?

No, he fuckin' aint.

He's known for Bendis-speak. He's known for ignoring continuity. He's known for big shake-ups of established status quos that often leave characters in the doghouse for decades. Yeah, he can write some good comics, but I just - why is this man's characterisation of Beast considered the definitive one? Is the voice that shouts the loudest really the most articulate? Go ask a fan of the Scarlet Witch, or X-23, or Jon Kent, or GOTG fans about his entire run on that comic.

Beast wrecks here, and he never recovers. He loses his entire character development track about his mutation because it got changed. He loses his entire dynamic with Abigail. Everything good about 00s Beast is just gone, and there's nothing left to replace it but failure. Not really. Every now and then, someone tried to steer him back on the right path, get back to a more thoughtful, less dipshit Hank McCoy. A+X #12 by Christos Gage, and Uncanny Avengers by Jim Zub, both try the same trick, 4 years apart, having Hank reunite with his best friend Simon Williams and drink, and reflect on what's happened.

Each time, there's another crossover event that Hank has to answer for, because now Beast is the designated load. It happened in All-New X-Men, it happened in Black Vortex, it happened in IvX. It was just easy. He was never a guy with a massive fanbase, and all the casual fans filtered away as domino after domino falls. Every time, HOW DID I BECOME THIS?

Iunno. No-one seems to give enough of a fuck to answer the question. The real answer is that the writers need plot to happen, and, well.

Who cares if Beast is ruined? Well, I think Matthew Rosenberg cared a fair bit. I think Max Bemis cared quite a lot. I care, probably too much.

There are tons of little fun appearances here and there, mostly scattered across other books, that are more reminiscent of the Hank that used to be. Mariko Tamaki, in her last X-23 run, used him really nicely, having him take pictures of Laura and Gabby bonding, helping Laura run down immoral scientists (HA!), being a big man with a bigger bow tie. Being "the nerd I trust, so I like having him around," says Laura.

Hmm.

Well.

I have two points left to make. One? It is a stone cold, actual fact that we go from warm, intelligent, thoughtful, loved Beast, to Percy's narcissistic, cold, and genocidal war criminal in the space of maybe ten issues. The change was not gradual, it was abrupt. Read almost any comic prior to Krakoa featuring Beast in it, and he does not sound or act the same. Read the dialogue for X-Force #1 through 9, and tell me you can really tell that that's Beast.

Tell me that's the Hank McCoy that loves his human parents.

There's a reason everyone was speculating for the longest time that it was Dark Beast, or something else was afoot, because he sounds wrong. There's no jokes, no warmth, no charm, no energy. He's a slow, lifeless cadaver of a character, plodding along his course to become a Bond villain.

Two? There was a story to be told here. Hank has definitely toed the line a good few times before. Crossed it less times, but he did. Each time, it cost him. Each time, it hurt him. Each time, it left a scar upon his soul. Each time, maybe it got a little easier, but I don't genuinely think that's the case. I think that Hank McCoy is the kind of guy for whom it never gets easier to hurt people. The building blocks were there for a story where that man has to keep doing it, again and again, cutting away pieces of himself, because it's what Krakoa needs.

But that story would require sympathy, and I don't think that Ben Percy, "People who think that Beast is loveable have only read a small selection of comics," really has any sympathy for Beast. I think he finds him annoying. I think he finds him contemptible, and up himself. I think that Ben Percy believes that Beast is cold-hearted, cruel, endlessly self-justifying, unfunny, shortsighted, and overall, a bastard. I don't believe that was ever the case.

It makes me sad that the fandom believes that was ever the case.

His character was assassinated. It was assassinated back in 2013, and it's been being assassinated every month since 2019. The version of Beast that existed from 1981 to 2012 will be gone, dead - literally killed - when the classic version of him comes back at the end of X-Force. I liked the 1981-2012 version a lot. The version from 2012 to 2018, I liked a lot less. The version from 2019 onwards?

Don't go off vibes. Read the panels. Tell me what you think. Is that the same character?

Now we come to the end of my thesis. I feel like I've covered most of the main points here, but TL;DR?

Ben Percy's Beast doesn't work as a continuation of Hank's character, because his version of the character is an idiot. He is cruel, unfunny, lacking in any humanity, inherently evil, moustache twirling, disrespectful. He is without nuance. He is Mister Sinister in a blue fur coat without any of the camp.

The fact that people will go on Twitter or Reddit and say that they prefer this Beast over the old one makes me want to fucking spit because fuck you. Fuck you that you think that this travesty, this half-formed mish mash of Bond villain tropes and fat shaming stereotypes, is in any way better than what we had. Grow up. Read better comics. I hope to god you mature, because fuck, man.

Ben Percy's Beast doesn't work as a villain, either, because he's simultaneously incompetent, and yet constantly given karma houdinis that have no basis in his ability, only in the plot. Any semblance of grounding in the idea of 'necessary evils' is so fucking amateurish and put to paper with no real belief in it. Percy just thinks Beast is an asshole, it's as simple as that.

And you know what makes me feel vindicated? You know what makes me laugh?

Marvel really don't give a fuck about this version of Beast. They really just do not care and I get the distinct impression people can't wait for it to roll back. Don't believe me?

How come Nightcrawler is apparently gossiping with Hank in issues of She-Hulk that take place in the Krakoan era?

How come Hank is still appearing in Avengers and X-Men variant covers as his traditional, heroic self?

How come Marvel Age #1000, a self-styled "CELEBRATION OF THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS," had an X-Men story that was about the O5 - and yet, really, it was about Jean and Scott falling in love, with Hank on the sidelines, gently nudging Jean in the right direction?

How come no-one appears to give a fuck that Beast, one of the pillars of the superhero community, killed a small country?

In-universe, there is no explanation. This is 'Blade begging Captain America and the Avengers to help kill all the vampires' level of disconnect. It makes everyone involved look like a goddamn psychopath.

Out of universe, it's because no-one is interested in this story. If writers other than Ben Percy wanted a villainous Hank McCoy, they would just use Dark Beast, because he's substantially more entertaining and charismatic and enjoyable as a villain than Percy's edgelord Beast.

Ben Percy is 44 years old, allegedly. I wouldn't know that, judging by the level of maturity with which he handles his villains. If he intended to write a mutant Henry Kissinger, then he failed, because Kissinger was pure evil, but he also, you know, made sense.

Percy's Beast is trash.

I write him on this blog with substantially more care and thought put into his character than Ben Percy ever could. Because even though I'm not the one getting paid to do so, I'm the one putting in the work to make it make emotional sense. There's a story there. There's a compelling character there. If only Ben would have put the fucking work in.

Thank you for your question. :)

39 notes · View notes

loolingz · 1 year

Note

Hi, hi 👋 👋 I am not really sure if you are taking requests at the moment , if you don't that is totally fine. For the last week I have been reading your works and they had me hanging by a thread, I have read them several times now cause they are that good. That being said can I requests sae-nii with a little stepsister that has a petite body(small boobs/butt) that has seen her big bro being surrounded by mature women, and him not making a move to push them off, so that makes her so insecure : ( , so she starts to distance herself and hide her body from him because she thinks she is not attractive anymore. So after a week of sae confronting her and she just giving him the silent treatment, he corners her while she was changing and she just breaks down and tells him about her insecurity. Sae can not believe what kind bs his little stepsis is thinking so he throws her on her bed and starts eating her out while telling her he is not gonna stop till he hears her saying she is a pretty girl. The stepsis is stubborn and on low confidence so he ends up overstimulating her till she begins shaking and crying and is trying everything to take him off her while still refusing to admit she is beautiful. Suddenly she turns and tries(keyword :tries) to crawl away but Sae is quick to pin? her hips and continue. Poor stepsis can not hold on any longer and sae does not shows any signs of stopping so she caves in and chants that she is the most pretty girl and finally sae stops and tells her she will be punished more if she will ever think that again. I hope it made sense ? It is totally fine if you do not want to do it though : ). Do not forget to take breaks and have a great night or day !

hihi! 1) i really loved this ask oh my god, it’s absolutely stunning and 2) requests are always open unless stated otherwise so tysm for that! i really hope you enjoy this & have a great day! <33

it truly did hurt. you felt terrible watching your nii-san with such developed women, whenever one of them clung to him, flirting and pushing their breasts against him. of course, he didn't notice - such matters were insignificant to him, so you didn't dare to tell him how you felt. it was intimidating to open yourself up in front of so many people who admired you and your stepbrother.

all it took for you to snap out of your thoughts was to hear sae call out your name, lightly rubbing circles on your shoulders. you quickly looked up, plastering on a smile. “sorry? i wasn't focusing, my mind was.. elsewhere.” you drifted once more to your train of thoughts, barely registering his words.

you could tell he mentioned going to the second party of the night, but you quickly informed him that you were exhausted. that was a lie, but he didn't know that. he gave you a nod before excusing himself and escorting you to his car. “is everything okay? you appear to be out of it.” he spoke quietly, but loudly enough for only you to hear.

“just fatigued, like I said. i'm sorry you had to end your night early; we had more parties to attend.” you sighed apologetically, your gaze fixed on your lap. pulling on the edge of your dress, you felt even more miserable than before. he bought it for you while he was abroad, the dress. you could feel his cold gaze on you, but he said nothing. to be honest, you preferred the pleasant silence of the ride home. it was preferable than talking when you were upset.

( O1 , O2 )

( O3 , O4 )

( O5 , O6 )

( 8:OO PM )

six days. that's the amount of time that has passed since the party incident, if you can even call it that. that's also how long you've been avoiding your stepbrother, sae itoshi. sure, it was stupid. but you didn't want to bother him and bring him down when he could be having the time of his life. he approached you more than usual, so you could tell he noticed.

even though you tried to avoid him, he managed to corner and chase you down like an animal.

“how long were you planning to avoid me for?” sae snarled quietly, his patience eroding from annoyance. “why the fuck are you avoiding me?” he continued asking questions, hovering over you. his gaze dug into you, his arms by your sides. “i've been trying to be a nice brother and check in on you, but it's been difficult because you keep hiding from me.”

“i wasn't trying to avoid you! i've just gotten busy!” you almost immediately responded, a shaky laugh exiting your lips. “why would i want to avoid you?” you played with the edge of your shirt, hardly able to squeak out your words.

“that's what i'm curious about.” he snarled. his arms now crossed over his chest. “you don't appear to be too busy for rin, but you are for me?” every word he spoke sent goosebumps up your spine and caused nervousness to rise within you.

“i don't know what you're talking about, nii-san,” you blurted out before pushing past him, a smile on your face. “but I really need to get going now, bye!” little pants were snatched from you as you ran to your room. you hadn't run far, but you were terrified. i was afraid he'd find out that you were envious of the women he hung around with. how you felt insignificant in comparison to the company he kept. hearing him shout your name and walk to your room was your cue to lock the door and bite your lower lip anxiously.

sae knocked twice on your door, and when all he received was silence, he sighed and walked away. as you fell onto your bed, the sound of his footsteps disappearing made you feel better. you sat in silence with your head buried in your pillow, the only sound bothering you being the buzzing of your phone.

“hello?” you reluctantly answered the phone before instantly regaining your composure when you heard your mother's voice. she mentioned taking you and your stepbrothers out to dinner to celebrate her nth anniversary with their father. you accepted her request without paying attention to what she truly wanted, thinking only of your previous encounter with sae.

“yes, sure, sure.” you waved to no one in particular before hanging up and unlocking your door. you often got thirsty from conversing when you didn't want to, so you strolled to the kitchen for some water. rin caught your eye from the opposite side of the room, and you smiled. “oh, rin, hurry up and get ready. mom invited us to dinner with her and your father. remember to tell sae!” you called out as you walked back to your room after your drink, running your fingers through your hair. it wasn't too messy, so you could easily style it. you shut your bedroom door and turned around, letting out a small yelp when you noticed sae in your room.

“sae! what are you doing here?” you asked, hands behind your back. he only stared back, his arms crossed. when you didn't get a response, you sighed and headed to your closet, trying to shake off his continuous stare at you. you felt a hand closing in on your wrist as you uncomfortably removed your shirt and attempted to put on another. you turned to face him, which was a mistake. you didn't know how fast he was, gripping your chin with his free hand and drawing you closer to him. you could feel his hot breath on you with your faces inches apart. “what's the matter? why are you avoiding me?” he murmured softly,

sae made sure his hold wasn't too tight to hurt you, but yet not too loose. “and don't say it's nothing; i'm not the moron you think i am.” he gently scolded you. your bottom lip quivered as you tried not to cry in front of him. he observed your reaction and continued coaxing you while stroking your cheek. that last move was the final push you needed to start sobbing while holding to your older stepbrother. “i just,” you cried, fiercely wiping away your tears. “you're usually with these women who are prettier and better looking than I am! when it comes to curves, i look and feel like a child in comparison to them, and that makes me feel like i'm embarrassing you."

as you opened out to him, you began muttering and sniffling silently. You felt horrible. when you didn't hear sae reply, you looked up at him, only to be met with the most bewildered look you'd ever seen. “sae?” you muttered gently, trying to read how he felt.

"you—" he halted for a second, staring at you. "Do you think I prefer those women over you?" Sae couldn't help but laugh as he leaned in closer, your back now brushing against the closet door. "Of course I do," you said, avoiding his gaze and glancing at the ground. "Have you seen how I look next to them?"

Sae looked at you and scoffed, speechless. "You truly are an idiot, aren't you?" Your eyes welled up at that line, and you bit your lower lip, trying not to cry any farther. It was only natural he would choose them over you, you were his stepsister—

"I'm not interested in them; I'm interested in you." He drew you in, your lips now just inches apart.

“don't make that joke, it's not funny.” you tried shoving him away with little force, your cheeks steadily burning up. “do you think i'm kidding? let me show you that i'm not.” sae leaned in close and kissed your lips in a frantic and passionate kiss, drawing you in closer than before.

to say it stole your breath away would be an understatement – you felt as if you had everything you could possibly want, as if you were on top of the world. sure, it was stupid, but you liked the idea of having him all to yourself. call it selfishness, but you were relieved he preferred you above the others. sae carried you from your thighs and dropped on the bed, with you now beneath him, exactly as you caressed his cheek and deepened the kiss. he panted silently, attempting to regain his breath. “stop dismissing yourself; you're much more attractive than those girls.” his remarks caused a crimson flush to appear on your cheeks, and you scoffed, not believing him at all.

"oh, no, that's not true!" as he removed your skirt, his cold and hard grasp on your thighs made you squeal. "stop lying; it is true. i won't stop until you admit that you're the most beautiful of all of them at the party." the way he stared at you told you that he wouldn't stop what he was about to do until he heard you speak those words, even if you dismissed them as a joke or a humorous threat. "yes, absolutely." you were ready to make another sarcastic remark when your breath hitched as you felt sae's tongue delicately lick your clothed cunt. when his eyes met yours, you could notice a dark cloud of lust in his.

“well, i guess you'll have to take it the hard way.” you backed away as his teeth pulled down your panties. he'll definitely give up soon, right? there's no way sae would continue until you said the words.

wrong.

the moment you uttered those words, sae's tongue sucked on your clothed clit, making you gasp out in shock and pleasure. you squeaked, squeezing your eyes shut and blushing heavily as he swirled his tongue round and round, teasing you with casual flicks; he was ravenous, fingers drawing circles on your chest, running his tongue over your clit and sucking hard.

sae pushed your cute tiny panties out of the way and threw them someplace, not caring about them right now despite your protests claiming that it was your favorite. “will you admit you're the most beautiful? we don't have to do things the hard way.”

hoping you were wet enough, sae pulled away and lowered his hand, his palm gliding over your stomach and between your legs, fingers sinking down and brushing against you where indeed, he came in contact with your slick and smirked, teasing your damp folds with his fingertips and observing how you shivered and shuddered under his touch.

you whimpered his name weakly, refusing to confess and he just drank in your shallow breaths as he continued to lazily suck on your tits whilst slipping two fingers in and out of your hole. sae was mercilessly teasing you, watching your reaction to his torturous actions. mind going hazy, you were a whimpering mess, squirming over the mattress.

a strangled gasp left the back of your throat and you threw your head backwards into the pillow, back arching; he could tell you probably weren’t able to take much longer and released you with a wet pop, panting slightly.

“sae?” you murmured; reopening your eyes, you glanced down to see that he had positioned himself between your legs.

you blinked wide-eyed as he gently eased your legs apart and with a firm grip on your thighs, lowered himself even further, his face level to your pussy. although he’d done this to you before, your heart was pounding heavily, your nerves getting the best of you. he could see your pussy even clearer more than ever, your cunt wet and shiny with your slick and he carefully spread your lips.

sae looked up and your eyes met - you swallowed down and glanced to the side, blushing heavily and he said, “look at me. I want you to see what I’m doing to you.”

You slid your gaze to him and he smirked, leaned in, his hot breath fanning over your bare flesh – and suddenly you were aware of how close he was - before he buried his face into your cunt, his tongue flicking across your clit, gently at first.

immediately, you attempted to draw your knees to your chest but he held on, his grip on you tightening and your fingers scrunched into the sheets underneath as he sucked you with more force, groaning as you instinctively began to buck your hips further into his face, wanting to feel more of his tongue on you, his hair tickling your inner thighs.

his lips were glued to your cunt and sae kept you pinned in your spot, occasionally glancing up to see your reaction and listening to your little pants and desperate moans as your legs quivered by the sides of his head.

“sae,” you squeaked out. “i can’t take much more…”

“Yes, you can,” he murmured, and your response was a defeated whine as you threw your head back. you could hear the quiet wet noises coming from his mouth; he had moved his tongue to your sopping entrance and after one final suck, started tracing the sides in a teasing manner before he shoved his tongue in.

you gasped, fingers clawing at his hair as he persisted. all you could do was lie still with your legs hiked over his shoulders, wailing helplessly as you sank your hands into his messy hair, trying your best not to roll around over the mattress.

with a moan, your brows squeezed tightly together as he slowly loosened his grip on your legs and your first instinct was to automatically draw your legs to your chest once more. he slid his palms over your thighs, his eyes boring into yours.

“i’m close… please sae..” you moaned helplessly, throwing your head to the side and grabbing onto the corners of the pillow as you came with a shaky breath.

( 12:OO AM )

and it continued. he pulled countless orgasms from you, so much that you both lost track of time and count. you sobbed, begged and pleaded for him to stop. but he didn’t. you hadn’t uttered the words he wanted from you, and it was currently, what? midnight? you had been going at it for four hours now, you sure were stubborn.

but you began to crack.

“pleasepleaseplease—” how long had you been begging for? you forgot. but the pleasure was too much, you couldn’t take it anymore. “you know what you have to say, just say those words and i’ll stop it.” he whispered, mouth still attached to your dripping cunt.

and you tried, you tried so hard not to but your body couldn’t. “i’m sorry, i’m the prettiest and the most gorgeous girl there was, i’m sorry! please, please—” you cried out, covering your face with one hand.

you felt a small smile form on his lips and he got up, finally letting your body rest as your chest heaved. “that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he mumbled, kissing your lips lightly. you could taste yourself on his lips — of course you did, he spent hours going down on you.

“we should call your mum and reassure her.. as well as take a bath and change the sheets.” he suggested, picking you up in a bridal style.

only then did he realize, that you had fallen into a deep slumber. he didn’t mind though, he’d love to take care of you. it’s what he always tried to do, even if his attempts seemed cold and ruthless in ways.

and when you awoke later on, you were in his hands, his lips on your forehead as he slept.

269 notes · View notes