Dust and Spores

Teen Titans Vol. 3: Beast Boys and Girls / Ben Raab ; Geoff Johns
New York : DC Comics, 2005
Pencils by Justiniano
Collects Beast Boy #1-4 and Teen Titans #13-15
168 p.

The spotlight is squarely focused on Beast Boy in two complete sagas. First, in the days before the current incarnation of the Teen Titans, Beast Boy tries to reignite his stalled acting career only to find himself implicated in a murder. Then, Beast Boy is seemingly cured of his animal shape-changing powers only to see the children of San Francisco suddenly run riot, assuming green animal shapes with no experience and lots of panic

My latest assignment from my comic book friend, Beast Boys and Girls contains two stories featuring Beast Boy (obviously) from Teen Titans. In the first, Beast Boy is drawn really sexy (although green) and has returned to L.A. to start over and get his acting career back on track. Apparently there are a lot of roles for people with green skin? Anyway, he's framed for a series of murders a look-alike has been committing. So yeah, he figures that out.

In the second, a virus is released that strips Beast Boy of his powers and turns him person-colored again but also infects all the children in the city with his affliction, and they turn into green animals. Ensue: wackiness.

I think I like this Teen Titans edition because the stories are simpler. As opposed to the convoluted plot lines that have been developing for 50 years in some comic book titles, the stories here are bold, colorful, and easy to follow. They stand alone. In the second story, we also get glimpses of Wonder Girl and Robin and the struggles they were dealing with during that time in the run, but it fits together without being distracting.

Basically, these stories are simple and fun. For a latecomer like me, they were highly accessible and entertaining. More, please.