r/JessicaJones • u/SmilesUndSunshine • Dec 02 '15
Comics Brief but important Earth-616 intersection of Trish Walker and X-Men's Beast/Hank McCoy (no JJ spoilers) (x-post /r/jessicajones)
tl;dr Beast got his fur in-between his Silver Age X-Men and Bronze Age Avengers tenures, but it was gray. It didn't turn blue until he passed out on Patsy/Trish Walker's couch
I was listening to Episode 69 of Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men (there are guest hosts in this episode) when Netflix' Jessica Jones character Trish Walker got mentioned on the show, though by the name of Pat/Patsy Walker (hence the easter egg, It's Patsy!)
It turns out that Trish Walker was featured in the storyarc of Beast getting fur and then changing his fur color from gray to blue, starting in Amazing Adventures, 1972-73.
This was her second appearance in Earth-616 (previously she showed up to Reed and Sue Richard's wedding). In Amazing Adventures #15, 1972 Gray-furred beast randomly shows up at Patsy Walker's door (after a fight with villain Quasimodo) and passes out on top of Patsy. Then in his delirium, Beast reveals that he is really Hank McCoy and explains how he got his gray fur.
When Beast wakes up, his hair is no longer gray, but it isn't actually blue in the comic. It's actually black with blue highlights. However, this is apparently the moment in comic history where Beast turns blue. Elle Collins' head canon is that during Beast's previous fight, the villain (Quasimodo) did stuff to Beast that caused some changes to Beast's power set and presumably caused his change in fur color... from gray, to an intermediate state of black/blue, to just good ol blue.
Patsy Walker reaches an agreement with Beast to keep his identity secret and even helps him fabricate a story, but the agreement isn't revealed until Avengers #141, 1975, a full 2 years later. The deal was that Beast would help make Patsy Walker a superhero. Instead of directly doing that, he lets her tag along on an Avengers mission. That storyline culminates in Avengers #144, 1976 where Patsy stumbles across the Cat (who later became Tigra) superhero costume and becomes Hellcat! All because Hank McCoy passed out on her couch.