Beast Boy
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| Beast Boy | |
 From promotional art for Teen Titans vol. 3, #36 (July 2006). Art by Tony Daniel |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | as Beast Boy: The Doom Patrol #99 (November 1965) as Changeling: DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980) |
| Created by | Arnold Drake Bob Brown |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Garfield Mark Logan |
| Team affiliations | Doom Patrol Teen Titans Titans West |
| Notable aliases | Changeling |
| Abilities | Metamorphic ability to transform into any animal. |
Garfield Mark "Gar" Logan is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown, and first appears in Doom Patrol #99 (November 1965).
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
As a child, Garfield contracted a rare illness called Sakutia and is cured by a serum extracted from a green monkey. This serum had the unintended effect of turning his skin and hair green and granted him the ability to morph into any animal of his choice. His parents later die in a boating accident, which to this day, Garfield believes he could have prevented. After he is saved from two kidnappers that try to use his powers to help them in their crimes, Garfield is left under the care of his despised guardian, Nicholas Galtry. Galtry is unhappy that Garfield is alive and plots to kill the boy in order to claim his inheritance. The various villains he hires to kill young Logan are impeded by the Doom Patrol, whose members Rita and Steve Dayton adopt Garfield. Logan eventually joins the superhero team, taking the name, Beast Boy. In his days with the Doom Patrol, Garfield has a romantic relationship with a girl from his high school named Jillain Jackson. After he saves her from Galtry (who was using the alias "Arsenal"), the relationship dissolved. Beast Boy is the only survivor of the Doom Patrol, a loss which deeply affectes him. Presumably in error, in his second appearance in Doom Patrol #100, he is twice called 'Craig'.
He later joins the West Coast team of the Teen Titans (known as Titans West), and is part of the New Teen Titans assembled by Raven. At this time, Garfield takes the name Changeling. He remains with various incarnations of the team, and forms a close friendship with Cyborg. He later uses the name Beast Boy again, under which he gets his own miniseries Beast Boy. Following a failed attempt to recreate "Titans West" as "Titans L.A.", as recounted in Titans Secret Files #2 (October 2000), Garfield rejoins the main team.
Beast Boy's character is often used as comic relief. However, this is only a facade, as he uses humor to hide a deep inner pain. Beast Boy has suffered many hardships in his life (both his real parents have died, and his foster mother, whom Garfield became very close to, died in battle along with virtually all of the other Doom Patrol members with whom he was part of the team and his foster father was driven mad by a helmet he used to fight enemies). During his time with The New Teen Titans, Gar fell in love with Terra, a young girl with earth-manipulating powers and fellow Teen Titans member, who turned out to be a spy working for Deathstroke. Despite all his hardships, Garfield is friendly and upbeat.
[edit] "One Year Later"
While the events of Infinite Crisis unfold, details of Beast Boy's life "One Year Later" are revealed in the current Teen Titans comic book. Teen Titans vol. 3, #34 (May 2006) shows scenes from the year between the conclusion of Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, from the damaged Cyborg's POV. Garfield leads the Teen Titans, before quitting the team following the breakup of himself and Raven. He then joins his original team, the Doom Patrol, citing that the team need his help and that Robin can handle leadership. He is also feeling uneasy about remaining in a team without Cyborg. After Cyborg awakes, Beast Boy and the rest of the Doom Patrol helps the Titans fight off the Brotherhood of Evil, who have managed to clone Brain. The clone is a failure, however, and Mallah ends up tearing Brain's head off so that he can preserve his master's brain.
After returning, Beast Boy is infuriated to discover that the Chief has been manipulating them and trying to do the same to Kid Devil. Garfield and his parents stands up to the Chief and made him step down as the Doom Patrol's leader. Beast Boy stays on his old team saying that they still need him. However, he does answer a call from Raven to help the Titans combat Titans East.
In Titans #1 (2008), Gar is attacked by Trigon, who floods his room with lava. In retaliation, Gar joins the new Titans team, wearing a costume similar to his old Changeling uniform.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Beast Boy has the ability to morph into any animal that he has seen himself or has seen in an illustration (as is the case when he shapeshifts into an animal such as an extinct dinosaur). These transformations take only a second and Beast Boy has demonstrated that he is capable of rapidly changing his form with little or no effort expended. His power enables him to completely alter his body mass, being able to take the shape of animals far larger and heavier than himself, such as an elephant, a hippopotamus, or a Tyrannosaurus Rex (though until recent stories, such larger forms would physically exhaust him), or smaller and lighter animals such as mice and insects. His power also enables him to radically alter his body structure and take forms of animals without limbs, like snakes, or those without skeletons like a jellyfish. In two notable instances, he has even taken the form of multiple individuals simultaneously (once as a swarm of fireflies, and again as a mass of barnacles). While as an animal, he gains all the physical abilities and characteristics of said animal, such as great strength (a gorilla), speed (a cheetah), and durability (a turtle), and abilities such as flight (various birds), and aquatic breathing (various fish). He can even gain the specific poison produced by specific snakes. While in animal form, Beast Boy retains his human intellect, memories, and the ability to speak. No matter what form he takes, his skin, hair, and eyes remain green, making most of his animal forms easy to distinguish from real animals of that species.
When Raven implanted Garfield with an evil seed of her father Trigon, he began to transform into more demon-like creatures. Eventually, he found himself more comfortable in these horrific shapes rather than as a human, and stayed shifted. After becoming completely corrupted by the evil seed, he was used by Raven and Trigon, but eventually returned to normal.
Beast Boy has gained a new "Super-Animal" form made with the traits, strengths, and abilities of all the animals in the world. This gives him a multitude of abilities from a falcon's vision to beyond a tyrannosaurus's strength. This animal form has a constant feral attitude, and Gar has problems controlling its powers and mental state. This form appears in the Teen Titans animated series as stated below.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Titans Tomorrow
In the "Titans Tomorrow" storyline, Garfield calls himself Animal Man. In this storyline, he has the power to use more than one animal power at a time such as using an amoeba's power to spilt to create copies of himself while in the form of another creature. He also demonstrates the ability to become mythical animals.
[edit] Kingdom Come
In Kingdom Come (also set in an alternate future), Beast Boy has changed his name to "Menagerie" and, for unspecified reasons, can only transform into mythical creatures.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Teen Titans animated series
Beast Boy appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Greg Cipes. In the series, Beast Boy (nicknamed "BB", and others) plays the role of the lighthearted jokester of the group, His appearance is much younger than in the comics. Often the butt of many jokes himself (similar to his comics self). He wears a black and purple Doom Patrol uniform, complete with gray gloves and purple sneakers with seemingly velcro straps.[1] The costume also has a mask;[2] he discarded it after Cyborg told him it was goofy, and Raven pointed out that the mask would not hide his secret identity anyway, and since his skin is green, he does not really have one.
[edit] References
- ^ Although his shoes were temporarily shown as having shoelaces in the episode "Mother Mae-Eye"
- ^ Which he wore in his days with the Doom Patrol, as seen in "Homecoming: Part 1," "Homecoming: Part 2," and "Go!"
[edit] External links
- DCDP: Beast Boy - DC Database Project
- Titans Tower Biography
- Beast Boy's description on the animated series
