X-Men Origins: Beast (2008 series) #1

Henry Pym is a high school freshman whose girlfriend Jennifer wants to know why he hides his superior intellect. He explains how his father was exposed to radiation when he stopped a potential disaster at the nuclear plant and that Hank was born with exceptional powers. Jen tells him normal isn’t a straitjacket and he replies that it’s an anchor. As they walk across the field, the coach, mad at the team, hands Hank a football and tells him to kick it between the goalposts so he does—the far goalposts. Coach puts him on the team. Hank balks but when one of the bullies insults him, he gladly joins the team, wrongly assuming it’s no big deal. So Hank becomes the big star, the game is televised and he comes to the attention of the villain the Conquistador….

His family throws him a surprise party and that night, the Conquistador and his henchmen break into the McCoy house and wake him. The villain claims to be immortal, last of Ponce De Leon’s crew and wielding the electric Sword of Xiutecuhtli giving him the power of a god. Hank submits when Conquistador tells him he has Hank’s parents hostage. The baddie sends him to the plant where his father works to steal a cold fusion reactor, giving him his father’s identity card to get in. So Hank assembles some supplies and they drive him to the plant….

Hank flashes the ID to pass the guards but when the research lab asks for his palm print, Hank kicks in the door, grabs the device, and runs, jumping the fence and being driven off as the police arrive. He turns the reactor over to the Conquistador who tells him he has more tasks for Hank to perform. Hank triggers his trap, a flash of light blinds the bad guys, and then he starts clobbering them the tearing apart Conquistador’s electrified armor and sword. He frees his parents but they are shocked at these new powers he is demonstrating and he is terrifying them. Suddenly they react as though Hank were a stranger who had stopped to help them with their car, confusing Hank. Professor X appears along with the X-Men and tells Hank that he has erased all memory of his existence from everyone who has ever met him. He invites Hank to join the X-Men and become a hero or he can have his old life back. It’s his choice. He stops by the school to discover Jen is dating the bully from the football team and so he becomes Beast of the X-Men….