Raven
27 years ago - Rachel Roth's mother Angella Roth, the unwitting concubine to the demon Trigon, is impregnated with his child and abandoned on earth to hide her from his enemies. She tries to kill herself but is saved by the mystic Azar, who brings her to the dimension Azarath, where Rachel is born, and begins her magical instruction.
16 years ago - 11-year-old Rachel begins manifesting the power of her father Trigon. Her teacher Azar feels the power of Trigon within her and advances her training to include control of her soul-self, empowering her against the influence of her father.
10 years ago - 17-year-old Rachel chooses to leave Azerath after the death of the mystic Azar. She takes the name Raven, swearing to stop her father Trigon, leaving Azerath for the first time. She travels to Earth & assembles a new team of Teen Titans, who succeed in trapping Trigon in an interdimensional prison.
8 years ago - 19-year-old Raven is overwhelmed by her father Trigon when he escapes his prison. Together they imprison the entire dimension of Azerath. She manages to coerce the Teen Titans to kill her, breaking his connection to the mortal plane, allows the imprisoned denizens of Azerath to weaken Trigon so that the Titans can defeat him, stripping him of his ability to walk the mortal plane. Her mother Arella sacrifices herself so that Raven's soul can be reborn, and she appears to ascend to a higher plane.
3 years ago - 19-year-old Raven's soul is recalled from it's extraplanar existence to be imprisoned in a newly grown body grown by the Blood Cult, in order for her to become the consort of Brother Blood. She is saved by the new Teen Titans, and joins them.
2 years ago - 20-year-old Raven goes with Gar Logan & the remaining Doom Patrol into the Paths Beyond to save Rebis & Danny the Street from the Key after he kills Niles Caulder. She & Gar choose to leave the Titans to rebuild the Doom Patrol, moving the team to Will Magnus's Oolong Island.
The thing I like the most about Raven is just how much she wound up being a product of the fan reaction to her. Her original role in the comics was to be a mysterious outsider who often drove the plot. While she had her fans, once her role on the larger Marv Wolfman/George Perez comic wound down, she really didn't seem to have a place anymore. Somehow, though, a place seemed to grow for her, and the idea of "goth" characters seemed to evolve into popular culture AROUND her. The animated Titans gave us a version of Raven that became a massive fan favorite, and suddenly the comics had to work backward to try to reproduce that character in their own pages. It's a funny thing when that happens, but it's usually because they have a great character on their hands.
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Raven's Comic HistoryRaven's first appearance, technically, is DC Comics Presents #26, in the same minor preview story that introduced all the new characters of the 1980 New Teen Titans series, but her real debut was in issue one of the new series. Raven drove a lot of the early plot, largely responsible for bringing the group together and foretelling the arrival of what would become their greatest threat. A lot of the team's early conflict came from their varying levels of distrust for the mysterious witch among them. She was also not excluded from the series' reliance on teen-soap romance, with several characters falling from her, including Beast Boy, Wally West, and in some cases, even Dick Grayson.
As the series went on, and the Titans had their conflicts with Trigon, Raven became more of a recurring character than a team mainstay, popping into stories to stir conflict. She had several heel turns as her father's influence overwhelmed her, notably showing up in the middle of Starfire and Nightwing's wedding. Raven underwent an excessive re-imagining when she was featured in the 2003 animated series, and the same year she returned in the new Geoff Johns penned comic, quickly adapting a persona much more in keeping with her animated series counterpart, which has largely defined the character ever since. |
Animated Raven's LegacyThere is a real distinction to be made between Raven as a character before her appearance in the 2003 animated series, and her appearance afterward. Perhaps the best way to understand that distinction is to consider that Raven's early appearances happened before 'goth' as a style really existed. Goth, as we think of it now, is a subculture that began in the early 80's in the UK among fans of goth rock, which was growing out of post-punk music. Obviously there's a lot more to it than that, but the point is that Raven debuted in 1980, before that aesthetic really existed. Instead, Raven is based much more on certain horror movie sensibilities from the 70's; movies like The Exorcist, The Omen, The Amityville Horror, Rosemary's Baby. Even as she continued to appear into the 80's and early 90's, and goth style was normalized, There was really no effort to apply it to Raven.
But the animated series changed that completely. It used it's anime style to make Raven a spooky goth teen, instantly making her far more relatable, and contrasting with the other Titans. She was a fan favorite for much of the series, and the comics have essentially been working to adapt this character even since. |
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Our Raven StoryIn the comics, Raven largely disappeared from continuity in any meaningful way after the end of the classic New Teen Titans before she was brought back by the Blood cult of Brother Blood in a new body, only popping in occasionally. We've decided to really lean into that idea, actually having her 'ascend' in the final battle with Trigon, and then come back years later in a new body, actually having not aged, which means that she gets to be closer in age to Beast Boy.
There have been a few interesting takes on Raven in the last few years that humanize her much more, sending her to high school, living with her aunt's family... the live action series even took the insane leap of suggesting that she hadn't even grown up in an alternate dimension raised by sorceresses. While that's probably TOO humanizing, I do like the idea that when she comes back she is no longer under constant threat of her father's influence and has the chance to explore what a normal life might be. To that end, we like the idea that her stories start to become more human, even as they continue to have profoundly dark, horror-based themes. She's not a high-school student as she's often depicted for some reason, but we do really love the idea of her having a regular life that allows her to grow, even as she continues to battle the eldritch forces of her upbringing. |
Raven's CostumeRaven has undergone a few different costume redesigns over the years, but with only one exception, there actually is a fairly reasonable logical through-line in their design.
Her original costume was a long dark blue dress with a high slit up the side and flowing cloak with a hooked hood that shrouded her eyes. It was all designed to give her a dramatic silhouette. This works very well as the costume she wears when she first appeared and helped form the New Teen Titans. This costume changed color a few times, but for our purposes, it can just keep its original colors. Her most iconic look, from the animated series, replaces the flowing dress with her now-iconic cloak over a leg-revealing leotard. It worked really well in animation (and has even been the source of some comedy bits in some versions of the show) but the comics have spent several years trying to adapt that look. This is where we get her New 52 costume, which is the only look for Raven that really just flat-out doesn't work. Eventually, we get to the rebirth era, where Raven starts wearing her modern costumes, which are definitely the best takes on her modern, goth-centric characterization. |
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Raven's FutureOur take on Raven's modern appearances feature her reappearing in a new, unaged body and briefly rejoining the Teen Titans. This series, and the animated take on these characters, all implied that in Raven's new more human life she starts to connect more and more with Beast Boy. Generally, I find that when a character's story focuses on his or her romantic relationship it weakens the character, but in this case it actually feels pretty appropriate. The relationship feels like part of her ongoing quest to master herself and her emotions. It feels like a fun take on both characters that allowed them both to grow, so we decided to use it. This actually gives us an interesting future for Raven, because we can move her from the Titans and into the future Doom Patrol.
Raven's more human stories can give us a lot of new opportunities. She's a half-demon, which is actually the same origin as DC's take on Merlin. Her role in the world is pretty much guaranteed to be huge. The world of the Doom Patrol can have some weird, meta stuff in it, thanks to several amazing writers like Grant Morrison, Rachell Pollack and Gerald Way all leaning hard into a specific style of surrealism. We've left a lot of this out of our version of the Doom Patrol, but as we create a new take on the team to move into the future, involving Raven and her connections to magic would allow us to start to explore some of those strange ideas. She's a character that opens the doors to some amazing stories if the right writer thinks to use her. |
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