Review: “Beast Boy” is a Gorgeous Take on the Wild Origin Story

A huge thanks to DC Entertainment for an ARC of this graphic novel on Netgalley!

About 4 years ago, I remember being on Instagram and finding Gabriel Picolo’s “Icarus and the Sun” drawings and absolutely falling in love with his animation style. Jump forward to 2019 and I saw he was drawing graphic novels with Kami Garcia about the Teen Titans from the DC Universe and was over the moon to get more of his art with a deeper plot about some of my favorite DC characters. To finish off this story, I can’t believe I was able to get an ARC of his newest graphic novel, “Teen Titans: Beast Boy.”

“Teen Titans: Beast Boy” goes through the origin story of Beast Boy, a character who can turn into different animals (but they’re green) and how he came to have his powers as well as the early stages of him learning about them. In addition to his superhero side, the book goes into his personal struggles before and after he learns about his powers, his friends and more normal teenage things.

The most notable thing about this graphic novel is how absolutely stunning the art is. Piccolo’s style is absolutely stunning and his use of color and contrast makes every page stand out. At times it’s hard to look away from the art and read the words because the art can, at times, speak for itself.

Picolo’s art allows the story to unfold beautifully in front of the reader’s eyes and allows for Beast Boy’s origins to be explained in full. Anybody who loved the “Teen Titans” show or the Cartoon Network show, “Teen Titans Go” or has any love for the comics should absolutely read this novel. What makes it great is that it’s not graphic, has lovely animation and an easy to follow story which allows for younger readers (10 and early tweens) to be (re)introduced to Beast Boy.

The Verdict
Picolo has once again created an amazing Teen Titans graphic novel with the second addition to the series, “Teen Titans: Beast Boy.” With stunning visuals and an easy going plot line, this is something fans of all ages can enjoy and should absolutely pick up. You can pick it up when it publishes on September 1st.

Nice origin story for Beast Boy. Nice continuation to Teen Titans storyline. Will definitely be reading next book.


Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review of this book.

Oh man, I really loved this graphic novel. The illustrations are awesome, and the storyline made me really care about Gar ("call me Beast Boy"). This is set up as an original story for Beast Boy, and upon finishing it I immediately went and bought Teen Titans: Raven (also by Kami Garcia and illustrated by Gabriel Picolo). I really hope that once we get all the characters' origin stories we'll get to see how they meet up and form the Teen Titans. I don't know much about this superhero group (beyond my kids watching Teen Titans: Go! and having seen a few episodes of the earlier TV series) but these comics made me really interested in learning more about these super teens.

This is the second book in the Teen Titans series, but it can be read as a standalone as (thus far) each book is a specific character's origin story and they don't overlap.

Another on of Kami’s I really enjoyed! Thank you to DC for the netgalley in exchange for an honest review! The art is always my favorite part of these graphic novels.

Beast Boy is a DC Superhero I’ve always wanted to learn more about, and I really enjoyed this story! Definitely adding it to my collection!

A gorgeously drawn graphic novel with an interesting narrative, plot, and concepts. Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

Garfield "Gar" Logan has always been the skinny class clown type. During his Senior year of high school, he has yet to complete a single item on his bucket list.  What he does know is that every day,he's the same weight and height, and that he has to take supplements from his parents. During his attempts to fit in, he ditches the supplements and soon finds he can do seemingly impossible things. There's also that weird thing where he shape shifts into different animals and leaves his clothes behind. When a stranger named Slade Wilson comes to town, Gar has to figure out just how much his scientist parents have been keeping from him.

Kami Garcia returns from her triumph on the Teen Titan: Raven and moves right into Beast Boy. Gabriel Picolo's art is clean, polished, and feels personal. From the short segment at the front of the book from Garvia and Picolo, it's because this is a personal story. Beast Boy is Picolo's favorite of the Teen Titans, making it quite easy for him to understand Gar's style. Gar is also dealing with the uncomfortable changes of being a teenager into an adult, and that comes across very well in Garcia's writing.

Teen Titans: Beast Boy is a quick read, and a great way to dive a little deeper into one of the cast that tends to get pushed off to the side for characters like Robin. 

Look for Teen Titans: Beast Boy today from DC Publishing.

Why did this feel so short?? I don’t if it’s because I sped through this or if it is actually shorter than Raven’s. There’s never enough time! I just need full length novels.

I enjoyed seeing Gar with his friends. His struggles with his appearance and wanting acceptance with the popular crowd was portrayed nicely. Nicely as in these are real struggles teens face and to see it being depicted outside of the girl narrative is what’s nice about it.

The illustrations are just as wonderful and I expect nothing less from Gabriel. I love how much his art really lends to these characters.

Speaking of characters, I’m happy to see more inclusivity. We have a character, Tank that discovers he has dyslexia. I loved seeing a Black gamer girl, Stella who is Gar’s best friend.

They try to talk sense into Gar when he goes on about his looks and wanting to impress the “cool” kids.
He finally gets everything he wants, 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.

I can’t wait to get a final copy to go with Raven. I LOVE the Teen Titans and I’m thrilled that we’re getting more of them.

Thanks to Netgalley and DC Ink for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I have to say I enjoyed this more than Raven's story. However, it's still missing something. I think it's just the action/interesting powers stuff doesn't happen until around the last 30 pages, just like in Raven's book. Kami spends too long building up the story and then BAM it's over. It's almost like she had a page limit and used almost all her pages on setting up the action, so she rushed through the climax and ending.

I did enjoy learning about Beast Boy's history though. I actually never knew his name was Gar lol. I also never knew why he was green and now I know! So that's something. I also learned how he got his powers, but just like in Raven's book, I'm left with questions. However, Gar is also left with questions at the end as well.

The art was stunning just like in Raven's book. I loved that there were more colors this time, and I loved Gar's fashion sense. I do wish he was more joke-y though as that was supposed to be one of his defining characteristics.

Overall, it was a cute story and better than Raven's (Sorry, girl. Still love ya!). Definitely not a new favorite, but an enjoyable read all the same.

I can 10000% percent say this with all confidence is that I LOVED THIS! The way the art was done for this was awesome!! Gar aka Beast Boy was everything that I wanted to see and more. Even the side characters were fully fleshed out. A full review will be coming soon! I highly suggest that you pick this up as soon as it comes out!

Rating: 3/5 Green Monkeys

Format: ebook. I’d like to thank DC Ink and NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What it's like: It was similar to a lot of young superhero stories in themes, and the coloring was obviously similar to Teen Titans: Raven since the illustrator is the same!

To sum up:
This is a story about a seemingly ordinary boy named Garfield Logan. He is tired of being short, frustrated with not being popular, and restless to become something greater that what he feels he currently is. Then one day, he does a prank that everyone expects to go wrong but somehow goes right and impresses all his peers. Overnight, he is seemingly transformed, more popular, and even more muscular and taller than the day before! As more things start to change, Gar struggles to both hold the attention of the popular crowd and to stay loyal to his true friends. This is a story about the struggles of being a teenager, trying to find where you fit, and having dreams of a bigger life.

What I loved:
I enjoyed getting to know the characters and thought this world/setting made sense, it was very easy to picture how these characters fit into their world. I also enjoyed the theme of a character trying to find a bigger place in the world, having dreams of grandeur and heroism and how he tries to attain those things. His choices aren’t always smart, but he knows what he wants and he passionately tries to go after it which I admire.

I also really love this illustrator and what they do with color! This edition is all in shades of green which was done really beautifully!

What was meh:
I had some issues with a few things. Similarly to Raven, some of the storytelling felt a little disjointed and not quite smooth. Garfield is continually jumping back and forth between trying to impress his peers and trying to help his friends and I had a hard time connecting all the dots to form a solid plot. The story does plant some seeds for future editions which I appreciated though.

I also took issue with the portrayal of scientists and scientific research in this story. There is a part where the researchers at a University are portrayed as villains and it sort of rubbed me the wrong way (being a researcher at a University myself). I can understand characters being upset if the University promised they weren’t doing animal research when in fact they were, however unrealistic it is to promise no animal research at an institution doing biological research (*eye-roll*). There was also an implication that no one oversees the proper treatment of research animals which seems unfair since there is quite a lot of governmental and university oversight over such matters. To be clear, people have gotten away with horrible treatment of animals (in and outside research settings) but to paint scientists as the villains feels tiresome, overused, and dangerous in the present climate where a lot of people aren’t trusting science to the detriment of their own health and the health of their communities.
I also want to say that going into a research facility and releasing all the animals “to the wild” would likely result in most of them dying. Especially animals like monkeys that are released into urban habitats that they have no experience in dealing with. It would be extremely irresponsible and ignorant to do so. Which again, is not to say that I disagree with the notion that fair treatment of research animals, and only using research animals when absolutely necessary is important. I strongly support programs that adopt retired research animals into healthy habitats for the remainder of their life.
Lastly, on a similar scientific note, I did quite understand how Garfield’s abilities work, and how he manipulated them. There was some DNA molecules shown and hints at recombination but unless he inherited DNA from something that contained all the same abilities as him this doesn’t make sense to me. To be fair, this is a common issue I have with superheroes that attain their powers in pseudo-scientific ways that don’t quite make sense even for someone who loves sci-fi haha. Although, even Spiderman has a limit on the abilities he has and they all have to do with what species he inherited his powers from. A similar limit didn’t really seem to apply to Garfield which is when I started to get frustrated.

Overall, I think the story will be fun for young readers and the art is really beautiful. For those more experienced comic readers, and lovers of hard sci-fi, it might be a little disappointing. I wish that Garcia did a little more work to paint scientists and animal rescue activists in a fairer light which I feel she could have done and still kept the conflict strong in her story.

I’ll be honest: origin stories are kinda my thing. They’re the butter to my bread, the PB to my J, the salt to my watermelon. I adore origin stories.

Beyond that, I happen to have quite a fondness for Beast Boy, so diving into his origin story was everything I didn’t know I needed.

I like getting down into what makes a character tick—what makes that character go left when they could’ve gone right, or slow down when they should’ve ran faster. I want to be inside their head and know everything about them like I’m a spectator in their mind. This was essentially the next best thing.

I recommend this novel for anyone looking for a highly detailed, ridiculously entertains new adventure to embark on.

Teen Titans: Beast Boy is the second graphic novel to hit the young adult Teen Titans series, and it is a blast and a half to read. Even if you haven't read the first one (Raven), it is worth checking out. Especially if Beast Boy is your favorite boy (as he should be).
Beast Boy, aka Garfield Logan, wasn't always known for his ability to transform. In fact, for a huge part of his life he didn't even know he could. This is his origin story, and the story of how he learned who he truly is.
It's hard to imagine a version of Beast Boy that's having trouble standing out – yet that is exactly the problem young Gar was facing at 17. Even with his green hair he seemed to be having trouble. That is, until he started making changes and taking some risks.

I'm just going to say it up front; Teen Titans: Beast Boy is probably my favorite new DC graphic novel. It captured everything that made this character so quirky and charismatic, all while bringing about a new take on his origin story.
Beast Boy has always been a favorite of mine, so naturally I was thrilled to see him getting his own graphic novel here. I'm not going to lie – I was actually disappointed when it ended. I would have happily read another few hundred pages of this story, had it been there.
The whole story was fun and oddly charming, as he showed off the best of himself, all while falling into some classic teenage pitfalls (the need for attention and status, things like that).
On that note, the rest of the Teen Titans don't make an appearance here, but Gar's two best friends are an absolute treasure. They round out Gar's adventure in unexpected ways, but in a good way. They softened the harder edges of his plot, all while giving him the support he so clearly needed.
All things considered, this was a fun take on the classic Beast Boy we all know and love. It's an origin story, sure, but it also has a lot of fun with itself. I mean, this is Beast Boy we're talking about – he knows better than to take himself too seriously.
So if you find yourself hesitating about diving into this tale, because it's 'yet another origin story', do yourself a favor and give it a try. It's nothing like what you might expect, unless you're expecting something entertaining – because it certainty is that.
Honestly, now I'm just sitting here looking forward to whatever adventure comes next...and hoping that Beast Boy will be involved, because I'm enjoying this version of the character.

I totally recommend checking out the authors' notes prior to diving into this one giving their backstories with this character. I went into this having not read their previous installment (which you don't have to) and was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly this duo works together. I am definitely going to be backtracking and reading their first book together. Additionally, Gabriel Picolo is an artist whose work I will be looking out for in other things.

Overall, a match made in heaven.

I liked it, nice follow up to the first one that I really enjoyed. But, I do think this one is lacking compared to Teen Titans: Raven. The characters are well written and the drawings just as great, but the plot and storyline felt too anticlimatic. Overall, 3.5 stars. I'm still going to continue with this series.

This is the second installment of the DC Ink line aimed at teens following the Teen Titans. I'm a big fan of Teen Titans, mainly due to the 2003 cartoon adaption, and the artist for this line is inspired by that show as well, so I simply love the character designs. The artist, Gabriel Picolo, has improved his work so much between the first and second book. His style has cleaned up some of the rougher sketches seen in Teen Titans: Raven.

As for the story itself, it's very much a straightforward plot that will appeal to teens. Beast Boy has a bucket list to meet by the end of senior year, and he hasn't made any progress. He is trying to impress the popular crowd, and he keeps working out and drinking protein shakes in hopes of bulking up to catch his crush's, Alana, attention. Little does he know his size is related to the medication he has been taking daily for all his life. One day Beast Boy learns that his medicine may be the cause, so he stops taking it, which leads to his development of his super powers.

The delay of Beast Boy's superpowers doesn't seem too probable as someone familiar with his traditional origin story, but it is a convenient way to have him brought up as a normal teenager. In the end I didn't mind this too much because the point of the series is to make DC superheros friendly and accessible to a younger generation.

To further help bring in new readers, Ms. Garcia incorporates a lot of current media that teenagers today would follow, such as one of Beast Boy's friends being a video game streamer, and the popular crowd's interest in a daredevil-like YouTuber. Meeting expectations and peer-pressure caused by social media today is present here and what many teens will be able to relate to. 

It reads very quickly, and I think ends a little abruptly. At the time of writing this review, there has been no announcement of a third book, but I sincerely hope we can continue the character introductory books which eventually lead to the formation of the Titans themselves.

Kami Garcia is really killing it with this series, which is a new approach to the Teen Titans. It stays faithful to the comics in some aspects, and goes in a new direction in others, but is fun, with beautiful art and a lot of depth to the characters.

A new take on a well-loved team. DC fans are always seeking new Teen Titans stories. Kami Garcia really gets these characters and their team dynamic. These individual books give you a solid sense of the characters but gives you an updated story on them. I can’t wait to see when they come together…(you saw that, right?).

The art. If you’ve read Raven, you’re familiar with Gabriel Picolo’s art. Clean line art and color guide your way. It’s clear Gabriel and Kami are partners in the Teen Titans story.

Beloved writers writing new modalities! You may know Kami from Beautiful Creatures or The Lovely Reckless or X-Files or her role at YallWest/Fest. She’s pretty awesome overall. Seeing her write comics is a treat (if you haven’t checked out her Harley, I highly recommend you do).

A sincerely delightful read! I really hope that Gabriel Picolo will get to do the full set of Teen Titans graphic novels, because I am enjoying his art SO MUCH -- his love for the characters just comes right off the page. This is a very sweet introduction to Garfield that also addresses a number of important issues (animal testing and body image problems for boys, most notably) without coming off as preachy. Fingers crossed that once we get all the Teen Titans introduced, they'll actually get to meet and have adventures together, but I'm enjoying their standalone books while I wait!

I have been loving the Teen Titan comics and Beast Boy is only causing my love to grow for this series! Kami Garcia is such a brilliant author and it still shows through in comics! I could go on and on about Gabriel Picolo's art, but just take a look and you'll see how amazing his style is and how it translates brilliantly to comics!

Beast Boy is such a fun character and the way his backstory is set up is fascinating! Even though my twin sister and I would watch some of the episodes of Teen Titans as kids, I never learned more about the characters and this is such a beautiful and exciting way of learning about each character! As an animal lover, Beast Boy as always been one of the characters I was more interested in and this comic has only increased my love for this character!

This is such a quick and fun comic and is definitely something people of all ages could and should pick up! If you're looking for action, amazing art, and nostalgia be sure to read Beast Boy (as well as Raven, the first book of the series)!

Thank you NetGalley and DC Comics for sharing an eARC with me in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely DEVOURED this comic and cannot wait for more! I loved the battle Gar has with himself (and classmates) and his body image. He is a struggling teenager who is not happy with his appearance. I think that his story is important for boys and girls and I look forward to seeing him grow throughout future comics.