Doom Patrol #112 (1967)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
The new backup feature will follow Beast Boy, starting with an extended version of his origin.
First we discover that his father, a brilliant medical researcher, became very rich by inventing some medical “technique and device”. We never learn what that is.
And that gives him the money to set up his own research center in some fictional African country, where he goes to live with his wife. Who based on a later scene is probably his assistant as well.
This would be an amusing sight gag for a comedic story, but I found it to be completely out of place here. Unless Beast Boy’s father was a practical joker, something that never comes up.
The researcher’s dream is to turn lizards back into dinosaurs. I don’t know if we already discovered that in 1967, but lizards DON’T descend from dinosaurs: they just have a common ancestor.
But to be fair, turning a lizard into an ancestor of the dinosaurs would still be impressive!
Also I can’t be TOO harsh on the guy, considering he has to deal with a son who is SOMEHOW more insufferable than how other kids used to talk in the Silver Age.
Please don’t do anything racist please don’t do anything racist please…
Well… close enough.
But then the son gets sick with the fictional disease of sakutia.
Which can only be cured by TURNING YOU INTO A MONKEY.
But only for a day, after which his son still keeps the green skin.
And gives him superpowers, of course.
When I first saw Beast Boy’s origin, I found it weird that his father insisted on keeping his powers a secret.
Until I say what Beast Boy could transform into, and… yeah, that’s a form not even a father could love.
This retelling still keeps the worst part of the origin: the fact that Beast Boy couldn’t come up with an animal that could save his parents.
I know he’s just a kid, but really? Not a single animal that could pick them up?
So the future Beast Boy goes to live with an African king.
So does that make Beast Boy DC’s version of Black Panther?
The witch doctor gets the last laugh against Western medicine, because turns out the king can only be saved by local medicine.
For a moment I wondered if the fever was connected to the infection that his father cured, but then I realized that this is months or maybe years after that scene.
This means Beast Boy is on a quest, but more realistically it’s an excuse to have Premiani draw some animals.
Which, come to think of it, might be the whole reason Beast Boy was created.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you!
This allows Beast Boy to save the king, and in recognition he’s made a prince.
I TOLD YOU he’s Green Panther!!!
Then again, I’m not sure how much we can believe this story since it’s being told by Beast Boy himself, and he could be embellishing things.
You might think it’s foolish for Beast Boy to leave the live of a prince behind… but he’ll eventually be adopted by the fifth richest man in the world.
And we close on a cliffhanger about Beast Boy’s original nemesis: his guardian.
Historical significance: 0/10
Other than the fact Beast Boy spent like a week being an African prince, nothing substantial is added to his origin.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
The fact that the son of a man who JUST invented a device that can turn him into an animal just happens to catch a disease that can only be cured by being turned into an animal.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Premiani’s artwork does the heavy lifting once again. The origin on its own is fine, but the complete absence of angst wouldn’t work today.