Beast World #2 review

After Beast Boy's transformation, the entire DC Universe reels in shock of a worldwide shapeshifter epidemic. Horrifyingly, every nation of the world must contend with violent beast attacks. Pretty soon the Titans, Justice League, and all other metahumans become targets of the power hungry parasitic horde. If anything, I feel bad for Beast Boy. Let's take a look!

Beginning In the Aftermath

I'm a firm believer that the DC Universe badly needs therapy. While readers discuss event fatigue, the characters that survive them live long enough until the next one. Citizens in Gotham have been repeatedly occupied by villains and militias, dream shared nightmares, merged into worldwide hiveminds like the Kindred, and much more. To make matters worse, the usual "comic book reset" canonically no longer applies. In fact, one of the consequences of Dark Nights: Death Metal, Infinite Frontier, and Dark Crisis is that many people actually remember everything that happened to them. At least, that was the original implication. Beast World is just the latest in a series of non-stop traumatizing events. It gets so bad, it no longer matters how they win, but if it's capable to move past this.

Infinite Frontier #0 written by Joshua Williamson, art by Xermanico. Most people remember what has happened to them in various crisis events.

Only an opportunist like Amanda Waller would swoop in to offer to fix the disaster she caused. Ever since War For Earth-3, Waller has become hell bent to change the world herself. Starting with her violent bounty in The Dawn Of DC Primer #1, Waller has taken advantage of every crisis to get ahead. Now that Dr. Hate has successfully executed her plan, Amanda sets up a meeting with the president. Fascinatingly enough, her plan involves an organization called the "Bureau of Sovereignty." Currently, it is unknown if this relates to the same board established in Tom King's Wonder Woman #1 by the literal "Soverign of the United States." Regardless, Waller having pre-established contingency plans should worry any heroes she wants dead. Admittedly, considering the casual overreach characters like Oracle have, Waller's argument against irresponsible heroes in their twenties may have legs to stand on.

A Beast World

The world has gone mad. Men, women, and children the world over either become beasts or must survive them. The sheer amount of new unstable beasts created give avatars of the Red like Animal Man an aneurysm. Worse of all, the situation compounds when Garro's stars attach themselves to stronger hosts like metahumans. For example, an infected Black Adam goes on a tragic murder spree. The tragic irony of the hero of Khandaq killing his own people matches the melancholic tone from stories like DC Vs. Vampires or DCeased. Even in Blüdhaven, the mutants kill their neighbors, spouses, and children indiscriminately. Sadly, even they remove the parasites, most of the survivors and former hosts suffer irreversible trauma.

Additionally, Batman is unable to defend himself from the Garro parasites and becomes a werewolf! Before he loses his mind, Bruce coaches Nightwing on what to do, cosigns his leadership, and tragically begs his son not to let him hurt anyone. It's effectively gut wrenching to read. The rest of the Titans and the bulk of the heroes divert power to stopping Garro's descent in the upper atmosphere. Particularly, Raven brings Cyborg to the front lines, despite not being able to account for how it happens at all. Oracle singles out Donna Troy and Starfire as their heaviest hitters, despite the Superman family and more still being active. It further emphasizes that the Titans experiment is cute, but it will take more than the Titans to fix this.

Recommended If...

Currently reading Tom Taylor's Titans.
You're an Amanda Waller fan.
You wanted some kind of justification for reading the last few DC events.

Overall

Overall, Beast World is a serious problem for these characters. This may be the worse tragedy to hit mainstream continuity since the last real crisis. Luckily, Ivan Reis makes the trauma look good. While Tom Taylor justifies turning everyone into violent furries to set up Amanda Waller, the event does warrant interesting questions. Firstly, where does the DC Universe go from here? The implications of this event would be incredibly brave to explore in future stories. Especially, seeing what happens to the heroes and civilians grasping with the aftermath has incredible potential. As for the Titans, I don't think they have what it takes to handle the weight of this crisis. Unless Tom Taylor has a way to redeem them, DC's premiere team haven't satisfyingly grown to scale with their problems.

Score: 7/10

DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review

2 comments

Robin MB
December 12, 2023
Two 7s in a row? Hmmmm maybe there is something to this
Tyranus
December 13, 2023
Has Taylor finally struck gold? Two issues in and we are seeing the plot move in interesting ways.
Friends and loved ones killing each other as wild animals and even when they are freed...how do you move on from that? It is an interesting question. King's HoC was an attempt to show how trauma affects heroes. How they too need support and therapy. Of course, the story was utterly ruined by editorial making some wild ass demands. Maybe the story would have always been bad, but editorial certainly made it worse.
How is Beast Boy going to live with himself after causing this suffering? Yes, Doctor Hate actually caused it, but BB is the one spreading himself and infecting people. Poor Garfield.
As for Waller, she has ben making moves for quite some time now. She certainly seems to have much bigger plans than something like a new Suicide Squad. Perhaps a kind of Justice League that she, and the government, can control? Heroes that are more willing to get dirty to stop a threat? I would like to know how she intends to control such people, because that is who Waller is. She must CONTROL.
Call me shocked for having two good and interesting books in a row. Taylor is actually on fire for once. Where the hell has this passion and story telling been? It was certainly not in his SoKE or Nightwing books.

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