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!