Teen Titans: Beast Boy

Author: Kami Garcia
Illustrator: Gabriel Picolo
Series: Teen Titans, book 2
Publisher: DC Ink (September 1, 2020)
Paperback, 208 pages
YA Graphic Novel, Superheroes
Goodreads

Summary
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.

Review

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.

A digital ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review. All opinions are unbiased and my own.