Beast continues to mutate. They say he’s black, but he’s actually blue. In fact, he looks blue on the splash page. Or purple.
Beast’s reaction to his own continued mutation is to run away from those who care about him, leaving the X-Men behind.
New series regular Patsy Walker (who is not Hellcat yet) tries to get him to call down. Note that in about 10 years, they’ll be in The Defenders together.
Professor X “respects” Angel’s requests to be left alone, but Angel’s pissed about it. He goes looking for Beast. Which is convenient, as Angel is attacked by a winged villain: Griffin.
This is Griffin’s first appearance, and he just arrives with no explanation. There’s been a subplot about a “Secret Empire” that’s conspiring to do science-y evil, and Beast’s mutation experiment has drawn their interest. I’m not as big a fan of these kinds of stories because they are ubiquitous at Marvel, especially in the 1970s.
When Angel arrives, he doesn’t recognize Hank. Which is pretty funny.
Eventually, the two bond over having somewhat freakish appearances and Angel agrees to leave Beast alone.
When he was good, Steve Englehart was great. Loved this comic–it’s one of my favorite single-issue stories of all time. Full list here.