Rachel Roth

Raven is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.

The character first appeared in a special insert in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980), and was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez.

The character also goes by the alias Rachel Roth.

Raven, the daughter of the powerful demon Trigon and human Arella, possesses a supernatural lineage that grants her remarkable abilities as an empath.

She can sense emotions and manipulate her soul-self, which takes the form of her namesake, for various purposes.

Despite her lineage and the ominous predictions associated with her connection to Trigon, Raven becomes a prominent member of different Teen Titans and Titans lineups, where recognized for her expertise in mysticism and stands out as one of the team's most formidable members.

The character has also served as a member of other teams in the DC Universe, including the Justice League, Sentinels of Magic, and the Justice League Dark.

Raven has appeared in numerous cartoon television shows and films, including as one of the Teen Titans in Cartoon Network's eponymous series and its spin-off series Teen Titans Go!, voiced by Tara Strong, and in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU), voiced by Taissa Farmiga.

Rachel Roth / White Raven made her live-action debut in the DC Universe/HBO Max series Titans, portrayed by Teagan Croft.

In an interview, Perez described his design approach for the character, "taking the cue that Raven was very mysterious à la Phantom Stranger, I took that as a starting point, and using the shadow face where half her face is always in shadow despite the lighting, was a shtick I got from Phantom Stranger, who also had the same deal. He had a long billowing cape, as did she, and in her case, since her name was Raven, I decided to create a silhouette for her that would look like a bird. The hood was designed so that in the profile, it would end up looking like a birds head, so that when her soul self came out, since that was done in full black, it looked like a gigantic black Raven. Her name and the Phantom Stranger were key to how I designed her."

Perez was asked if the characters face was based on any real life person, Perez stated the following, "originally Raven was Persis Khambatta, the actress who played in the first Star Trek film, and later became a young lady named Fran Macgregor, who was a dancer, and I used some of her features, particularly for her figure, for Raven."

Raven first appeared in The New Teen Titans #1 recruiting superheroes to fight her father Trigon.

She initially approached the Justice League for help, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna, who sensed her demonic parentage.

In desperation, she reformed the Teen Titans as the New Teen Titans to fight her father.

The team consisted of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy (then known as Changeling).

Raven and her new friends later came to think of one another as family.

Trigon soon took Raven to his home dimension.

The Titans defeated Trigon and sealed him in an interdimensional prison with the help of Arella, who stayed at the interdimensional door as Trigon's Guardian.

Raven continued to fight her father's influence, and her face started changing.

For a period of time, Raven lost control several times in stressful situations but managed to regain control before Trigon could assert himself.

Eventually, Trigon escaped his prison, destroyed Azarath, came to Earth, and took control of Raven.

The Titans were manipulated into having the dark sides of their souls kill the evil Raven by Lilith, who was guided and possessed by Azar, thereby allowing the souls of Azarath and Raven herself contained inside her rings to possess her now-empty body and use her as a channel to kill Trigon.

After this battle, Raven rose from the ashes, cleansed of Trigon's evil, and vanished.

After Raven's disappearance, Arella went around the world in search of Raven.

She tracked Raven down, but both of them were kidnapped by Brother Blood.

The minions of Brother Blood used Raven to control Nightwing (formerly Robin) as part of Blood's plans.

The Titans rescued them both and prevented Brother Blood from returning to power.

As a result of the defeat of Trigon, Raven was free to experience emotions for the first time in her life.

Raven found she could not only sense but control others' emotions.

She learned to handle this power only after unintentionally making The Flash believe that he loved her when she thought she was in love with him.

Raven also fostered a relationship with technopath Eric Forrester, who used the life force of women he seduced to regain some of his lost humanity.

Forrester knew that Raven's soul-self could help him to retain his humanity permanently.

This attempt was cut short by the intervention of Joseph Wilson (Jericho), who helped Raven destroy Forrester once and for all and gain a romance between the two heroes after.

Raven was later kidnapped by the Wildebeest Society during the "Titans Hunt" storyline.

The Wildbeest, led by the Trigon-possessed souls of Azarath, were going to use several Titans to bring about the return of Trigon.

During a massive battle, Raven was possessed by the evil souls and once again became the evil doppelgänger of her father.

Arella, along with Danny Chase, used the power of Azar's soul to cleanse Raven.

In the aftermath, Raven's body was destroyed, and Arella and Danny sacrificed themselves and joined the cleansed souls of Azarath to become Phantasm.

Raven appeared possessed by her evil conscience and attempted to implant Trigon's seed into new bodies.

She interrupted Nightwing and Starfire's wedding and implanted a seed of Trigon into Starfire.