History
Garfield Logan: 1988 - 2001
Garfield Logan was the only child of Mark and Marie Logan, both American veterinarians who ran an animal sanctuary in Qurac. One day when Garfield was seven, he was playing with some of the sanctuary’s monkeys when a wild monkey wandered into the pack and began attacking the other monkeys. In his attempt to chase off the feral monkey, Garfield was bitten by the monkey and ended up contracting a rare disease called Sakutia, which made Garfield incredibly sick and by the time his parents were able to get him diagnosed, his condition was declared terminal.
Garfield’s life could be extended by having regular blood transfusions, along with experimental medications, but even then Garfield was not expected to live to see Y2K. Though Garfield did not seem bothered by this grim news, Mark and Marie did what they could to make the remainder of Garfield’s life enjoyable on the sanctuary: which mostly consisted of letting Garfield play video games and goof off.
One day, when Garfield’s father was away on business, Bialyan rebels broke into the Logan home, looking for medications to treat their wounded. Marie Logan tried to stop them but they made off with Garfield’s medicine and the blood needed for his next transfusion. Knowing that they would not be able to get Garfield the treatment he needed in time, Marie prayed for a miracle.
She got two Martians instead; J'onn J'onzz and M'gann M'orzz visited the sanctuary later that very day, disguised as Quraci officials looking for the rebels. They were on the hunt for an alien fugitive but when they learned of Garfield’s condition, they revealed themselves as shapeshifters and offered to help by duplicating Garfield’s own blood type and giving him the needed transfusion. Desperate, Marie agreed (and Garfield was just so excited to meet a pair of aliens).
Though, J’onn was the better shapeshifter, it was M’gann who had to give her blood for the transfusion when the raiders returned looking for more medicine, forcing J’onn to defend the Logan home from attack. Due to M’gann’s inability to properly duplicate Garfield’s blood type, she ended up transmitting much of her Martian genetics into Garfield’s bloodstream, which interacted with the Sakutia in unexpected ways, actually curing Garfield of the disease but also carrying with it some very wild results![1]
Beast Boy: 2001 - Present
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Titan's Beast Boy
While Garfield was cured of his terminal illness, with every passing day his skin became greener and he discovered he could assume the shape of the animals on the sanctuary. Unable to contact the Martians for aid, the Logans feared that it was only a matter of time before the Quraci military or Bialyan rebels learned of their son and would seek to exterminate him or worse, so the Logan’s chose to abandon their wildlife refuge in an effort to smuggle young Garfield out of the Middle East, hoping to get to America to seek help.
Unfortunately, the route they chose to make their escape was heavily guarded by Bialyan forces and when Marcus Logan attempted to driver through the roadblock, their vehicle was loaded with machinegun fire, killing both parents, while Garfield had avoided death by instinctively turning into a tiny mouse when he realized the danger he was in. Though upon seeing his parents dead, Garfield assumed a different form. Mere seconds after the machinegun had tore into the vehicle, the roadblock was rampaged by a massive emerald elephant, then a green gorilla, and a viridescent rhinoceros.
Before the rebels managed to capture him, Gar had unintentionally killed a dozen rebels. In capatvity, Gar was made prisoner of Zazzala, the alien fugitive J'onn and M'gann had been looking for who had made herself the self appointed Queen of Bialya.
Using her powers of mind control, Zazzala kept Gar as a “pet”, having him assume different animal shapes according to her fickle whims and commit atrocities for her amusement, acting as both her court jester, personal pet, and executioner. This was ended when the Martian Manhunter found Zazzala and took her into custody. Unable to trust the Martian (or anyone for that matter) at the time, Gar transformed into a bird and flew away.
He would eventually end upstaying with one of his mother's old acting friends, Rita Farr. Rita had also developed powers and was sympathetic to Garfield's plight, letting him stay with her and her new freaky friends for a few months; but when J’onn learned where to find him, he quickly convinced Garfield to join a team of other teenagers and use his powers for good... and so Gar was made a founding member of the Titans.
As a Titan, Gar kept the name he was given in the Doom Patrol: Beast Boy and became our little brother of sorts and the Titan most likely to get you to crack a smile on the worst day. Though he was annoying at times, we all loved him like a brother and maybe that's why Garfield was so quick to warm up to Tyra Markov when she later joined, eager to have someone that wouldn't see him as a little brother, but as a possible boyfriend.
Surprisingly, the two did enter into a relationship, bonding over their shared guilt at the lives they had taken when they were younger, finding comfort in having someone who could sympathize with the dark stain on each other's souls or whatever. It was a sweet romance, but one to brief as Terra would later go missing during a mission and believed to have died.
Garfield Logan
Devastated, Garfield found comfort in a surprising place as Rachel would be the one to help him work through his grief and from that new dynamic in their relationship and the fact that they were the only ones who remained with the Titans following Tyra's "death", Beast Boy and Raven became a couple during their stay with the second generation of Titans... but that too would end when Rachel matured physically and mentally, while Garfield did not. Having only matured to the point of a fifteen year old boy at that point despite being a legal adult due to his slowed aging process, Garfield agreed to break things off with Rachel, allowing them to continue being friends.
Today, Garfield is a mentor for the Titans and a member of the West Coast Outsiders. Though he will be celebrating his thirtieth birthday in 2018, Garfield looks just over half that age, still very much a teenager in body and maturity. But that's okay, we still love the little guy and he has proven that you don't need to grow up to be a hero.[2]
Powers and Abilities
Beast Boy's Stats
Powers
- Unique Physiology: Garfield's Martian blood transfusion interacted with his Sakutia virus in an interesting way, having the unintended effect of turning his skin and hair green, stalling his aging process, and giving him a portion of the Martian ability to shapeshift.
- Terrestrial Metamorph: Garfield has the ability to morph into any animal he knows of. He can change into extinct animals and even animals from different planets, provided he has encountered them. When he changes, it only takes a couple of seconds. It does not matter how big or small. It does not put strain on him to do this. He can stay in an animal's form indefinitely and while in that form retains his ability to speak and instinctively understands the capabilities of his form. With considerable effort, he has also changed into multiple animals such as a swarm of fireflies and a group of barnacles. He has also demonstrated the ability to transform into animals many times larger than their actual forms: among others, he has been seen transforming into a human-sized tarantula and a giant snake. Thanks to his rather odd lifestyle and his adventuring, Garfield has also picked up the ability to transform into mythical creatures such as a phoenix and a dragon, and while he can duplicate their biology, he retains his own very meager magical potential. The only stipulation is no matter what form he takes the animal's skin and hair color will always be green.
- Chimera Transformation: Garfield can also change into a hybrid of human and a single animal, usually using this as a 'battle form' to give him the abilities of an animal while retaining his human hands and legs for convenience. His preferred battle forms are of a 'wolf boy' and a 'monkey boy'.
- Animal Empathy: Garfield has some sort of psionic connection, possibly a bastardization of the Martian telepathy, that gives him an innate connection to animals, allowing him to communicate with them on a primal level and has shown that he could be tossed into a pit full of ravenous starved tigers and they wouldn't harm a hair on his head thanks to seeing him as a kindred spirit. For whatever reason, Garfield calls this ability 'The Red', but whether this is the same ability I've heard Buddy Baker and Mari McCabe talk about is unknown.
Abilities
- Martial Arts: Garfield has trained as a Titan for over a decade and has learned to use his innate dexterity and agility to considerable skill, even in human form... though, he prefers to go 'monkey style' as a literal monkey boy, often shouting at his enemies to behold the power of the 'Monkey King'. What a goof...
- Acting: Having apparently picked up some talent from his mother and all the hours of movies and television he has consumed, Garfield is a decent actor.
- Telepathic Blocks: After his encounter with Zazzala, M'gann M'orzz installed some strong telepathic protections in Garfield's mind to ensure something like that would never happen to him again.
- Strength Level: Though it doesn't rise to the level of Enhanced Strength, Garfield is much stronger than his appearance would suggest, likely on account of his Martian influenced musculature. When transformed into an animal or chimera form, Garfield has demonstrated that his strength can be increased to superhuman levels, even exceeding the actual strength capacity of the animal whose shape he has assumed. This seems to be more of an adrenal or emotional response, however, as it is never consistent; but he has shown the ability to match Gorilla Grodd's strength in his own green gorilla form and has shown that as a dionsaur he could tear steel apart with his teeth. Garfield himself claims that this extra strength is fueled by this 'Red' energy again, claiming that it's like it comes from the Earth itself. I like to remind him that his powers come from the Red Planet and not this 'Red' he keeps speaking of. I mean, seriously, he's green! Hmm... Maybe he's colorblind and his powers actually come from the 'Green' that Swamp-Thing and Ivy are always going on about... Must investigate further.
Weaknesses
- Unintentional Change: Garfield will change into random animals when he's sick or disorientated. Deathstroke has used some sort of pollen extract to incapacitate Garfield in this manner before. Also, if Beast Boy is unconscious for a short while, he will revert back to human form.
- Transformation Interruptus: Sometimes, if he is distracted or struck during his transformation, he will be unable to transform and painfully revert to human form, unable to transform for a few minutes.
- Hypnotic Suscepitbility: It has been shown multiple times that while he is almost immune to telepathic control, he is easily hypnotized through the power of suggestion. I've seen him zone out into a trance watching late-night television and compulsively buy products from an infomercial without having any recollection of it.
Trivia and Notes
Trivia
- Beast Boy joined the Justice League of America in 2006 nominated by The Martian Manhunter.
- Beast Boy has had many nicknames over the years including Beast-Brat, Green Jeans, Salad-head, Sprout, and Tork.
- He is skilled in origami.
- Since his enslavement by Zazzala, Garfield is a vegan... or at least he tries to be. He often 'forgets' that milk comes from cows (which is really weird, seeing as he can transform into a cow) and I've seen him eating scrambled eggs on countless occasions before he realizes what he's doing. Another problem keeping him from being a true vegan is that if he has transformed into any sort of carnivore recently, his 'primal urges' kick in, and by week's end he gives in and devours a hamburger or steak... but after doing so, he tends to whimper for about an hour as the red meat reminds him of the taste of things he would rather forget having eaten. Also, he insists that pepperoni is not a meat and gladly devours slice after slice of pepperoni pizza.
- He is prone to calling male peers "dude" and females "baby". Any female he has feelings for, though, become "mama".
- Despite all the reading of manga and watching of anime he does, and his own insistance that he speaks Japanese fluently, he is truly awful at it.
- Garfield's skin is actually kinda furry requiring him to shampoo his whole body, not just the hair on his head.
- Garfield refuses to wear socks.
- Garfield can't tie shoes for some reason. All of his shoes are either velcro'd sneakers, slippers, sandals, or flip-flops.
- Garfield wears very colorful boxers. I know this as it's a good day when he comes out of his room fully dressed. More often than not, he likes to spend the first few hours in his boxers, camped out on the couch while he eats three or four bowls of cereal in soy milk (or sometimes with actual milk).[3]
- His identity as Beast Boy is known to the public.
Links and References
- Appearances of Garfield Logan
- Character Gallery: Garfield Logan