Uncanny Origins (1996 series) #6

Henry was born to Edna and Norton McCoy, large and with oversized feet and hands. As a child on the farm he showed great dexterity but also a tendency toward inadvertently hurting others. After he injures Uncle Bob, he went to his father who told him how he once worked in a nuclear plant and one day there was a disaster and Norton volunteered to put the rods back into place, becoming a hero but also receiving a dangerous dose of radiation. Edna made him leave the plant to take up farming and when Edna became pregnant they were warned that the child might not be normal; Norton assured his son he always considered him better than normal….

At school, the other kids called him a Beast, constantly getting into trouble as he turned out to be a mechanical genius. As a teen, he started dating girls and when some bullies pushed him in front of a truck, he dodged easily. The coach saw this and put Hank on the football team where he excelled. One game day, a trio of crooks held up the stadium box office and Hank took them down very easily. But this came to the attention of a villain called the Conquistador, who kidnapped Hank and his parents, holding them hostage so that Hank would steal an experimental nuclear reactor. It was an easy job and when the X-Men arrived, Hank freed his parents and blew up the reactor….

Professor X was able to persuade the McCoys to send Hank to his special school where Hank McCoy became Beast, one of the original X-Men, fighting evil. Eventually Hank left to take a job at the Brand Corporation where he studied genetic mutation and soon discovered the chemical cause of mutation. But when he uncovered a sinister plot at the lab, he swallowed the chemical to hide his identity and he became gray and furry, defeated the bad guys, then discovered the change was permanent. Soon there was another change and his fur turned blue. After this he joined the Avengers then the Defenders and back to the X-Men, never feeling comfortable without his fur….