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"Raven is a fictional character, a DC Comics superhero and Teen Titans member. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, the character first appeared in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980), Raven has been a prominent member of The New Teen Titans, and is currently a member of the modern Teen Titans. She is an empath who can teleport and control her "Soul Self", which can fight physically as well as act as Raven's eyes and ears away from her body. Raven's chronology is typically separated into three lives; her first life, 20 years, was spent in the Temple Azarath and creating The New Teen Titans. Her second life began once she started wearing the garb of White Raven, and lasted under two years. Her third life, which started in issue #3 of Teen Titans vol. 3, is her current form. Unlike the transition between her first and second lives, with her third life came a new body . A male character known as "The Raven" was introduced in 1942 by publisher Quality Comics. This hero was more based on the bird and didn't have magical powers. Aside from assisting the heroine Spider Widow in a few cases, no further details have as yet been revealed of this character, although a subtle romantic subtext is evident in his chronicled adventures.
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Fictional character biography
First life
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A character with morbid past and origins, Raven is the half-breed daughter of a human mother named Arella and the interdimensional demon Trigon. She grew up in an alternate dimension called Azarath, with pacifistic inhabitants whose spiritual leader was the mystic Azar. In her homeland, she was taught to "control her emotions" by Azar, in order to suppress her inherited demonic powers. Essentially, if Raven was allowed to feel any emotion, her father would recreate her in his vision. During this time, Raven rarely saw her mother and grew detached from her. Upon Azar's death, Arella began the task of raising and teaching Raven. Around this same time, Raven's demonic heritage was revealed, as she met her father face to face for the first time. Soon after her 17th birthday, Raven learned that Trigon planned to come to her dimension, and she vowed to stop him. Raven initially approached the Justice League, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna, who sensed her demonic parentage. In desperation, she reformed the Titans as the New Teen Titans to fight her father. The team consisted of Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.
Kid Flash only agreed to be a member after Raven used her powers to coerce him into loving her. On another meeting with the Justice League, Zatanna revealed this information, which caused the other Titans to turn away and mistrust Raven. Only much later is it revealed that she manipulated Kid Flash's emotions in order to save his life and removed his knowledge of the encounter [1]. This separation didn't last long when Trigon kidnapped Raven to his home dimension. The team defeated Trigon and sealed him in an interdimensional prison with the help of Arella, who stayed at the interdimensional door as Trigon's Guardian. However, Raven continued to fight her father's influence as he wasn't completely destroyed. For a period of time, Raven lost control several times in high-stress situations, but managed to regain control before Trigon could assert himself. Popular storylines such as "The Judas Contract" took place during this period. Eventually, however, Trigon escaped his prison, came to Earth and took control of Raven, destroying Azarath in the process. The Titans came together and were forced to kill Raven, thereby allowing the souls of Azarath to possess her and guided by the spirit of Azar, who was acting through the body of the Titans' ally Lilith, used her as a channel to kill Trigon. After this battle, Raven rose again from the ashes, purged of Trigon's evil, and vanished.
Absent during Crisis on Infinite Earths
Between the periods that we know to be Raven's first and second lives, Raven's whereabouts were unknown even to The Monitor, a character who has knowledge of all beings in all parallel dimensions that contain Earth. This suggests that during this period, Raven transcended Earth for a non-parallel dimension. Raven was briefly mentioned in one frame (issue #2, page 22), suggested as an alternative to Psycho-Pirate as an empath in the Monitor's plans. She was also mentioned as an alternative for the Anti-Monitor in issue #5, page 2.
Second life (White Raven)
Later on, the minions of the Titan's enemy, Brother Blood, captured Raven to control Nightwing (the former Robin) as part of Blood's plans of resurrection. The Titans rescued them both and prevented Brother Blood from returning. Raven then donned a white cloak to represent freedom from her father's influence.
Some time later after being free to feel, Raven found she was able to not only sense, but control others' emotions; a power she learned to handle only after unintentionally making Dick Grayson/Nightwing believe that he loved her for a brief time, when she was in love with him. It was during this incident Starfire and Raven became close friends. Raven also fostered a relationship with technopath Eric Forrester, who was using the life force of women he seduced to regain some of his lost humanity, a result of interfacing with computers. Forrester knew that Raven's soul-self could help him to permanently retain his humanity. This attempt was cut short by the intervention of Joseph Wilson (Jericho), who helped Raven overcome her love for Forrester by destroying him and saving herself. Raven's life went on without change until she was kidnapped by the Wildebeest Society during the Titans Hunt storyline. The Wildebeest, lead by the Trigon-possessed souls of Azarath, were going to use several Titans to bring about the return of Trigon. During a massive battle in the remains of Azarath, Raven was possessed by the evil souls and once again became the evil doppelgänger of her father. Arella, along with Danny Chase, used the power of Azar's soul to cleanse Raven; however, through the battle, her body was destroyed, and Arella and Danny joined the cleansed souls of Azarath to become Phantasm. Now free of its bodily prison, the evil energy that was Trigon's in Raven's soul took on sentience and possessed a meta-human with a resemblance to Raven. Raven appeared possessed by her evil conscience, and attempted to implant Trigon's seed into new bodies. She interrupted Nightwing and Starfire's wedding, and implanted a seed of Trigon into Starfire. Instead of corrupting her, she actually implanted the soul of the good Raven. This caused Starfire to leave Earth in order to escape from the evil Raven, who implanted seeds into several other superheroes. The Titans were able to defeat her with the help of Phantasm. Raven returned later, still evil, in order to destroy the good version of herself implanted in Starfire. The Titans defeated her once again, for the last time. The good Raven became a being of golden energy without a physical body.
Third life
In this spirit form, Raven wandered Earth looking for her place in the world when Brother Blood came to claim her. Her spirit was reincarnated in the body of a teenage girl by the Church of Blood. A new incarnation of the Teen Titans discovered that the Church of Blood were worshippers of Raven's father, Trigon. They also found a prophecy which told of the marriage between Brother Blood and Raven that would result in armageddon. The team interrupted the wedding, and Raven forced the cult to escape. She then joined the Teen Titans and enrolled at a high school as Rachel Roth in honor of her mother's birth name. After her rebirth, Raven began developing romantic feelings for Gar Logan (a.k.a. Beast Boy), and the two recently became romantically attached. Despite speculation to the contrary by the shipper community, writer Geoff Johns confirmed that this relationship had long been intended by him before the animated series began.
Infinite Crisis and "52"
- Main articles: Infinite Crisis and 52
Due to the effects of the Spectre's destruction of magic during the Day of Vengeance storyline, Raven's magical powers weaken and slip out of her control. She continues 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 Luthor. The Titans (consisting of Beast Boy, Raven, Young Frankenstein, Hawk, Dove, and Terra) 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.[2] Raven quits the team after she and Beast Boy end their relationship. She tells the unconscious Cyborg that Beast Boy was stressed by being team leader, and she even compares him with Nightwing.[3] Letting the others think she's leaving because of Gar, Raven actually leaves because she's uncovered a secret of one of the other Titans.
"One Year Later"
After teleporting a whole night long, Raven runs from unseen pursuers, with a book of unclear significance.[4] Raven has a diskette containing Jericho's soul. She performs a cleansing ritual over his soul and transfers it into a new body [5] before returning to the team as a full member.[6] Raven is later approached by Robin and Wonder Girl, in the hopes that she could resurrect Superboy like she did Jericho.[7] 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 knocking Enigma and Risk unconscious, Raven, Duela, and Cyborg get reinforcements in the form of Nightwing, Troia, Beast Boy, and Flash (Bart Allen). 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, having never gotten the opportunity before. Raven will also star in a five-issue mini-series. Marv Wolfman will write the series with art by Damion Scott. It will take place during the missing year. According to Wolfman and Dan DiDio, the series is scheduled to start shipping in late 2007 or early 2008. In the Wizard #177 magazine, Wolfman briefly described the series:
| “ | She needs to be on her own and in charge of herself for the first time in her life. This is more than just a "tale of Raven"; it sets up her new life. | ” |
Powers and abilities
Raven has the psionic ability of empathy, the power to absorb emotions, enabling her to feel the feelings of others. She can also use her empathy to steal emotions from others, rendering them emotionally "numb". She can absorb the pain of injured people to ease their suffering, and induce rapid healing. There is some ambiguity as to what happens to the pains Raven takes in after she has healed another person. In some sources (New Titans #50) it is stated that Raven feels these pains for the rest of her life and merely accepts it. Opposing sources (Who's Who Vol 1) state that once Raven takes others' pains into her body, they are then expunged. She has the ability to heal herself and others, as she did when defying Trigon's curse against a young girl. Before her second death, Raven had the ability to force outside emotions into other people, consciously or otherwise. She has used this ability many times, first notably on Wally West, in order to save his life.[8] Later, after being freed from her father's powers and starting her second life, she had a short-lived romance with Nightwing, and unintentionally used her power to make him believe that he did love her. But it ended when Starfire, who became her close friend , convinced her that she wasn't really in love with Dick Grayson as she thought , But at the end of the incident ,it showed that Raven truely had feelings for him. She has not demonstrated this ability since before Infinite Crisis. With her rebirth[9], Raven gained the ability to fly. This power previously had only manifested when Raven gave herself completely to her father's evil power, or when she was under an evil influence such as during the Titan Plague storyline in New Titans #62-65. Raven can manifest her "Soul-Self" through astral projection. It normally takes the form of either her human shape or a giant raven. Through the use of her soul-self, Raven can project her consciousness into the mind, for therapeutic purposes (to aid in her own meditation, or to help calm an agitated ally), or for offensive attacks, rendering her enemies unconscious (yet otherwise unharmed). It also serves as a way to travel into other dimensions. In many instances, her soul-self has also functioned as a "shield," although it seems to absorb attackers and projectiles rather than repel them. In The New Teen Titans #17 (1982), she used this ability a few times to absorb the objects that Francis Kane (Magenta) had uncontrollably drawn towards herself. These objects included all manner of household appliances, eventually progressing to other objects such as road signs and steel bars. However, Raven admitted during the issue that she could not sustain her soul self long under such conditions. Her soul self also 'regurgitated' the objects after the danger. Using her soul-self, she can convert her physical body into her 'soul-self' (see Birthmark) and carry/teleport (or rather, use portals to move between dimensions) herself and others over vast distances. In The New Teen Titans foundation storyline, Raven explained she was able to predict Trigon's invasion of the Earth-2 dimension. She was unable to control or consciously activate it, but happens occasionally. It is unknown whether she still possesses this ability in her current body. In the animated series, during the episode "Titan Rising", when Terra runs and brushes past Raven, images past and foreign of Terra and Slade flash through Raven's mind, possibly a small precognition of Terra's eventual betrayal. In a number of instances, Raven has also displayed sorcerous abilities. In New Titans #65, the last issue of the Titan Plague arc, an infected Raven forces unconsciousness upon a then-neophyte Tim Drake (Robin) with a touch of her finger, and was able to slam Nightwing aside and suspend him upside-down with imperious gestures. In New Teen Titans Annual #4 (1988), a villain called Muse forced the Titans into individual murderous nightmares. In her dream, Raven retaliated by flying out of his reach and then releasing energies from "within the folds of her cape" that caused him to be consumed by fire. Though these abilities could be dismissed as being part only of her nightmare, it should be noted that none of the other Titans displayed abilities out of their normal powers in their nightmares. In the Family Lost storyline of current Teen Titans continuity (Teen Titans #8-12), shortly after being resurrected by Brother Blood (Sebastian), a captive Raven tries to summon the Titans though ominous signs, such as possessing several psychics and Beast Boy with her soul-self, by turning a river into blood, animating the skeletal remains of her demon father, Trigon and drawing swarms of migratory birds to her location.
Teen Titans animated series
Fictional character biography
In the Teen Titans animated series (2003-2006), Raven (voiced by Tara Strong), nicknamed "Rae" and "Rae-Rae" in the series, appears much younger than in the comic book variants (as do all the other characters), though her costume is relatively unchanged. Her skirt was, however, changed to a leotard (which revealed most of her legs) by the animators to avoid several animation complications; she wears a chain belt around her waist as well. Instead of having normal human coloration, Raven is depicted with light grey skin, violet eyes and shoulder-length violet hair. She also appears to be, at least partially, of Asian ancestry. This is especially evident by the physical appearance of her mother, Arella. She is often portrayed as the most mature member of the group, often giving sage advice to the others about various subjects. She is often easily annoyed with Starfire, as the other titan's personality differs drastically from her own. In one episode, Raven and Starfire accidentally switch bodies and powers, and Starfire, not knowing how to control Raven's powers, momentarily leaves a trail of destruction wherever she walks. Raven explains that her powers are closely tied to her emotions, and that she has to keep them in control. Despite this, she seems to be more emotionally fragile than is shown, as she seems to lose her sanity after the Titans disband in "How Long is Forever?". In the Teen Titans movie Trouble in Tokyo, Raven says she knows "English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit" languages.
In "Nevermore", episode 6 of the first season, Raven is angered by the villainous Dr. Light. She then transforms into a demonic version of herself with four glowing red eyes, grabs the villain with tentacles apparently made of her cloak's shadows and drags him under her cloak; he is seen to be dramatically traumatized by the darkness when he reemerges. Later, Beast Boy and Cyborg find a mirror in her room, which accidentally transports them into her subconscious. There, they encountered the personified aspects of Raven herself. Each aspect is represented as wearing a different colored robe: green (brave), gray (timid), pink (happy), red (rage), orange (rude), yellow (knowledge), purple (love), brown (fear), and white which represents having full control over all emotions. When Raven went after them, she tells them that her dark side (the red-eyed tentacled transformation that traumatized Dr. Light) was let out by accident and had taken over her other sides. Although her cloak and leotard were white her cloak remained black, possibly because she wasn't in control of red self. In the end part II she defeats her father with white energy as well as in her white costume. Red Raven (complete with four glowing red eyes) soon gathers herself and transforms into a huge hulking red beast, at which point Raven comments "Let's just say I have issues with my father", a hint in the animated series that the beast represents Trigon, her father. Raven was again angered into undergoing a demonic transformation (with four glowing red eyes visible through her cloak's shadow's) during Raven's battle with Terra (season 2, "Aftershock Part 1"). However, since enraging Raven was apparently Slade's plan all along, it is probable that Raven's anger made her lose the control of her powers needed for a fight against her foe. This quandary aside, Raven lost the fight (although she fared much better the next time the Titans faced Terra). The white cloak, boots, and leotard from that episode are seen in at least one episode of the series' seasons. In "Nevermore", her cloak turns white after she absorbs her other aspects (except red) to defeat her mind's view of Trigon (Red Raven). The cloak was next seen in the first episode of season two, "How Long is Forever?", where Raven's future self dons the white cloak after losing control of her powers and sanity due to the loss of her friend, Starfire. In season three's episode "Spellbound", Raven dons her white attire as a result of her being attracted to the dragon Malchior, disguised as the handsome wizard Rorek that originally sealed him in his book. In season four's episode "Birthmark", it was revealed that Slade had made an alliance with Trigon, who spared him from being destroyed after being tossed into lava by Terra ("Aftershock Part 2"). The demon also empowered Slade in order to accomplish his task. In episode "Haunted" , Robin became insane with seeing a deceased Slade , due to a chemical dust in Slade's mask . Raven used her mental power to enter Robin's mind to see him through his eyes , also unintentionally see his past . After all matters were settled , Robin and Raven became closer , especially after the episode "Birthmark" . In a scene of Raven's birthday "Birthmark", Slade comes to deliver her the "news" that she is going to bring her father to Earth and end the world and in "The Prophecy" that Raven was going to bring Trigon to the Earth. In "The End Part 2", she gets regressed back to her childhood form by her father, so that he may succeed in his plans of world domination.
In her final confrontation with Trigon, Raven's robes changed to white. She overcame Trigon's spell and reverted back to her former teen self. She then continually attacked Trigon while renouncing him as her father. Then, by reclaiming the energies that she had left behind in her friends, Raven transformed into her soul self, which took on the form of a gigantic white raven, banishing Trigon from the world. Though her uniform and power were white when this happened and her hair long, by the end of the episode, Raven had once again donned her standard black and blue outfit and cut her hair to its usual length. In season 5, Raven baby-sits three heroes called Melvin, Timmy, and Teether so the Brotherhood of Evil will not get to them. Raven is not happy about this and soon discovers that the other Titans are on other missions. They end up being chased by Monsieur Mallah , a member of the Brotherhood of Evil. She delivers them to safety but soon discovers that they are being captured by Mallah. She goes back and tries to save them. Bobby, Melvin's imaginary friend, ends up saving all of them. After Monsieur Mallah leaves, Raven gives the four heroes a communicator so if they were in trouble, they can contact her. They later appear in the episode, "Titans Together", with her fighting the Brotherhood of Evil and their allies. One part of Raven's depiction in the animated series that has garnered attention is Beast Boy's effort to form a connection with her, going so far as to make a decisive effort to get her to respond to his jokes. Beast Boy's comedic and innocent nature often plays off on Raven's more distant and harsh one. Due to this, certain episodes focus on the two building their ever-changing friendship. Raven and Beast Boy were intentionally written by David Slack, Titans head writer, as a "married couple", hence the relationship was one of deep loyalty and affection, but also laced with conflictive personality clashes. This "tough love" relationship between Beast Boy and Raven however is continued in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, also written by Slack. The only clear and established romantic relationship Raven had in the series was with the dragon Malchior, who later betrayed her and broke her heart. It was implied in "Deep Six" that she and Starfire both had crushes on Aqualad.
Powers and abilities
The animated version of Raven often says the phrase "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" to help her focus her powers. She even uses this as her attack phrase as well. In the episode "Mask", when the Teen Titans are fighting against a villain called Red X, Raven tried to say the three words before Red X taped her mouth shut so she couldn't use her powers.These words are her mantra. As previously mentioned, Azarath is the dimension in which she was born and raised, and where she learned her powers from the monks. The words "Metrion" and "Zinthos" were created by Glen Murakami for the spell, and do not have any meaning. However, they are more than likely Azarathean words. Raven sometimes uses the mantra to aid her in her daily meditations, which she performs to keep her emotions in check so they do not clash with her conscious self control. When Raven is highly upset, her soul-self can also transform her half-demon body's physiology to alter her appearance to a variety of demonic forms and sizes. When she cannot control her anger, she transforms into a demonic Raven, usually with four glowing, red eyes and sprouting black tentacles from under her cloak. The four eyes seem to symbolize her demon father, Trigon — when Cyborg was infected with a virus, she threatened Gizmo into helping by lifting and then pulling down her hood. The face was not shown, but it appeared to be a dragon's head with tentacles. The animated Raven also displayed a large number of limited powers used only under special circumstances. These include teleportation (both of people and objects), telepathy, time manipulation, precognition, rapid healing, extremely powerful magic spells, and the (unwilling) creation of various monsters under the denial of fear. In addition to an affinity for magic and spell casting, Raven possesses powerful telekinetic abilities which manifest in the form of Dark Energy (possibly an extension of her Soul-Self,) serving as her primary means of attack and defense. She can use her abilities to levitate objects (and also herself), project concussive blasts, and form simple shapes like grappling hands and razor sharp plates to use as barriers and/or restricting binds. Her power level is highly dependant on her emotional state but even when emotionless her telekinesis is powerful enough to shred steel and throw cars and trucks. Raven can use her Dark Energy to create portals to phase through solid barriers like floors and walls. In episode "Car Trouble", after Cyborg's newly built T-Car was stolen, and he's lamenting about how the loss hurts him emotionally as he had put his own circuits into it, Raven admits she sympathizes: "When I use my powers, I have to put a little of my soul into whatever I'm moving. I become a part of it, and it becomes a part of me".
