# Who is Beast Boy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437 "2003-07-23T18:11:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/1 "2003-07-23T18:11:25Z")
I was watching the first episode of the new Teen Titans show when a thought occured to me: Who is this guy and how did he get green and able to become a walrus whenever he wants?Sorta weird. Didn’t he get his own very brief title? And can you tell me how this is an ability useful in saving the world? I mean, was he ever JLA or even JSA material? All that being said, I’d love to be him. I could be a flying monkey whenever I want! ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/2 "2003-07-23T18:35:21Z")
Beast Boy, aka Garfield Logan, was originally a member of the Doom Patrol, but is best known as a long-standing Titans member in the comics. In DC’s comic continuity, he changed his code name from Beast Boy to Changeling some time back, since all of the cartoon Titans are portrayed as much older in the comics. I have no idea what his origin is, but I’m sure someone here might! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Marko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@El\_Marko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Marko)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/3 "2003-07-23T18:42:40Z")
Beast Boy first showed up in Doom Patrol in the mid-60’s. I’ve never read the series so I know no more than that. His current incarnation as a changling was introduced with the New Teen Titans comic book run in 1980. Sorry I don’t have more info on him. This is all I was able to glean from [The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe](http://www.dcuguide.com/index.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/4 "2003-07-23T19:06:49Z")
[Another biography,](http://www.keeffee.com/titans/logan.html) though also post-Crisis. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/5 "2003-07-23T19:25:55Z")
[Another biography,](http://www.keeffee.com/titans/logan.html) though also post-Crisis. As far as I know, his first use of the name “Changeling” was in [_DC Comics Presents_ #26](http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/moz/perez/info/dcpres26.htm), October 1980. That issue contained a 16-page insert introducing the “New Teen Titans”, who would get their own book a few months later (the previous “Teen Titans” title having been cancelled some years earlier for lack of sales). The original Robin (Dick Grayson) keeps referring to him as “Beast Boy” and is constantly being corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/6 "2003-07-23T21:08:18Z")
Garfield Logan’s parents were animal researchers. Gar had some kind of disease that only monkeys are immune to, and his parents (at work on location somewhere in the Congo) discovered a means to allow him to become an animal. They got killed somehow, he got super powers and a freakish appearance (initially purple, later green) and can turn into any kind of animal. He was soon adopted by two very wealth superheroes, Mento and Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol. Originally he was limited to actual animals, but as he grew older and encountered more alien species and mythological beasts, his menu selections grew and he’s limited only by his imagination. He’s not even limited by such wussy constraints as Conservation of Mass; he can be an ant or a leviathan or anything in between! Is this power useful in the Fight against Injustice? Sure! If he needs super-strength, ha can turn into a gorilla or a bear. If he needs to fly or get through a tight space, bird or insect. List an arm? Turn into a lizard and grow a new one. Pass unseen through Central Park? Turn into a field mouse or a junebug. Survive a shipwreck? Killer whale. It’s a great power! It doesn’t help him get a lot of dates, though. His personality is a bit like Xander Harris’s (Buffy ther Vampire Slayer), even down to the part where any time he actually finds a girlfriend, she turns out to be a villain on the lam. Too bad; some lucky girl is missing out on a lot of free pony rides! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/7 "2003-07-23T21:16:46Z")
(Runs in) Plus he can make himself hung like a bear anytime he wants! (Runs out, giggling like a fanboy) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/8 "2003-07-24T00:57:35Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Krokodil_ > Too bad; some lucky girl is missing out on a lot of free pony rides! Ewww! ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/9 "2003-07-24T05:29:43Z")
I prefer the name Changeling. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/10 "2003-07-24T14:16:56Z")
Gar had a four-issue miniseries of his own a few years ago – last I heard he’s gone back to the “Beast Boy” nom de guerre (that’s what the mini was entitled) and can currently be seen in the new “Teen Titans” comic which started up in the last month or so. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beast-boy/190437/11 "2003-07-24T14:36:13Z")
Well, as long as we’re getting crude. I suspect when Logan says “Let’s do it doggy-style” he ain’t being metaphorical.