Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

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steyn
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by steyn »

Originally posted by SmoothBamf
... and I still kinda hate Cat Beast. I mean a cat is a Beast but if you are going to further mutate a guy named Beast don't you think you could be more creative than that. all I'm sayng is that it would have been a nice twist and then all most all of Grant Morasens crap
would be gone
offtopic: *gasp!* I love the kitty cat beast, sure they went a little off course when they further mutated him, making him feline instead of more gorilla like, but..but...he's pettable! What I did find a little stupid was back in some issue where they went way overboard and brought in the litterbox, now that's stupid. I mean the cat in Meet The Parents used a toilet, I'm pretty certain one of the smartest x-men would be able to re-teach himself to pull the handle and flush.

okay, just needed to get that off my chest.

{edited to add SmoothBamf's quote as part of my Cat Beast Thread separating maneuvers. --SK}

[Edited on 6/11/2008 by Saint Kurt]
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by Saint Kurt »

The whole feline Beast is an interesting topic.

I'm going to make this a thread of its own!

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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by Saint Kurt »

Look at me doing an actual Moderation Action and all. Woo.

I have mixed views on the whole Cat Beast thing and as always it depends on the writer.

I loved that scene in Astonishing where Beast fights Danger (in the "Dangerous" arc) and at the end has her all tangled up in a pile and is perched on top of her with that classic crazy cat expression saying "Mine!" (Maybe you've got to own cats and see them playing with stuff, but I thought the whole thing was really well played because I see the same crazed expression on my cats when they are really into their toys.) But in just one frame Weadon (and the artists) totally captured how he is fighting with an unwanted aspect of his mutation and that is interesting to me.

Other times it does seem over done. I never saw the issue with him using the litterbox, but uh ... yeah... not necessary. I don't need to know if Beast is one of those cats who stands in the box, but poops over the edge and then tries to bury it anyway.

Then again, there are all sorts of unexplored Cat Beast plot lines along the house cat theme. Such as, what if, after a particularly harrowing mission, Beast is stressed and begins peeing all over the X-Mansion (it could be the next big x-crossover arc: "Inappropriate Elimination"). Or Scott and Emma rushing Beast down the medical lab because he's blocked.

On the lighter side, someone could buy Beast an expensive gift only to have him end up playing with the wrapping paper instead.

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steyn
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by steyn »

Wow...I didn't even know I could post a thread without even being online! Nifty! :D

The litterbox bit came in when Cassandra Nova, I think, was held in Beast's lab, she broke out and had Beak smack the crazy all over Beast with a baseball bat and taunted him about the litterbox.

edit: wait, this was some time ago, so my memory about it isn't that great. I think she took over Xavier's body, and THEN the baseball game in the lab started.

[Edited on 6/11/2008 by steyn]
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by fourpawsonthefloor »

I much prefer old school beast beast. Kitty beast is just like...><. However that said there have been some pretty damn hilarious moments with him, compliments of wheaton's fantastic writing in astonishing.

Then again, as is the case with sk, that could be the inner kitty lover in me laughing way harder at something than a 'regular joe' would.
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by Slarti »

Oh... dear God. Don't get me started on kitty Beast.

No matter if Joss Wedon (who I do love for Buffy) has had Hank in cute 'zomg, my cat does that!!!' moments... come on. Does that do anything to advance his character aside from making him a characature? Has he done anything really meaningful lately? I mean, he was a really, really cool character and an Avenger. Now he's playing B-team on the A-team and only providing the techno-babble on the main X-books.
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by littlebamf »

Yeah, no matter who is writing him, Kitty Beast is just a no for me. In fact adding cuteness makes it worse. It does degrade the character slightly. It's like when your pet dog can 'bark the alphabet'. It's nice and cute and fun, but not really the point of your pet dog.

And that's another thing that annoys me, Beast is one for his technobabble, but half of what he says he can't carry out without those little metal finger extentions he's had in a few issues, because he can't use his...paws. Oh they love smiting the actually useful characters.
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Beast as a Cat -- great character evolution or unnecessary secondary mutation?

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

Originally posted by Saint Kurt
Other times it does seem over done. I never saw the issue with him using the litterbox, but uh ... yeah... not necessary. I don't need to know if Beast is one of those cats who stands in the box, but poops over the edge and then tries to bury it anyway.
I think as Steyn said that wasn't exactly a voluntary thing, it was part of some psychological torture scene.

Anyway what about a cat that manages to poop in the box but won't cover it up? He used to cover it up!! Little bastard!!
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