Chapter Thirty-Seven - Beast Boy: Laughter That Hides Loss

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Beast Boy: Laughter That Hides Loss

GARFIELD LOGAN ALWAYS cracks the joke first. He makes fun of himself before anyone else can. He trips over his words, does funny voices, turns into a green gorilla, and flashes a big dumb grin. Because if you’re laughing, you’re not asking questions. And if you’re not asking questions, then maybe he doesn’t have to think about everything he’s lost.

That’s the trick.

Beast Boy is not comic relief. He uses comedy to survive. Underneath the humor is a kid who got sick as a child, watched his parents die in a jungle, was experimented on, turned green, and never got to feel normal again. He shapeshifts because it’s the one thing he can control. He makes people laugh because he knows what it feels like to cry alone.

He doesn’t want to be the strongest. He wants to be wanted.

That’s why he attaches so quickly. Why he cares so much. Why rejection hits harder for him than almost anyone else on the team. He treats friendship like a lifeline. Love like oxygen. And when it doesn’t work out, when someone pulls away, he doesn’t get angry. He gets smaller.

People see the animal powers and forget he’s human. They see the jokes and forget he’s grieving. They see the youth and forget he’s had to grow up faster than most adults ever will.

But Beast Boy keeps showing up.

He trains. He fights. He risks his life alongside teammates who can level cities, and he never backs down, even when his powers aren’t enough. That courage gets overlooked because it doesn’t look dramatic. But every time he walks into battle, he’s proving to himself that he’s not just a mascot.

He’s family.

And sometimes, family is the thing you build when the world takes everything else.

Gar doesn’t joke because life is funny.
He jokes because it’s not.
And laughing is how he keeps himself from disappearing.