RAVEN

Real Name: Raven

Class: Extradimensional demigoddess

Occupation: Superhero

Group Affiliation: formerly New Teen Titans,Titans II

Known Relatives: Arella (mother, deceased), Gluttony (half-brother), Jack (Sloth, half-brother), Jacob (Lust, half-brother), James (Greed, half-brother), Jared (Wrath, half-brother), Jesse (Envy, half-brother), Trigon (father)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: formerly New York City, New York, San Francisco, California

First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26 (October, 1980)

Powers: Raven was an empath who could sense pain and disease, as well as remove harm from a target's body and assimilate it into herself, which caused her immense pain. She could also force a target to confront their own worst fears. Raven was a teleporter who could move through dimensions at will. Raven could unleash her soul-self, an image of a raven that represented her inner self.

History: Extradimensional tyrant Trigon formed a cult on Earth to create a bloodline that would precede his rule on Earth. Young Arella fled her home and joined the cult, who she took to be Satanists. In an occult ritual they summoned Trigon in the form of a handsome man, and he seduced her. When Arella realized what Trigon was, she contemplated suicide, but was saved by a man from the dimension of Azarath, who offered her sanctuary, and preached his people's message of peace. Arella gave birth to Raven, and the goddess Azar took her under her wing to give her inner peace, lest her half-demonic nature one day surface.

(DC Comics Presents #26) -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.

(DC Comics Presents #26 (ff)) - 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.

Trigon prepared to attack Earth, and Raven left Azarath to stop him. She joined the newly formed New Teen Titans and expelled her father from Earth.

(Titans East Special #1 (fb)) - Joker, with his hired goon Bizarro, crashed pop star Jenn’s concert in Central Park. He held her hostage, but the New Teen Titans responded and took Jenn to safety. Kid Flash took away Joker’s gun, be realized the gun contained a bomb, Joker’s actual plan involved blowing up all of Jenn’s fans. He ran at superspeed to toss it into the ocean, and Raven tried to confront Joker with his worst fears and nightmares, but they only made him laugh convulsively. Flash and Robin secured Blue Kryptonite from S.T.A.R. Labs to defeat Bizarro, and Robin took out Joker with one punch. The Teen Titans were impressed with themselves for having taken out such heavy hitters, and knew they’d always suceed as long as they stuck together.

(Hawk and Dove III #11, 12) - Hawk and Dove reached out to Raven and the Titans to provide back-up in defeating the robot thieves Andromeda, Gauntlet and M.A.C. The Titans weren't surprised that Hawk only came to see them because he wanted something, but they agreed and flew the T-Jet to the remote island where the robots were. They fought back the robots and their creator Professor Douglas Strange. The technorganic alien Scarab had been Strange to do his bidding, stealing gold so it could feed. The heroes injured Scarab and it fled. During the battle Andromeda, an android imprinted with the memories of Strange's wife Andromeda, was destroyed by Jericho. Hawk hated a victory that wasn't clear-cut and blamed the Titans, who doubted they'd work with him again.

(Day of Judgment #1, 2) - Raven was recruited by Zatanna to join the Sentinels of Magic, whose purpose was to battle Spectre / Asmodel, who'd unleashed Hell on Earth. The Sentinels of Magic separated Asmodel from most of the Spectre-Force, containing it in Madame Xanadu's orb. They knew it was only a temporary measure, so Raven used her soul-self to transport herself and a small band of heroes to Heaven to try to convince Jim Corrigan to reclaim the Spectre-Force. Once the gates of Heaven opened, something tore Raven away from the afterlife, leaving the rest of the heroes without a way home.

(Superman / Batman #13) - Raven and the Teen Titans were among the heroes invited to Paradise Island to welcome Superman's cousin Supergirl into the superhero community.

(Green Lantern: Rebirth #4) - Ganthet summoned Raven and the Teen Titans and a number of other heroes to battle Parallax, who’d completely taken over Hal Jordan. They weakened him enough for the Spectre to separate Hal from Parallax, allowing Hal’s soul to return to his body, resurrecting him.

(Green Arrow III #46) - Green Arrow sponsored Speedy’s membership in the Teen Titans, and after an initiation training session and a combat session with Robin, Raven and the rest of the Titans welcomed her to the team.

(Teen Titans III #30, 31) - The Titans escaped Blood after he opened a door to Hell and unleashed an army of demons of Los Angeles. Raven told the Titans that Brother Blood was exploiting an opening in the door between life and death, which was first cracked open when Superman returned from the dead, and they had to figure a way to close it. Blood confronted the Titans with his New Titans West, a team made of resurrected Titans. The Titans fought the demons and the New Titans while Raven and Beast Boy went into the afterlife and found that Brother Blood had Kid Eternity chained in the opening of the door between life and death, allowing the opening to widen. After fighting the resurrected Ravager, Gizmo and Madame Rouge who'd been sent by Blood to guard him they freed him and closed the door. Back on Earth Eternity sent the demons and New Titans back to the afterlife, and temporarily resurrected Blood’s predecessors, who tore him to bits.

(Teen Titans III #32) - Superboy Prime confronted Superboy because he wanted to take his place, and was willing to kill him to do it. Superboy took a beating from Prime, but called the Titans and their reservists on an emergency signal. There were casualties, but Flash Jay Garrick, Flash and Kid Flash took Prime out of action by running him into the Speed Force. Superboy's heart stopped, but he was revived by Raven.

(52 / WWIII Part Two: The Valiant #1) - <Week 50, Day 4> Black Adam declared war on Earth, starting WWIII. Raven and the Teen Titans, led by Beast Boy, prepared to confront him, well knowing he could kill them all.

(52 / WWIII Part Three: Hell Is For Heroes #1) - <Week 5, Day 5, 6> The Titans confronted Black Adam in Greece, and Raven begged Beast Boy to have confidence in himself and be the leader they needed him to be. Adam defeated the Titans, severely injuring several of them and killing Young Frankenstein. Beast Boy decided to leave the wounded behind to be tended by locals, and pursue Adam to the Himalayas. Raven started to be overcome by the empathetic pain she felt from her teammates. Adam defeated the Titans again and killed Terra. Beast Boy realized he could do nothing except tend to the wounded.

(Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1) - 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.

(Green Lantern IV #25) - The Sinestro Corps War raged on Earth, and while Raven and an army of superheroes battled the Corps the Anti-Monitor prepared to unleash an anti-matter wave to destroy Earth. With Earth’s destruction, the entire 52 would fall, and he would once again rule all that was. The GLC ruptured the heart of Anti-Monitor’s Warworld, the Sinestro Corps central power battery, and created a shield around Warworld and the Monitor. The ensuing blast nearly destroyed the Anti-Monitor, and he was finished off by Superman-Prime, who betrayed him for having destroyed his home, Earth-Prime. GL Hal Jordan defeated Sinestro in personal combat, and the Sinestro Corps, lacking any leadership, fled Earth. The heroes rejoiced and began rebuilding the damage the Sinestro Corps did.

(Titans East Special #1, Titans II #1-4) - Cyborg recruited a new roster of young heroes and contacted his old friends to reform the Titans and train them. Raven said no, and it seemed like no one was interested in Cyborg’s idea. Trigon decimated Cyborg’s team, he was out to destroy every Titan, past and present. After Trigon’s demons attacked Raven at school she reunited with Starfire, Troia, Flash, Red Arrow, Beast Boy and Nightwing to investigate. The Titans saved Argent and a number of other former Titans from Trigon’’s horde, although they were adamant that they were not a team again. Cyborg was rebuilt, and wanted in on the case, to avenge the death of Power Boy. Raven contacted Trigon, and learned that although he had been decimated by demonic warfare he was still bent on destroying Earth, and he shared a secret with her, her brother would help him in his invasion. In an attempt to find Raven’s half-brother, Raven and the Titans tracked down Trigon’s other brides, only to find that they’d died years ago. Trigon’s three sons kept the Titans off balance by exposing them to the seven deadly sins, and then confronted them. They attacked the Titans and used Raven to open up a portal to Trigon’s dimension. The battle went for Trigon’s children and they used Beast Boy’s Trigon seed, the smallest spark of which was still in him, to finish the portal. Raven used her own ability to tap into the seven deadly sins, which greatly sickened her, to overcome her brothers with greed. They stole Trigon’s last vestiges of power, and then retreated to learn how to manipulate their newfound magic. Raven was pleased at having tricked them. In his dilapidated state Trigon could not have given them much of a magical boost. The Titans agreed that they still saw each other as family, and decided to remain a loose group in order to spend more time with each other.

(Titans II #5, 6) - Beast Boy stopped by Raven’s school under the pretense of a bear-o-gram to talk to her. He knew she was upset after her encounter with her half-brothers, and indeed she’d spent the last night brooding about the evil side of her nature. They went for a bite to eat, and she confessed the encounter she had brought out her dark side. She started wanting the Titans dead, and wondered if Raven was a mask, and her demonic side was her true self. Despite Beast Boy’s encouragement, her demonic side manifested and she summoned her half-brothers, who led her by the hand to Trigon’s dimension. Beast Boy told the Titans that the Sons of Trigon had taken Raven, and that she’d been recruited to her father’s cause. Troia told the Titans that Raven had always planned for the worst, and given her a Ramat Stone that could locate magic-users. Beast Boy wanted to know why Troia was chosen to keep Raven’s secrets, and she replied that in addition to being the most magically adept Titan, she’d also proved that she’d never judge Raven. The Titans concentrated on the stone and Raven, and were transported to Trigon’s dimension. They met the rest of the Sons of Trigon, Greed, Gluttony, and Sloth, and were defeated. Raven turned against her brothers, proclaiming herself Pride, the sin from which all others sprung. She wanted to rule the Earth, but with the Titans at her side, and began imbuing them with the powers of the Seven Deadly Sins. This activated the Ramat Stone, Raven had given it a sliver of her pure essence, and the Raven that was loyal to the Titans emerged and merged herself with her demonic counterpart and returned the team to Titan’s Tower. Raven was starting to feel more like herself, ut told the Titans that the Ramat Stone wouldn’t work twice, and that she might me evil to the core. She presented her teammates with a set of magic talismans capable of ending her life if she wet to the dark side, and demanded that they learn to master them if she was to be comfortable on the team. Titan’s Tower security was breached, and the team responded, only to find that Superboy’s clone Match had broken in. The villain revealed that he was Jericho, trapped inside Match’s body.

(Titans II #7-9) - The Titans examined Match in hopes of freeing their friend. Raven used the Titans’ computers to cross-reference medical records on Jericho and Match. Beast Boy was impressed with her new skills, and she told him she’d become computer savy since enrolling in high school, and liked the distance computers put between her and other people. Beast Boy tried to assure her she was trusted, but she blew him off, making him storm out. Cyborg isolated Jericho’s neuron patterns from Match, and prepared a radio-ectoplasmic pulse to free his astral form. Jericho then had Match run berserk and attack the Titans, claiming he couldn‘t control him. After battering the team, Cyborg used the ecltoplasmic pulse to separate them. Raven probed Jericho’s mind and realized he was up to no good, burt before the team could respond Jericho vanished, possessing one of the Titans. The Titans went into lockdown to keep Jericho from escaping, and Cyborg went with protocol for just such a situation, each Titan would take a security clearance interview with the Titans computer. The Titans kept an updated log of secrets only they and the computer would know. The Titans shared their secrets with the computer, and everyone passed, so Cyborg decided to use the ectoplasmic pulse on the Titans, one at a time. Jericho revealed himself to Nightwing, and forced him to inject himself with an LSD compound that made his mind a battleground, enabling Jericho to overcome his will. He promised to reveal what he was planning to do, and why. The Titans used the ectoplasmic pulse on Cyborg and Red Arrow, and waited for them to recover before testing the rest of the team. Jericho made Nightwing feel his thoughts, and revealed that everyone he’d ever possessed had left their memories and a part of their mind in him. It was the vicious villains he’d had contact with, like Deathstroke, that were now making his decisions for him, and he begged for Nightwing to help him. The Titans contacted S.T.A.R. Labs and learned that before Jericho had come to them for help he’d possessed Green Lantern Hal Jordan and tried to kill the candidates for president. The Justice League were right outside of Titans’ headquarters, demanding that Jericho be released to them.

(Titans II #10) - Jericho panicked and jumped into Flash’s body and vibrated out of Titan headquarters, but he couldn’t evade the Justice League. The Titans joined the League in battling Jericho as he lept from body to body, until he ended up in Superman. Previously he would never have been able to enter Superman’s mind, but his power had grown immensely. He still wasn’t strong enough to take control of Superman, who expelled his astral form from his mind. Jericho’s astral form dissipated into the wind. The whole experience left Nightwing shaken, and he desperately wanted to find a way to help Jericho.

(Titans II #10) - Nightwing called a meeting with the Titans to announce his resignation from the team, saying he needed to spend more time with his family in Gotham.

(Titans II #11) - The Titans decided to take some time off from each other at Beast Boy’s suggestion. Beast Boy pestered Raven until she was willing to talk to him. He said they should start dating, and she replied that there was nothing between them, and that she’d only kissed him to give him confidence. Beast Boy was convinced she was either trying to protect him or hurt him, but he was upset, and left her.

(Titans II #12) - Cyborg recovered from the injuries Jericho caused him, and revealed to the Titans that Jericho had uploaded himself into his OS, and then proceeded to use him to rig Titans Tower and try and kill the Teen Titans before fleeing his body. Troia took charge, and told the Titans they had to find a way to help Jericho. They contacted the Teen Titans, but they had no leads on either Jericho or his sister Ravager. The Titans decided to ask for Vigilante for help, because he was after Jericho as well, even though Changeling balked at the idea of working with a killer. Cyborg knew Vigilante had surveillance equipment monitoring Titans Compound, so if he thought Jericho was inside Cyborg that could work as bait to lure him in. Cyborg staged a fight against the Titans right outside the Compound, and Vigilante soon arrived. Before Cyborg could explain the situation Vigilante blasted him in the head with one of his firearms.

(Vigilante III #5) - The Titans restrained Vigilante, and he assured them Cyborg was alive, he’d used an EMP gun to force out Jericho. The Titans rushed Cyborg to his repair chamber, and revealed that Jericho was gone, and they’d used Cyborg as bait to bring Vigilante to them. They unmasked him, and fingerprinted him, telling him his short career was over. Vigilante set off concussive bombs attached to his security cameras in Titans Compound to create a diversion and free himself. Before the Titans could find him, Jericho, possessing a police officer, contacted them and asked for help with a hostage crisis at Union Federal. They headed to the bank, and Vigilante contacted his techie J.J. to wipe the memory banks of the Titans computer system containing his fingerprints. He knew the Titans would still eventually realize he was Adrian Chase’s brother since they’d seen him unmasked. The Titans disarmed mobsters armed with experimental government weaponry at Federal, and realized they’d been baited in. Vigilante was close behind them, and spied Jericho, who set off explosives inside the bank, killing his hired thugs and a number of police officers. Vigilante attacked Jericho, but Jericho kept jumping bodies, and then threw a grenade, damaging Vigilante’s suit, and made his escape. Vigilante reflected that it was no skin off his teeth if Jericho succeeded or failed in his maniacal plans, he wasn’t trying to save the world, only himself. Jericho called up the Teen Titans aboard their wing plane to tell them he was going to kill the Titans and use them to do it. They kept him on the phone to trace his call, and this allowed him to infect the wing ‘s computer system with a worm that gave him control over it. Jericho flew the wing to NYC and used it to attack the Titans.

(Teen Titans III #70) - The Titans and Teen Titans managed to disable the T-Wing and crash it into the East River without anyone getting injured. Ravager was stowed away on the T-Wing, and old he Titans she waned o help them stop her brother without him getting killed. Jericho possessed Raven and spirited away his sister. He told her he was trying to kill he Titans, but only because of the voices in his head. He asked for her help, and she turned him down. Jericho was disappointed in her, he thought she would always be on his side, and pointed out that she was working with heroes associated with Vigilante, who was trying to kill him. He returned her to the Titans and fled to Time Square. The Titans spotted Vigilante, who was following them, and subdued him, though Ravager wanted to keep beating him for trying to kill Jericho. Vigilante promised to not kill Jericho if they promised that Jericho’s killing days were over.

(Titans II #13) - Jericho entered the Hamilton Grande, prepared for a slaughter. He announced that he had rigged explosives throughout the restaurant, and every wealthy patron was his hostage. Using a cellphone video, he recorded himself shooting the hotel manager in the head, and promised to kill a patron every two minutes, unless the Titans arrived to stop him. The Titans confronted Jericho, and tried to reason with him, but he as having none of it, telling them he’d succeed in killing them here his father failed, finally allowing him to overshadow his dad. He’d strapped explosives to his hostages, and held the trigger, guaranteeing that the Titans would die trying to save them. He offered Ravager a chance to escape, but she wasn’t abandoning her teammates. They tussled, and Jericho set off the detonator, and escaped. Newscrews filmed what appeared to be the dead Titans.

(Vigilante III #6) - Raven had actually created the illusion of the Titans’ death, and Miss Martian disguised herself as Deathstroke to confront and confuse Jericho. The Titans reached out to Jericho, and Raven tried to enter his mind to heal him, but all she found was darkness. They defeated him, but Vigilante made his presence known, and drew his guns, saying Jericho would kill again if not stopped. Ravager reminded him of his promise, and he slipped away. He later ambushed Jericho’s police convoy, and cut out his eyes so he could never use his power again. The Titans realized too late what Vigilante was up to, and they found Jericho in the back of his transport, bleeding and babbling that he was cured.

(Titans II #16 (fb)) - Intergang got their hands on a number of Justifier helmets, so Mon-El called in the Titans to deal with them. The heroes prevailed, but Starfire lost control and went berserk, still upset that she had once again been made a slave thanks to the Justifiers.

(Titans II #17) - Troia went apartment hunting with Raven and Starfire, another way of distancing herself from the Titans. Beast Boy tried to convince Raven to blow them off and spend some time with him, but she coldly told him to stop pretending she was his girlfriend. Troia then yelled at Beast Boy, telling him not everything was about him.

(Titans II #18) - Raven tried to track down her brothers, only to come upon what seemed like a cult sacrifice to Trigon in a cemetery outside of a Gotham. The intended sacrifice turned out to be her brother Envy in disguise. The Sons of Trigon were hoping to reconnect with her, so they lured her in with the fake sacrifice, and Envy took on the image of Raven’s mother, because he sensed she desperately sought a mother’s guidance and love. Raven defeated Envy in battle, even though he assured her that even if they occasionally fought they were still blood. He also pointed out that the Titans weren’t there for her while she was tracking her brothers. The next day the Titans had a barbecue, and although Raven was happy to be surrounded by her friends, she realized they were all battling their own demons, and she still felt disconnected from them. Beast Boy left the team to mentor the Teen Titans, and Raven was sad to see him go, but didn’t try to stop him. He assured her they were still friends, and invited her to come over for movie night some time. She worried that everyone would leave the team, and she’d be all alone. Beast Boy told her she was only as alone as she chose to be, and she remarked that that was actually a wise statement coming from the class clown.

(Titans II #23) -Raven used her psychic powers to take away Red Arrow’s pain after his mutilation at the hands of Prometheus, allowing him to rest. Cyborg called the Titans, and told them that as Arrow’s oldest friends it would be nice if they visited him in case he didn’t make it.

(Titans II #38) - Raven, the Teen Titans and the rest of the superhero community attended the funeral of Atom Ryan Choi.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman & George Perez.

Raven received profiles in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1, Who's Who In The DC Universe #8 and Teen Titans / Outsiders Secret Files 2003.

Raven received a profile in JLA-Z #3 under the Teen Titans entry.

Flash II #189 showed a poster of Raven and the New Teen Titans in Cyborgs apartment.

Raven had cameos in Beast Boy #1, Flash II #189, Flash Secret Files #3, JLA #121, Titans I #24, Titans II #15, 22 and Vigilante I #5.

All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please visit The Official DC Comics Site at: http://www.batman.com