Talk about a guy who starts his career out with a huge bang. Steve Englehart’s first job at Marvel was renovating The Beast. Then he went on to write awesome, long runs on The Defenders and Captain America.
Amazing Adventures #14 continues to develop The Beast as a new character, tortured by his own appearance (yeah, he’s a bit like Thing). But first, we finish the story from last issue and say goodbye to Iron Man.
Remember when Iron Man didn’t even know who the X-Men were? After Beast leaves, Iron Man shames the guard who shot at him last issue.
Because thinking is better than violence. This from a guy who gets into multiple fights every month. But, yeah, Tony is also smart–and he’s encouraging Beast to act smart, too, because Hank McCoy is an intellectual guy.
But Iron Man should be treating him like he’s an idiot, since he wandered on to a missile-test just to talk to him (also last issue). The last Marvel person who wandered into a military test site became Hulk.
Anyway, Englehart has Beast wear a rubberized mask to hide his appearance, and when he does he becomes quite the ladies’ man.
Beast’s lothario reputation will carry him through the 1980s and will be one of the most interesting things about him–a Casanova who hates his own appearance, despite being pretty successful with the ladies. Although in this issue, his girl does not have his back.
The Patsy in the panel above is Patsy Walker, who later becomes Hellcat.
In this issue, in case you were wondering, the villain is Quasimodo.
He kills himself in the end, ashamed at what he has done. Can a computer commit suicide? No. He’ll be back.
I’m just gonna say this: Linda Donaldson may be a worthless, lying, backstabbing bitch- but, boy, is she a damn CUTE one!!!