Raven is the half-human/half-demon daughter of the demon lord Trigon. Gifted with abilities both celestial and demonic, Raven was born for the sole purpose of acting as the doorway for Trigon to enter through to conquer and destroy the Earthly plane.
One of the most powerful beings on the planet, Raven is constantly struggling to keep her dark-side; the "Dark Raven", in check. Although born to evil, Raven chooses to fight for the preservation of good and is supported by her friends, the Teen Titans.
Background
Raven's mother, Angela Roth, was abandoned by her own mother at birth and was channeled through the foster care system, always migrating from one uncaring family to the next. This ultimately bred a sense of apathy in Angela, and when religion failed to provide her with a sense of spiritual satisfaction, she turned to Satanism and became involved in a cult that purportedly attempted to summon Lucifer.
Angela was offered as a potential "bride" for Satan but what appeared before them was a being of angelic beauty. Seduced by the being, Angela willingly allowed the entity to mate with her only for the being to reveal itself as the demonic entity Trigon.
Left with child, Angela could no longer live with the horror of what had happened and tried to get help through counseling, and after being rejected, attempted to take her own life by overdosing on sleeping pills.
It was then that she was approached by beings of the other-dimensional world known as Azarath; a pacifistic society who had left Earth centuries ago. The Azarathians recognized that Angela was pregnant with the child of Trigon and invited her to return with them to Azarath where they could safeguard the child from Trigon's influence. Angela agreed.
When Angela gave birth to her daughter, whom the Azarathians named "Raven", the realm became corrupted with Trigon's taint; with it's emerald skies turning black and the smell of Gossamer becoming the odor of Brimstone. The realm shook and rumbled as peace turned to fear.
The Magistrate, Juris, felt that the child's existence threatened all life on Azarath and, to safeguard his people, he snatched Raven from her nursemaid and attempted to hurl her into the realm separating Azarath from other dimensional worlds and planets. He was, however, destroyed by a watchful Trigon before he could carry out his plan.
The current Azar took it upon herself to personally raise Raven. Aware that Raven possessed the power and ability to freely control and manipulate emotions, she realized that the only way to safeguard the child was to deny her the power and ability to feel any emotion. She mentored Raven for ten years before she passed away due to old age. On her deathbed, Azar gave Angella the duty of continuing Raven's education.
Over the next several years, Raven felt her father's influence growing inside of her. When she was eighteen-years-old, she entered the Temple of Azarath and peered into the limbo between dimensions; encountering her father for the very first time. Realizing the danger that Trigon represented, Raven fled Azarath in an attempt to preserve her home and came to Earth to seek help from the Justice League of America, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna who sensed her demonic parentage. In desperation, she reformed the Teen Titans to fight her father on his arrival.
Together Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Changeling, Raven, Starfire and Cyborg were able to repel Trigon's incursion and seal him within an inter-dimensional prison.
Raven remained with the team to face other adversaries such as the Ravager, Brother Blood, Blackfire, Terra and Deathstroke, residing in a custom-made tower on an island in New York's East River.
While still supported by her friends, more than once, Raven nearly lost control of her demonic powers in various high stress situations in her adventures and barely regained it before Trigon could reassert himself, despite this however, she eventually succumbed to her father's influence after a series of outbursts that led to Kid Flash leaving the team in fear of her.
Escaping his prison, Trigon came to Earth and took full control of Raven's body and soul; corrupting her to willfully serve as his vessel and destroying the dimension Azarath in the process. Left with no other choice, the Teen Titans had to kill "Dark Raven" in order to send Trigon back to his prison and to repair the damage already done to the planet by having the spirits of Azarath use Raven as a channel to attack Trigon. Though dead, Raven's soul actually rose from ashes of the battle as a pure spirit; purged of Trigon's evil.
Raven then transcended the Earth into a non-parallel dimension for a short time before being forcefully returned to Earth by the Cult of Blood in order to use her empathy manipulation to control Nightwing as part of Brother Blood's resurrection. The Titans rescued them both and prevented Brother Blood from returning.
Possessing a new set of powers and now free from her father's influence, Raven attempted to experience emotions, unwittingly fostering a relationship with technopath Eric Forrester, who was using the life forces of the women he seduced to regain his lost humanity.
Raven was later kidnapped by the Wildebeest Society who, led by the Trigon-possessed souls of Azarath, were going to use several Titans to bring about the return of Trigon. During a massive battle, Raven was possessed by the corrupt souls and once again became her father's evil avatar. Arella, using the power of Azar's soul-self, which she had bequeathed to Arella after her death, and Teen Titan, Danny Chase merged their souls together and were able to destroy Raven's body and purify the corrupted souls of Azarath, sacrificing themselves to do so.
However Raven's spirit remained corrupted and possessed a metahuman in an attempt to induce a new holocaust by implanting Trigon's seeds of corruption into new bodies. Interrupting Nightwing and Starfire's wedding, "Dark Raven" implanted a seed of Trigon into Starfire, which caused Starfire to leave Earth in order to escape from the evil spirit. The remaining Titans were able to defeat the spirit but Raven later returned again, still evil, in order to destroy the seed she had implanted in Starfire; which was actually revealed to be the remaining pure portion of Raven's soul. With the help of the Titans, Dark Raven was reduced to ashes, and "White Raven" was once again free.
Now a pure spirit, Raven wandered the Earth for a time before Brother Blood returned to claim her in marriage as part of yet another scheme to resurrect Trigon. Reincarnated in a new body, a new team of Teen Titans interrupted the wedding and Raven joined the new team, fighting alongside them during the Infinite Crisis.
Combat Statistics
- Raven (Vendor)
- BOUNTY: Raven
- Raven (Ellsworth Memorial Hospital)
- Raven (A Shadow of Hell)
- Possessed Raven Spirit
- Spirit of Raven
- Raven's Good Soul Projection
- Raven's Evil Soul Projection
- Raven (Desecrated Cathedral)
Involvement
- During the Halloween Seasonal Event, Klarion "borrows" the powers of Raven, along with Black Adam, Doctor Fate, Zatanna and Tala, during his battle against interfering New Heroes and New Villains.
- Raven is the final boss in the Desecrated Cathedral alert.
Heroes
- Raven is a Vendor for the Magic Iconic Battle Suit: Fate's Faith.
- Brother Blood is attempting to summon Trigon through Raven so as a hero you must battle her possessed spirit and the rest of the Titans to stop this.
- Raven assists the player with the Sentinels of Magic against Brother Blood in Trigon's Blood.
- Heroes will fight Raven's Evil Soul Projection in the Gotham Wastelands bounty mission Take Pride.
Villains
- Brother Blood is attempting to summon Trigon through Raven. As a villain you must help further this, eventually heading inside Raven's mind and fighting her spirit to weaken her to Trigon's will.
- Brother Blood will task villains to defeat Raven, and later corrupt the rest of the Teen Titans, in order to complete the ritual to summon Trigon into the mortal realm. After the Titans have been subdued Raven will break free, rescue the Titans, and escape.
- Raven is a Central City bounty for villains, appearing to the north west of Gotham University.(Requires Lightning Strikes DLC and a Combat Rating of atleast 53 to enter Central City)
- Villains will fight Raven's Good Soul Projection in the Gotham Wastelands bounty mission Take Pride.
Trivia
- Raven first appeared in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980)
- Raven is voiced by Adriene Mishler.
- Thanks to her heritage, Raven is the avatar of the Sin of Pride.
- Raven can unleash a powerful force from within her known as her "Soul-Self". This force, which takes the form of a giant raven, can teleport Raven to different dimensions or travel alone as a separate entity. The soul-self can also fight on Raven's behalf, by entering the mind of her opponent.
- By speaking to her repeatedly in the Watchtower, Raven wonders why nobody ever believes she is happy about something. She further reveals how she laments her father but admits that it makes things easier on Father's Day and says that where she came from is closer to hell in comparison; and New Jersey.
- Further conversation sees Raven warning the player not to let Cyborg and Beast Boy goad them into playing a game of Stank Ball; a game with rules similar to dodgeball involving a pile of old, stinky socks and underwear rolled up into a volleyball-sized ball. This game was only seen in the Teen Titans cartoon series.
- Raven has mastered a number of mystical arts and is familiar with many otherworldly realms; including Heaven and Hell.
- As a powerful empath, Raven can take on someone else's physical trauma as her own, causing herself great pain but healing them in the process.
- To date, Raven has been killed and resurrected twice; as a result, although she is physically 17-18, she is actually spiritually around 24-25 years old.
- Etrigan the Demon's father is the demon Belial; who is a son of Trigon. Due to this, Etrigan is Trigon's grandson and Raven is his aunt. Also due to this bloodline, the Magician Merlin and Lord Scapegoat are Raven's nephews as they too are sons of Belial.
Gallery
See also
- Azarath
- Soul-Self
- Raven's Soulmask
- Prideful Costume Style
External links
- Raven (comics) Wikipedia
- Raven DC Database