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DC’s Teen Titans Academy Yearbook revealed that Beast Boy is struggling with his name once again, thanks to Cyborg.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Stitch, In Time” from the Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook #1, by Tim Sheridan, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
Beast Boy has one of the strangest and most upsetting origin stories in the DC Universe. Garfield Logan was born to a pair of scientists working in Africa and he contracted a strange virus that could quickly become lethal. Garfield’s father injected his son with a serum that contained DNA from the West African green monkey, who was immune to the virus. The serum cured the virus but left Garfield with green skin, eyes, and hair as well as the ability to transform into different animals. His parents would end up passing in a boating accident and Garfield would be adopted by the Doom Patrol’s Elasti-Girl and Steve Dayton. He assumed the name Beast Boy, but as Garfield has grown older, the name started causing him some grief.
And in Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook, that issue came to the fore once again during a romantic dinner between Beast Boy and Raven. Raven appeared distant during their meal as she has been suffering from visions of her teammates’ Future State deaths. As their dinner started to take a somber turn, Beast Boy felt it was best to try and distract Raven from her horrifying visions.
He put on some music and invited Raven to dance. He continued his distraction techniques by continually talking while they danced. Raven referred to Beast Boy as Garfield to which he replied that “it’s Mr. Beast Boy” to her. He followed this up by questioning his own name. He wondered if he should change his name back to Changeling since Cyborg has been teasing him about having “Boy” in his name. This is not the first time that Garfield has questioned his name.
Beast Boy adopted his original name when he first joined up with the Doom Patrol in 1965’s Doom Patrol #99 by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown. He was originally rejected from the unlikely superhero team, but Elasti-Girl convinced the Patrol to give him a chance. He was then given his new superhero name by Robotman. Initially, Beast Boy was not happy at all with this name firing back at Robotman with insults. He would learn to appreciate this name and held onto it for 15 years until he made the jump over to the New Teen Titans in DC Comics Presents #26 by Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Dick Giordano, Adrienne Roy and Bob Oda.
When the New Teen Titans emerged, most of the members felt it was appropriate to adopt new identities. Beast Boy was one of these heroes and adopted the new name Changeling. While it might seem that Garfield took on this new name to remove the title of “boy” from his name, there was actually a deeper reason.
The demise of Doom Patrol hit Beast Boy hard. While he was successfully able to transition into an acting career, Tales of the New Teen Titans #3 by Wolfman, Pérez, Gene Day, Roy and John Costanza revealed that this career would prove to be short-lived. He eventually rekindled a relationship from his earlier days until the Arsenal took her hostage. While Garfield was able to save the day, he was continually berated by the Arsenal who mocked his new name. This negative experience combined with the sadness he felt when reminiscing about his former team led him to the name Changeling.
Garfield remained Changeling for nearly 20 years when he returned to his original superhero name. The miniseries Beast Boy by Geoff Johns, Ben Raab, Justiniano, Chris Ivy, Jason Wright and Comicraft saw Garfield Logan’s return to the spotlight. This series saw Gar attempt to restart his acting career only for him to be flung back into the superhero business. Garfield is first called Beast Boy by Flamebird and was quickly told by Garfield not to call him that. Unfortunately, the name would stick as the media would begin to report on Garfield’s actions and referred to him as Beast Boy.
Since 2000, Beast Boy has not wavered on his name, but now it looks like things may change. While Garfield is still extremely energetic and carefree, he has shown slight signs of maturity over the years. Now that he is an actual teacher at the Teen Titans Academy, he may begin searching for a new name to garner more respect from his students. Only time will tell if Beast Boy will become Changeling once again, or maybe he will adopt an entirely new name.
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