You can remove a demon from a daughter, but can you remove the demon from that daughter? Dark Raven and Unkindness, the two evil forms of the Teen Titan, and super-sorceress Raven, who was the daughter of the uber-villainous demon Trigon, tell a similar story.
Despite escaping her father’s inclinations toward destruction, chaos, and outright evil, she has served as the mother of all evil in a few story arcs, going so far as to embark on a quest to destroy the cosmos and fight the Justice Legion alone, which was the 853rd-century incarnation of our good old Justice League.
We thought it would be fitting to introduce you to the evil version of DC’s fiercest sorceress after filming an origin video for Raven herself. In this video, we will look at two comic plot arcs, as well as the origins and superpowers of Dark Raven and Unkindness. Let us get this party started, shall we?
Dark Raven
This first-ever dark version of Raven appeared in Teen Titans Vol 3 #17, and since then, the character has remained criminally underrated. Dark Raven, as the name suggests, was the evil version of the skilled sorceress and Teen Titan. She existed in an entirely different timeline from the one we are familiar with, and in this timeline, she and her colleagues had assumed the mantles of their predecessors.
For instance, Tim Drake had become Robin, and instead of Aqualad, they had a new member named Aquawoman. Naturally, the group of superheroes had changed drastically, so much so that they were now supervillains instead of superheroes. And Dark Raven was no different, she was to be Rachel, an all-good hero, but as time passed, she submitted to her more sinister urges to become a powerful evil sorceress. In this capacity, as a member of the Titans Tomorrow or the West Coast Titans, Dark Raven assumed pleasure out of fear and anguish of people around her.
Dark Raven made her first ever appearance in Teen Titans Volume Three #17. The story revolved around the real Teen Titans and was set ten years into their future. The young superheroes had been on a mission in the 31st century, and upon their return, they found themselves ten years into their future instead of their original timeline. The future is far different from what the Titans remembered.
With Rene Montoya as Gotham’s commissioner, most of the original superheroes have retired, along with Commissioner Gordon. Tim Drake is the new Batman, and he holds no qualms about killing, so much so that he uses a gun to shoot supervillains such as Joker’s daughter, Duela Dent. Under these circumstances, the real Titans meet their older counterparts, and a battle ensues. But along with Dark Raven, the bad superheroes overpower their younger counterparts.
However, the Titans Tomorrow decide that the kids should be sent back to their original timeline, and they are given refuge at the Titan Tower. But soon, Superboy learns that these elder heroes have gone rogue when he discovers that Superman has sheared off Deathstroke, The terminator’s arm. In the next issue of the comic, the Teen Titans help Deathstroke escape the wrath of the evil Titans, but Dark Raven sends her very soul to nab the teens. She becomes partially successful and manages to capture Robin.
As Dark Raven, one of her most powerful abilities is an astral projection by virtue of which she can project her consciousness out of her physical body. This not only comes in handy to her for therapeutic purposes like meditation but also serves as a weapon for offense. When she manifests her soul, it takes the form of a magnificent, and giant raven. But she also possesses several other strengths, such as heightened empathy. She can practically absorb other people’s emotions and feel what they feel.
In addition to this, she can even negate other people’s emotions, forcing them to have no emotions at all. In the comics, the real Raven revealed that Gotham city’s people were left bereft of emotions, which was evidentially the work of Dark Raven. When it comes to playing with feelings and emotions, Dark Raven also possesses the power of empathetic healing. This is something that allows her to heal people’s pain through empathy and interference with their feelings.
Unkindness
Unkindness made her first appearance in Future State: Teen Titans #1, and we can not stress enough on how much we want to see more of this character. According to the comics, after the destruction of Titans Island, Nightwing and Emiko look through the rubble to find the H Dial, a device that could give its users temporary superpowers. They do find it, but are asked to return urgently because of changes in a certain plan. Back at the Titans’ safehouse, we find that Cyborg and Beast Boy have merged together to form Cybeast, and the Titans are confused about much of their individual physiologies, let alone their combined form.
Meanwhile, we find Raven in the sub-basement with a mysterious man, who’s being held in a cage. She has been stimulating a battle inside this mysterious man’s mind, but no matter how hard Raven tries to win and improve herself, she keeps failing because of one reason or another. The man tells her that the two of them should fight the battle together, but Raven is skeptical, and she refuses his request. It seemed that she would have been convinced if the two of them kept talking, but Cybeast woke up from his slumber, and she had to leave.
The merged Titans reveal that they successfully found the Spear of Destiny, the magical weapon used to hurt Jesus Christ. It turns out that the Spear of Destiny was a crucial weapon for the Titans in their war against the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, life-sucking monsters who were once created to test the worthiness of four Earths. They not only seek to defeat the Horsemen but also save or bring back their colleagues and younger Titans who lost their lives.
At this point, Emiko asserts that although the Spear of Destiny is a mighty weapon, it is not strong enough to slay the harbingers of doom, the Horsemen. But Raven intervenes and reveals that the spear is merely a bait to bring the Four Horsemen together in one place so that a final move could be made against them. It turns out that the mysterious man in the cage was actually the new Red X.
I guess it’s time for a little backstory before we go forward. So, when Dick was not being Robin and felt the need for a secret identity to get close to Slade Wilson, he made a mask for himself and took the mantle of Red X. His only mistake was that he didn’t confide his plan to his teammates. Nevertheless, when they found out, he was bashed for the breach of trust that he had created. In the end, he gave up being Red X, but someone stole the mask and became the new Red X.
Coming back to the comic, it was actually Red X who unleashed the Four Horsemen and was now guilty about doing so. He wanted to take responsibility, but he couldn’t do much from within a cage. So, Dick let him out, albeit going against his teammate’s wishes. It wasn’t before long that the Horsemen reached Detroit, where Shazam, Crush, and Bunker were fighting a losing battle. But the tides changed a little bit when the Titans showed up.
A horrific battle ensued between the young heroes and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but the good guys started to realize that if they didn’t do something drastic, they’d lose the battle and everything they ever held dear. Naturally, these desperate times called for desperate measures, and Raven came forward to save the day. She used all her might to pull out the Horsemen from their hosts, and confined them within herself. The powerful sorceress tried her best to control the evil beings, but she failed.
The corruptive force of the Horsemen proved to be too much for her, and she requested Shazam to confine her inside the Rock of Eternity, the seat of Shazam’s power when he’s not being Shazam. He promised her that nothing would happen to her till the time she was inside the Rock of Eternity, and he was standing guard, but that was far from true. The Horsemen had done their damage on Raven and she had become corrupted.
She forged an alliance with the demons of hell and Neron, who ultimately corrupted Shazam, making him go against his friends and allies. Neron then channeled the powers of mighty Shazam into the young sorceress, making her powerful enough to escape her prison. `By now, Raven had assumed the title of Unkindness, while her demons served as an eternal threat to the very existence of the universe.
She commanded uber-powerful villains like the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man and Lords of Chaos and was responsible for the fall of great heroes such as Superboy-Prime as well as the Justice Legion, the reincarnated version of Justice League in the eight hundred and fifty-third century.
So, you see, the young Titan lived long enough, at least till the 853rd century, to unleash her wrath upon not just humanity but the entire universe. I guess that’s what happens when unlimited power goes into hands that are not strong enough to control them. Although Raven is a mighty sorceress of the DC Universe, her dark versions are mightier and scarier. Let us know what you think about her, and don’t forget to check out the video on the origin story of Raven. We’ll leave a link in the description.