Review: Beast Boy

 

Teen Titans: Beast Boy 

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy! 

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Garfield Logan has spent his entire life being overlooked. Even in a small town like Eden, Georgia, the 17-year-old with green streaks in his hair can’t find a way to stand out–and the clock is ticking. Senior year is almost over. If Gar doesn’t find a way to impress the Chosen Ones–the social elite at Bull Creek High School–he will never know what it’s like to matter. Gar’s best friends, Stella and Tank, don’t understand why he cares what other people think. They miss their funny, pizza-loving, video game-obsessed best friend.

Then Gar accepts a wild dare out of the blue. It impresses the Chosen Ones and his social status soars. But other things are changing, too. Gar grows six inches overnight. His voice drops and, suddenly, he’s stronger and faster. He’s finally getting everything he wanted, but his newfound popularity comes at a price. Gar has to work harder to impress his new friends. The dares keep getting bigger and the stakes keep getting higher.

When Gar realizes the extent of his physical changes, he has to dig deep and face the truth about himself–and the people who truly matter–before his life spirals out of control. 

So, Beast Boy is my absolute favourite in Teen Titans so I've been practically vibrating in excitement waiting for this to come out! I really enjoyed Garcia and Picolo's work on Raven and I couldn't wait to see what they'd do with Beast Boy! 

Once again, I loved how the colour scheme for the volume's art was all shades of green or cool tones to match Beast Boy much like for Raven's volume it was all purple and blue! I also liked the art once again, particularly how the scientific aspects/DNA/body diagram's were all drawn and time passing and so on.  

I feel like Gar is quite relatable with the whole 'everyone has a thing, you just haven't found yours yet' thing, I know I felt that deeply anyway! I also feel like he's incredibly relatable with his desire to fit in and be popular if only to see what it's like. He doesn't go too crazy with it or let it get to him that much though it does push him at one point. Overall Gar is basically just really relatable in this volume and there's some teen angst because of everything he's going through with being small and kind of weedy, I guess? There's an additional, subtle thread of something strange going on with him woven throughout that builds up and comes to a nice climax towards the end of the volume! 

I loved Gar's friends and how Stella and Tank always had his back! I'm sad that he had to leave them behind for the next phase of the story! Beast Boy is a nicely paced origin story showing how Gar comes into his power and where it came from. It builds throughout the volume until he finally realises something's wrong and what that is and has to go to Slade for help! He's not entirely in control of his power and we don't see too much of it, I'm sure we will in the next volume though! Slade is such an ominous presence, I can't lie! 

I liked how the story flowed up until the end and set things up for the next volume and the next phase as Beast Boy and Raven will no doubt meet! Gar still has a way to go with controlling and understanding his power, but he's well on his way! 

Review: Teen Titans Raven!

Teen Titans: Raven
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

When a tragic accident takes the life of 17-year-old Raven Roth's foster mom—and Raven's memory—she moves to New Orleans to recover and finish her senior year of high school.

Starting over isn't easy. Raven remembers everyday stuff like how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can't remember her favorite song or who she was before the accident. And when impossible things start happening, Raven begins to think it might even be better not to know who she was before.

But as she grows closer to her new friends, her foster sister, Max, and Tommy Torres, a guy who accepts her for who she is now, Raven has to decide if she's ready to face what's buried in the past... and the darkness building inside her. 

I'm not super well versed in the Teen Titans universe, not compared to other DC characters but I did watch the show on Netflix and really enjoyed it, and I've been curious about each of the characters! So when I spotted that this was coming out, it was immediately on my TBR...let alone when I realised Kami Garcia was writing it! I have to say...I really, really enjoyed this. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed the story and the artwork. 

The art is pleasing to the eye, it's got clean lines and neat character designs. I really liked the way everything was cool toned for the most part, when it came to the colour palette. Purples, blues, blacks and greys...which coincidentally went really nicely with Raven's hair! We basically had more dark, and muted colours rather than bright colours, which I thought fit with Raven as a character remarkably well! However creepy demon Trigon was completely red, which made him stand out all the more in the story as 'other' and not really belonging there. I also liked the touch of the red tinge when she was angry and influenced by him so you could tell it wasn't entirely Raven. Even the speech bubbles matched, Raven's being purple and his red. The thoughts of others where a nice muted grey as well, another clever touch in the storytelling and it gave you the impression of a faint thing heard in passing rather than a loud, shouted thought. 

The final thing I wanted to say about the art was I thought it was interesting how everyone and everything was muted out except for Raven, and occasionally her aunt, Max and Tommy. The only scene anything close to full colour, including the backgrounds, is part of her outing/date with Tommy and when you see her with her friends and I'm wondering if that's because they're happy memories to her. Either way, I liked how the art and the colour choices helped with the storytelling and it was cleverly done to match! There's also some beautiful images of the raven behind her in the mirror with its wings stretched out! 

As for the story itself, we jump straight in with things, and we have mystery from the start with the accident, the swift appearance of the demon, and then we dive in to getting to grips with Raven and her power. She has amnesia so she remembers nothing of it, so she's getting to grips with it all right alongside us, the reader. Meanwhile, there's a dash of the ominous as we have Slade hanging around with his talk of delivering kids for strike teams, which is no doubt going to come in to play later. 

Everything builds up nicely, we meet Raven, learn about her powers, see her become close with others, see a little bit of romance, we've got the mystery with the demon and the ominous graveyard visits to commune with spirits and then everything comes crashing down for the finale as her memories return and we have our questions answered regarding the demon and her powers and so on. 

I enjoyed the cast of characters, there's a nice amount of representation when it came to the cast, LGBTQ characters, Latin and African American characters, which was nice to see. Raven is easy to empathise with her and I actually found myself liking her a lot more in this graphic novel than I did in the TV show, I had a few moments with the show when she bugged me, I have to be honest. But I really enjoyed her character in this and I feel like I understand her a lot better in this. She's an empath and can hear everyone's thoughts even if she doesn't want to and she's struggling with the demon voice popping in and making unpleasant things happen. I liked seeing her open up to Max and Tommy and let them in and allow herself to become close to them, and I think she's a strong character. 

Her foster sister Max is awesome, and she's my new favourite character after Raven! She tried her best to help Raven as much as she could, and look out for her. I ship she and Eman so badly, but she has a secret of her own that she's keeping from everyone and she doesn't want to let him close. That secret being that she's Soulstorm of course, and her mother is the Mother of Souls. All I'm saying is, they have some seriously awesome ghost related powers and I was getting excited at the clues and implications! What I loved most about Raven and Max, was the sisterly bond between the two of them. They really cared about each other and became so close, and then the end kind of wrecked my heart a little bit. The way Max said "you don't have to have the same parents to be sisters" hit me right in the feels and I kind of need more of the two of them, if I'm honest!? 

Tommy is another prominent character in this graphic novel, and in his own words...he's 'unfiltered'. I thought he was quite sweet initially, helping her to find out what her favourite candy bar is and so on. There was one weird moment with him that had me side eyeing him but I kind of pushed aside a little, and went on my merry way. Like it was in the back of my mind but I was choosing to ignore it, I think. Until of course my shady radar started pinging. I'm curious about him, I don't recall him from the show but then I do have a mind like a sieve so who knows. I'm curious as to who and what he is and I'm assuming we might be seeing him again in the future. 

Oh! One other little touch I liked? The use of the Dracula quotes, and while they don't make sense to Raven...if you're familiar with her already you're reading and smiling to yourself because it's so accurate and was so nicely done! 

Everything came to a fantastic conclusion, questions are answered for us although Raven is left heading off to go and try and get some answers from Slade about how to deal with Trigon. I have to say...I need more. I feel like this was a really solid introduction to the Teen Titans universe, and Raven in particular. It smoothly introduces you to her, shows you her powers and what she can do and she was realistically represented, angry and scared because of what was happening to her. I liked the storytelling, the pace as brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed how the story was portrayed on the pag by the artist! Whether or not you're familiar with the Teen Titan universe isn't going to matter if you want to pick this up! 

I'm kind of sad that there won't be a second volume for Raven, but I had assumed Kami was just writing this one story about Raven, I actually didn't realise this would be a series, so imagine my surprise when I reached the end of the volume and saw a sneak preview of Teen Titans: Beast Boy also written by Kami Garcia and coming soon! I loved him in the show okay, so this is going to be excellent! I'm looking forward to seeing Kami and Gabriel team up again and I'm excited that they're presumably going to be doing all the Teen Titans! I'm also going to assume Raven may or may not make an appearance in Beast Boy's volume!