Titans: Beast World #2: The Birth of Monsters

Leaving off with Beast Boy defeating such a large threat in the last issue of Beast World, we are now introduced to the aftermath which is much more problematic than the otherworldly fight in the first issue. Our heroes now face the threat of beast spores, green chemicals that turn people into vicious, prehistoric resembling monsters, and Amanda Waller continues her reign as one of DC’s most notorious antagonists.

Before getting deeper into the review, I want to make a quick note about how versatile the Titans are. The Titans take inspiration from every corner of the DC Universe, more heavily on the Justice League than anything. Yet, the way the superhero group can work with quite frankly any other character outside of the main core is astonishing. In this issue, there are cameos of Animal Man, an introduction to a mutated form of Black Adam, and so forth.

The second issue of Beast World opens up with Animal Man being in an overstimulated state, as he feels the unnatural changes happening in the world. This could potentially lead to a Titans and Animal crossover sometime in the near future, especially since Beast Boy and Animal Man are very similar heroes.

While that was just a small appearance and hint about what the future holds, this issue sets the scene for Beast World: Gotham, the next issue in the series. In Bludhaven, Nightwing’s city, Nightwing and Batman are fighting the chaos that is taking place. They are rescuing civilians left and right from the mutated monsters that are wreaking havoc on the city.

Batman swoops down to rescue a boy trapped in a car with a man turned into a grizzly bear on top of it, snarling at him. Batman punches the bear out of the way, breaks the car’s windshield, holds the boy and readies his grappling hook, only for it to fail. Out of nowhere he gets bit by a monster and they all begin to gang up on him as he readies his grappling hook successfully this time around. He tells the boy to hold on tight and that Nightwing will catch him while he stays down there amongst the monsters.

After the boy is safe, Nightwing swoops down and fights alongside Batman to take down the mutants. In this moment, Nightwing shows what a leader he is by telling Batman he’s not fine, that he can see bone where he was bitten, and telling the grand detective who has all the answers that what’s going on in Bludhaven is going on all over the world.

On a rooftop, Batman and Nightwing discuss their plans for the catastrophe and how to handle it. Just then they sense a mutant behind them and when it lurks out to attack them, Batman grabs the giant cobra, holds its mouth wide open and the spores make their way inside Batman’s mouth. The cobra reverts back into a human, and Bruce takes off his mask in disbelief as to what just happened. As Bruce begins to transform into a wolf, he tells Dick to not let him hurt anyone.

Oracle then comes in on the intercoms, reporting that catastrophes are taking place everywhere on the globe. In Kahndaq, Black Adam has transformed into a lion like creature, standing on two legs. Wonder Girl and Starfire make it to the scene and begin to fight the hellish beast, barely doing anything at all.

As Nightwing fights with a furriest Batman rendition we’ve ever seen, Nightwing makes an observation that he reports to Oracle, being that the spores gravitate towards stronger hosts. Oracle repeats it back to Wonder Girl and Starfire but they appear to be cornered by Beast Boy spores.

The last couple pages depict Amanda Waller’s grasp for power over the Titans, as she pleads to the President of the United States that she is much better prepared to save the world instead of the twenty-year-old heroes.