Character profile: Beast Boy aka Changeling

     Garfield Logan can’t catch a break. He is a shape-shifter that goes under the name of Beast Boy or Changeling. He was not born with the ability to alter his form. This came later from a rare disease he caught early on and the cure administered to him. This event turned his skin green and allows him to change. Even the animals he changes into are green. This color alteration makes him easy to spot. No matter the type of animal, Logan is always green and has shifted from the name Beast Boy to Changeling and back again.

     He started out in the Doom Patrol (after his parents had died) and was adopted by Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl) and her husband, Steve Dayton (Mento). Rita died soon after this and Mento was not the most stable of people since his helmet drove him mad. Gar used the name Beast Boy while in this team and adopted the name Changeling when he left the Doom Patrol to join the Teen Titans.

     He became a member of this team when Raven recruited heroes to help her defeat her father, Trigon. The team stayed together after this but eventually disbanded. Logan drifted for awhile not sure of where he belonged. During his time with the Titans Gar fell for Terra (who betrayed the team In “The Judas Contract” storyline).

     Logan is also unlucky in love. Some of his relationships were with Jillian (of the pink hair), Terra and Raven. None of these lasted even though he tried to maintain relationships with all of them. Raven was the last girlfriend he had and she has since rebuffed his attempts to restore this relationship.

     He would be better suited in a surveillance or espionage role but he takes aggressive, physical roles in combating villains. Since he can turn into insects and fly, he would make a good spy but he tends to attack ineffectually. Most of the villains are not stopped by him.

     Perhaps his greatest gift is not the ability to shape shift but his loyalty. Even when someone has clearly a villain (Terra) or appears to have gone bad (Cyborg, his best friend) or when someone does something horrible to him personally (the storyline with Raven and the children of Trigon), he trusts people and believes in the person. This is rare in comics. He is comic relief in many instances but loyalty is his greatest gift.

     He has lost most of the people that he loves (his parents, Rita Farr and Terra) and cannot seem to form a lasting relationship. He is usually not the most effective of heroes but DC previews state he is going to make some hard choices in the upcoming issues of “Titans”.