Raven (DC)

Raven is a female comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Rachel Roth was the daughter of the demon Trigon and a human woman named Arella. Her birth was traced to 20 years ago as part of Trigon's plans in fathering an offspring that would allow him to invade Earth's dimension. In that time, his cultists came to admit a young 18 year old named Angela Roth into their ranks after they found her dabbling in the occult. Suffering a crisis of faith, she abandoned her religion and looked to the occult for answers where the cult offered her as the bride of Satan. During the ceremony, he manifested in the form of a handsome man who seduced and slept with her getting her pregnant. (New Teen Titans v1 #6)

Robin was called to the NYC S.T.A.R. Labs when terrorists held Prof. Silas Stone and his solar generator hostage, threatening to use it for destructive purposes if their fellow resistance fighters weren’t released from jail. Robin formulated a plan, but blacked out. Raven sent him a vision of the near future, where he’d be working with the New Teen Titans to save the city from a giant protozoan. The New Teen Titans were called in by S.T.A.R. Labs after Prof. Stone opened up an extra dimensional gateway and released a giant protozoan that was trying to convert Earth’s atmosphere to methane to suit its needs. The Titans battled the alien without much success before the battle returned to the lab where the dimensional gateway was stored. Prof. Stone sucked the air from the room, giving it no atmosphere to breathe, and Starfire blasted it back to its own world before destroying the gateway at Stone’s request. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26)

An army of Earth’s heroes, including Raven and the Teen Titans appeared to take Superboy down during the Sinestro Corps invasion of Earth. The heroes focused on wrecking his armor, because after a year on Oa, and away from a yellow sun his Kryptonian body still wasn’t at full strength, and his armor collected sunlight. Superboy bragged that once the sun rose on Earth he’d be at full power. Superboy was battered by Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman, who blamed him for Superboy’s death, as well as Supergirl and Power Girl, who blamed him for the death of the Superman of Earth-2. As the fight went against him, Superboy broke down in tears. He tried to wipe them away, saying that it was impossible foir boys to cry, and then whining that no one ever thanked him for sacrificing his Earth to save the multiverse. The battle lasted until dawn, and he flew into the sunrise. As he achieved full power he declared himself the one, true Superman. The Guardians arrived with Sodam Yat, the new Ion, and pitted him against Superboy-Prime. (Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime v1 #1)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Overview

Personality and attributes

Being shunted in the Temple of Azarath for so long meant that she was not prepared for the outside world. (New Teen Titans v1 #8)

Another one of her step-siblings was a teenager named Liam. He and his two brothers were born and raised in a small town in the Southwestern United States known as Fides. Their demonic powers were awakened by the Lazarus rain and Liam accidentally killed their mother. They fled to the local church to beg the priest to perform an exorcism on them. Trigon would kill his siblings but felt potential in Liam who he took with him and gave him the name Trilogy. (Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn v1 #1)

From her fathers side, she had a cousin who was a demon named Bertok-Raaf. A parasitic demon, he operated by possessing host bodies where over the centuries he had been known by a number of names including the Marquis of Madness, the Phantom, the Bone Collector and as the Ripper. He often killed people and took over human bodies to operate in the mortal world. Bertok-Raaf came to operate as a serial killer that worked through his Church of Blood and was hostile towards Raven who he considered to be a disgrace to their family (DC: The Doomed and the Damned v1 #1)

Powers and abilities

She was able to speak into the minds of others. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26)

It was shown that she could manifest her astral form as her Soul Self that was operated through her dark grim thoughts. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26) She was able to send her astral Soul-Self to explore the world around her. Originally, her Soul-Self could not be separated from her body for more than five minutes. Failure to do so left her in mental agony as her astral self was sent into another world. Raven was later able to overcome this barrier and came to conquer this limitation. (New Teen Titans v1 #8) It was said that her body could not survive long if separated from her Soul Self. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26) An advantage posed by her Soul Self was that it could escape barriers that could trap her physical form. (New Teen Titans v1 #4)

The Temple Azarath had prepared her in all the mystic arts. (New Teen Titans v1 #3)

Notes

• Raven was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez where she made her first appearance in DC Comics Presents v1 #26 (October, 1980).

In other media

Television

• In Titans, Raven appeared in the setting of the DC Universe live-action television series where she was portrayed by actress Teagan Croft.

Films

• In Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Raven appeared in the setting of voiced by Taissa Farmiga.

Video games

• In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Raven appeared as a playable character in the setting of the fighting video game where she was voiced by actress Tara Strong.

Appearances

• DC Comics Presents v1: (1980)
• New Teen Titans v1:
• Teen Titans v2:
• Titans:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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