Current Events
Ravagers
Beast Boy appears during The Culling Prelude in the pages of Superboy. He is now red-skinned and has shaggy hair. He is part of the team The Ravagers which has ties to the mysterious organisationN.O.W.H.E.R.E.. Whether he is part of this team willingly or not is still to be confirmed. His skill set has not been confirmed to be the same as before DC's New 52 event. His memories of his life before N.O.W.H.E.R.E. are missing.
After escaping the Culling, he and Terra left the group to strike out on their own. Beast Boy had a dream about a figure known as Brother Blood before he awoke in a cave alongside Terra. Following this dream, he sought out the other kids from the colony, but Terra stopped to eat and they were confronted by the shopowner. After they intimidated them, he had another vision and urged Terra to press forward. Following the trail of Caitlin Fairchild and the others, he encountered a number of Blood's followers about to perform an involuntary sacrifice of several victims. He managed to stop them and continued to the church to save the others. While Terra releases the others, he fights Brother Blood who seeks to use him as a key to the Red. They manage to escape to Los Angeles where they meet up with Niles Caulder and then Superboy.
Exploring Caulder's base in civies, he shows them to the Arena, a room where they can better themselves at combat, but it dredges forth memories of the Colony. They leave him behind and continue to travel through the base until Thunder goes into seizure and loses control of his powers. Fairchild and Caulder, with the help of Superboy, manage to subdue Thunder and treat him while Beast Boy and his companions watch on. Beast Boy assures Terra that there is an 'us' coming together, referring to the team. After discovering that there's a kill chip in Thunder's brain, and likely theirs, as well as that there's at least 18 other Colonies that they decide to take out.
Rotworld
In Rotworld, Beast Boy has managed to survive the the spread of the Rot thanks to his connection to the Red, and seems to be the only remaining member of the Ravagers. He assisted Black Orchid and Steel in rescuingAnimal Man from the turned Hawkman. They then took him back to the stronghold of the Red where they come under attack by an army of Rotlings and Felix Faust. During the battle, Beast Boy tears off the rotted Grifter'shead and talks of mounting it on his trophy wall. He agrees to join Animal Man in taking the fight to Arcane. During their trek, they encounter Grodd and his army. They are saved by Frankenstein and his comrades and head towards Metropolis during which Beast Boy has claimed Mallah's hat and ammo belt as trophies. WithinMetropolis, they find and free Medphyll, who was trapped beneath the city.
They ended up fighting Blackbriar Thorn and then another band of Rotlings to gain access to the Green Lantern's Power Battery, which he uses to destroy the Rotlings. Proceeding to Arcane's fortress, they find themselves facing the members of the Justice League who have been consumed by the Rot. They unite withSwamp Thing and forces from Gotham, and are soon joined by Shepherd and the Warriors of the Redlands.
In direct confrontation with Arcane, Animal Man was injured but Beast Boy managed to catch him as he fell back to earth. As Animal Man is too weak to tap into the Red, Beast Boy offers himself as a conduit, and Animal Man drains him off his connection before going to stop Arcane, allowing Swamp Thing to detonate the bomb to destroy the Rotlings. He is last seen in the arms of Frankenstein, appearing drained but not definitively dead.
Origin
Biologists Mark and Marie Logan took their two year old son Garfield with them to the African country of Upper Lamumba, where they were conducting research on genetic codes. Gar came down with a rare tropical disease that was believed only animals could survive. In a desperate move to save his son, Professor Logan treated Gar with an untested machine which he originally developed to isolate the common genetic bond shared between humans and animals.
Gar managed to recover, but a side effect turned his skin green. A few years later, Marie Logan was threatened by a deadly Black Mamba snake, and Gar's desire to rescue his mother brought forth his powers, changing him into a mongoose. Several years later, his parents died in a boating accident, an incident which Gar still feels he could have prevented. After the death of his parents, Gar was raised by King Tawaba, a friend of the Logans and chief of the local tribe. Mobu, the tribe's witch doctor, had hated the Logans so much that he arranged for two Americans to kill Gar in exchange for Mobu revealing the whereabouts of a temple containing fabulous treasure. The temple collapsed and killed Mobu, but the two American looters rescued Gar and brought him back to the U.S. in order to force him to commit crimes for them. The two men eventually killed each other, and the courts set out to appoint a legal guardian for Gar.
It was decided that Gar's guardian would be Nicholas Galtry, an evil man who was the attorney for the Logan estate. While the young Logan was missing in Africa, Galtry had embezzled funds from Gar's inheritance. When Gar was found, Galtry plotted to kill the boy and have all the wealth for himself.
Creation
Beast Boy was created by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown
Character Evolution
Modern Age: New Earth
Gar hated Galtry, but things took a change for the better when he met Rita Farr, also known as Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol, and Steve Dayton, also known as Mento. Gar tried to join the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans, but was rejected from both groups because he needed his guardian's permission; Galtry was not aware of Gar's identity as Beast Boy. A bitter Gar happened upon an evil circus owner who immediately used Gar as his star attraction and thief. A hypnotized Beast Boy, in the shape of an albino baboon, mesmerized the crowds into turning over their money and jewels. The Teen Titans discovered the ruse and, after battling Gar as a giant gorilla/boa-constrictor, put an end to the criminal activities.
Eventually, Gar began working alongside the Doom Patrol, so Galtry secured the services of various villains in attempts to kill Gar and the Doom Patrol. Once Rita Farr and Steve Dayton were married, the couple adopted Gar as their son after winning a court battle against Nicholas Galtry.
Post-Flashpoint: Earth-0
The new 52 version of Beast Boy was introduced in The Cullingcrossover. His fur color has been switched from green to red allegedly to link him with The Red. He is set to be a part of the new Ravagers team.
In the origin issue, it was revealed that he had been with at least Rita and Niles as well as seemingly normal before he was captured by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. By activating his latent metagene,Harvest and Non triggered his change and the development of his powers as well as the loss of many of his memories. Initially unable to determine the source of his powers, they began to run experiments on him that ultimately proved fruitless. He was dumped into the Colony alongside the others, where he initially clashed with Fistpoint who had been in a cell next to his. Terra came to his rescue, but warned him to dig deep or else he wouldn't survive. When he was about to be thrown into the gladitorial Pit, she came to his rescue again and was tossed in in his place. He managed to use his powers to save her and they presumably formed a bond from there.
Major Story Arcs
Modern Age: New Earth
After Doom Patrol
Gar was allowed to work alongside the Doom Patrol and served well until the Patrol was killed by Madame Rouge and General Zahl. Needing a change of scenery and wanting more from his life, Gar left home and traveled to Hollywood where he became an actor in the television show Space Trek, 2022, playing an alien metamorph named Tork. Both Gar's acting ability and the show itself were less than stellar, and soon Gar found himself out of a job and looking for a place to stay.
Out of work after the series cancellation, Gar was reunited with his high-school girlfriend, Jillian Jackson, only to have the criminal known as Arsenal return and kidnap her. Trailing the armored villain to his castle hideout, Beast Boy discovered that the Arsenal was actually his former guardian, Galtry, who had hired the original Arsenal to eliminate the Doom Patrol and who had now usurped that costumed criminal's identity himself. His goal was to hold Jillian for ransom and regain the money he had lost when Gar Logan's guardianship had been taken from him. Gar was unable to attain the needed ransom money. Galtry then left him trapped in an airtight room while he attempted to get the ransom paid by Jillian's father instead. Escaping, Beast Boy battled Galtry/Arsenal, shattered the villain's armored costume, and defeated him.
Titans West
While on the West Coast, Gar became a member of Titans West. By that time, the human face portion of Gar's animal transformations was beginning to fade. His powers began to change him into all-green versions of animals, each with its appropriate face. However, Beast Boy's shape changing duration was now directly related to the size of the animal assumed: the smaller the animal, the longer he could stay that way; the larger the animal, the less time the shape could be kept, and the weaker Gar became, requiring more time between transformations. Eventually this would not be a problem.
Teen Titans
After changing his name to Changeling on the advice of his public relations team, Gar became an official member of the New Teen Titans. Gar’s adopted father Dayton continued to perfect his helmet and helped out the Doom Patrol, until their deaths at the hands of Madame Rouge and General Zahl. Dayton vowed vengeance and spent much time and money in search of his wife's killers only to be captured by them. Several months after Dayton's disappearance, Gar Logan, now Changeling, asked Robotman to help him find Mento. The two old friends, plus Gar's new friends, the Teen Titans, rescued Mento from General Zahl and Madame Rouge; both villains died in the ensuing battle.
As a member of the New Teen Titans, Gar often felt insecure compared to the other older, more confident members. He often masked this insecurity with humor. Gar also forged a close friendship with fellow Titan, Vic Stone ( Cyborg) due to them both looking different, the two quickly became best friends. Changeling's time with the Titans has had its rough spots. He fell in love with Terra, a sociopathic teenaged girl who was working for the Titan’s arch nemesis Deathstroke the Terminator. Terra pretended to like Gar while she infiltrated the Titans. After Terra died in battle, Gar went berserk with grief and sought revenge against the Terminator. Gar refused to acknowledge Terra's duplicity until he learned from the Terminator that it was Terra who had killed King Tawaba.
Gar’s ex-girlfriend Jillian Jackson returned from boarding school in Europe and re-entered Gar's life. She was able to ease some of his loneliness and bitterness following the death of Terra, they resumed their romantic relationship. Sometime later, Gar's adopted father, Steve Dayton confined himself to a wheelchair and began using a combination of his mental powers and Promethium to create this new Doom Patrol, which he called the Hybrid. The demented Dayton blamed Gar for the original Patrol's deaths, and used the Hybrid to attack Gar and the Titans. After a series of battles, Raven cured Dayton of his dementia and his cancer. Steve and Gar have resumed their father and son relationship, but Dayton forbade Gar from participating in any more of the Titans' adventures until his grades improved. Gar began to attend public school and took a leave of absence from the Titans.
Titans Hunt
Shortly after this, current and former members of the Titans were hunted and captured by the Wildebeest Society, for unknown reasons. The remaining Titans Nightwing and Troia (along with new allies Arella,Phantasm, Pantha, Red Star and Deathstroke) found the Wildebeest lair and ultimately destroyed the Wildebeest Society. This event is catalogued as "Titans Hunt." During the Titans Hunt, Cyborg was nearly destroyed, Titans Tower was totally demolished, and Raven seemingly perished. Also, in order to defeat the society, Deathstroke was forced to slay his own son, Jericho, who was tainted by Trigon's evil years ago through Raven.
As the Titans recovered from the event of Titans Hunt, exposure to the Mento helmet unleashed a new side of Gar – a new darker side. Instead of taking the form of normal animals found in nature, Gar began to shape shift into strange demonic creatures – and found himself liking it.
Everyone has a dark side
Raven later returned as a leather-clad evil avatar of Trigon; She planted ‘Trigon seeds' in Changeling, Supergirl, Magenta, Deathwing, and Thunder and Lightning. Under Raven's influence, Changeling attacked the Titans and helped Raven recruit other vessels to implant her seeds. He was totally loyal to evil Raven and could transform himself in demon monsters. He found humans for Raven as she wanted but she told him humans were not as strong as they needed to be to support the seed. She tried to implant a seed once in a girl but she exploited. So she found out she needed the Titans (because they were stronger than simple humans) . Eventually, Raven and her demon allies came into conflict with the Titans. With the help of Phantasm, the Titans finally destroyed this evil incarnation of Raven (or so they thought). Gar was brought to S.T.A.R. Labs, where he could be purged of the ‘Trigon seed' that lay inside him.
Vic Stone - now known as Cyberion [he would later go back to Cyborg] after merging with the planet Technis - was reunited with his former teammates as Raven returned to destroy her good self (which lay dormant in the body of Starfire, who had returned to Tamaran). To ferret out Starfire, evil Raven incited a conflict in the Vegan star system. As a result, Tamaran was destroyed along with the Technis. During the conflict, Gar was able to free himself from the ‘Trigon seed.' Since being purged of the demonic seed, Gar returned to shape shifting into normal animals, rather than demonic creatures.
The Titans were able to destroy evil Raven utterly, and restore good Raven into a new spiritual golden body. Starfire decided to rebuild her culture on a new planet; Raven, Minion and Garfield Logan elected to remain in space as traveling companions to Victor Stone, Cyberion.
Homecoming
Frightened by Cyberion's total embrace of technology, Gar left his friend and returned to earth. Having collected a planet-size assortment of technological debris, Cyberion journeyed to Earth to turn its moon into a new Technis world and populate it with his Titans allies. The JLA and the Titans (including Gar) first clashed, then united, to prevent Cyberion from destroying the planet while saving Vic's soul and downloading it into Minion's morphing battlesuit, the Omegadrome.
Fresh start in L.A.
The original five Titans (Nightwing, Flash, Arsenal, Donna Troy and Tempest) then decided to re-form the team. Changeling was asked to join, but he declined; Gar decided to find his way in the world on his own. He did return to aid the team during a conflict with the H.I.V.E. and Tartarus.
Gar left the team to once again pursue his acting career. But he found his life in Hollywood was less than stellar. In Hollywood, it seemed that everyone recognized Gar Logan by his old code-name, Beast Boy. Since then, Gar has gone back to that code-name, whether he likes it or not. Gar was also framed for murder by Gemini, the daughter of Madame Rouge. Gar was cleared with the help of Nightwing and Flamebird.
Later, Gar's obnoxious cousin Matt took it upon himself to hold a membership drive party for an all-new Titans West. Gar reluctantly agreed to have the team re-form, and Titans West was re-dubbed Titans L.A. - with members that included Beast Boy, Flamebird, Herald, Bumblebee, Terra, Hero Cruz, Captain Marvel Jr. andBushido. But Titans L.A. was over before it even began, No one had any real devotion to the team. Beast Boy once again found himself at loose ends.
Mentor to the new Teen Titans
Shortly afterward, a mysterious android from the future known as Indigo attacked the Titans and Young Justice, resulting in the apparent deaths of Troia and Omen. At Troia's funeral, Nightwing disbanded this version of the Titans. Meanwhile, members of Young Justice, especially Wonder Girl, felt responsible for the tragic deaths. This led Wonder Girl, Robin, Impulse and Superboy to form a new group of Teen Titans under the guidance of the more experienced Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy.
Beast Boy found himself acting as the mediator between the older and younger Titans, a role he readily accepted. Upon rescuing a reborn Raven from the clutches of the new Brother Blood, Beast Boy discovered a burgeoning attraction to his former teammate.
But before Raven and Gar could fully explore their relationship, Beast Boy was called upon to help the Doom Patrol in Prague. With the Titans in disarray after the events of the Infinite Crisis, Beast Boy elected to remain with the Doom Patrol - for the time being.
Recently Beast Boy took the leadership of the Teen Titans with Cassie. Before go with the Teen Titans he asked Raven to go with him but she refused to do it. Beast Boy noticed something was happening to her and he consoled her saying she "as alone as she chooses to be".
His leadership was not take seriously by his teammates. He fought with Cassie just because she considered his feelings for Raven too dangerous for the safety of the team. The Wyldattacked the Titans Tower to kidnap Raven. The Titans were in problems but Beast boy preferred to save Raven instead of help his other friends who were in serious problems.
Beast Boy lately demonstrates his feelings towards Raven openly. He even stared at her while she is sleeping but she doesn't want to have a relationship with him. Raven was kidnapped by the Wild and Beast boy with the other Titans are in another dimension to rescue her. His love for her gets a bit insane at some points. He would give his life to save her and wouldn't about it twice.
Titans Together! Again!
After reclaiming Titans Island on the East River, Cyborg set out to create an East Coast Titans team. But the team was brutally massacred by an unseen evil force. Soon, Titans members past and present were attacked by demonic entities across the globe. Raven, sensing Trigon's presence once again, called upon her former Titans allies to defeat her fiendish father.
But after investigating, the Titans learned that Trigon himself was not behind the attacks. The bestial assaults were actually orchestrated by Raven's three half brothers Jacob, Jared and Jesse. Working together as a team, the Titans thwarted the Sons of Trigon and prevented Trigon's invasion plan. Following this adventure, Beast Boy decided to join his former teammates - and the Titans were together as a team once again.
But soon the elder Titans group begins to dissolve as the members leave for one reason or another, leaving Beast Boy with essentially no where else to go. But when he notices that the Teen Titans are struggling, Beast Boy takes the initiative to return to the team and become their leader. However the members of that team, such as Blue Beetle, resent this and make it well known that they do not want him to be their leader at all.
Powers and Abilities
Shapeshifting
Beast Boy has the ability to morph into any animal he knows of. He can change into extinct animals and even animals on different planets. When he changes the changes only take a couple of seconds. It doesn't matter how big or small. He can change from a tick to a T-Rex in seconds. It puts no strain on him to do this. He can stay in an animals form indefinitely. He can take on the shape of animals without limbs as well, such as snakes or worms. Two times he has changed into multiple animals such as a swarm of fireflies and a group of barnacles. When he changes into an animal he gains all of that animals abilities, such as the sonar of a bat, or the strength of a elephant, the speed of a cheetah. Following the reboot, he has gained the ability to take on numerous animals aspects at a time including antenna, a tail, and scales.
Beast Boy has been shown to shape shift into demonic animals when under the influence of Trigon. Beast Boy can also change into a hybrid, a creature that possesses the powers of all animals rolled into one. He can't control this so he doesn't turn into it unless absolutely necessary.
Poisons
He can even gain poison-generating abilities from animals, such as the venom of a snake or spider. While in his animal forms he is capable of speech, and he keeps his intelligence and humanity. The only problem is no matter what form he takes, the animals skin and hair color will always be green. This stops him from hiding in plain sight.
Other Versions
Titans Tomorrow
In Titans Tomorrow, Garfield takes on a more animal-like form. He doesn't take showers and has uncontrollable fur grow around his face. This Garfield has the ability to multiply while in animal form. Such as when he grew into two bulls. Or a group of spiders. This can be done by utilizing an amoeba's power while in a different animals form.
Earth-22
In the alternate world of Earth-22, Beast Boy adopts the name Changeling again, and his power adapts to such an extent that he can no longer shape-shift into ordinary everyday creatures, but into mythological creatures. He is a member of Batman's Legion. It is unknown if he survived the climactic nuclear explosion. Forms he is shown in include a Jabberwock and Tars Tarkas from Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars". His permanent form is described in supplementary material as being "is inspired by the winged monkeys from The Wizard of Oz and Dr. Seuss' Grinch."
Teen Titans GO!
This Beast Boy follows the Teen Titans animated series.
Tiny Titans
Beast Boy is in love with Terra, but Terra doesn't like him and hits him with a rock when ever his around her.
Other Media
Television
Teen Titans
Beast Boy appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Greg Cipes. In the series, Beast Boy plays the role of the lighthearted jokester of the group, though often the butt of many jokes himself. He wears his old black and purple Doom Patrol uniform, complete with gray gloves and purple sneakers. He has the ability to transform into any animal he chooses, just like his comic counterpart. Of the five Titans, Beast Boy and Starfire are the only members whose real name, Garfield and Koriand'r is explicitly stated.
Beast Boy is generally portrayed as a carefree, scatter-brained and immature individual. He is prone to making jokes only he laughs at, and generally displays few intellectual-based interests and little sense of tact. Beast Boy's closest friend among his teammates is Cyborg, with whom he shares a passion for video games and movies. They are prone to quarreling, especially about their diverging tastes in food; Beast Boy is a vegan. He tries many times to bring his teammates around to veganism, but never succeeds.
Like in the comics, Beast Boy had a romantic relationship with Terra. As in the comic book, she betrayed the Teen Titans and allied with Slade. Ultimately, she receives redemption in helping the Titans defeat Slade; however, she is turned to stone in the process. In a departure from the comic book, Beast Boy retains strong feelings for Terra.
In the final episode Things Change, Beast Boy encounters a girl who closely resembled Terra, though it is unclear whether or not it was the real Terra, apparently suffering from amnesia. She does show hints of remembering when she tells Beast Boy that things were never the way he remembers. This is what makes him give up on her. Besides Terra, Beast Boy has no romantic connections with any other girls in the series, though he does share a love-hate relationship with Raven and they two have a number of sweet moments throughout the series, eventually becoming close friends.
In the Season 3 episode The Beast Within, Beast Boy is doused with an experimental DNA compound, giving him a new, uncontrollable Werewolf form. Despite being cured at the end of the episode, The End: Part 1shows he can still use it, but apparently avoids doing so unless the situation is dire enough to warrant it.
Season 5 of Teen Titans focuses on Beast Boy a great deal, as it deals with his history as a member of the animated series' incarnation of the Doom Patrol. Until Homecoming, in which his former teammates make a guest appearance, Beast Boy was the only member of the Doom Patrol to appear on the show. In the second episode of the fifth season, Beast Boy becomes the first male Titan in the series to be explicitly referred to by his real name. In Titans Together, Beast Boy leads Herald, Jericho, Pantha, and Más on an assault on the Brotherhood of Evil and showed his abilities as a competent and accomplished leader during their infiltration and subsequent assault. He remains the leader even after other Titans such as Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven join the fight, and only stands down from leadership when Robin is thawed.
When he was younger, Beast Boy fell ill due to being bitten by a green monkey. To save him, his parents' attempts to cure him resulted in his shapechanging abilities. They later died in a flood, leaving Beast Boy as an orphan. Afterward, determined to join Doom Patrol, he broke into their headquarters. He was treated as an intruder, but his effort to escape capture impressed them, thus earning his membership on the team.
Young Justice
A human Garfield Logan makes an appearance on the Young Justice episode "Image" voiced by Logan Grove. He is shown running the Logan Reserve on the Bialya and Qurac border with his mother Marie Logan (whom Miss Martian based her Earth form on). In the episode, he is severely injured duringQueen Bee's attack and in need of a blood transfusion. Miss Martian shape-shifts to his blood type on the cellular level and saves his life with a blood transfusion from her. Following the blood transfusion his eye color changes from blue to green. At the end of the episode Queen Bee places him under her thrall to blackmail Miss Martian.
In the sequel series, Young Justice: Invasion, Gar is now a main character and a member of the team under the name Beast Boy. His skin color and shapeshifting powers are due to the blood transfusion he received from M'gann. He has a close bond with her, who treats him like a younger brother. In the episode "Earthlings," it is revealed that Beast Boy joined the team after his mother was murdered by Queen Bee. The incident traumatized young Garfield to the extent that he suffers a mental breakdown upon seeing a waterfall similar to the one where his mother was killed.
Beast Boy is significantly younger than his comic counterpart, and is the youngest member of the team. He also prefers to stay in a human/monkey hybrid form most of the time, which results in him having a tail and fur.
Video Games
Teen Titans
Beast Boy is one of the 5 playable characters in the game, his powers revolve around him changing into different animals for varying effects, e.g. a rhino and a bull to charge at an opponent or a monkey to throw bananas at an opponent, among many other animals.
Beast Boy will be a playable character in Young Justice: Legacy.
Creators thoughts and views on Gar
Marv Wolfman on Beast Boy
How Gar fit in with the Titans
"Raven was shy and introverted and found it difficult to confide in others. Starfire was outgoing and pure, lusty emotion. Wonder Girl, once again, was directly in the middle. The same kind of triangle was created for the guys. Robin, later Nightwing, was the level-headed and capable leader who, because he was kept on a tight leash by Batman, often felt inadequate for the task at hand. He also had a need to prove himself to Batman. Because everyone in his life had died on him, Changeling believed he had very little to offer anyone and covered it up with an outward bravado. Cyborg was a logical scientist type who rejected that approach to become an angry young man. Nightwing's logical approach to life and anger toward his "parent" was shared by Cyborg while his feelings of inadequacy were shared by Changeling. Cyborg and Changeling had also been physically altered by their parents, and that helped bring them together."
"The characters were created so they would play off each other, but they were still only words on paper. They needed to have real life breathed into them. That happened when George Pérez came onto the scene."
Marv Wolfman talks about Gar Logan from Comics Journal #79-80 - 1983
Gar's Powers
DECKER: Can Gar Logan change into absolutely anything and use his animal form for convenience?
WOLFMAN: No. If I understand the character correctly, in terms of his powers, and that's picking up off the Doom Patrol stuff, he can only change into animals. Yes, I know the next question is, ‘Can he change into a person because a person is an animal?"
DECKER: It would have to be a green person, though.
WOLFMAN: It would have to be a green person.
DECKER: He could probably do Brainiac 5.
WOLFMAN: Yeah, I would tend to doubt it. I would rather keep him as an animal. The original serum that his real father, Mark Logan, created was to solely tie in the genetic code between humans and animals. I assume that's the only shape he could take. Yes, we have him turning into a Gordanian in issue 24, 25. Some levels, I'll extend myself, but I won't have him turn into other people.
DECKER: Well, there was one scene where he was turning into animals that didn't even exist that were supposed to be projections of his mind.
WOLFMAN: Yeah, he was going insane at that particular time, and he normally could nor do that. I've since established, because even there I thought it was getting out of hand, that he can't do anything very large and stay in that size or even shape-change afterward very easily. It would be several days before he could make a shape-change after becoming a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which I'll probably never do again. I'd rather keep it small. I have to ask myself after I've made a mistake like that, where the mass comes from. I'll accept where the mass goes, like when he turns into an insect, but I don't see how he could become a Tyrannosaurus. So I'm going to try to avoid that in the future. That's again, the learning process. If you stick to the past solely because it's been done, I think you hurt yourself in the long run. You have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the characters, and work around that and adapt your characters to their strengths and weaknesses.
Gar's Personality
WOLFMAN: Well, Changeling is young, and we don't have a lot of winners in the group, which is bothersome to me, outside of Wonder Girl, Starfire - Cyborg is getting there. Changeling puts on a big pretense because he wants to be like the others. He is three years younger than Cyborg and there is a difference between 16 and 18, where there isn't much between 18 and 25. So he's pretty much a braggart about most of the stuff he says. His romantic escapades are pure fiction. The Changeling mini-series story is the only one where I go out of my way to show that what he says isn't really what happens. But that's been my attitude from the very beginning. What he's been saying for a 16-year-old kid is totally outrageous. And if it weren't for the fact that everyone knew he was just talking through his hat and that he's 16, they wouldn't put up with it.
MacDONALD: If he's only 16, why doesn't he go to school?
WOLFMAN: He does. We haven't shown it yet. It's one of the problems of moving the stories along as quickly as we have, we haven't lingered as much. I've tried to make no story last more than three issues, usually two issues, and one of the problems has been in not showing their private life enough. At least these characters have private lives. Very often in the team books, you don't know what they do outside. We have to do a little bit more on Changeling and we have, to do a little bit more on Wonder Girl. We're starting Wonder Girl now, finally. We're moving her. In issue #30, Terry Long proposes to her and we are going to be doing some changes in her soon.
MacDONALD: And the guy who was running Changeling's father's company seemed to be coming to Changeling for advice...
WOLFMAN: The Questor character. The father was gone and by rights, by whatever they set up, Changeling was the next one to agree to things and he didn't want to.
MacDONALD: Well, for a 16 year old kid...
WOLFMAN: I have to tell you, some of the stuff that we did in the very early issues I would love to forget because there were a lot of mistakes. You learn the characters as you go on, and you work out the story structure. You become more familiar with writing each character. I'd love to forget that happened. I'd love to forget that Starfire learned the language by kissing Robin [laughter]. It made things too convenient. But I don't mind that they are there, and I wouldn't edit them our, but I don't think I'll refer to a lot of that stuff ever again.
Limitations
MacDONALD: What possible rationalization is there that Changeling cannot change into a human?
WOLFMAN: The fact that the people who created Changeling said that? [laughter]
MacDONALD: There is none?
WOLFMAN: There is none. George and I have talked about this and said that even if he could turn into a human, he'd turn into a human who was green, so unless he was becoming the Hulk, it wouldn't make much sense. We'd rather just keep it to animals, for whatever reason. He was bitten by a monkey and he was injected with this monkey juice [general laughter].
Hey, we didn't create him. The only thing I wanted to do when I used him was to change his name because I though Beast Boy was a really stupid name, and to handle the character for fun, with the underlying problems that he has, because he had this really awful origin. Every set of parents he ever had were killed. So we try to avoid that and put that away and say he only turns into animals and the larger the animal, the fewer changes he could make because it tires him out faster, but those are things that came about later.
George and I didn't think in those terms. We had him turning into dinosaurs and all sorts of things in the early issues and he keeps changing into stuff. Later on, we decided that we would only allow him to change into certain mass and at that point, if it's too large, he can't make another change for 24 hours or until he recuperates. So again, these are things you learn. All series do that. I mean, in The X-Men, Moira MacTaggart began as a housekeeper and now she's a doctor, so you get a complete change and it's probably better for the strip. But you have to do those things.
More thoughts on Gar
MacDONALD: What about Changeling?
WOLFMAN: Changeling will probably undergo the biggest change [laughter] because of what happens with Terra. We will probably be bringing back his old girlfriend. Despite the fact that I've had Changeling serious at times, I've been playing him more as a punctuation mark or point to the joke. And he's been there to serve whatever I needed for that panel. As opposed to being more realistic in a superhero vein. So we'll be making slow changes with him based on the Terra storyline. And he won't be spouting off constantly, every line won't be a Woody Allen one-liner or whatever else. We're trying to lace that with some sensibilities.
MacDONALD: l've been meaning to ask you, you meant his humor to be terrible, I hope. [Laughter)
WOLFMAN: [Laughter] Oh, of course. A 16 year old kid has got to have bad humor. There are a couple of lines he's done that are good, but most of them have been pretty bad.
George Pérez on Beast Boy
Gar's Personality:
"His use of humor also reveals that the anger is still there, Now the weapon is different, Instead of anger, he uses humor, The character obviously has a lot to be bitter about. One point we're taking advantage of is that he is a 16-year-old boy, The way a 16-year-old reacts is very, very unpredictable. In his case, he wants to belong so badly that humor is the only way of doing it. How many times, as teenagers did we do a lot of stupid things, say a lot of stupid things, like, make ourselves seem better than we are just so we can belong, In a sense, Terra is something of an exaggeration of that whole thing, but in a different way, Just how different we were shown in the third annual."
Redesigning Gar:
"Len [Wein] was the one who mostly did the modifications for Changeling's costumes. I had that little fake belt buckle put in the middle. It was just the basic design of Spider-Man's costume, and so we had to put trunks on him, and that little belt buckle in there, just to break that area of white, because it was obviously going to be attributed to the old, original costume. And my one big suggestion for Changeling was that I was not going to have his hair come onto the character, whatever creature he'd turned into, and the fact that we could have a green face on a regular body, I thought that was rather silly. So we decided to go with the full green character. [...] When he was Beast Boy, he would turn into, take an example, an orange tiger with a green face, and his own hair. There was this green face on the top of an animal."
Drawing Gar:
"Changeling, good comic relief, fun to draw - except when you're drawing all those animals 'cause you'll constantly get into other references - I like his rubbery face, his very expressive face."
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