Teen Titans #14

Beast Boys and Girls Part Two: Wild Life

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencilled by Tom Grummett
Inked by Lary Stucker
Colored by Jeromy Cox
Lettered by Comicraft
Associate Editor Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Ed McGuinness shows a human Gar Logan — no longer Beast Boy — being attacked by dozens of green animals. It's a really neat inversion of his powers. For once, Gar gets to be normal, but everyone around him gets his old powers. I think all the animals look great here, but Gar's eyes look a bit too wide and cartoony.

Our story begins in a secret lab with a boy strapped down to a table. He's shown a video of a monkey, which causes him to instantly transform into a green version of that monkey. An unseen scientist then pulls out a scalpel and prepares to operate on the poor monkey boy.

We then head to San Fransisco at 4:07 p.m. on Saturday. Yesterday, every child in the city under the age of 13 suddenly turned into a green animal, and the Teen Titans have been spending the whole day tracking down these animal children and finding makeshift pins to safely store them in. This mass transformation is blamed on the disease sakutia, or green fever, which is the same disease that turned Gar into Beast Boy when he was 6 years old.

Gar is currently at St. Luke's Hospital with Cyborg and the doctor who drew his blood yesterday. Gar is the only known person who has survived after being infected with sakutia, thanks to the efforts of his now deceased parents. The doctor believes that when the Logans' saved their son, they altered the virus, causing it latch on to its host and enable the host to unlock their DNA and reconfigure it in less than a second with a mere thought. And now, 19 years later, that same virus has somehow gone airborne, being spread by the infected carrier, Beast Boy.

The doctor theorizes that all the children accidentally transformed into whatever animal first came into their mind, and now they're too afraid and panicked to turn back. The doctor fears they won't have time to calm the children down because sakutia historically has killed those infected within 48 hours. He also has run some new tests on Gar, confirming he no longer has any traces of sakutia in him, essentially meaning he's now cured. This comes as little comfort to Gar, who can't believe that he might be responsible for the death of so many children. The doctor admits that this case is beyond him or anyone else at the hospital, but luckily an expert has volunteered to help — an old colleague of Gar's parents, Dr. Register.

We head out to the Golden Gate Bridge, where Starfire and Wonder Girl are rounding up a couple of kangaroos, while Kid Flash tracks down all the smaller animals — rabbits, mice and even insects. The military has quarantined the city, and panic has spread through the streets with parents demanding to know what's happening to their children. Many of them understandably blame Beast Boy and try to attack the Teen Titans. Luckily, Raven is able to prevent a riot on the bridge by using her emphatic powers to calm everyone down.

In Gotham City, Superboy has spent an entire day trying to track down Robin. He's finally able to hear Tim preparing to watch a movie with his dad. Tim's dad is impressed that he has energy for homework after mowing the lawn and cleaning out the garage, and Tim says he hasn't gotten this much sleep in his life. He heads into his room and finds Superboy going through his CD collection, making fun of him for liking Depeche Mode and Enya.

Conner explains that he spent all night sifting through all the voices of Gotham, listening to everyone whine. He asks if anyone is happy in this city, and Tim readily says he is happy. Conner asks why he didn't show up at the Titans Tower yesterday and what's with the new girl Robin. Tim says his dad found his costume last week and went a little overboard. Since Tim was already struggling with lying to his dad, he decided to quit being Robin.

Conner says Tim can't do this to the Titans, but Tim insists he isn't doing anything to anyone. He's made a personal decision to live a normal life and focus on going to college in a few years. Besides, he's confident in Gotham City's new Robin. Conner asks if he wants the new Robin to also take his place on the Teen Titans, but Tim says he doesn't care. Conner then finally realizes that the new Robin is the former Spoiler, and he tells Tim he can't bear to lose his best friend. Tim says they can still hang even though he's not wearing a cape, but Conner says he's heard that from too many other friends he never hears from anymore. Tim's dad then comes up to tell him the movie is starting, and Tim tries to introduce Conner to him, but he's already taken off through the window.

Back at the hospital, the crowd outside of angry parents has grown more hostile, as the doctor talks to Cyborg and Gar about Dr. Register. Apparently this man has had a career littered with scandal, earning the nickname "The Zookeeper" for his extreme methods. Despite being discharged from the government's animal research center, S.T.A.R. Labs gave him a job in their abnormal and extraterrestrial disease program. Dr. Register soon shows up and instantly demands time with "the Logan child."

Meanwhile, the rest of the Teen Titans are hunting down one last missing child, who had the misfortune of turning into a humpback whale. Kid Flash asks what they should do, since they can't put him in a cage like the others, nor do they want to beach him on the shore. Wonder Girl asks Raven to use her powers to calm the child, while she wraps her lasso around his tail. But Raven has a hard time breaking through the animalistic fear, and Cassie quickly loses control of the rampaging whale and is flung underwater. But when Cassie falls into the water, she suddenly appears in Ares' armory. He lectures her for letting go of her lasso, yet he congratulates her for becoming angry.

Back at the hospital, Gar is still quite depressed by everything, but he catches his reflection in a mirror. As he gazes at his normal, human face, Gar slowly starts to smile, in spite of everything. Dr. Register says Gar must be thrilled to be normal now, but Gar only cares about making sure they can help the kids. Dr. Register says they need to cure the kids before the CDC gets involved. He's seen many "fifth-string" heroes and villains be taken away to labs to have their secrets studied. He admits he's been studying sakutia since Gar was infected, and now he can help himself.

Gar's too distraught and confused by all this talk to notice that Dr. Register has pulled out a tranquiler gun. He shoots Gar in the neck and says the transformed children were just a side effect, and the key he needs is inside Gar. Gar fights off the tranquilizer and tries to attack Dr. Register, saying he doesn't want to be responsible for hurting children. To Gar's surprise, he rips off Dr. Register's mask, revealing a scaly, purple face underneath. Register tells Gar that he is actually the carrier that infected the kids.



This was another pretty solid issue of Teen Titans. We're not dealing with demons and supernatural powers anymore. And having a better artist makes a huge difference. I loved how Grummett used five quiet panels to show Gar slowly looking at his human face in the mirror and not being able to stop himself from smiling at it. That's the kind of storytelling we were lacking in previous issues. Of course, I still do have a few questions here. How did Gar lose his powers? How come the virus only affects children? Hopefully everything will be answered next issue.

Next time: Beast Boy vs. The Changeling!