Raven

Origin

Raven is one of the longest-serving members of the Teen Titans, in various incarnations of the team. Raven owes her heroic role (as well as an evil role) to a darker past – she is the daughter of a human mother named Arella and an inter-dimensional demon known as Trigon. Raven’s demonic lineage was hidden from her for most of her early years. She was raised in an alternate dimension called Azarath, where she learned with a greater degree of skill to control her emotions by the goddess Azar. This was intended to control the influence of Trigon on Earth as her demonic powers would facilitate his ability to conquer the planet. Due to this training, she rarely saw her mother and the two grew apart. Upon Azar’s death, she discovered for the first time her demonic heritage as she met her father face-to-face for the first time. This eventually caused her to leave Azarath and take residence on Earth where, after being rejected by the Justice League of America, she helped to create an incarnation of the Teen Titans.

Creation

Raven first appeared in an issue of DC Comics Presents in 1980. The series was commonly used as a way to highlight characters or reintroduce somewhat forgotten ones by pairing them with Superman. In this particular case, a new version of the Teen Titans was shown in a bonus section, of which Raven was one of the new members.

The timing was right for the new team, as youth-oriented books were quite popular in the medium (the leader at the time was the X-Men at Marvel.) This led to these new characters becoming very popular themselves and very much established in the DC Universe.

Two of her early creators described her after her creation:

George Pérez: When I came to DC I came in strictly to do the Justice league. At the time Dick Dillin was still alive, so I just wanted to do one issue of it. Marv had asked me to do something for DC and suggested the Teen Titans. You know how hard it was to tell the people at Marvel what I was going to do at DC? “Oh, they finally got you doing work there, what are you going to be doing?” “Well, I’m doing the TEEN TITANS… (very low, embarrassed voice)” (laughter.) I did not think that book was gonna go. I loved the original, I hated the second version… and I thought it was going to die. Marv had already decided on Cyborg. Basically, he had all the things worked out on him. Same thing with Starfire. Raven … while Marv conceived the character, it was Len’s idea to put a mystical character in there. Marv didn’t want Raven in.

Marv Wolfman: Len didn’t specify Raven, he wanted a female mystical character. I just didn’t want to do that because my first thought was Dr. Strange and my second thought was the Phantom Stranger. I didn’t want to do anything like that. Len said, “Come up with something different.” This was before Zatanna became a member of the JLA. And there were no mystical type characters in any group book. I had to figure out a character that would be completely different. from Dr. Strange, Dr. Fate or Zatanna. The name Raven came from the comic strip that I had done with Ross Andru. There was a girl in there named Raven Winters. And the last name went on to become the Baron’s last name in Night Force. Raven sort of appeared that way.

The characters held no interest for me until a George did a visual. We talked about it and I was still very reluctant. While I knew about her background, I still didn’t care about her because I don’t like writing about mystics. He did the visual and I just went… “Wow.” I knew what the face looked like, but at that point we had no intention or showing what her face looked like.

Character Evolution

Modern Age: New Earth

As is common with any character that first appeared as a teenager, Raven has matured substantially throughout her time as a hero. When first seen she was shy and withdrawn, but this was also a result of not wanting to use her powers to their full capacity (or else her father would control her body.) Keeping her distance and her secretive nature made her hard to trust. Initially, she was also a total pacifist and refused to actively engage directly in fights, but provided transportation and healing to her teammates. Although Raven began maturing as a character, unlike the rest of the characters on the Titans, this development came at the cost of potentially releasing her father upon Earth. As she accessed her emotions more often they came to affect her physical appearance and after she became completely corrupted she took on a demonic form and finally summoned her father to Earth. After his defeat, she was revived and her normal appearance returned. During this time she struggled to better relate to other people.

During the Titans Hunt story arc, Raven was corrupted by the mad spirits of Azarath that had also possessed Jericho. After fatally wounding Adrian Chase, the Phantasm, her body was destroyed by Chase and Arella, all of whom were presumed dead. However, Raven’s spirit lingered on and escaped to Earth, still as mad as she had been at the time of her destruction. She found a suitable host body and destroyed the spirit replacing her within the flesh. Having turned to her father’s side, Raven’s goal became to recreate her lost siblings that had come before her. The means by which meant planting a seed within a host body that would eventually give birth to one of these lost siblings. But the human Raven had attempted this with first went completely insane before she exploded, unable to handle the raw power within. Instead, she settled on implanting the seeds within superhuman hosts, gathering and corrupting a group of helpers with the task. One of the first victims of this process was Beast Boy. And later on, Raven famously prevented the marriage between Nightwing and Starfire when she attacked the ceremony before the vows and implanting a seed within her old friend.

However, it was later revealed that Raven’s pure spirit was still active and unknown to her evil counterpart, had been the part implanted within Starfire. While inside her old friend, Raven pushed Starfire to undergo an old Tamaranian ritual gaining a slightly altered appearance and seemed to be more shaman-like before leaving for Tamaran itself. Eventually, this prompted the Evil Raven to follow her into space, striking a deal with the Citadel that leads to the destruction of both Tamaran and the Technis. Everything culminated on New Tamaran where Evil Raven was eventually reduced to ash, by Starfire, Darkstar Donna Troy, and Kyle Rayner while it was revealed that Raven would have resurrected Trigon and not his children had she succeeded in her plans. And Raven’s spirit for the first time was free of her father’s influence.

Raven would exist as a golden spirit for a while after the conclusion to the New Titans series, opting to remain in space with Starfire, Changeling and Cyberion. Eventually, she would return in an effort to warn her friends that Cyborg had lost touch with his humanity as Cyberion and was now returning as a massive planet-like object known as Planet Cyberion. She would stand by her friends against the Justice League when they would attempt to destroy Cyborg rather than try and save him, in the ensuring conflict he was confronting the New God Orion, one of the strongest voices for Cyborg’s destruction before she quelled the everburning rage within, leading to Orion acting markedly different before returning to normal.

She would appear again during other engagements, most noticeably during the Our Worlds at War story where she played a crucial role in Wonder Woman’s plan to both re-empower Darkseid and reignite the firepits of Apokolips, but also to enact Diana’s own revenge against the New God of Evil for the earlier murders of her sisters by implanting within him a sliver of Diana’s own soul, robbing him of the dark edge he had always had. Later it was rumored she had departed for other planes of existence.

She would later be revived again by Sebastian Blood who needed her as a bride, but as Blood was merely a 12 year old at the time, Raven was reborn with a body of a similar age despite being in her mid-twenties. After being rescued from this fate by her friends she developed more of a personality and even developed a Goth-inspired fashion sense. During the events of One Year Later she decided for the first time to lead the team alongside Beast Boy while they were in a relationship at the time (though they would break up from the strain the team placed on them). However it was revealed when Cyborg returned that Raven had broken up with Garfield and left the team, not because of the strain, but because she had become aware of a traitor in their midst. The traitor turned out to be one of the recent members called Bombshell, who was after the disk Cyborg had trapped Jericho on and tried to stop Raven from reviving him from the pool she herself had been recreated from.

After a period of turbulence, Cyborg tried to recreate a new team of Titans to run parallel with the one run by Tim Drake, while the other old New Teen Titans declined to take part originally, they were soon forced when Trigon attacked every single member the Titans had ever had, seriously injuring many of them. In order to confirm it was indeed Trigon who had struck them, being the only figure with the reach and resources to do so. Raven discovered that not only was her father alive, though a shade of himself, she had a living sibling on Earth who was aiding him. It was soon revealed she had 6 brothers, known as the Sons of Trigon, each of whom carried the powers of one of the 7 deadly sins, where Raven was revealed as the oldest and most powerful as the Sin of Pride.

Post-Flashpoint: Earth-0 (New 52)

After an absence of a year in the new 52, Raven finally appeared in the pages of Phantom Stranger as a teenager living in fear of becoming like her father. The Phantom Stranger intervenes when she comes under attack and seems to be interested in protecting her, but instead delivers her to her awaiting father despite her pleas as he was poised to invade the Earth to find her.

During the issue it is revealed Raven had escaped to Earth when her father Trigon had invaded Azarath some time ago, ending up at Stonehenge that serves as a portal between Earth and Azarath. It wasn’t specified how long ago this exodus was or what Raven had been doing since then other than trying to help people with her empathic powers and avoiding the Church of Blood, Trigons earthly followers.

Later Trigon revealed more of Raven origins. He has a son from each of the Under-Realms he’s conquered, though only three have so far been revealed. Raven is his only daughter and the only one Trigon doesn’t hold in contempt. Trigon let Raven’s mother, Arella, live because he needed Raven to be raised by humans so she could recreate the seven under realms in her own image. Something he claims would clear his path to attack even greater realms. Arella eventually fled with her daughter to Azarath where the monks taught her how to control her bad side and avoid Trigon`s influence on her before he attacked them years later.

After her capture, Raven spent time in the Under-Realms where time flows faster or was compressed. Trigon believed he just needed to liberate her by keeping her close to him, letting her suppressed heritage reemerge on its own and not directly control her to remake Raven in his own image.

Impressed after having fought many battles by his side, Trigon handed her the Throne of the Under-Realms to rule as a Queen.

Raven appeared to be allied with her father to defeat the Teen Titans, but Trigon is wary of her as he knows she is making her own plans without his blessings.

It was not determined exactly which side she was on as she remained vague about her intentions. Though she appeared to be friendly with the Teen Titans, fighting alongside them against both her father and her brothers. Her allegiance seemed to be a ruse, as she had taken control of Beast Boy before meeting with the Titans. And was seen speaking with Trigon after joining the team. Her allegiances could come under further questioning when she ambushed Wonder Girl and wiped her memory of certain historical events she had witnessed when they were traveling through time. Even more so when she later confronted Jon Kent, a violent future Superboy who had killed many of the Earth’s metahumans, being the only one to know Jon had replaced Kon after Kon had vanished and the Justice League of that era had dressed Jon in Kon’s outfit. Though Jon tried to kill her, Raven brushed him off and cautioned he grow patience if he wanted to achieve his goals, but otherwise let him continue his charade as it served her own purpose and that of Trigon.

However, Raven’s allegiances changed rather drastically, once the team finally returned to their own timeline where the trip back seemingly broke Trigons influence over Raven.

Along with the rest of the team, Raven gained a social media presence to some degree as they stopped a school bus that had been hijacked by suicide bombers heading for STAR Labs. In Raven’s case, the popularity boost resulted in a band called Dark Mistress that wrote their music based on their experiences with Raven, even using some of her spellcraft in their lyrics.

DC Rebirth

After the death of Tim Drake and the dissolution of the Teen Titans, Raven discovers that her mother has a sister that lives in San Francisco with her dedicated Christian family. Feeling out of place, Raven tries her best to fit in. At the same time, a mysterious white orb has been luring the young generation into its world in order to use their youth as its power source. Raven is able to stop the creature with the help of her Aunt and the people of the city. The creature escapes and Raven wipes everyone’s memories of the entire event.

While exploring a museum in the dead of night, Raven comes under attack by Damian Wayne, who has recruited her, along with Starfire, Beast Boy, and Kid Flash in becoming the new Teen Titans. He informs them that his grandfather Ra’s al Ghul has formed his own special team called the Demon’s Fist. Each member of the team has been specifically trained to target a certain member of the Titans. Raven’s enemy is Plague. After defeating the Fist, the team decides to accept Damian’s offer in becoming the Titans group of the West Coast. Raven begins to form a close bond with Kid Flash.

During the events of Metal where the Dark Multiverse invades, Raven is taken captive alongside most of the Teen Titans and Suicide Squad by the Batman Who Laughs. While the other members of the Titans and the Squad are all transformed into ‘goblin-like’ versions of themselves in service of the Batman Who Laughs, Raven remains unchanged. Later she is witness to the League being brought in, having been defeated by the various Batmen. Close by Cyborg is battling the Murder Machine’s influence that overriding his systems before being tempted by the Mother Box inside of him to fully embrace it. Raven reaches out and begs him to reject the Motherbox, as the process of embracing it would ultimately kill him. Cyborg makes a partial sacrifice instead and breaks free, taking the League, their allies and Raven with them before heading out to seek the Nth metal that they believe could be used against the invading Batmen. Though it is revealed their escape had been anticipated by the Batman Who Laughs. Raven, Cyborg, and Flash attempt to reach the House of Heroes using the Monitor ship Ultima Thule, a ship last seen in Final Crisis, to reach it. Between them Cyborg and Raven try to steer the hyper-advanced and semi-sentient vessel while being pursued by the Dark Knights, ultimately proving their escape was planned and their ship meant to destroy the House. Only to be rescued at the last moment by the inhabitants of the 53rd universe, where everyone is an ape.

Post-Metal the Teen Titans remain together for a while before they are abducted by Brainiac for the events of No Justice. Brainiac assigned Raven to Team Wonder, a team headed by Wonder Woman and also included Dr. Fate, Etrigan the Demon and Zatanna. While the heroes fail to save Colu, their experiences there with the trees and their connection to the Omega Titans allow them to save Earth. Afterward, the Teen Titans disband, with both Raven and Beast Boy feeling adverse effects of the broken Source Wall. Raven is recruited by Nightwing not long after for a special Titans team meant to help and contain a new breed of metahumans that has begun appearing after the Source Wall broke, with Raven being imagined as the co-leader by Nightwing and essential due to her empathic powers being able to calm those who were scared and be able to tell who was being a real threat. Currently, Raven has however been marooned on a different world called Unaearth due to the machinations of an otherwise fictional character called Prince Travesty, a product of a fantasy writer who had his meta powers triggered by the Source Wall.

Storyline

The New Teen Titans

From around the time she reached adulthood Raven began exploring her mother’s homeworld so that she would be able to deal with the various emotions she would come across. As she would reveal later on to the Titans, she had known for years that Trigon would invade Earth and that she had tried to coax Azarath into action, but their beliefs in total pacifism wouldn’t allow it. Eventually, Raven’s patience with Azarath ended and she left its tranquility in favor of Earth, hoping the heroes dwelling there would aid her. However, Raven’s heritage resulted in her request for aid from the JLA being rejected because Zatanna could sense the evil within her. Withdrawing, Raven instead looked elsewhere for allies to combat her father, finding the people she needed in those who were once called the Teen Titans, who had parted years ago. Dick Grayson was haunted by visions sent by Raven that allowed him to know of her and the others in advance, Wally West was saved from freezing to death on a mountainside by her before she had him fall in love with her, Donna Troy would suddenly find her old Wonder Girl outfit in her bag when she saw a mugger escape into a burnt down building, finding it to be her childhood home Wonder Woman had saved her from. She would ignite a spark of power in the alien princess Starfire that would allow her to free herself. Offer companionship to Victor Stone and inspire his father to build a suitable home for them. And finally, she would subdue the anger Garfield Logan felt at how his life had turned out.

At first, she hid her demonic past from her new friends but after encountering the Justice League of America (who had previously turned down her request for aid), Zatanna revealed this to her team. They felt betrayed at first but soon after Raven was kidnapped by her father. The team subsequently rescued her and imprisoned Trigon, though Raven still battled the remnants of his power. In the period following these events, Raven would occasionally lose control of her powers in high-stress situations, though with her father’s increased control of her she could regain control. This was also at times a difficult era for the team for instance, Deathstroke infiltrated the team with an agent, Terra. Trigon would eventually return and took control of Raven, destroying Azarath in the process. Her team was forced to kill her so that her spirit could be directed to kill her father. She rose again, purged of her father’s influence, but was not seen for a while (she was absent during the Crisis on Infinite Earths), her absence is one of many failings an angry Nightwing threw at Donna Troy for failing to investigate while she criticized him for being absent from the Titans due to Starfire’s marriage to another Tamaranian.

Arella, however, had kept searching on her own, following clues and rumors of a strange and sad woman that appeared out of nowhere and had amazing curative powers. However, Brother Blood’s followers were following the same leads and mother and daughter were captured in a swamp village that had been keeping Raven captured due to a vicious disease that plagued them. In her fragile state of mind, still not recovered from the battle with Trigon, Blood managed to brainwash Raven into his willing and unhinged servant. When Nightwing, as Richard Grayson, was captured while infiltrating Blood’s complex, he was tortured in order to convert him, Raven would heal him each time so the torture could continue, believing Blood would set Richard free. Blood’s first step was to reinvigorate his Church of Blood and had Raven and Azreal stage his own resurrection on live camera, the second phase of his plan was to join his powers with that of Raven in order to take control of the planet. The Titans, both the old and those who Donna had recruited, arrived to fight Blood but were unable to beat him and ended up captured, while the Justice League had to abandon their assault to prevent Blood forced from doing too much damage, leaving a distraught Magneta to proceed alone. Magneta manages to free the Titans, while Arella is near-fatally wounded by Blood’s torturer; the Confessor. The only part of Raven’s own mind resurfaced when Jason Todd showed her what had happened to her mother, making her turn on the Confessor. She was then summoned again to Blood’s side as he was again confronted by the Titans, Blood made a final mistake and fed Raven even more of his power, breaking his own control over her. Previously considered immune to Raven and her powers, Raven was now able to take her vengeance on Blood and utterly destroyed the ruthless egotistical maniac he was. Azareal escaped with Blood and left him with a brotherhood of monks, who couldn’t help but notice how quiet and almost meek their new brother was while he guarded their sheep. Combined with the birth of Blood’s first child, a daughter to Mother Mayhem, it was assumed to be the end of the Curse of Blood.

Dark Raven

During the Titans Hunt story arc, she was captured by the Wildebeest Society who intended to use her to revive Trigon.

Later, another version of Raven appeared, this time, possessed by her evil conscience. She attempted to implant seeds of Trigon’s children into new bodies. She crashed the wedding of Dick Grayson and Koriand’r of Tamaran, and implanted one of the seeds into the alien princess. However, she actually implanted the seed of the good Raven, which caused Starfire to leave Earth in order to escape from the evil Raven and go on a spiritual journey. Raven then implanted seeds into several superheroes. The Titans were able to defeat her with the help of Phantasm.

Raven returned later, still evil, in order to destroy her good self which she had implanted in Starfire. The Titans defeated her once again, for the last time. The good Raven remained as a golden spirit without a physical body.

Golden Spirit

During her time as a golden spirit, Raven remained mostly absent from Earth and events there, spending much of the time traveling with Cyberion and Changeling. However, as Victor slowly lost himself to his Technis programming, Changeling eventually returned to Earth. Due to a mix between his programming and his human desires, Victor eventually returned to Earth as well as the massive Technis Planet and proceeded to collect his Titan friends and all those who had ever been a Titan, trapping those he captured in what he believed would be pleasing VR simulations. As a spirit, Raven couldn’t be captured in this fashion and helped break the others out before having to contain Victor’s soul as it was to be extracted from the Technis Planet and implanted within a new body; the Omegadrome. It was not without difficulty as Victor was wrecking havoc both on every system on Earth and through the sheer mass of his artificial planet that was slowly consuming the Moon and the JLA initially believed he should be destroyed, as Victor was technically dead. As Titans fought Justice League, Raven pacified the New God Orion, who would only revert to his own persona after the battle was over, having given Magneta a hug for her efforts before that.

Raven would later appear once more during the Our Worlds at War story if only briefly, being part of Wonder Woman’s plan to re-power Darkseid by channeling the prayers of the Amazons into him. When faced with Raven, Darkseid remain unsure what to make of her, what he didn’t know either was that while he was being re-powered, Raven also took a tiny sliver of Wonder Woman’s soul and implanted it within Darkseid as a form of revenge for his slaughter of half of her sisters (during the initial story of John Byrne’s run on WW).

Raven Reborn

Raven eventually returned to corporeal form by a new Brother Blood. Sebastian, had as foretold slain his father to become Brother Blood through his mother goes unmentioned and his existence is unexplained. And he had plans to marry her in order to bring about the apocalypse, where only his true believers would be spared. It was discovered by Tim Drake, Starfire, Deathstroke and Ravager that the source of all the Brother Blood’s power ultimately stemmed from Trigon, explaining why they sought her out and why the old one had been mostly immune to her. Her former team intervened and saved her from this fate and she subsequently rejoined them. She also started a normal life by enrolling in a high school under the name of Rachel Roth, taking the last name of her biological mother. It was also during this time that she developed the most lasting relationship of her life after she and Beast Boy began dating. Another conflict with Brother Blood and his own team of reanimated Titans led to Raven and Beast Boy traveling to the afterlife where with the aid of Kid Eternity they managed to stop the threat.

In the events leading up to Infinite Crisis and due to the effects of the Specter’s destruction of magic during the Day of Vengeance storyline, Raven’s powers have weakened and slipped out of her control. She continued to fight, helping the Titans both in evacuating the shattered city of Blüdhaven and battling Superboy-Prime. During the missing year, Raven assists Steel in launching an attack on Lexcorp when Natasha was captured by Lex Luthor. The Titans fight Black Adam in Greece and the Himalayas. Raven attempts to stop Black Adam, but he shatters her soul-self and causes her to experience psychic backlash from the deaths of Young Frankenstein and Terra. Raven also attended school sometime during the missing year. After inadvertently getting drawn into a mystical battle with an object known as the Medusa Mask. Raven quits the team after she and Beast Boy end their relationship. She tells the unconscious Cyborg that Beast Boy was stressed by being the team leader.

This turns out to be short absence though as she has left the team to perform certain mystical feats including the purging of Jericho’s soul. Raven is later approached by Robin and Wonder Girl, in the hopes that she could resurrect Superboy like she did Jericho. Unfortunately, Raven declares that impossible since Superboy’s soul had moved on to the afterlife, while Jericho’s soul was kept on a computer disk. Without warning, the Titans are captured by the villainous Titans East and transported to the original Titans Island in New York, where Raven is placed in the “care” of Enigma and Duela Dent, who took to torturing her psychologically. Raven manages her escape by offering Duela membership into the true Titans group. After beating the Titans East, she reveals hints that she still loves Garfield, but he refuses to dwell on the matter, leaving their relationship uncertain. Following the death of Bart Allen, Raven along with the other adult Titans decides to leave the team. Raven decides to pursue her chance at attending High School, has never gotten the opportunity before.

In yet another relaunch of the team, Raven rejoins with many of her original teammates as they deal with the return of her father among other threats. She also at this point meets her half-brothers and reveals that their presence tempts her with corruption. She is eventually corrupted by them and forms an alliance with them, forming the seven deadly sins. She is eventually successful in freeing herself, though after returning she is so unsure of her control that she provides the team with a magical item which can kill her if need be. Soon after she is forced to intervene with her old friend Jericho, by separating him from Match.

Raven -while on patrol in the North of Gotham – felt fear from someone. She went to a cemetery where a cult was trying to sacrifice an unknown girl. For the first time in her life, Raven demonstrated she is a good fighter when she wants to be. She defeated all of them and after that, she ran with the girl to a church. She felt as though she knew that place. After thinking about it she remembered that was the church was she was conceived. The girl, without thinking about it twice attacked her. She said she was the spitting image of her mother (Arella) when she was young. The girl transformed herself and revealed her true identity: Envy. She was her brother who wanted Raven to join the rest of the family. She refused his proposal because she said she has her own family now (The Titans). She won the battle easily with her powers. She subsequently felt out of touch with emotion for a brief time.

Raven rejoined the Teen Titans around the same time as Garfield, after first being attacked by the monstrous Wyld that aimed to feed off her empathic powers. She was found by the Titans but didn’t regain consciousness before the Wyld came for her again, where she managed to beat it back. The Wyld would soon return however and brought Raven to its world of origin, where it revealed it was her son, of sorts. The Wyld explained it was an amalgam of monsters that were fused together by Raven’s soul-self as she had passed through its world in a search for Trigon.

Recently she has been seen as the only Titan openly defending Damian Wayne’s admission onto the team, besides Cassandra. Also, she attempts to calm the angered Headcase, a bullied youth granted telekinetic powers by Dr. Caligan, succeeding in doing so until Damian decided to intervene resulting in Headcase’s escape. With the addition of Solstice to the team, Raven has felt slightly out, as there is something about Kiran that drives Raven away from her. During their initial mission together, Raven snapped twice at Solstice, once because she felt suffocated by her presence, resulting in a blastwave of power erupting from her. Later on openly attacking Kiran after being released along with the other Titans by her and Beast Boy, before Garfield was able to calm her down and direct her to wipe out an oncoming horde of demons. When Superboy-Prime finally returned to take out Superboy once and for all, Raven came face to face with Headcase again, this time claiming he was prepared to absorb her knowledge of the Dark Arts which he imagined would make him into a god. However, as with their second encounter, as Red Robin put it; ‘He got into her head, big mistake.’ This time he was brought into her personal space, where he was again caught, unprepared seeing an illusion of a demonic-looking Raven.

Relationships:

Due to her odd powers and the potential for harm by unleashing her emotions, her relationships have been somewhat abnormal. As well as her upbringing left her poorly in touch with her humanity, she at times manipulated the feelings of other to her own benefit if not theirs. One of her most enduring relationships has been with Beast Boy, though it has been well known that Wally West had feelings for her at different points. As well her relationships as a teammate have evolved over time and specifically to characters. She found much in common with Jericho and thus they shared a bond, which caused many people, like Deathstroke and Arella, to think that the two are in a romantic relationship. At one point, she found herself in love with Dick Grayson and unintentionally manipulated his emotions into loving her (similar to what she had done to Wally West), the two shared a passionate kiss. Though with the help of Starfire, Raven realized that she is not in love with Dick, but in the idea of being in love with him, and moved on with her life. The lack of experience also left her open to manipulation by evil forces including Eric Forrester and in a more confused state by Brother Blood. She also later developed a sort of flirtatious friendship with Zachary Zatara.

Powers and Abilities (Post-Flashpoint, New 52, Prime Earth)

As the half-demon daughter of the inter-dimensional demon Trigon, Raven is very powerful and displayed a vast amount of abilities. It was noted by her father Trigon that she only uses a small potential of her power, and if she lets out her full inner demon, she may reach near-infinite power.

• Soul-Self/Darkness Manipulation: Raven is able to conjure and project darkness from her body, usually in the guise of her soul-self, an astral projection in the shape of a shadowy bird that she can use to see through and manipulate objects. Though the soul-self is normally intangible, it can be disrupted by magic and concentrated sound.
  • Psychokinesis: Raven has demonstrated on several occasions to possesses psychokinetic capabilities, in conjunction with her soul-self.
• Empathy: In the New 52, Raven has seemingly retained her powerful empathic abilities from the pre-flashpoint universe as she has been able to manipulate and sense the feelings of others.
• Psionics: In addition to her well-known empathic powers, Raven has an undefined ability to sense and read minds to a degree that she doesn’t appear to notice if someone is physically invisible or not. The strength of her psionic powers remains undetermined, though she seemed to be able to effortlessly dominate Doctor Psycho when he attempted to gain control of her.
• Teleportation: Raven is able to teleport herself and others with herself to different locations, which is taxing her more than her other abilities. She can also use this power to travel interdimensionally with relative ease.
• Chronokinesis: Raven can travel through time itself and even bring passengers, also she appears to be immune to chronological manipulation due to her paternal heritage.
• Magic: Due to the time she spent with her father Trigon, Raven has gained a vast array of knowledge over the mystical arts, enabling her to cast magical spells for a variety of effects, such as healing, pryokinesis, and advanced energy wielding capabilities.

Powers and Abilities (Pre-Flashpoint, Pre-52, New Earth)

Over the years Raven has been portrayed as having a variety of powers, but due to her nature and need for control, many of them remain virtually unknown even to this day. Once unleashed, however, Raven is a formidable opponent.

Empathy

Raven has been described by Dr. Mid-Night as a very powerful empath, a person able to sense and control the emotions of others for different effects. As she forcibly has made both Wally West and Nightwing fall in love with her, though in Wally’s case it was to save his life and make him join the New Teen Titans and accidental in Nightwing’s, due to her own failings in understanding love. As a counterpoint, she can also choose to rob a person of all emotions, this ability has been shown to be enough to render entire crowds emotionally numb, but it was insufficient to halt a rampaging Dr. Light, however, it can be suspected that she couldn’t take it all without turning evil as a result. During the Titans/JLA crossover, Raven was free of Trigon’s corruption and in this shape, she seemed to effortlessly be able to calm the New God, Orion, something that usually takes up most of the power of the Mother Box he always carries to curb his rage.

Her best-known ability regarding her empathy is her ability to absorb the pains of others into herself, inducing rapid healing. However, the cost is that she will feel the pain she absorbs, once this nearly killed her when called upon to save a gravely wounded child, also this sets a limit on the injuries she can heal in this fashion as she cannot heal fatal wounds or dangerous diseases. However, Black Alice once channeled this particular power after one of her schoolmates was injured, citing Raven is one of the best healers around.

Soul-Self/Astral Projection

Raven’s most visual ability, the power to separate her soul from her body, taking the shape of a huge bird, usually black, occasionally white. One she was taught to master as a part of Azarath’s grand scheme to destroy Trigon.

With this Raven is able to walk between dimensions or over vast distances in the same dimension in a short span of time, if there are any limitations to her reach with this ability it has not been clearly defined. During the Crisis on Infinite Earth’s both the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor considered her a suitable herald if they could not use Harbinger or the Psycho-Pirate respectively, but neither could locate her. As the Monitor is a being that is aware of the whereabouts of all beings in all parallel dimensions it has been suspected she traveled to a non-parallel dimension during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Also, she has used this ability defensively, using it to absorb items aimed at herself or others before regurgitating them later on, having been seen transporting sections of bridges away in this manner.

Normally, however, Raven uses her soul-self as a means of attack and containment of her adversaries within it, or as a scout for the rest of the team. Being contained within Raven’s Soul-Self has often proven traumatic if she chooses as they come face to face with their own worst nightmares, some, however, have managed to physically battle their way out of her embrace, like Supergirl (though Raven admitted later on to Kara she wasn’t really trying) and Black Adam who managed to shatter it with a punch during World War 3.

As all of her powers are, the use of her Soul-Self is linked to her emotional control, normally enforced by the fear of falling to her father’s control, if allowed to feel normally her powers increase. As seen in the “Our Worlds at War” storyline, Raven assisted in containing Darkseid as Wonder Woman worked to reignite his omega powers, as Raven was a bodiless spirit, free of Trigon, she managed to contain Darkseid when he was enraged shortly after being repowered.

There is also a therapeutic aspect of Raven’s Soul-Self, one she only displayed once when she subjected Superboy to first his greatest fears; being considered a dangerous weapon rather than a person, turning into Luthor’s minion or becoming the Superman of Titans Tomorrow, before he was shown his own soul, which was something he had feared he did not possess as a clone.

Precognition

Raven has limited precognition which allows her to predict future events that are about to happen. She displays it when she was able to predict that Trigon was going to invade Earth-Two. However, she cannot control this ability and use it whenever she desires, which is why it is only limited, as it only happens randomly.

Flight (Third Life)

Raven has the ability to fly in her third body, an ability she previously only manifested when she succumbed to Trigon.

Other

Due to her nature and fear of falling to her demonic heritage, Raven has manifested a number of abilities while turned or that she does not usually employ, though some have appeared at other times when she has not been influenced by Trigon or otherwise turned evil.

Magic is one of these rarely seen abilities, but strongly hinted at being in her possession, as she has displayed when inducing unconsciousness on a young Tim Drake with a touch, firing balls of fire from the folds of her cloak or hurling electric blasts strong enough to take down all of her brothers and all of the adult Titans. Recently having been shown to completely annihilate the demon army of Rankor numbering more than three thousand individuals and which contained powerful individual demons that had taken the Titans down in ambushes previously.

Telekinesis; as she’s twice displayed casually, once throwing Nightwing into a wall and suspending a struggling group of Titans in mid-air.

Hand-to-Hand combat; a very rarely seen ability that has only really been displayed once and hinted at in another. The hint came when Raven was brainwashed by the previous Brother Blood, where she boldly claimed she was Donna Troy’s equal but they were interrupted before her claim could be proven. The proven instance came when she took down an armed group of occultists through a mix of combat skills and teleportation later taking down her brother Envy in the same manner, during the struggle she was seen hurling occultists through tombstones and Envy though the stone floor of a church, however it is not known is this was pure physical strength or telekinesis is not known. In her demon shape she has also displayed an above human level of strength by holding both Nightwing and Starfire above her head, however, this could also be telekinesis.

Seeding; Only seen when she’s turned evil, first during the Darkening, Raven had the ability to impregnate others with the Seed of Trigon, the spirits of his hundred dead children who came before Raven. However, the Seeds needed superhuman hosts as Raven found out when a human carrier simply exploded in her asylum cell. Both Starfire and Garfield were subjected to this treatment, driving Garfield mad and causing Starfire to return to Tamaran, unknowingly containing Raven’s pure soul. A different version of the Seeding was later shown when she attempted to implant the power of the remaining Six Deadly Sins into the bodies of the Titans, using Garfield as a conduit who would not survive the full implantation had it been successful.

Profile

• Height : 5′ 11″ (180 cm)
• Weight: 139 lbs (63 kg.)
• Eyes: Indigo (once blue)
• Hair: Black
• Citizenship: Azarathian
• Place of Birth: Azarath
• Marital Status: Single
• Education: Currently in High School
• Affiliations: Teen Titans, Sentinels of Magic
• Occupations: Superhero, Student
• Known Relatives: Trigon (father), Angela Roth (Arella, mother), Alice Willaims (Aunt), Jack Williams (Uncle), Mary-Beth Williams (Cousin), Billy Williams (Cousin), Jessica Williams (Cousin). She has six brothers, including Belial, the father of Etrigan, making him her nephew.

Elseworlds

DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar

Raven appeared along with the rest of the Wolfman/Perez-era Teen Titans as part of Chimera’s dream fuelled plot to make Wildstorms, normally very brutal heroes act like his dream heroes from the DC Universe. The initial appearance had the original Titans Tower appear out of nowhere on top of the Riker’s Island prison facility. Mr. Majestic is sent in to investigate but is brought low by a Starbolt and a single touch from Raven before most of the Titans make their escape. She next appears along the other Teen Titans as they engage the members of Gen 13. As the heroes of DC, animated as they are, realize they are being used by Chimera and cease fighting and revert to a more cautious approach to the world around them, Chimera decides to dream up villains such as Doomsday to continue with his wishes before resorting to hatching a Sun-Eater inside the moon. While most of the heroes capable travel to the moon to prevent the Sun-Eater destroying it, Raven along with the Midnighter, independently of each other, deducts where Chimera hiding through Edgar Allan Poe’s Purloined Letter, both deducting that Chimera was hiding in plain sight. After a brief fight with the Shadow-Thief, brought low by a glimpse into Raven’s mind, they eventually find the shrunken Chimera before waking him up, causing all of the DC characters to disappear, but leaving the damage behind.

Bombshells

In the series based on the figures re-imagining various DC characters as pin-up girls, Raven appears first as a former prisoner of the Joker’s Daughter, having been forced into service by the Nazi’s. At first, she appears to be assisting Zatanna, also a former performer/prisoner of the Jokers Daughter, and Constantine form a rebellion after they have both been banished to the Warsaw Ghetto. But it is revealed that the Raven that’s been assisting them has been the Joker’s Daughter all along who has both been spying on the resistance and attempting to regain control of Zatanna. The real Raven is awakened during the battle between the Joker’s Daughter’s Nazi forces and the rebellion, her rise from within her tomb accidentally empowers Mirri Marvel, before she appears above the Ghetto while towering over the buildings. While she struggles to break free of the Daughters control over her, she is forced to comply with Mirri and Zatanna breaks her free and re-empowers Zatanna allowing them all to escape to the recently risen Atlantis.

At first Raven adapts to being Zatanna’s student, but eventually runs away with Harley and Ivy, hiding in their oversized trunk as they head to Russia. Raven explains to the pair that she is the daughter of a village woman and a forest spirit called Trigon, who appears to resemble a satyr. While Trigon returned to the forest, Raven lost her mother to the ‘Ice Witch’ before she was taken by the Joker’s Daughter. And that it was the rumors of the Witch that made Raven go north. Raven initially finds her father as part of a supernatural circus, but he distances himself from her because he no longer felt human, something he only did when around Raven’s mother. With aid from the Bombshells, the circus weathers the Nazies first attempt at gaining control of them before going their separate ways.

The Bombshells end up in St. Petersburg and eventually come under siege by the Nazis, now aided by the members of the circus and other beings. This leads to another confrontation with Trigon where Raven talks sense into him before he is killed by Faora in a successful effort to enrage Raven to a point beyond reason to claim her power. Zatanna and Constantine arrive in time to calm Raven down before she can play into Faora’s trap.

As the series ends Raven appears to have returned to being Zatanna’s student.

In Bombshells, Raven owes her looks to the Demon’s Daughter statue, where she is dressed in a blue corset, fishnet stockings, a loosely fitted cape and with a horned headband. She has an unusual feature in that her eyes are red. She has changed her appearance, however, first at the command of the Joker’s Daughter, growing to massive size while sprouting a horned tail, wings and actual horns from her head. And another when she became enraged and grew fur and a massive pair of horns in resemblance to her father.

Other Media

Films

Justice League vs. Teen Titans

Raven is one of the main characters in the film, voiced by Taissa Farmiga. The film explores deeply Raven backstory, and her father, Trigon, is the main antagonist of the film. Her backstory is largely based on the New 52 version but with a few changes. One of the major changes is that Azeraths destruction at the hands of Trigon came at the hands of Raven who summoned him out of a desire to find out who he was and in turn, find out who she was as well. Afterwards she spend years with Trigon in his realm, witnessing horrors she can’t describe, before catching her father unaware and trapping him within a crystal then fleeing to Earth out of a desire for companionship.

Personality wise Raven is very stoic compared to her companions and it’s only the subject of Trigon that can cause her to make outbursts or even raise her voice. Newcomer Damian is immediately suspicious of her because she has let so few details about herself be revealed to Starfire and the rest of the team, something she had done out of fear of being shunned.

At the conclusion of the movie, Trigon is returned to the crystal prison and Raven swears to watch over him. Initially accepting that she should have never gone to Earth and was now prepared to remain behind to guard Trigon. The Titans manage to convince her to come back with them anyway and the last image is of Raven having mounted the crystal on her forehead while you can hear Trigon bellowing his rage and threats at her and her friends from within.

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

Raven is a main character in the film, with Taissa Farmiga reprising her role. She is often shown meditating and is one of the first characters to be suspicious of Terra. When Brother Blood combines the powers of the Titans on himself, Raven is instrumental in his defeat, releasing an impressive amount of power from her demon half.

Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

Raven is a major character in the movie, Teen Titans Go To The Movies. When every superhero is getting his or her own movie, Robin naturally wanted a movie to be made about him. He and his team (Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg) go to Hollywood, Warner Bros headquarters to pitch his movie idea. However, he is rejected by the movie director who told him no because he is not a real Superhero. Raven suggested that in order to be viewed as a real Hero, he needed an arch enemy, someone who would dedicate himself to pursuing Robin. Later that day, they met Slade and fought him. (watch the whole movie for more information regarding Raven’s role in the movie.)

Television

Teen Titans (2003-2006)

Raven appeared in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Tara Strong and the continuation Teen Titans Go! comic, as a member of the team. She is drawn with gray skin and is very distant to her teammates but later on, she starts to open up towards them. Some of Raven’s most important stories like ” Terror of Trigon”, is based on the Trigon plot from the original New Teen Titans series.

Unlike her comic counterpart, the animated version of Raven relies on the ability of telekinesis, the ability to move inanimate objects with only one’s mind. Ranging from being able to move smaller items such as books too, while under stress, being able to move two multi-story buildings at once.

Also, she is portrayed as an experienced mage as her room contains many mystic books and ingredients, this became even more prominent when the dragon Malchior added his own dark knowledge and collection of books to hers, however, she had difficulty controlling these new spells.

The animated version of Raven often says the phrase “Azarath Metrion Zinthos” to help her meditate or use her powers. In the episode “Nevermore”, Beast Boy and Cyborg encounter personified aspects of Raven, which she kept separate from her whole self, within her subconscious. Each aspect is represented as wearing a different colored robe; the aspect called The Rage (which has a red robe and the four eyes like her father are the one aspect Raven has the hardest struggle against and which she despises most. On occasion, when she draws on her full emotional power, her robe changes from black and blue to pure white (“Nevermore”, “Spellbound” & “The End”).

Instead of having normal human coloration, Raven is depicted with light gray skin, violet-blue eyes and shoulder-length violet-blue hair. The animated Arella had distinctly Asian facial features, suggesting Raven is of Asian descent, but this is debatable, however, she also shared Raven’s hair color. In the Teen Titans movie Trouble in Tokyo, Raven states that she knows English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit.

Raven is often portrayed as the most mature member of the group, often giving sage advice to the others about various subjects. She is, however, also the most emotionally-restrained of the Titans, appearing secretive and distant; she initially does not allow any of her fellow Titans into her room and hangs out all by herself, usually meditating or reading some book. In the course of the series, however, she gradually, if only slightly on the outside, warms up to her teammates. In several instances throughout the show, however, contrary to her usual behavior, she does show more emotion – such as making sheep’s eyes along with Starfire at Aqualad in “Deep Six” -, though this is mostly used for comedic effect.

Raven is often easily annoyed with Starfire and Beast Boy, as these Titans’ personalities differ drastically from her own. But despite her solitary nature, she depends on the emotional support from her friends, as she seems to lose her sense of reality after the Titans disband in “How Long is Forever?” While her relationship with Beast Boy is on the outside usually antagonistic, they come to each others side in emotional moments (“Nevermore”, “Spellbound”, “The Beast Within”, “The End”). The only clearly established romantic relationship Raven has in the series is with the dragon Malchior, who later betrays Raven and breaks her heart, similar to what Eric Forrester had done.

During season 5 of Teen Titans, she was seen battling the Brotherhood of Evil.

Teen Titans Go!

Raven appears in Teen Titans Go! as one of the main characters. Although similar to the Teen Titans TV show, Raven is shown to have more fun and be open (dancing, playing with Pretty Pretty Pegasus dolls and watching the TV show, and making milk mustaches). She also gets annoyed with Starfire and Beast Boy, but not as much as the original show.

As a comedic take on the original cartoon, Raven is much like the other Titans an exaggerated version of the original cartoon version. While she is also more open, and more silly, she is also capable of being much meaner, like teleporting to prison to mock Jinx for being in jail, and being more prone to random act of violence if any of her teammates do anything she considers particularly dim-witted.

Like her friends, there are plenty of episodes where parts of Raven’s belongings or aspects that get examined more closely and attributed random effects on her and her friends. Her cloak is the focus in one where the removal of it seemingly renders her normal while adding disquieting effects to the others who are trying it on, also shocking the rest of her friends by the fact that she has legs.

As always, her father Trigon plays an intrusive role in her life, but for the show, he is depicted as more of a nuisance than an actual threat most of the time and is seemingly only appearing in hopes his little girl will come home one day, something she finds extremely irritating. Much like the original cartoon, Raven has an antagonistic relationship with Terra, but due to the exaggerated nature of the show, Terra usually ends up screaming with insane rage while charging Raven and ends up running head first into a large fist and dropped into a portal where the Titans usually deposit all their trash, that Terra is down there is usually unknown to the others unless she shouts enough to be heard.

Since the show is without a true canon, the powers of Raven seem to fluctuate from episode from episode. But generally, she appears to be able to do whatever she wants at will most of the time, teleportation, transmutation, access to other dimensions, possesses archaic lore, forming of constructs, energy projection. In one episode where Beastboy and Cyborg have a staring contest that lasts 20 years, they meet up with Raven but finds her having been turned into an omnipotent being now fully dedicated to maintaining the cosmic balance.

DC Super Hero Girls

Raven appears as a background character in the web series, tv shorts, TV specials, and films. She debuted in Season 4, Episode 11 “Ha-Ha Horticulture”

Raven makes her full debut in Season 4, Episode 16 “Nevermore Part 1”. She is voiced by Tara Strong.

Titans!

Raven will be is one of the main characters on the upcoming DC streaming original series “Titans”. She will be played by Teagan Croft.

Video Games

DC Universe Online

She appears in the game both in a possessed form and later as an ally depending on the allegiance of the player. Both sides revolve around the same storyline, where Circe intends on aiding Brother Blood in his efforts to summon Trigon through Raven, while Wonder Woman and Dr. Fate battle to prevent it with the aid of Raven and the Titans.

Through small info clips found throughout the game, the player will learn that Circe is quite aggravated that Raven refuses to give in and desires her punished once she has what she wants. While Wonder Woman considers her a true hero for containing the dark forces within her and continuing the struggle against it.

Outside of the main story, Raven is located in the Watchtower’s Magic Wing where she is a vendor of the Tier 1 armor set for the magically aligned heroes. If clicked repeatedly she will remark on how she is not always sarcastic when she speaks even if her tone never changes.

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Raven appears as a playable character in Injustice: Gods among us. In the campaign, Raven joins Superman’s Regime. This is likely because of the death of the Titans which include Beast Boy, Starfire, and Nightwing (Dick Grayson). After the death of most of her friends, she likely lost control of her emotions, allowing Trigon to get more control over her.

In her ending (after beating classic mode with her), Raven comes to her senses and battles the now evil Superman. Using most of her energy, Raven blacks out. When she awakes, she discovers Trigon took advantage of her weakened state and escaped, along with the majority of his army.

Her whereabouts remain uncertain in Injustice 2 as she makes no appearances beyond being mentioned by Starfire as now being a servant of Trigon. As she was not seen captured by the end of the last game, it is possible she remains at large.

DC Legends

Raven: Daughter of Demons is a playable character in the game. She is a hero with Mystical affinity.

Her bio in the game says: Being the daughter of a demon lord grants Rachel Roth mystical powers but using them could eventually enslave her to her father’s will.

Raised in the peaceful dimension of Azarath, Rachel Roth is the daughter of a human mother and the evil demon lord Trigon. With her demonic heritage, she has vast powers but was taught to control her emotions to prevent her father from gaining control over her. When her home was threatened by Trigon she fled to Earth to find help. There she struggles to fit in as the daughter of a demon seeking the purity within her own soul.

LEGO-series

Raven makes appearances in both Lego Batman 3 and Lego Dimensions as an optional character. While in Lego Batman 3 she appears to be inspired by her comic book version. Lego Dimensions takes more inspiration from the Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! cartoons and is unlocked with a ‘mini-fig’.

Often she has blast powers and flight as her basic abilities.

Injustice 2

Although Raven does not appear in the main game and story mode, she appears in Starfire’s ending. In Star’s ending, she is looking back on her life before everything went crazy. She then moves on to how each one of her old teammates has either die or move on to other things. Raven finally gave in to her demonic urges and joined her father, Cyborg joins the Regime after the pain of losing her friends, and Beast Boy died when the bomb exploded in Metropolis. Beast Boy, death was too much for Raven to handle, so she lost herself to her emotions and declared war on Supervillains. She answered Superman’s called for help, but she later went to the underworld to rule alongside her father.