Scientific & Technological Breakthroughs from Dr. McCoy Part 1

Jessie Desmond

May 19

4 min read

Patents

According to this panel from Uncanny X-Men #48, Hank claims to have 37 patents. This is before he leaves the X-Men to work for the Brand Corporation. The real question now is: how many patents does Hank have currently?

Cerebro Maintenance & Upgrades

There have been several instances featuring a younger Hank working on cerebro, whether he was really allowed to or not. Like a lot of people who are a little too smart for their own good, he crosses boundaries, and prefers to ignore implied rules and use verbiage technicalities to his advantage. "No one told me not too."

In the early years, Hank is occasionally shown tinkering with cerebro when Professor Xavier is not around, like in Uncanny X-Men #33 where Xavier is out for the count because of Juggernaut.

All New X-Men #31

This continues on over the years and Hank is actually able to use cerebro to some extent, as seen below from Beast issue #1.

Hank gets a shout out from Scott about making improvements on cerebro in Uncanny X-Men #394.

Mutation-Inducing Hormone

After his time with the X-Men and before joining the Avengers, Hank worked for the Brand Corporation doing classified research. During this time, he thought he had found a way to reverse genetic mutations. Instead, he drank his own serum and started his second mutation. See The Mutations of Hank McCoy

This is also the basis of MGH or Mutant Growth Hormone, which I'll talk about later on.

Danger Room

The danger room was set up before Hank was recruited by Xavier for the X-Men. Hank used it in his early X-Men days. It really wasn't until after Charles Xavier met the Shi'ar (Lilandra, etc) during the Phoenix Saga that the Danger Room was really changed. Lilandra allowed Charles to use some Shi'ar technology to boost the Danger Room (installed by Forge), which in turn Hank readily became familiar with. The changes were demonstrated in New Mutants #1 (1983), and of course Hank was with the Defenders at this time. Hank wouldn't really get access to the new system for a while later. In Uncanny X-Men #306 we can clearly see Hank running a program with the new Shi'ar tech - completely in charge.

Through X-Factor, we kind of get the hint that there is a recreated form of the danger room, especially since the original 5 start training some young mutants to better use their powers.

During the Krakoa phase of things, Hank recreated a danger room of sorts. This is featured in Wolverine (2020) #8. If you're not familiar with the Krakoa storyline, things get VERY messy with Hank. I'll get into it later with a post on him being a mad scientist.

A Cure For The Legacy Virus

The Legacy Virus was a techno-organic virus that Stryfe (a clone of Cable) gave to Mr. Sinister in X-Force issue #18. It targeted the x-gene and was only thought to affect mutants, until Moira MacTaggart became the first human to catch it. This multi-series event was called "The X-Cutioner's Song".

Uncanny X-Men #296

When Xavier was infected by the Legacy Virus, Hank allowed Apocalypse to presumably "help". It made things a little worse.

While Hank was working on the Legacy Virus in New York, Charles and Moira were also working on a cure in Scotland.

When Hank was able to create a cure, he gave a lecture about it, as seen in Uncanny X-Men #326. Hank actually utilized the danger room to help create a 3D model of the virus to help him better understand it.

Uncanny X-Men #326

In Uncanny X-Men #379 (2000) Hank was still researching the Legacy Virus. I absolutely love that Marvel gave the characters allowance of actual time to figure out the Legacy Virus and that it wasn't cured within a few issues. It's more realistic that way.

January 2001, in Uncanny X-Men #390 we get the following bits of Hank finding a cure. He's pretty excited about it too!

Uncanny X-Men #390

Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH) Basis

Alright, so this was first mentioned in Amazing Adventures #11 (see above).

The big issue with MGH is that it started becoming used as a drug to provide temporary powers. Below in Uncanny X-Men #490, Beast and Bishop find a drug dealer who has a huge supply and offers to buy some of McCoy's blood. Very much the wrong thing to say to him.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Sources:

Beast (Henry McCoy). Marvel Comics. (2026). https://www.marvel.com/characters/beast-henry-mccoy
Bendis, Brian Michael. (Aug 2014) All-New X-Men. Issue #31. (Illustrator M. Asrar). Marvel Comics.
Casey, Joe. (April 2001) "Playing God." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #394. (Illustrator I. Churchill). Marvel Comics.
Conway, Gerry. (Mar 1972) "The Beast." Amazing Adventures. Issue #11. (Illustrator T. Sutton). Marvel Comics.
David, Peter. (Jan 1993) "X-Cutioner's Song part 10." X-Factor. Issue #86. (Illustrator J. Lee). Marvel Comics.
Davis, Alan. (Apr 2000) "What Dreams May Come." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #379. (Illustrator T. Raney). Marvel Comics.
Drake, Arnold. (Sept 1968) "Yours Truly, The Beast." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #48. (Illustrator W. Roth). Marvel Comics.
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Legacy Virus. Marvel Comics. (2026). https://www.marvel.com/characters/legacy-virus
Lobdell, Scott. (Jan 1993) "X-Cutioner's Song part 9." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #296. (Illustrator B. Peterson). Marvel Comics.
Lobdell, Scott. (Nov 1993) "Mortal Coils." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #306. (Illustrator J. Romita Jr). Marvel Comics.
Lobdell, Scott. (November 1995) "The Nature of Evil." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #326. (Illustrator J. Madureira). Marvel Comics.
Lobdell, Scott. (Jan 2001) "The Cure." Uncanny X-Men. Issue #390. (Illustrator S. Larroca). Marvel Comics.
Nicieza, Fabian. (Jan 1993) "The Final Chapter of The X-Custioner's Song!" X-Force. Issue #18. (Illustrator G. Capullo). Marvel Comics.
Parker, Jeff. (May 2007) "Who Wants To Date A Millionaire?" X-Men: First Class. Issue #7. (Illustrator R. Cruz). Marvel Comics.
Percy, Benjamin. (Dec 2020) Wolverine. Issue #8. (Illustrator V. Bogdanovic and A. Kubert). Marvel Comics.
Thomas, Roy. (June 1967) "Into The Crimson Cosmos!" Uncanny X-Men. Issue #33. (Illustrator W. Roth). Marvel Comics.

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