What is your favourite Beast Boy costume (canon ones or your own design)?
How would you rate the canon costumes he wears in different media?
Hey there, and thank you for the ask! š
All right, letās dive into...
⨠BEAST BOY/CHANGELING COSTUMES THROUGHOUT THE YEARS āØ
Please note that this entire ramble will be based entirely on...
...my personal opinions.
Itās superhero fashion. It literally boils down to personal taste.
Okay, letās start with Garās first costume in the Doom Patrol:
This was basically the same costume worn by the other Doom Patrol members: mainly red, with a white upside-down triangle on the chest, white gloves, purple boots, and a purple belt.
Whatās with that horrible purple mask?
Gar wanted to keep his secret identity safe for a bunch of reasons, one of which was the fact that he had promised his dad to keep his powers secret before he died.
I donāt have anything against this costume. Red and white are a simple and effective color combination. As for the purple... it was the ā60s. Iām not gonna bitch too much about the details in weird colors.
But the mask... oh boy. I know he needed to cover his skinābecause... how many green boys are thereābut seriously, that thing really, really sucked.
Apparently, it was important for us to know that he wore Italian shoes.
Good choice, Gar.
Then came his secondāand probably most famousācostume:
The New Teen Titans Changeling costume.
So, we keep the white and red as a homage to his adopted family, but we drop the purple. Bravo.
The white sections of the costume were also nice, in my opinion: not exaggerated, not overdone.
Boots, gloves, briefs, solar plexus, the sides of the arms, and the sides of the legs. Simple as that, and most importantly: consistent throughout the era.
But then again, among all the bad takes and questionable choices we can hold Wolfman and PƩrez accountable for, costumes are not among them. That man could draw. And he could draw costumes.
And apparently, this costume was so appreciated no main run dared change it for like twenty years!
This is probably one of my favourite costumes, mostly because of nostalgia rather than because itās particularly beautiful.
I have clear memories of there being a black-and-white costume during the ā90s for some time.
I donāt remember it clearly enough to express an opinion about it...
AND I CANāT FIND IT ANYWHERE!
AAAARGH!
My vote: 0/10āto my faulty memory
Then, at the beginning of the Teen Titans 2003 run, we get the first color change:
Purple instead of red, but the white stays.
We also get a few more details, like the fact that the purple sections have... piping-like detailing? I donāt know what to call those š
And we get short sleeves for the first time, which I personally liked.
What I donāt like:
They forgot Gar was only slightly younger than Vic, Kory, and Dickānot almost young enough to basically be their kid!
Collective reminder that, at the end of The Judas Contract, Gar was 16, Dick was 19, and Vic wasāif I remember correctlyā18.
Why is Gar still sixteen while the others look like theyāre at least in their mid-twenties?!
Also, during the ā80s, heād been one of the few hairy characters in the superhero community (Iām not counting the ā90s because... everybody was kinda hairy then). Why the hell did they shave him here?!
Then we have the 2003 cartoon costume.
Which, I must say, will always have a special place in my heart.
First things first: I really liked the idea of sneakers instead of superhero boots.
They gave the costume that youthful touch that fits the character well since, based on old interviews with David Slack and Glen Murakami, Gar was supposed to be fourteen at the beginning of the series.
Then we have the biggest change: the color scheme.
Beast Boy/Changeling had never worn black and purple in the comics before this, so... where did it come from?
Iāll be honest: Iām not sure either.
But I always thought it looked somewhat similar to the outfit Steve Dayton wore before refining his Mento persona and creating his first costume.
Thatās Garās adoptive dad, so it wouldnāt be absurd for Gar to base his look on him. (Also, the cartoon uses this look for the whole DP)
Then, in the One Year Later arc, he goes back to the Doom Patrol andāfor some reasonāheās wearing the costume from the 2003 cartoon ĀÆ\(ć)/ĀÆ
I like the fact that they gave him his body hair back.
But I donāt know... I just like him better in red and white when weāre talking about the comics.
Then he rejoins the Titans and wears a different version of his old red-and-white suit.
This time, with short sleeves and short pants.
Aaaand he went back to shaving his arms and legs.
Fun fact: this costume does have boots. He just wears them very rarely.
Also, there are probably a hundred different versions of this suit with slightly different red-white patterns. I swear I found, like, five different versions just while looking for these two pictures.
Personally, I really like this look.
The short sleeves and pants make him a bit more distinctive from the standard superhero suits worn by most male heroes.
My only problem with it? When heās not wearing the boots, heās one wood splinter away from being out of the battle.
And that just seems stupid to me.
Then... I guess he went through a āless is moreā phase.
Because in The Ravagers, he decided his costume was going to be...
BRIEFS.
Like, just briefs.
I must say, there were a lot of... creative decisions in that run.
Like him being red (why was EVERYBODY red in the early 2010s?!).
Or Tara having to be barefoot the entire time to use her powers.
But hey, at least they took his razor away?
This also marks the first instance of Gar having very weird feet, though.
And Iām not really a fan of that.
My vote: Theyāre BRIEFS! What am I supposed to vote here?! Umh... 3/10
Oh, I almost forgot about the other animated versions!
The first Young Justice look is... no.
Just no.
For me, at least.
No hate to anyone who likes this design, but itās just not to my personal taste.
I donāt know... something about the super short shorts and the overall half-monkey look just doesnāt work for me.
My vote: 2/10 for creativity.
The second look he had in Young Justice, on the other hand...
It also resembles his most recent comic costumeāwhich weāll get to in a momentāand I like the fact that they actually explain what happens to his costume when he shapeshifts.
The sneakers were also a nice detail, and I always interpreted them as a callback to the 2003 series.
His look in the 2017 The Judas Contract movie was...
Unremarkable, in my opinion.
Sorry! Itās not that I dislike it. Itās just...
The more I look at it, the more it reminds me of pajamas.
It even has footies!
Sorry, sorry, sorry. Itās just a no for me. š
The only nice touch? He was originally red and white, then transitioned to white and purple, then black and purple in the 2003 cartoon...
So the only color combination left was black and red.
My vote: 6/10āmostly because I generally like that movie.
And weāre at the final stage of his costume evolution:
It is pretty clearly based largely on the outfit he wore in Titans (2008), with a few more details.
Honestly, I really like this take.
The sleeves went from short to nonexistent, and itās not a choice I dislike.
Heās got these half-gloves that are pretty cool, and he finally ditched both the razor and the boots once and for all (hope he doesn't step on a lego).
My problems with this:
- The sideburns. Yeah, youāre not that Logan, and the only Titan whoās allowed to have sideburns is Joey.
- The weird feet thing going on... and the fact that they sometimes go back to looking like normal human feet.
- And the white detailing on the chest which is kinda starting to resemble Nightwingās stylized "wings" symbol. It must have been intentional on the artistās part. I just donāt get why they did that.
Err... thereās also this war crime, but Iām not even going to touch it.
Rita, dear, listen to me: BURN IT.
BURN IT WITH FIRE.