| Raven | |
 | |
| General Information | |
| Real name: | Rachel Roth |
| First Appearance: | DC Comics Presents #26 (October, 1980) |
| Created by: | Marv Wolfman George Pérez |
| Affiliations: | Titans Teen Titans Sentinels of Magic |
| Abilities: | Empathy Teleportation |
| Portrayed by: | Tara Strong |
Raven is a teenage hero.
History
Member of The Titans.
Origin
Born the half-demon daughter of an interdimensional demon. Raven, or Rachel Roth, has been a prominent member of The New Teen Titans, and is currently a member of the modern "Titans". Raven is an empath, she can teleport, and send out her Soul-Self-- which can fight physically as well as act as Raven's eyes and ears away from her body.
A dark, moody character, Raven is the half-breed daughter of a human mother named Angela Roth (also known as Arella) and the demon overlord Trigon. She grew up in a pacifistic reality called Azarath. Her mother ran away from home, which was possibly in Gotham City, and joined a cult (possibly the Church of Blood), where she was raped by Trigon. In Azarath, Raven was taught to "control her emotions" in order to suppress and control her inherited demonic powers.
Early Years
Eventually she learned that Trigon was planning to come to her dimension and vowed to stop him. She 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 was eventually able to defeat Trigon and seal him in an interdimensional prison. However, Raven still had to fight her father's influence, as he was not completely destroyed. More than once, Raven nearly lost control in various high stress situations in her adventures and barely regained it before Trigon could reassert himself.
Trigon eventually escaped, came to Earth and took control of Raven. Azarath was destroyed in the process. The Titans came together and killed Raven. This allowed the souls of Azarath to possess her and use her as a channel to kill Trigon. Afterward, Raven was presumed dead, but she actually rose from ashes of the battle, finally purged of Trigon's evil. She vanished, and her mother went looking for her.
Raven was then captured by Brother Blood's minions to control Nightwing as part of Brother Blood's resurrection. The Titans rescued them both and prevented Brother Blood from returning. Raven donned a new white cloak to represent her being free from her father's influence.
Teen Titans
The Titans were eventually captured by the Wildebeest Society, but were rescued by a group of heroes. The leader of the Wildebeest Society was actually their teammate, Jericho, who was inhabited by the souls of Azarath. Jericho tried to use the Titans as vessels for the souls, but in the end was killed by his father, Deathstroke the Terminator.
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 Nightwing and Koriand'r on 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 was instilled into a new golden spirit body.
As a spirit, Raven wandered Earth, looking for her place in the world, when Brother Blood came to claim her. Her spirit was instilled into the body of a teenage girl by the Church of Blood. The Teen Titans (reformed again), 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 new team interrupted the wedding, and Raven forced the cult to escape. She then joined the new Teen Titans and enrolled at a high school as Rachel Roth to honor her mother.
Teen Titans Now
The recent "Titans of Tomorrow" storyline showed a possible dystopian future, where Raven became the Dark Raven and gathered Superman II (formerly Superboy), Wonder Woman IV (formerly Wonder Girl), Batman IV (formerly Robin), Animal Man II (formerly Beast Boy), and Aquawoman (formerly Aquagirl IV) to continue the heroic crusade, but using ruthless, murderous tactics.
After the recent events of both the Teen Titans and the Outsiders joining to combat two of their own teammates (one being Superboy), Raven went to help Superboy understand that he had a soul. Later, she was attacked by the villain Kestrel. When Hell's gates were broken, Brother Blood escaped along with his newly appointed mother, Lilith Clay, formerly known as Omen. Hawk and Dove, Kole Weathers, and Phantasm also returned from the grave
Raven has recently become romantically attached to Beast Boy, coming together in issue thirty of the latest Teen Titans comic. Raven had been developing feelings for him since her recent rebirth, writer Geoff Johns confirmed also that this relationship had long been implemented by him before the animated series began, squashing any previous speculation that this relationship was created out of influence by the shipper community.
Infinite Crisis and "One Year Later"
Due to the effects of the Spectre's destruction of magic during the Day of Vengeance storyline, Raven found her own magical powers weakening and slipping out of her control, but continued on the good fight nonetheless, helping the Titans both in evacuating the shattered city of Blüdhaven and battling Superboy-Prime.
After the events of Infinite Crisis, it was revealed in Teen Titans (Vol. 3) #34 that Raven quit the team after she and Beast Boy broke up their relationship. In issue #37 of the series, a recording of her told Cyborg that Beast Boy was stressed by being team leader, and even compares him with Nightwing. Raven then left the Titans because she learned a secret about the new members of the team, though she let them think she was leaving because of Gar.
She traveled around the globe, looking for something that had been stolen from Titans Tower by one of the many members the team had seen in the previous year. She based her operations out of an apartment in Beijing, and met with Red Star briefly in Moscow to ask the Russian hero questions about their former teammates. She was able to recover a book, but this action resulted in her being chased by a squadron of armed soldiers. She eventually made her way back to the United States where she reached the Church of Brother Blood. The book that she had in her possession contained a computer disk, which housed the spirit of her old colleague, Jericho. Raven was able to withdrawal Jericho's soul from the disk and transpose it into a resurrected body.
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 knocking Enigma and Risk unconscious; Raven, Duela, and Cyborg get reinforcements in the form of Nightwing, Troia, Beast Boy, and the Flash (Bart Allen).
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Empathy: Psionic ability of empathy, the power to absorb emotions, enabling her to feel the feelings of others.
- Emotion Negation: She can also use her empathy to steal emotions from others, rendering them emotionally "numb".
- Empathic Healing: She can absorb the pain of injured people to ease their suffering, and induce rapid healing.
- Soul-Self: Raven can manifest her "Soul-Self" through astral projection. It normally takes the form of either her human shape or a giant raven.
- Astral Projection: 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.
- Teleportation: It also serves as a way to travel into other dimensions. Using her soul-self, she can teleport herself and others over vast distances.
- Flight: With her new body came new powers, the ability to fly being one of them.
Former Powers
- Force Emotion: 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. Later, after being freed from her father's powers and starting her second life, she unintentionally forced a short-lived romance with Nightwing, which was also induced by the fact that Raven was experiencing her own emotions for the first time, and could not tell the difference between romantic love and "sibling" love. Whether or not she still possesses this ability (pre- or post- Infinite Crisis) is unknown.
- Limited Precognition: Raven explained she was able to predict Trigon's invasion of the Earth dimension. Through an act of Necromancy, Raven could also project images into the minds of others in the form of dreams. She used this ability to impress upon Robin the importance of re-establishing a new group of Teen Titans. It is unknown whether she still possesses this ability in her current body.
- Illusion Casting: Raven once had the ability to project images into the minds of others. When Grant Wilson, the first Ravager, was dying from the effects of the process that gave him his abilities, Raven tried to comfort him by making him believe he had accomplished his goal. She broadcast the image into his mind that he had succeeded in killing all of the New Teen Titans.
In Other Media
- In the Teen Titans animated series, Raven (with a dry, throaty voice provided by Tara Strong) appears much younger (as do all the other characters) than in the comic book variants, though her costume is relatively unchanged. However, her skirt was changed to a leotard by the animators to avoid several animation complications. She also has grey skin and short, violet hair, visible only when the hood of her cloak is off. Raven's personality is also more child-like and emotional, and slightly more Gothic. Raven, while being a very clever girl, is straightforward and moody, as well as sarcastic. She has a dry sense of humor. However, she does show signs that she cares very much for her friends.
Raven possesses all of her comic-book self's powers in the animated series---in addition, she also has powerful Psychic, Psychokinetic and telekinetic abilities in the form of Dark Energy, which serve as her primary means of attack and defense. In Car Trouble, after Cyborg (Earth-Teen Titans)'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."
In addition, the animated version of Raven sometimes says the phrase "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" to help her focus her powers. These words are her mantra, and although no one knows exactly what they mean, it is definite that Azarath is her home dimension (or more accurately, the dimension of her birth), in the show and the comics. She has to meditate daily to make sure her emotions remain check and do not clash with her sense of right and wrong.
When she gets excessively emotional, her powers tend to take a form outside of her control, called her "soul-self" in the comic books. Her soul-self is not recognized by name in the animation, but it is featured. Her soul-self normally takes the form of a giant raven. Her soul-self can also transform her body's appearance to a variety of demonic forms and sizes. Worst of all, when she can't control her anger, she transforms into a demonic Raven usually with four glowing, red eyes and sprouting black tentacles from under her cloak, also referred to by fans as "Red Raven", "Angry Raven", or "Evil Raven". The four eyes seem to symbolize her demon father, Trigon.
Raven often worries that her fellow Titans don't like her, possibly because she is the daughter of a demon and has a complex lifestyle that her friends don't understand too well. Her room inside Titans Tower is decorated with things from her past, as well as statues and pictures about of the creepy-crawlies her powers like to conjure up. Not surprisingly, she becomes highly offended when anyone sets foot in it against her will.