Raven

Real Name: Rachel Roth

First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26 (1980)

History: A troubled young girl seeking acceptance by the name of Arella was seduced by a satanic cult whom were trying to bring Satan to earth. Instead, Trigon appeared and took Arella as his bride, against her will. He raped her, but she soon escaped. On the verge of suicide, Arella came across an extra-dimensional pacifist cult and taken to a world in another dimension. A world called Azarath. There, she gave birth to Raven.

Raven was raised by the granddaughter of the original Azar, taught to keep emotion in check to keep her dark side under control. Raven found more peace in meditation than with the other priests. Azar passed away when Raven was ten, and Arella was allowed to take care of her daughter. Azar gave Raven a set of rings she had always wore before she died. The rings contained Azars essence.

Three years passed and Trigon soon appeared in Azarath, there to claim his daughter as his own. Raven released her soul self for the first time in defense, confiming that she was in fact the spawn of Trigon. He instilled more of his essence into her as he vowed that one day she would belong to him, but Raven wanted no such thing.

When she was around 18, Raven left Azar, sensing the evil of Trigon growing. She left Azar, determined to gather a band of heroes who could stop him. Her first stop was the Justice League, but before she made any progress, Zatanna sensed an evil inside of Raven and she was rebuked. Her determination did not waver and she invaded the dreams of Dick Grayson, showing him a glimpse of his near future as a part of a new group of Teen Titans.

She manipulated the emotions of Kid Flash to get him to join the team, but this eventually backfired. Zatanna again revealed that Raven was the daughter of Trigon and had manipulated Kid Flash’s emotions, causing her team of Titans to abandon her out of mistrust. Raven appeared before them once more asking for their help and they eventually agreed, teaming with her to topple Trigon, sending him to an inter-dimensional prison with Arella acting as the gatekeeper.

After the battle with Trigon, the Teen Titans decided to remain a team, but some tensions still remained. Kid Flash realized that he did in fact love Raven, but he was frightened of her dark side. Among other things, this was a main cause of him leaving the Titans. Raven soon found it to be increasingly difficult to control the evil inside of her and it soon reached a peak.

Finally, Trigon beckoned her once more, but this time, Raven could no longer resist his influence. During his resurgence, Azarath was destroyed and his presence was unleashed within her. She took on an appearance similar to her fathers, with red skin and four eyes. The Titans soon battled both Trigon and Raven, but during the battle, they were transformed into evil personas, which in turn killed Raven. The souls of Azarath used Ravens body as a channel for their power and with the help of the Titans, Arella and Lilith, Trigon was defeated once more.

Having been killed during the battle, Raven was presumed dead upon Trigons defeat. It turned out that this was in fact false, as her body rose from the ashes of the battle and she lived once more, with one problem. Raven was stricken with amnesia. She vanished, and Arella went of to find her.

She was soon kidnapped by the minions of Brother Blood, and used to help control Nightwing during Blood’s staged resurrection. The rest of the Titans soon staged a rescue and together with Raven and Nightwing, they defeated Brother Blood. Raven adopted a white cloak following these events, a sign of her newly cleansed persona.

Raven found herself free to explore her emotions, but was extremely unfamiliar with them. She thought she was in love with Dick Grayson, but she soon discovered that there were all different kinds of love. She had a relationship with a man named Eric Forrester, whom the other Titans did not approve of, leading to several conflicts. As it turned out, Forrester was a soul vampire, who wanted Raven’s soul self to sustain himself.

Shortly after that, Raven was one of several Titans to be hunted down and captured by the evil Wildebeest Society. It fell to the team of Deathstroke the Terminator, Nightwing, Troia, Phantasm, Pantha, Red Star and Arella to join forces and track them down. When they confronted the society, they found the leader to be one of their own, their teammate Jericho.

After Trigons second defeat, it seemed the souls of Azarath gained strength and merged with Jericho. The souls needed powerful vessels for each of them to survive, so Jericho used the Wildebeest Society to capture the Titans to use as the vessels for the tainted souls of Azarath. During the soul transfer process, Jerichos real self surfaced, so knowing he was beyond help and using his newly gained ability to speak, he begged his father Deathstroke to kill him, as it might destroy the twisted souls of Azarath. In order to spare his son any more of his torment and to save what remained of the Titans, Slade (Deathstroke) impaled his son with his sword, killing him instantly.

The conflict continued, and the mysterious Phantasm was revealed to be Danny Chase, whom had been fired from the Titans some time before the Titans Hunt. At some point during the battle, Raven was transformed. To stop the new evil incarnation of Raven, Danny Chase and Arella both perished while channeling the spirit of Azar and combining with the force of Azarath to vanquish Raven. Though the two perished, their souls merged with the souls of Azarath and inhabited the garb Danny Chase had once worn, becoming Phantasm once more. Raven mysteriously vanished.

The Titans went through rough times as a grey cloaked figure plotted against them from behind the scenes. This grey cloaked figure seemingly destroyed Phantasm and transformed the future Nightwing of Team Titans into Deathwing. Dick Grayson proposed to Starfire, but during their wedding the grey cloaked figure revealed herself as the evil part of Raven, reborn in a new body and in full control. This leather clad, soul vampire, Trigon avatar Raven broke up the wedding and implanted Ravens good self in Starfire, which urged Starfire to leave earth and get away from the evil form of Raven.

Evil Raven continued her mission, implanting the Trigon Seeds in many of the old and new Titans. The Evil Raven and her minions came in to conflict with the Titans. Sensing that he was needed, Phantasm reformed himself and joined the battle. Together with the rest of the Titans, Phantasm seemed to vanquish Raven for good, but that did not last long.

Cyborg had merged his consciousness with and alien race known as the Technis, and rejoined his comrades just as Evil Raven returned once more, intent on destroying her good self that lay dormant in Starfire. Evil Raven incited a conflict in the Vegan Star system. Starfire begged her parents to leave the planet Tameran, but they would not. Tameran was destroyed, leaving Starfire nothing but her sister Blackfire and the remaining Tamerans who were off world when the planet was destroyed. Evil Raven was finally vanquished for good soon after.

The good side of Raven was restored into a new golden spiritual body. She elected, along with comrades Garfield Logan and Minion, to stay with Cyborg in space as his traveling companions. But she soon became terrified of his total embrace of technology, and left the small group. Gar soon followed. Minion also left, but before he did, he gave Cyborg a special war suit as a parting gift before he left. Cyborg used this to attack Earth, intending to claim its moon as a new world for the Technis. Raven aided the Titans, all of them both past and present, along with the Justice League, in the fight against Cyborg. In the end it was Beast Boy who got through to Cyborg and ended the conflict. After this, Raven left on a spiritual journey, intent on assessing her place in the world. After helping Donna Troy with some identity problems, she disappeared, not again seen for a long time.

She wandered aimlessly for a time, but it was not too long before another evil force came to claim her like all the others. A new Brother Blood intended to have her as his bride, and formed a new teenaged body for her, forcing her to inhabit it. During the titans attempted rescue, it was revealed that the Church of Blood was founded based on worship of the demon Trigon, also learning of a prophecy of the marriage of Brother Blood and Raven, as well as how it would bring Armageddon and cleanse the earth.

The Titans interrupted the wedding and Brother Blood was forced to flee, abandoning his plan for the time being. Raven finally decided to remain with the Titans after all this, enrolling in a local High School under the name “Rachel Roth” and becoming close friends with Wonder Girl

Over time she slowly became romantically attached to Beast Boy. When Brother Blood returned to claim her, Beast Boy attempted to stop him and was knocked silly. Raven teleported him to safety and in a moment of impulse, kissed the changeling. She stuck with him after these events as he became team leader and Infinite Crisis ravaged all around. She stayed by his side for the better half of the year following the Infinite Crisis, but broke off the relationship with him and left the Titans after learning a secret of some sort. What this secret is or why she left exactly has yet to be revealed. As of OYL and current time she has not returned to the Titans.

Personality:

Abilities:

Blue Raven: Her powers included empathy, the ability to disperse pain through contact, long range teleportation, emotion manipulation and low level precognitive abilities. She could also project a spirit entity known as a “soul self”, which is a manifestation of her violent tendencies as a result of her heritage.

White Raven: In this form she possessed the same powers as her blue cloaked form, but she possessed a greater control over emotional manipulation.

Evil Raven: This form possessed the same abilities as the previous two, but she twisted them for dark purposes. She also gained the ability to plant Trigon Seeds, Trigons unborn children, in physical bodies through physical contact.

Raven Reborn: In her reborn body, a result of Brother Blood Juniors actions, Raven retains her empathy, pain dispersion and long range teleportation, plus gains new abilities as a result of her new form. She can now remove the emotions of the people surrounding her- leaving them feeling nothing at all-, can now fly and serves as a doorway to other dimensions.

Family:

Trigon the Terrible: Trigon was an other-dimensional demon, the result of the union between a female member of a mystic sect and their god. The dark energies that floated through the dimensions were the expunged evil natures of Azarath. Trigon became the embodiment of these energies.

At birth, everything around him was slew. At age six, he destroyed an entire planet. At age thirty, he had conquered millions of worlds in his realm, but still his lust for power was not satisfied. He turned his sights to other dimensions.

His first visit to earth was with the intention of fathering a child. He appeared before Arella as a handsome man, only appearing in his true form before her after he had taken her. The child came to be known as Raven and was raised in the dimension of Azarath.

He wished for his daughter to rule at his side, so he attempted to breach the dimensional barriers. When he finally succeeded, Raven agreed as long as he promised to go to his home dimension and never return. She quickly learned he had no intention of keeping his word. Together with Arella, the Teen Titans defeated Trigon and banished him to the Nether-verse. Arella sacrificed herself to act as the gatekeeper to insure he did not return.

Despite this, his evil began changing Raven’s physical appearance. He gathered all the life force of the billions of souls in his dimension and burst through the doorway. Upon getting through, he set his sights on destroying Azarath. He sent his minions, who accomplished the task quickly.

Raven finally succumbed to his evil influence and he reunited with his now evil daughter. The two transformed the planet into Hell until the Teen Titans arrived, Lilith by their side to help in the battle. The Titans managed to kill the soulless body of Raven, which angered Trigon greatly. So much, that he began to siphon souls to return to his home dimension. The spirit of Azar still lived in Ravens rings though, and channeled its pure energy through Raven’s body. The light finally destroyed Trigon for good. But his evil legacy lived on in his daughter, one day to be released in his unborn children and the souls of Azarath that he had tainted.

Arella: Named Angella Roth at birth, Arella grew up in a restrictive family, complete with a fanatically religious father. At the age of seventeen, she fled her Gotham home and either her parents didn’t notice or didn’t care.

She stumbled upon a church, where for the first time in her life she felt welcome. Longing to be accepted she did not realize the church was actually a satanic cult that intended to bring the devil incarnate to earth. Instead, the cult brought Trigon, who took on the form of a handsome man. He took her to his dimension and took her as his bride. It was only after he implanted her with his seed that he showed her his true form and thrust the horrified girl back to earth.

She was about to commit suicide when she was stopped by a messenger, who brought her to Azarath. The priests there gave her the name Arella, which translates to “The Messenger Angel”.

Trigons evil came to Ararath through the birth of Raven. Azar, the teacher and guide of the Azarathians, took Raven under her tutelage and Arella was assigned to Temple duties. It was only after Azar died that Arella was allowed to care for her daughter, and she was shocked at the distant manner in which Raven acted. Upon turning eighteen, Raven sensed Trigons evil approaching and left Azarath for earth.

Arella remained on Azarath, but during the Titans first encounter with Trigon, it was she who rescued Raven from him. The Titans combined their powers to banish Trigon to the Netherverse and Arella took on the duty as the gatekeeper for the doorway to the nether realm.

Trigon did indeed return after his evil managed to overtake Raven. After the ensuing battle Raven disappeared and Arella went off in search of her daughter. She managed to find her daughter, but so did Brother Bloods forces, whom captured them both. Robotman, Azreal and the Teen Titans rescued them both, and Brother Blood was defeated when Raven shattered his mind. During the battle Arella was injured, but quickly recovered with no problems.

After these events she established a ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a haven for young women who had lost their way in life, much as she had once upon a time.

Then came the time of the Titans hunt. A savage soul self destroyed Arellas ranch, killing everyone but her. She then vowed to join the search for her daughter and the missing Titans. It was soon learned that the leader of the Wildebeest Society was former Titans teammate Jericho. Jericho has been tainted by the souls of Azarath, gaining the new abilities of a soul self in the form of a lion and a healing ability that healed his throat, allowing him too speak. Arella quickly realized that it was Jericho that had destroyed her ranch.

Upon the defeat of the Wildebeest society, Arella joined with former Phantasm Danny Chase and channeled energy to end the threat forever. They channeled energy and attacked the azarathain energy, defeating it. However, Raven, Arella and Danny Chase all died during this event. The souls of Arella, Danny Chase and many of the azarathians formed together into an entity that took on the garb and name of Phantasm, the same on Danny once took the role of.

Nemeses:

Trigon the Terrible: See the entry under “Family”

Brother Blood Junior: The seventh Brother Blood had been docile for a time, but he soon returned to his fanatical ways. However, during one of his schemes, he was slain by a kid who claimed he was the next Brother Blood. The new Blood disposed of the body of the old one and took control of the cult.

The cult conspired to bring about the resurrection of their old leader and created a new vessel to serve as the bride of Blood, the vessel being occupied by Raven. The Teen Titans attempted a rescue, and during the time discovered that the church of Blood was founded on worship of the demon Trigon. They also learned of the prophecy that a marriage between Brother Blood and Raven would bring. His plan was thwarted when Raven unleashed a flock of demons on him and his cult, forcing him to flee.

He was repelled to another dimension, where he recruited hoardes of demons as a new set of followers. He also siphoned the powers of Kid Eternity, whom was protecting the door between Life and Death. Using this power, he summoned a collection of Dead Titans to serve as his own Titans team, one that could combat the real deal. Raven and Beast Boy freed Kid Eternity, whom defeated Blood by descending the previous seven Bloods upon him. Once Kid Eternity was free, the dead Titans returned to their eternal slumber.