This weeks hero is: Beast Boy Garfield Mark Gar Logan (also known as Beast Boy or Changeling) 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 (Nov. 1965).[2] Fictional character biographyEdit As a young child, Garfield contracts a rare illness called Sakutia but then he is saved by his parents, who use an untested serum on him. This serum has the unintended effect of turning his skin green and hair dark green and granting him the ability to metamorph into any animal of his choice.[3] His parents later died in a boating accident, which, to this day, Garfield believes he could have prevented somehow.[2] After he is saved from two kidnappers that beat him and forced him to use his powers to help them in their crimes, Garfield is left under the care of a court-appointed guardian, the despicable Nicholas Galtry, who calls Gar Craig.[4] As young Gar enters his teens, Galtry realizes that his embezzlement from the estate would be exposed when the lad reaches maturity and takes control of his inheritance, so he plots to kill the youngster. The various villains he hires to kill young Gar are impeded by the Doom Patrol, whose member Rita and her husband, Doom Patrol associate Steve Dayton, eventually expose his embezzling to the courts and adopt Garfield, themselves. In the interim, he allies himself with the superhero team, wearing one of their uniforms (with the addition of a full-head purple mask, bearing a black—and sometimes yellow swath across the middle of the face, to conceal his true identity) and taking the name Beast Boy.[5] In his days with the Doom Patrol, Garfield has a romantic relationship with a girl from his high school named Jillian Jackson. After he saves her from Galtry (who was using the alias Arsenal), the relationship somehow dissolved. Beast Boy is deeply affected by the deaths of the Doom Patrol. Addressed as nothing but the Beast Boy (and epithets, as the team is upset at his invasion of their headquarters) upon his debut, in his second appearance (Doom Patrol #100) he is twice called Craig by Galtry (in his own introduction). In the following issue the first name Gar is used, and later the last name Logan is casually dropped in a caption, each as if they had already been established to the readers. The full Garfield is not invoked until The New Teen Titans some fifteen years later. Cover of Tales of the New Teen Titans #3 (August 1982). Art by George Pérez. Joining the Titans He later uses both his lime green skin and shape-shifting powers to play an extraterrestrial character on a science-fiction television series, Space Trek: 2020,[6] but it is soon cancelled due to lawsuits from both Star Trek and Space: 1999.[7] During its run, Gar joins the West Coast team of the Teen Titans (known as Titans West), and is later part of the New Teen Titans assembled by Raven. By this time, Garfield has taken the name Changeling. This change in names is not explained until a later flashback revealed that a new version of an old Doom Patrol enemy, the Arsenal (from DP #113, August 1967), the identity this time assumed by Gars ex-guardian Nicholas Galtry, mocked the name Beast Boy so much that he ruined it for him.[8] He remains with various incarnations of the team, and forms a close friendship (that seems to never break) with Cyborg. Garfields character is often used as comic relief, because of his joking and wise cracking. However, this is only a facade, as he uses humour to hide a deep inner pain. Logan has suffered many hardships in his life, some described previously. Also, during his time with the New Teen Titans, Gars stepfather was discovered to have been driven mad by the helmet which was central to his powers, and the young man fell in love with Terra, a girl with earth-manipulating powers and fellow Teen Titans member, who turned out to be a spy working for the assassin Deathstroke the Terminator, and who is eventually killed. Despite all his hardships, Garfield is friendly, humorous and upbeat. Like most of the other founding members of the New Teen Titans (including Nightwing), he considers the group to be his family, and the people to whom he will always be closest to. Though he has often struggled with being taken seriously (mostly due to his defensively comic and goofy nature, and also being the youngest Titan on the team) and an inferiority complex, Gar loves and trusts his former teammates completely and will never leave their side. Limited Series and Titans West Seeking to resume his acting career, Changeling leaves the Titans and moves to Los Angeles in order to live with his screenwriter cousin Matt. Failing to find any serious work, Gar attempts to clear his name after having been framed for a series of murders around the city. He eventually discovers that the real culprit is Gemini, the daughter of his old Doom Patrol foe Madame Rouge. Blaming Gar for her mothers death, Gemini reveals that she has hired a pair of mercenaries known as Fear and Loathing to kidnap Tim Bender and Vicky Valiant, Gars former Space Trek: 2020 co-stars. With the bound and gagged actors in tow, Gemini attempts to flee, only to be defeated by the combined might of Beast Boy (who had decided to return to this code name at this time) and his former Titans West teammate Bette Kane. Once again in the public eye, Gar decides to ignore his newfound celebrity status and resume his superhero career.[9] Along with Bette and Matt, Gar purchases a new apartment. While accompanying Bette to Tokyo for a tennis match, Gar is possessed by a Tengu, but is freed by Japanese superhero Bushido. 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. Mentor Following the death of Donna Troy, the Titans and Young Justice both disband. Moving back to San Francisco, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy decide to form a new team of Teen Titans, acting as mentors to the former members of Young Justice. During the events of the Infinite Crisis, Beast Boy assembles a team of past and present Titans to battle Superboy-Prime. Despite a valiant effort, the Titans are easily defeated by the impossibly powerful Superboy-Prime Risk loses an arm, and Bushido, Baby Wildebeest, and Pantha are slain. Infinite Crisis & 52 Beast Boy was present as a member of the team during the events of Infinite Crisis. On the cover of the final issue of Infinite Crisis, Beast Boy is seen flying alongside Raven. In 52, following the death of Superboy, Wonder Girl and Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire are not present in the team, and Beast Boy takes the role of leader. Beast Boy recruits new Titan members, but the Titans new teenage superheroes are more interested in making up their fame and honor than seek true justice. So when Steel calls the Titans for help, most of the Titans abandons the team, leaving only Beast Boy, Raven, and Zatara. But Beast Boy managed to recruit a few more superheroes, and Beast Boy, Raven, Aquagirl, and Offspring aided Steel on a raid on Lexcorp. Beast Boy also participated in World War III. Due to Beast Boys effort, The Teen Titans returns to its normal state after Wonder Girl and Robins return. One Year Later Main articles: One Year Later and 52 (comics) While the events of Infinite Crisis unfold, details of Beast Boys 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 Cyborgs 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 doesnt need his help and that Robin can handle leadership. He is also feeling uneasy about remaining in a team without Cyborg. After Cyborg awakens, Beast Boy and the rest of the Doom Patrol helps the Titans fight off the Brotherhood of Evil, who have managed to clone the Brain. The clone is a failure, however, and Monsieur Mallah ends up tearing his head off so that he can preserve his masters 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 partners stand up to the Chief and make him step down as the Doom Patrols 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. Raven later demonstrates hints that she still loves Garfield and offers to help him heal after the battle with Deathstroke, but Garfield remains uncertain. Titans 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. In later issues, the group is attacked by the Children of Trigon, who use Garfields suppressed anger and rage against Raven, who is also affected in the same manner. The two attack the other, but the fight is eventually broken up when the Titans begin to recover from the attack. Ravens three half-brothers then use her and Gar, transforming him into a demonic beast, to act as keys to open a portal to Trigons realm. Raven uses her own power to influence greed in others to make her half-brothers steal what little power Trigon had left. The portal is closed, and Trigons sons, believing they have gained great power, leave the scene, returning Gar to normal. Following this, the team has settled themselves down at Titans Tower (supposedly the New York base), where they attempt to recover from recent events. Raven and Beast Boy go out together on a not-a-date. During this, Raven reveals that since she faced her brothers, she has begun to feel as if she is losing control and slipping back under the thrall of her fathers powers. Although Beast Boy rejects the idea, he is blind-sided as Raven gives in to her darker side, under the influence of her half-brothers coaxing. Using her teleporting powers, she and the Sons of Trigon vanish, leaving a distraught Beast Boy behind to warn the others. The Titans are later able to save Raven, using a gem that she had entrusted to Donna Troy. The gem carried a piece of her pure-soul self, which then cleansed the evil of Raven. Afterwards, Raven gave Beast Boy and the rest of the team similar magical items in case she should ever be corrupted again. Raven later turns down Beast Boys attempts to reconcile completely as a couple, although there are hints that she deeply regrets this but views it as a necessity for Beast Boys safety. Back to Teen Titans After Beast Boy is once again rejected by Raven, Cyborg gives him a talk about his need to act like a clown while around his old friends, telling him that if he ever wants to get on with his life, he needs to forget about the past and move forward. Still depressed, Gar goes to San Francisco after being asked to fill in for Owlman at a superhero convention. After causing a scene by attacking a man dressed in a Deathstroke mask, Gar leaves the convention in a huff, only to stumble upon a massive battle between the Teen Titans and Cinderblock. Despite protests from the teams struggling leader Wonder Girl, Beast Boy shows true leadership by saving the life of Bombshell and stopping Static from making a suicidal charge against the seemingly unbreakable villain. With Beast Boys help, the Teen Titans defeat Cinderblock, with Gar leaving and telling them to take all the credit. Upon returning home, Beast Boy decides to take Cyborgs advice about moving forward, resolving to move to San Francisco and take over the leadership of the Teen Titans.[10] Beast Boy returns to Titans Tower and assumes the role of leader for the team, although it remains to be seen whether the current team will accept him in that role, particularly as Wonder Girl is still technically the teams official leader, and there is already disdain for Beast Boys attitude from the rest of the team. He also has confessed to an unconscious Raven that he is still in love with her and may never stop loving her no matter what their difficulties are. During the events of Blackest Night, Beast Boy faces Terra again after she is reanimated as a Black Lantern. She attempts to lull him into a false sense of security, but Gar ultimately attacks her and severs her arm after her fellow Lanterns attack the other Titans.[11] Beast Boy and Raven share a romantic kiss cementing their love for each other. After the Blackest Night ends, Beast Boy and Wonder Girl lead the Titans to the city of Dakota after Static is kidnapped by a metahuman crime lord named Holocaust. Throughout the rescue mission, Beast Boy and Wonder Girl clash over who is actually running the team, with Gar even going so far as to call Cyborg (who is now a member of the Justice League) for help behind Cassies back. During the final battle with Holocaust, Cyborg arrives with Superboy and Kid Flash in tow, and, close to defeat, Holocaust desperately tries to kill all of the Titans by using his pyrokinetic abilities to burn the building they are in to the ground. Beast Boy ultimately rescues his teammates by transforming into a mythical phoenix, with Cyborg later telling him how proud he is of him.[12] In the final issue of this incarnation of the Titans, Beast Boy and Raven have a talk about her difficulty reading Solstices emotions and their encounter with Headcase. Eventually, Raven starts to open up about her true romantic feelings. While it was her inner darkness that scared throughout her life, she was even more frightened of what her love for Beast Boy might cause her to do. Beast Boy makes it clear he doesnt want to escape from any part of her. Touched, Raven decides that she needs to embrace the positive feelings inside her rather than just her negative ones. Beast Boy assures her this is part of being human, and points out, I think youve worried enough about the bad....so why dont we focus on the good for a change? With that, they share a heartfelt kiss to renew their relationship and ultimately embrace their love for each other.[13] The New 52 Beast Boys New 52 appearance. Cover for The Ravagers #4 A passing reference to Garfield was made in Red Hood and the Outlaws along with Cyborg, Garth, Nightwing, Lilith and a new unseen character named Dustin, as members of a team that Starfire seemingly no longer remembers.[14] The Ravagers Beast Boy appears a member of the new superhero team The Ravagers, led by Caitlin Fairchild. Beast Boy is red instead of his traditional color green. The decision to change Beast Boy to the color red was because of a relation to The Red, the extradimensional power source of Animal Mans abilities.[15] Also in the Ravagers team are Terra, Thunder and Lightning and a new character Ridge. In The New 52, the Ravagers are a group of super-powered teens who have escaped the plans of Harvest in The Culling. The team was formed after the Teen Titans and the Legionnaires stuck in the present day were abducted by Harvest, and then later stopped the villain and escaped.[16] Not surprisingly in the series Beast Boy and Terra develop a strong bond with each other which started in a place named The Colony where super-powered teenagers are deprived of their origins and family and kept as prisoners by a creature named Harvest where they suffer tortures, experiments and fight each other in order to remain only the strongest teens to be used by Harvest as a team to serve the organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and its purposes. It was in one of their experiments that Gar revealed his powers for the first time in The New 52 continuity. In this place Beast Boy is defended by Terra from being attacked by other super-powered prisoners returning the favor later when Terra was in danger saving her.[17] Once free of the Colony, Terra and Beast Boy separated from the rest of their fellow Ravagers, hiding together in a cave. Later Beast Boy started having nightmares with the remaining Ravagers all covered with blood. It was later revealed that the one causing his nightmares was Brother Blood as he was targeting the one who could be used as a key to his master gain access to The Red. Due to his connection with The Red, Beast Boy was the only one who could sense the evil intents of Brother Blood and therefore the key Blood was looking for. After sensing his presence, Beast Boy convinced Terra to help the remaining Ravagers who were captured by Blood to be used as a sacrifice in his ritual and they eventually manage to stop and defeat Blood.[18] After those events Fairchild led the team to a place in Los Angeles. There the team is confronted by Superboy and Niles Caulder. Caulder is introduced as a long time known of Fairchild and is also implied that Caulder has known Beast Boy although their connection has not been explored. Later Fairchild and Caulder introduces the team to a deep underground science & engineering facility, which provides headquarters and combat training for the team in their campaign against the organization of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. as meanwhile Harvest has sent Rose Wilson and Warblade to recapture them.[19] As the series progresses Beast Boy and Terra start developing romantic feelings for each other as Beast Boy finally finds someone who cared for him in the middle of the countless tortures and painful experiments he has suffered back in the Colony. Later Terra opens up her feelings for Gar teasing him: Why in the world havent you tried to kiss me yet? as they share a passionate kiss. After the kiss they become a couple.[20] With Rose and Warblade having difficulties in capturing the Ravagers,[21] Harvest makes a deal with Deathstroke to hunt down the Ravagers and attack each one using a special weapon called the Abeo Blade. Succeeding in invading Caulders place, Deathstroke manages to kill Ridge (in his human form - a child), Caulder himself, Thunder and Lightning using the weapon, and also cuts Warblades head off. As Deathstroke chooses an already injured Beast Boy as his next victim, a desperate Terra tries to stop him in fear of losing Gar. But her attempt falls short as she is stabbed and burned by Deathstrokes Abeo Blade. As a horrified Garfield sees Terra burning right before his eyes, pure rage takes command of him as he transforms into a werewolf and delivers Deathstroke a hard blow in the face which tears off his mask and bloodies his nose and mouth. Still in berserk state Beast Boy turns into a dino and lashes at Deathstroke, causing the support beam to collapse and bury him in a pile of rubble. After that Deathstroke lets an unconscious and bloodied Beast Boy on the ground believing that he is dead. After the battle with Beast Boy, Deathstroke proceeds and stabs Rose and then Fairchild with the Abeo Blade finishing his job. Later it is revealed that the Abeo Blade was not a killing weapon and instead a teleportation device, sending Terra, Rose and the other Ravagers except Beast Boy back to the Colony once again. As part of the deal Harvest gives Rose and Terra to Deathstroke.[22] Teen Titans As an almost dead Beast Boy is left on the remains of the facility he is approached by Raven. After being touched by her, Beast Boy awakens and when he asks if Harvest has sent her she apologizes stating that she brought him into the fray much sooner than she expected and completes: Hush. We are birds of a feather now... You are mine to control as Raven mind-controls him and teleports them to New York as she uses him as her minion in the battle of her father Trigon and the Teen Titans. Beast Boy, under Raven influence, pulls the Titans and Psimon away from the fight. When Psimon kills the police reinforcements, Beast Boy sees it and squeezes him, resulting the both of them to cancel out each others powers and rendering them unconscious.[23] After regaining consciousness Beast Boy side the Titans in their fight against Trigon and his sons in New York City.[24] Succeeding their first encounter and battle against Trigon, Beast Boy decides to leave the group to assist Bunker who decides to see his recently awaken boyfriend who was in coma. Forever Evil After the departure of the two, the Titans confront Johnny Quick, a member of the Crime Syndicate to arrive from Earth-3 at the conclusion of the Trinity War event.[25] As a result the Titans got separated and tossed in the time stream. Due to this, Red Robin, Wonder Girl and Superboy were sent 20 years in the future and Red Robin decides to lead the rest to the Batcave of the future to get answers. They get there only to see that almost everything in there is destroyed, including the deaths of Batman and Alfred. Then the group is suddenly teleported to the Justice League Watchtower where Garfield, now labeled as Beast Man (and green), confronts them and informs that he is the last Justice Leaguer standing. He also shows the others that he along with Rose Wilson, is training superpowered teenagers to become a team themselves. In a private conversation with Red Robin, Gar reveals the events that led to the situation of this future as Jon Lane Kent (the son of Superman and Lois Lane of this timeline) went on rampage killing all metahumans, also states that Superboy is the clone of Jon Lane Kent, and finally tells Red Robin that his future self entrusted on him as Garfield was able to know his name, a thing that no other Titan knew, and that was all part of future Tims plan to have Garfield as the source of these informations for his past self, so he might be able to change the course of the future. After that Garfield with Roses help, rescue an injured and unconscious Jon Lane, due to a clash with Kon. Now with Jon Lane treated but still unconscious, even though Gar and Rose express their desire to kill him for all the things he has done, they put in action a plan that involves changing the places of Kon and Jon Lane as the Superboy, dressing the latter in a copy of Kons costume as an another attempt to avoid those terrible events from happening again. With the return of Red Robin and Wonder Girl, now with Raven at their side, the plan is fulfilled as the three Titans departed with Jon Lane intead of Kon. Right after they leave, Rose questions Garfield if it was the right thing to do, after stating that he puts way too much faith in the Titans, like he has always been which Gar responds: I damn well hope so Rose. I damn well hope so. It is also revealed that in this timeline Rose and Garfield are wife and husband and their daughter named Red, is one of the teens in training.[26] Powers and abilitiesEdit Beast Boy has the transformational ability to morph and transform 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).[3] 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. As a corollary to this power, he can transform back into his default form if an external force like magic transforms him into an animal. 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. As a result of his rapidly changing genetic structure and mass, Beast Boy has an increased healing factor comparable to that of The Creeper and Deathstroke, allowing him to heal from bullet wounds, burns, and broken bones in a matter of seconds, and in some story lines regrow entire limbs. He cannot change or return to a form if the space he occupies is too small and he cannot normally break the confines (as seen when he attempts to transform into a Tyrannosaurus Rex underneath a bridge and hits his head, instantly aborting the transformation). 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). He also displayed this ability once in the animated series, becoming an amoeba and multiplying into a swarm before returning to human form as a single individual. While an animal, he gains all of the physical abilities, attributes, and characteristics of said animal, such as greatly enhanced superhuman strength (a gorilla), superhuman speed (a cheetah), and enhanced durability (a turtle), and abilities such as flight (various birds), and aquatic breathing (various fish). He can even gain the specific poisons and toxins 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. In the early comics, his coloration would change to that appropriate to the animal form he had taken, with only his head remaining green. Beast Boy has also shown the ability more than once to transform into alien animals, including sentient species such as the Gordanians.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:01:30 +0000
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