Teen Titans: 30 Things Only True DC Fans Know About Beast Boy

When DC comic fans think of Teen Titans member Beast Boy, a few things come to mind immediately. He’s got green skin, a healthy sense of humor, a love for animals, and Terra betrayed him. Garfield Mark Logan, affectionately known as Gar to his teammates, has a lot more going for him than just those four points. Since those are the items that make it into so many adaptations, those are things people tend to remember first.

Gar ended up with green skin after an illness as a child. He used to look like a typical human before that. His humor often covers up his fear in tough situations. That love for animals has its origin in not only being able to turn into animals, but also in the fact that his parents were scientists who studied animals on the verge of extinction. As for Terra betraying him? That iconic Teen Titans comic book story has since been adapted for multiple animated versions of the Teen Titans. Terra wasn’t Gar’s only relationship, and she didn’t just betray him, but also the entire team, when she revealed herself as working for Slade Wilson.

Gar made his comic book debut more than fifty years ago, so there’s plenty more where those details came from. We’ve examined his days in animation and gone all the way back to his comic book origin to bring together a set of facts for superfans.

With that said, here are the 30 Things Only True DC Fans Know About Beast Boy.

30 Green Monkeys Create His Origin Story

Beast Boy wasn’t born with the ability to change into animals. Instead, that ability came from an experience with West African Green Monkeys. Depending on what medium you examine, the effect of the Green Monkey is a little different.

In the comics, young Gar contracted a rare disease the monkeys were immune to. His father injected him with a serum to actually change him into a monkey, hoping it would help him fight it off. It did, but the effect stayed with him, allowing him to turn into animals. In the animated series, it was the Green Monkeys that actually infected him! The serum that saved him gave him shapeshifting powers.

29 Fans Have A Green Monkey Theory

With the origin story for Beast Boy’s powers being slightly different in the animated series, fans came up with a theory. Why would the Green Monkeys in the series provide an illness in the animation that they were immune to in the comics? Fans think the Green Monkeys are a product of Green Kryptonite.

Kryptonite has long affected different beings in vastly different ways in the comics. Fans postulate that the Green Monkeys evolved to deal with the Green Kryptonite in their environment by being carriers of its effect. They passed the disease onto Gar. That’s why, despite the serum working in the animated series, he still retains that green color.

28 He Has A Familiar Birthday

When Teen Titans Go aired, the series celebrated Beast Boy’s’ birthday for an episode. His big day lands in November, which was a very specific choice. The animators chose November as a nod to the characters “birth” in the comics.

Garfield Mark Logan made his first appearance on the pages of DC comics in November of 1965. He first popped up in an issue of Doom Patrol before later becoming a member of the Teen Titans. Despite so much being changed from the comics to fit with the animation style, it was a way for the team to honor his comic book history.

27 He’s Not The First Beast Boy

Gar might have taken on the name Beast Boy, but he wasn’t the first character to do it. In 1964, Adventure Comics featured a Legion of Superheroes story. In it, they debuted a character named Beast Boy from the planet Lallor. A superhero who became a villain, this Beast Boy was nothing like the one fans would get to know the next year.

Once Gar made his debut in November 1965, writers dispatched the other Beast Boy. His last issue was in December 1965, where he reformed his villainous ways just before he met his end.

26 He’s Been Five Dozen Animals

With an ability to turn into whatever animal springs to mind, Gar has millions, if not billions, of options. He’s changed his body into different animals in the comics and both animated series. In animation alone, Gar used more than 60 different animals.

He has his favorites – like the tyrannosaurus rex and various species of cat. He chooses an animal based on the situation he’s in. One unique feature, though, is that he doesn’t have to be just one. If he chooses to turn into insects, he can become an entire swarm of bugs like bees or fireflies.

25 Doom Patrol Saved Him

The animated series gave fans an interesting take on the superhero family Doom Patrol. There, Gar was a fan. He wanted to be a member of their team, so he broke into their house to prove himself. The comics told that story a bit differently.

In the comics, Gar lost his parents in a boating accident at a young age. He was assigned a legal guardian, but that guardian was after Gar’s inheritance. The plan was to dispose of Gar and steal his money.  Doom Patrol saved Gar’s life and took him in, making him a family member as well as a teammate.

24 Beast Boy Goes By Many Names

Garfield Logan has been on many teams. As a result, he’s changed his codename a few times. We know him best as Beast Boy, but Gar took on four other names.

While in high school and a member of Doom Patrol, he used the alias Arsenal, though another hero would eventually pick up the name. When Gar spent time on the West Coast Titans and as a member of the Raven-led New Teen Titans, he chose the name Changeling. Alternate universes saw new names. In “Titans Tomorrow,” his ability to become more than one animal simultaneously earned him the name Animal Man. In the possible future of “Kingdom Come,” he changed his name to Menagerie.

23 He Can Gift His Powers To Others

Teen Titans Go revealed an interesting tidbit about Beast Boy’s powers – they can actually be given to another person.

A storyline in the series involved Beast Boy accidentally destroying the tower (and his friends) with an experimental canon. He gave them all a blood transfusion to save them, but also ended up sharing his powers with them. His ability to shapeshift appeared to be contained in his blood. Perhaps this occurs because Gar got his abilities as a result of an injected serum. The combination of the serum and his own biology is still swimming around in his bloodstream.

22 He Guilted Himself Into A Transformation

Gar uses a lot of different organisms in his transformations. However, a rare one is the microscopic amoeba. When Gar decided to become an amoeba, it wasn’t a normal heroic mission. Instead, a guilty conscience caused him to fix a mistake.

He got his best friend Cyborg to download a bootleg copy of a computer game into his system. Unfortunately for the duo, the copy of the game contained a computer virus that infected Cyborg’s system. When Cyborg went on a rampage throughout the city, it was Beast Boy who took responsibility, shrank down to an amoeba, and infiltrated his friend’s system to destroy the virus.

21 He Is A Vegetarian

Though plenty of the Teen Titans enjoy their burgers and fries, Gar isn’t one of them. Instead, he’s a vegetarian. Gar made the choice to become a vegetarian after he had already transformed into several different animals. He decided that if he could become animals like cows and chickens, he shouldn’t eat them.

Of course, some episodes of both animated series have mistakenly depicted him eating meat. That’s either a continuity issue on the part of the artists, or it shows that Gar breaks his own rules once in a while. Coincidentally, his voice actor Greg Cipes is a vegan.

20 His Height Changes

When we say his height changes, we don’t just mean he grows a few inches over the course of the animated series. His height varies throughout the entire show. In some episodes, he’s shorter, while in others, he’s much taller. However, there is one piece of consistency: he’s always one of the shortest members of the team.

Some fans have put the variable height down to a continuity error, but there could be another reason. It could simply be a side effect of his constant use of shapeshifting. He doesn’t go a day without changing his size or shape, which might have a more permanent effect.

19 He Has Heightened Senses

While Gar might enjoy becoming a gorilla or a rhino for a battle, he doesn’t always have to change into an animal to have more animalistic abilities. Animals like wild cats, for example, have much sharper senses when it comes to hearing, smell, and sight, than the average human. Apparently, so does Gar.

We don’t see a ton of evidence of this in the television series, but one major thing to notice is his sense of hearing. He’s able to hear an enemy approaching before anyone else. Could this be a side effect of becoming an animal so often, or another perk of the serum that saved his life? Fans may never know.

18 His Feral Form Is Special

During the run of the animated series, getting doused with a chemical attack caused Beast Boy’s ability to evolve.  He gets a new feral form. This form most resembles a werewolf and causes his strength and speed to increase. He also gets even sharper senses.

Interestingly, he doesn’t transform into his feral version very often, even though it’s pretty effective in a fight. He doesn’t like the ferocity involved. The only time he takes on the feral form is when his teammate Raven is in danger. Fans speculate that the fact that he only uses this form to protect Raven signifies how important she is to him.

17 Beast Boy Has A Lot Of Battle Experience

While many of the members of the Teen Titans aren’t necessarily battle hardened when they join up, two members have more experience than the rest. The first is Robin. As Batman’s sidekick, Robin saw more action in Gotham than most other superheroes. When everyone wants to target your boss, you get into a lot of fights.

Robin became the natural fit for team leader, but Beast Boy actually had just as much experience as he did. He got his start in heroics with the Doom Patrol. There, he was used to following the orders of his foster parents, so he was ready to be a team player when he joined the Titans.

16 He Can’t Always Talk

The Teen Titans animated series created a different rule for Beast Boy during transformations. When he became an animal, he couldn’t speak. He could only use the skills the animal actually had. So, if he happened to turn into a parrot, he could say a few words. This was actually a big difference in the comics.

In the comics, Beast Boy, as part of him retaining his own human intelligence, could speak in animal form. Teen Titans Go went back to the comic book version of his powers when it premiered.

15 Not All Of His Forms Are From Earth

Beast Boy has the ability to become any animal – and that means literally any animal. Beast Boy, as a human raised on Earth, is only familiar with animals on this planet. Typically, he chooses animals he instinctively knows. However, he doesn’t have to.

Once he’s seen animals from other planets, he can transform into those as well. He just has to have a frame of reference for them. In the comics, he does this a couple of times when traveling to new planets. Once he sees green-skinned beings called Gordanians, he’s able to transform into one to allow Robin and Cyborg to infiltrate their ranks.

14 He Learned Martial Arts

Transforming into animals gives Beast Boy a great power set. He can have claws, fangs, venom, and become as big as a house or as small as a single cell. If his powers stop working though, he’d have no way to defend himself, right? Wrong.

When he joined the Teen Titans and became friends with Robin, the team leader planned for the possibility of Beast Boy losing his transformation skill. He trained Beast Boy in various martial arts forms. Many of the team members participate in hand-to-hand combat sessions with Robin to strengthen their self defense skills in the event of power loss.

13 He Might Have Super Strength

We’ve seen evidence that Beast Boy has increased agility and heightened senses. There’s also evidence to support that he’s stronger than the usual human.

In Teen Titans Go, Beast Boy actually takes Robin’s staff from him and snaps it in half. This wouldn’t be a huge deal if it was wood or plastic. Robin’s staff, however, is made of steel. We don’t see too many instances of Beast Boy exhibiting any other kind of super strength outside of an animal form, though, so maybe this was just the animators having a little fun.

12 His Animal Forms Don’t Sleep

Beast Boy might be able to get a good night’s sleep in his human body, but as an animal, he would never be able to.

If Gar finds himself knocked out in a fight while he’s transformed into one of his favorite animals, his body eventually reverts back to its natural state. His brain has to actively control the transformation to maintain an animal shape. That means that Gar couldn’t curl up and take a cat nap as an actual cat. His body would return to normal once he fell asleep.

11 He Has Other Abilities

We all know Beast Boy for the power that gives him his name. He is one with the beasts. In some continuities, though, that’s not his only power. He has some sort of latent psychic ability as he’s often able to use the same equipment that is made for those with telekinetic or telepathic powers. In Teen Titans Go, that was actually expanded on.

In that version of the animated story, Gar eventually developed telekinesis of his own. He also spent some time traveling through time. Talk about a crazy new power.

10 He Gave Fans A Jurassic Park 3 Easter Egg

Fans of the Jurassic Park franchise witnessed an Easter egg in the animated series. The animators gave fans a reenactment of a dinosaur fight in Jurassic Park 3. At one point in the series, all of the Teen Titans found evil clones of themselves were in play. They each had to go up against their darker counterpart.

When Beast Boy had to take on his evil clone in battle, Gar transformed himself into a tyrannosaurus. Nega Beast Boy became a spinosaurus. Gar even went for his evil counterpart’s neck, almost giving fans an exact replica of the dinosaur matchup in the movie.

9 Beast Boy Has Never Been A Spinosaurus

When Beast Boy fought the clone version of himself, he faced off against some familiar animals. Nega Beast Boy only transformed into animals Beast Boy had already used on the series. There were more than 60 different animals to choose from, so Nega Beast Boy had his pick of a lot of useful fighters. He transformed into that spinosaurus, though, which was a purposeful Easter egg choice, but didn’t make sense continuity-wise.

Beast Boy had never been a spinosaurus up to that point in the series. In fact, he never transformed into one after the clone used it either. His dinosaurs of choice were the tyrannosaurus and the stegosaurus.

8 He Heals Quickly

In his feral form, Beast Boy has accelerated healing compared to the other animals he transforms into. In his normal human body in the comics, he also has pretty advanced healing capabilities.

Due to his power set, Beast Boy is able to manipulate his own cellular structure to become other animals. Because he can manipulate his body at that level, he can also lose injuries when he transforms from one stage to the next. Cuts, bruises, even broken bones mend and heal as they go from being an animal to a human. In rare cases in the comics, he’s even essentially regrown lost limbs.

7 His Body Is Covered In A Layer Of Fur

Considering that he can become any animal, has green skin, and has pointed ears, being covered in fur probably isn’t a huge shock. It wasn’t something fans knew until a prank went wrong on the animated series.

When Cyborg attempts to get revenge on Beast Boy for a prank, he fills the latter’s shampoo bottle with dye. That dye doesn’t just color the hair on Beast Boy’s head, but instead, his entire body. The reveal that Beast Boy uses shampoo for his entire body implies that there’s a layer of hair, or fur, that covers him.

6 Beast Boy And Raven Have A Specific Dynamic

If fans noticed something of a connection between Beast Boy and his teammate Raven, they weren’t alone. According to multiple interviews, the writers wanted the duo to have a very specific dynamic. Beast Boy spent a lot of his free time annoying Raven, or trying to get her to cheer up when she was feeling down. With his constant need to joke around and her grounded approach to any situation, they couldn’t help but bicker.

The two were meant to appear like an “old married couple” in their interactions. Fans never saw the duo become a romantic couple on the show, but the dynamic was a nice nod to their on-again-off-again comic book relationship.

5 The Ninja Turtle References Are For Beast Boy

A lot of comic book properties like their Easter eggs and pop culture references. Teen Titans in particular gives a lot of nods to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The two properties are not owned by the same comic book publisher or anything like that. Instead, there’s a connection between Beast Boy himself and one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Long-time Beast Boy voice actor Greg Cipes has made his mark all over animation. One of his other long time characters happens to be Michaelangelo, aka Mikey, one of the youngest of the four turtles.

4 He Speaks Some Spanish

While the initial animated series saw Beast Boy have a little trouble understanding others who spoke Spanish, the comic revealed he took Spanish as part of his high school curriculum. Teen Titans Go went a step further.

In the updated animated series, Gar was nearly fluent in Spanish. The episode “Mas Y Menos” saw Gar not only understand those speaking Spanish around him, but also able to speak it almost flawlessly. The normal comic book continuity hasn’t placed speaking other languages in Beast Boy’s skill set that we know of, but that skill could always come into play later.

3 He Likes His Old Costumes

When Beast Boy joins the Teen Titans in the animated series, he doesn’t get rid of his old Doom Patrol costume. Instead, he keeps it as his “new” team uniform. The only change he makes is getting rid of the mask. As Raven makes clear to him, heroes wear masks to hide their identity. Beast Boy’s identity is obvious since there aren’t many people on Earth with green skin and pointy ears. Cyborg also thought the mask was “goofy,” sealing his decision.

Likewise, when he joins a new version of the Titans in the comics in a 2008 run, he actually has a new costume based on the old design of his Changeling uniform.

2 He Used To Be An Actor

While we don’t see this backstory in the animated series, in the comics Beast Boy put his green skin to use working as an actor. Before he joined the Teen Titans, Gar made a living in Hollywood starring as an alien. He played a character in the fictional series Space Trek: 2020. The show was intended to be a rip off of Star Trek, but also of Space: 1999. The comics used that idea to explain the series cancellation as well when the show was threatened with a lawsuit.

Gar actually had a lot of Hollywood connections and used them between his stints on different iterations of the Titans to find more acting work.

1 He Can Turn Into Mythical Creatures

Some stories featuring Gar have the character reveal he can only shapeshift into “real” animals, but not every continuity abides by that rule. In the original animated series, he stuck to that rule. In Teen Titans Go, he managed to turn himself into a dragon. Likewise, in the comics, he managed to turn into a phoenix. Unless dragons and phoenixes were real after all, we’ll consider that a broken rule twice over.

Of course, in another continuity altogether, mythical creatures were his specialty. In the “Titans Tomorrow” story, Beast Boy was known as Animal Man. He only chose mythic beasts for his transformations.

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Did you learn anything new? Or were you already an expert on Teen Titans’ resident Beast Boy? Let us know in the comments.

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