The Titans just gave Beast Boy a ridiculous new transformation power
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Warning: SPOILERS for titans season 4Beast Boy pushed his transformation power to an absurd level titans season 4, becoming a virus as part of a plan to save Superboy’s life. There is some debate as to whether this should be possible, both because scientists are divided on whether viruses are living organisms or not, and because of Beast Boy’s strictly defined power limits in the original. Teen Titans comics Anyway, titans may have opened a can of worms by increasing the Beast Boy’s abilities to the point where he has few effective limits, opening the door to even more outrageous transformations.
The question of Beast Boy’s power limits came up titans season 4, episode 5, “Inside Man”, after Superboy became host to a magical snake summoned by the leader of the Church of Blood, Mother Mayhem. With the snake using Superboy’s invulnerable body as a fortress, the Titans devised a plan centered on Beast Boy becoming a virus and transporting the magical reagent Jinx needed to perform a cleansing ritual on the snake. The plan was based on the fact that some viruses contain DNA and Beast Boy’s powers specifically allow him to “Unzip and rearrange my DNA into anything, as long as it has DNA.”
Does Beast Boy Go Viral in DC Comics?
In the New Teen Titans comics by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Beast Boy was limited to only being able to transform into non-sentient animals that he was aware existed. This limit was set so that Beast Boy could not use his powers to replicate sentient species from other worlds, such as Kryptonians or Martians. Later stories established that Beast Boy’s powers were facilitated by a connection to The Red, the cosmic force that binds all animal life in the DC multiverse. This allowed him to become extinct animals, such as dinosaurs, and animals from alien planets.
Beast Boy had never used his powers to become a virus before titans season 4. However, he transformed into an amoeba and replicated himself repeatedly to fight a computer virus that infected Cyborg in the animation. Teen Titans season three episode “Crash”. It should be noted, however, that an amoeba is larger than a virus and organically much more complex. Also, although some viruses contain DNA, there is some debate as to whether they can technically be considered living creatures, since they cannot replicate without a host.
Ignoring the real-world scientific debate, there’s another reason why Beast Boy shouldn’t be able to use his powers to turn into a microscopic creature. Beast Boy’s transformations are powered by The Red, which is one of the many elemental forces in the DC Comics cosmology. One such other force is The Divided, which governs all self-replicating microscopic life, including amoebas. Given how territorial the forces have been portrayed, it seems unlikely that Beast Boy could cross that line and become a microscopic creature. Then again, Animal Man (who also plays The Red) once mimicked an amoeba’s ability to replicate, so maybe there’s some cooperation between the two forces.
So can Beast Boy from Titans transform into anything now?
Regardless of what the comics and real-world science say about Beast Boy’s transformations, it has been firmly established by the events of titans season 4 that Gar Logan can transform into a virus. Removing this limit challenges everything that has been established about his powers thus far, making him infinitely more powerful. There is a certain irony in this, given that one of the main complaints titansBeast Boy was as weak as he was compared to the comics, originally he could only transform into a tiger. With this barrier broken, however, Beast Boy could potentially be the most powerful member of the titans
titans continues Thursday on HBO Max.
