Titans: Beast World's Tom Taylor Reveals Why Beast Boy is at the Heart of DC's First Crossover Titans Event

It’s hard to fathom that the Titans haven’t ever had an event to call their own to this point, but that time is finally here with Titans: Beast World. At the helm is the talented team of writer Tom Taylor, artist Ivan Reis, colorist Brad Anderson, inker Danny Miki, and letterer Wes Abbott, and they have some big things in store for not just the Titans but also the DC Universe at large. That’s not simply a figurative statement either, as Beast Boy will be undergoing a rather massive transformation to protect those he loves, but all will not go as planned. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Tom Taylor all about the series’ thrilling first issue as well as what’s to come down the link, starting from the origination of the central idea. You can also check out a full preview of the issue on the next slide.

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“It grew organically. It was actually, I had elements of Beast World in my original pitch for Titans, where I wanted to take them in a year’s time. So when this idea came about, that there could be an event at the end of the year and it could be Titan-centric, we were like, ‘Well, I think I’ve got the idea for that,’ and it just grew from there. What was great about it was knowing that we were always heading to this event meant that I could seed this entire event in the first five issues of Titans,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t have to come into play and suddenly stop the momentum on a story. This is the story that we’ve been building to from issue one of Titans, so that’s exciting.”

The organic nature of the story and how it’s been threaded throughout the first few issues is clearly visible in Beast World #1, as all the various pieces on the board are moved into place without the process feeling forced or abrupt. “That’s exactly right, and having so many players on the board,it can get really challenging, but being able to set so much of this in place already from issues one to five meant that it was a lot easier and a lot more organic,” Taylor said.

Beast World is also a natural extension of the Titans’ new place in the DC Universe since Dark Crisis, as the group is still the preeminent superhero team in a post-Justice League world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in an interaction between Raven, Beast Boy, and Batman that will have every DC fan cheering, as who doesn’t love to see the Dark Knight put in his place?

“I think that’s actually a big part of these Titans. We wanted them to feel like the adults in the room. We wanted them to have learned from the past mistakes of the Justice League and just say, ‘No, we can talk about this instead of weird amounts of subterfuge and going behind your back. Let’s just be adults and have a conversation rather than immediately punching someone in the face because we don’t know what they’re talking about.’ And that’s been a theme in Titans so far. And you see more of that in Titan’s Beast World, for sure,” Taylor said.

Another core element to the series is Brother Eternity, who sets these events into motion. While he will obviously play a role in the series, fans will find out the big details regarding the character in the Titans main series, and more details are right around the corner.

“You’ll certainly learn a lot more about that character. We wanted to set him up as this mystery, which we set up in Titans, and through the Titans: Beast World, but the mystery of him will be revealed in Titan’s issues six and seven. That’s where he really comes into play. That’s where we went, okay, we’ve got all the animals, the Beast people, all of this stuff, Doctor Hate, all of this building in Beast world, but we’ve got to come back to everything we’ve been building in Titans as well, and that’s Brother Eternity and everything that’s happening with Tempest, his mind control. So all of that comes to a head in Titans six and seven,” Taylor said.

Speaking of Doctor Hate, that character is going to play a big part in this Titans event as well. “Yeah. Look, Doctor Hate is a huge part of this and continues to be, and the mystery of who’s behind that helmet is a really key part of this as well,” Taylor said. “I’ve seen a lot of theories online. So far I haven’t seen anyone get it right, which is fantastic. Yeah, huge, huge character. And obviously working very closely with Joshua Williamson as he was doing Dark Crisis and Knight Terrors, we were able to get Doctor Hate in those last pages of Knight Terrors so all of this has been seeded in the past rather than slapped together at the last minute.”

As the title implies, Beast Boy is at the heart of this story, and Taylor once again spins a tale and adventure that leans into what the DC Universe excels at. “Well, first of all, I always like when it comes to giant stories like this, whether it’s I did the same thing with DCeased, Dark Knights of Steel and Injustice, I love writing books like this where something like this can only happen in the DC universe,” Taylor said. Finding a power set, deciding that our anti-living in DCeased came from anti-life, from a corrupt anti-life through Darkseid and through the Black Racer. This is stuff that you can only build in the DC universe, and it’s the same here, in this instance we have a threat that the only person who can save the world is Beast Boy, and I love those stakes and I love putting him in the center of it. He’s the heart of the Titans, so putting him in the heart of this book made a lot of sense.”

Titans: Beast World #1 hits comic stores on November 28th.

Are you excited for Titans: Beast World #1? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things comics with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!