Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He has also gone under the alias Changeling. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Bob Brown, he is a shapeshifter who possesses the ability to metamorph into any animal he chooses. The character first appeared in Doom Patrol #99 (November 1965) and is usually depicted as a member of the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans.
Beast Boy has appeared in numerous cartoon television shows, TV, and films, including as one of the Teen Titans in Cartoon Network's eponymous series, voiced by Greg Cipes. Gar Logan made his live adaptation debut in the DC Universe and HBO Max series Titans, played by Ryan Potter. Beast Boy will appear in Beast Boy: Lone Wolf.
Publication history
The first DC Comics shapeshifter named Beast Boy, unrelated to Garfield Logan, first appeared in the Legion of Super-Heroes feature in Adventure Comics #324 (September 1964). He was one of the young super-heroes of the planet Lallor, who turned villain and was killed off in #339 (December 1965), just after Garfield Logan's first appearance in the November 1965 issue of Doom Patrol. This Beast Boy was allowed a last-minute reformation and heroic death.
Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Bob Brown, the Garfield Logan with whom readers would become more familiar made his first appearance in Doom Patrol #99 (November 1965).
Beast Boy started out as an impolite teen who spoke his mind and wouldn't do what he was told. Drake explained that "we wanted to have a character who could assume many different animal forms, and also wanted a kid in the strip, someone the kids could relate to. They were starting to talk back to their elders. They were starting to make their elders earn their respect. So Beast Boy was an attempt to picture what I thought was happening among some of the young people."
Fictional character biography
As a young child, Garfield Logan lived with his scientist parents in Africa, who were developing "reverse evolution" to bring back extinct creatures. He received a certain amount of abuse from his parents, consequently becoming increasingly reclusive. Garfield contracted a rare illness called Sakutia, which is lethal to every species except the West African green monkey. To save his life, his father used an untested science experiment to change him into a West African green monkey for 24 hours so that the virus could die out. The serum had the unintended effect of permanently turning his skin, eyes, and hair green and granting him the ability to metamorph into any animal of his choice, which also shared his pigmentation. His parents later died in a boating accident; to this day, Garfield believes he could have prevented their deaths. After he is rescued from two kidnappers who 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. Galtry realizes that his embezzlement from the Logan estate will be exposed when Garfield reaches maturity and receives his inheritance, and thus plots to kill Garfield. The villains he hires to kill Garfield are stopped by the Doom Patrol; Elasti-Girl and her husband Steve Dayton expose Galtry's embezzlement and adopt Garfield. Garfield later joins the Doom Patrol. His uniform includes a purple cowl, and he takes the code name Beast Boy. During his tenure 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 (then using the alias "Arsenal"), the relationship dissolves. Later, Beast Boy is deeply affected by the deaths of the Doom Patrol.
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, but it is soon cancelled due to lawsuits from both Star Trek and Space: 1999. During its run, Garfield joins the West Coast team of the Teen Titans (known as Titans West) and is later part of the New Teen Titans assembled by Dick Grayson (Robin) and Raven. By this time, Garfield has taken the name Changeling. This name change 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 Gar's ex-guardian Nicholas Galtry, mocked the name "Beast Boy" so much that he ruined it for him. He remains with various incarnations of the team and forms a close friendship with Cyborg.