The mysterious Raven struggled with her inner dark side as she used her empathic powers to relieve the suffering of others. Now she comes to life in the second wave of classic New Teen Titans figures from DC Direct. Raven stands over 6" tall on a translucent base modeled after the smoke that appears to transport her. Includes multiple points of articulation four-color blister pack
Real Name: Raven
Occupation: Adventurer
Known Relatives: Angela Roth/Arella (mother, deceased), Trigon the Terrible (father, deceased?)
Group Affiliation: Titans
Past Group Affiliations: The Children of Trigon, the Church of Blood
Hair: Black
Eyes: Originally blue, now violet
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980)
Created by: George Perez and Marv Wolfman
Hell and Heaven
When Angela Roth ran away from home, she sought out the occult...and found it. Offering herself up in ritual as the bride of Satan, she allowed herself to be taken by the man who appeared. Only afterward did he reveal his true, demonic appearance. Horrified at what she had done, what had happened to her, and fearful of the demon�s child she carried, she was on the brink of suicide when she was found and taken to Azarath, a dimension to which a community of pacifists had fled from Earth to live in peace. There she took the name Arella.
And so Raven, daughter of human and demon, was raised by Azar and her followers, taught pacifism, taught to control her demon heritage. She learned to heal by absorbing others� pain, and she learned to project her soul out of her body for short periods of time. And she learned to suppress her emotions, for any strong feelings could awaken the evil within her.
Return to Earth
Knowing Trigon would soon invade Earth, Raven broke with Azarath�s teachings to seek allies to turn him back. Rejected by the Justice League, she sought out heroes her own age, several of whom had recently worked together as the Teen Titans. Raven knew Kid Flash would be essential to the team she needed, but he had retired from heroics, determined to focus on his studies. Using her abilities as an empath, she convinced him that he loved her (though she could never safely return that love) so that he would join the new team. When Wally learned how he had been manipulated, he was horrified, but continued to have feelings for her. Their relationship has been strained ever since.
The Titans fought Trigon twice, once in his home dimension, trapping him there (The New Teen Titans v.1 #5�6, 1981), and once on Earth. That second time, he was able to release the evil in Raven, and she stood as his second as he began remaking the Earth in his twisted, hellish image. As the Titans battled on against impossible odds, the soul of Azar guided Arella and Lilith through preparing the unconscious Raven for her destiny. Raven�s soul, cleansed of her father�s evil, became a conduit through which the souls of all of Azarath came to corrupt Trigon with purity and �destroy the Destroyer of Worlds� (The New Teen Titans v.2 #1�5, 1984�1985).
Raven vanished in that battle, only to reappear weeks later, amnesiac. Found by the Church of Blood, she was recruited to help him stage Brother Blood�s �resurrection� (having faked his death in an earlier battle with the Titans). In the midst of Blood�s worldwide telecast she freed herself of his influence, using her powers to release the thousands of onlookers who were under his thrall as well. Rejoining the Titans, she reveled in the emotions she was finally able to experience.
Darkness Unleashed
The Titans fell apart when the Wildebeest society (guided by the now-corrupted souls of Azarath) began hunting them down. Raven was killed, and the evil in her soul took possession of a new body. Though her former Titans contacts, she began implanting what she believed were the souls of her slain brothers and sisters�fellow children of Trigon whose mothers had committed suicide rather than give birth to children of evil�into people such as Changeling and Frances Kane. She accidentally implanted Raven�s true soul into Starfire, and was forced to seek her in outer space. There it was revealed that the seeds of Trigon�s children were actually pieces of his own essence, planted for his own resurrection. The Titans arrived, with Starfire carrying Raven�s soul, and Trigon was destroyed forever (again), leaving Raven as a disembodied, but again pure, spirit.
The Church of Blood�now revealed to be Trigon worshippers�captured her once again, binding Raven�s soul to a new body created from their own sacrificed blood. Raven has had to adjust to being a teenager again, and worse, Blood�s influence has reawakened her dark side. Once again, Raven must fight to keep her own darkness under control.
Known Powers:
Empathic Vampirism: A Raven feeds off of the victim�s memory and distressed feelings. A Raven can suck out memories and emotions a little at a time and can do so at will, even in public. The victim appears as if he is having a heart attack or some other type of physical pain.
This is an Incredible ability for a normal Raven to feed off of emotional distress. Each time they feed, all of the victim�s abilities are -1CS for 1-10 turns. If a Raven feeds with the intent to kill, the victim�s Endurance drops -1CS per turn of feeding until it reaches Shift 0, at which point the victim dies.
Mind Control: Incredible rank of the possession form of mind control for the Raven.
Transformation: Members of the Raven can change into a red mist that enables Good flight.
Invisibility: Remarkable rank psionic ability to cloud human minds and thus become invisible.
Mutant Detection: Amazing ability for the Raven, dependent upon the mutant being within eyesight range.
Limitations:
Sunlight: A Raven cannot stand the light of the Sun and must be indoors during the day or suffer Amazing damage.
Permanent Destruction: The only proven way to kill a member of the Raven is to separate its head from its body. It is then consumed by an unearthly fire.
Role-Playing Notes:
Human life means nothing to Crimson and the Raven. Their only desire is to experience more and more. Crimson has discovered that mutants provide her kind with more enjoyment and power than normal humans. She will go to almost any length to get a mutant to become a member of the Raven.
History:
The Raven is an ancient organization consisting of 24 individuals (�four and twenty blackbirds� as Crimson describes the group) scattered throughout the world. New York, however, was home to six of them. The Raven feeds on human distress and has the ability to walk among the general population un seen.
Crimson, a prominent member of the Raven, but not the leader, discovered a new sensation, draining the emotions from a mutant. Crimson set out to dominate Archangel during the period of time that he was terrorizing the city. Other members of the Raven warned Crimson off, but she continued to follow through with her plan to attack Archangel.
Meanwhile, one of the Raven, Azure, fed off a human, but the man survived. Azure visited the hospital in order to kill the man so he couldn�t tell the world about their existence.
At that point Archangel flew in through the window and Azure immediately put him in mind control. Archangel, however, possesses great willpower and broke free. He instinctively sliced out with his wings, decapitating the Raven attacker. Azure�s body was consumed in flame.
For the first time in 200 years, a member of the Raven had died. One of the rules of the Raven is that the circle must be complete and the re placement has to be the person who killed the Raven member. The Raven, as a group, captured Archangel to convert him to their cause. Crimson placed a power inhibitor on Archangel to keep him from breaking free of their mind control.
With Archangel captured, the rivalries within the Raven began to flare. Whoever took Archangel�s emotions would probably be the new leader of the group. Crimson and Cobalt were the two main contenders for that honor.
The Raven also captured the policewoman, Charlotte Jones, a friend of Archangel, for him to feed on once the conversion has taken place.
X-Factor, with the aid of Forge and Banshee, tracked Archangel to the Raven�s residence and broke in on the ceremony just when Archangel was about to feed on Jones. Archangel fought off the compulsion to at tack his friend, so Crimson decided that she would just feed on the strong-willed mutant. Jones escaped and ripped the inhibitor off the powerless Archangel. He threw off the mind control and beheaded Crimson with a slash of his wing.
Meanwhile, the battle was going poorly for X-Factor when Jean Grey killed Cobalt by crushing his head with a hurled ankh. With the destruction of their current leader, the Raven circle was broken beyond repair and the remaining Raven members imploded and dissolved into their true forms of shrieking, noxious red mists, which then rose into the night sky. Whether they survived the en counter or were irreversibly destroyed has not been revealed.
Mystique's origins are shrouded in mystery. Because she can eliminate the outward signs of aging, it is impossible to determine her true date of birth. Apparently, she learned to use her mutant ability at a very young age, as there is no known evidence that Raven Darkholme ever resembled anything other than a normal human being.
As an adult, she put her powers to practical use as a covert operative. Mystique has concealed her mutant ability and criminal intentions by assuming an endless string of cover identities. As Darkholme, she rose rapidly through the U.S. Civil Service. In short order, she ascended to the trusted position of deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Planning Agency in the U.S. Department of Defense. During this time, Mystique lived with her closest friend (the blind mutant seer called Destiny) and helped raise the power-stealing spitfire known as Rogue, who later defected to the X-Men, the outlaw band of heroic mutant adventurers that has stood most often between Mystique and her extremist ends.
Mystique has also impersonated Mallory Brickman, wife of U.S. Senator Ralph Brickman, and Dr. Valerie Cooper, special assistant to the head of the National Security Council. To facilitate her criminal activities, Mystique established the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants�a subversive organization founded by the genetic terrorist known as Magneto, self-anointed Master of Magnetism. Mystique's Brotherhood gained notoriety when it attempted to terminate U.S. Senator Robert Kelly, an anti-mutant provocateur investigating the perceived menace posed by superhuman beings. The X-Men thwarted the Brotherhood's assassination agenda, as well as several other acts of terrorism perpetrated by Mystique and her cohorts.
As anti-mutant sentiment increased, Mystique feared that the climate had become too dangerous for the Brotherhood to continue its subversive activities. The sinister shapeshifter offered the squad's services to the government and then sealed the deal by bringing Magneto to justice. The newly-rechristened Freedom Force officially entered the government's employ shortly thereafter, and Mystique received a full presidential pardon.
Later, she fell in with X-Factor, another government-sanctioned squad of mutant operatives. Forced to wear an inhibitor collar to prevent her escape, Mystique nonetheless managed to flee. Inadvertently, Mystique's most ambitious terrorist initiative led to the eradication of the lethal mutant plague known as the Legacy Virus. The metamorphic mutant reassembled the Brotherhood and released a new, virulent strain on the deadly disease targeting normal humans. The Brotherhood then descended upon the Muir Island research facility of bio-geneticist Moira MacTaggert, seeking to destroy the scientist's work in pursuit of a cure. MacTaggert was able to divine an antidote to the virus based on Mystique's modifications, though she sustained fatal injuries in the attack.