Time for a change in tone. This week I am covering a limited series focusing on Raven, who I mostly know as being a member of the Teen Titans. I am excited to see what she gets up to in a story that focuses on her. Raven has 6 issues and today I am going to recap issues #1-3. I am not sure where this takes place in her timeline, but I think it is meant to be a stand alone story. Time to get into it.
The White Carnival, Chapter One: The Hunt: We see a weird ball of light show up in a warehouse and we are given some context, Tim Drake is dead and the Teen Titans have gone their separate ways. Raven, not really having anywhere to go moves in with her Aunt Alice, Uncle Jack and their three kids in San Francisco. They seem to be the literal opposite of her, in that Raven (real name Rachel Roth) is the daughter of a demon, likes wearing black and is pretty shy and her extended family appear to be pretty 'normal', very friendly and are devout Christians. She is looking for a more normal setting, but this might be too much. Later that night, Raven has a nightmare about her brothers (it is a little unclear, but maybe they are the other children/creations of Trigon)? Alice and family comfort her, which is pretty nice.
The next day is Raven's first day in a regular high school. (I think she is meant to be 17 and was home schooled her whole life by the priests of her mother's religion.) It doesn't start well and she gets sick, so to divert everyone's attention she makes them feel like their worst fears are coming true. Weirdly that seems to be being pregnant for most of the girls. A little bit later a group of kids decide to try and be friends with her, it goes well until she gets sick again and one of the kids goes blind with pain. A girl seems to be causing the kid's pain but in the chaos, the girl gets away, but everyone is fine. Or are they? We see a homeless man be taken over by that ball of light from the beginning and the boy in the hospital is too? Raven catches up with the girl from before but gets laid out. We find out that the girl's name is Taylor and she is friends with the group that tried to befriend Raven. She doesn't seem to be controlling the power, but it is controlling her. The last page we see many people all getting absorbed by white light and Raven is feeling all of their pain and fear.
The White Carnival, Chapter Two: The Fear Within: Raven's soul is ripped from her body and normally that is not a big deal since she can normally do this whenever she wants, but when her soul is dragged high into the sky, she teleports away and finds her back to her body. It is morning and her Aunt Alice comforts her but there is a creepy vibe. At school Raven admits that she used her empath powers to make the group of friends immediately like her. Also the kid (Archer) who went blind before and had another attack of weirdness at the hospital is totally fine and back in school. Another kid reports to the group that Taylor never came home from the carnival. Raven purposely sends her soul to check out Taylor's home, but it is totally normal.
Later that night, Archer is again pulled by the white light back to what looks like a carnival. Raven wakes up sensing pain and fear again. She sends her soul out and finds the warehouse with the orb of white light. She can tell that there are three others in it, but when she tries to enter it repels her. She is not the only one who finds it, shortly after her, cops find it and a bunch of onlookers. Pretty quickly many onlookers begin getting pulled into the orb. Raven tries to stop them but does not have much luck. The orb keeps saying things like, "Not ready" and "Soon." More and more are pulled in and the orb is getting bigger and bigger. In the last panel an unknown person sees what is happening on the news and says it is time to get dressed so they can go help.
The White Carnival, Chapter Three: Soul. Self.: Raven is having a rough night, she is pretty roughed up and all the souls being pulled into the orb are crying out in pain. The news reports that more and more people keep showing up and getting sucked into the ever growing orb. Raven sees another one of her new friends about to be sucked in and she is able to stop it from pulling this one in. Raven tries to break her friend free of the mind control but before she gets too far the orb grabs her and tells her it isn't time yet. Suddenly Raven is transported back to her room at her aunt's house, unable to remember anything that happened during the night. The whole family is having breakfast and seems pretty chill considering what is happening not far from their home. Her cousin's quickly remind her about a orb sucking up people and bits and pieces come back to her, but she is pretty freaked out. In her room she watches the news trying to remember and her Aunt comes in to tell Raven that she is loved and safe (some God stuff too).
As soon as Aunt Alice leaves an arm from the glowing orb shows up and pretty much beats Raven up then takes her back to the site where it is just floating. Raven finds the homeless man from before, it seems the guy was sick and dying but his soul was still good eats for the orb thing. Raven does her best again to stop people from mindlessly going into the orb, but she can't. Raven comes up with a plan to merge with a woman as she enters so that she can see what the heck is going on inside. Inside we see a carnival of horrors (kind of). Everyone is doing normal carnival things but they are really upset while doing them. Raven gets the boot again and is knocked out. They take Raven to the hospital where she runs into one of her friends from high school (sorry I didn’t feel like putting in a bunch of names) who witnesses Raven's soul try to leave her body (the poor hospital staff handles this as well as can be expected). Elsewhere a group of villain looking types are preparing to head to San Francisco. They in fact send out a video claiming responsibility for the orb and want five billion dollars to stop it.
Thoughts: So far this is not what I was expecting from a story about Raven. In my mind she is more the strong silent type. Seeing her worry about making friends and being friendly to her super religious family is a little odd. The pace of this also feels really weird, like why not let her actually have two seconds to try and make friends instead of having her trick people into liking her and having the big bad go so hard so quickly? To be clear, I am not saying I don't like the comic, I am just not sure that Raven was the character I would have chosen for a quick young adult comic. So far this volume feels a little out of place to many of the comics I have read in Rebirth. I am curious how this story will conclude and what this will mean for Raven moving forward once.
The writer of this volume is Marv Wolfman. He has been writing comics since the 1960's and in fact helped co-create many of the Teen Titan characters including Raven. He has a massively impressive amount of comic and screen writing credits from Robocop to Arrow. He even appears as himself in The Legends of Tomorrow show when they did Crisis on Infinite Earths, which is fun because he helped write the original comic run of the Crisis story back in 1985. Over seems like a cool dude who created or helped create a lot of fun characters.
As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Raven later this week, including my favorite cover and the best line from the volume.
Previous Posts: Deathstroke Vol. 1: The Professional, Part 1
Deathstroke Vol. 1: The Professional, Part 2
Next Post: Raven, Part 2
Note: All images belong to DC™
The White Carnival, Chapter One: The Hunt: We see a weird ball of light show up in a warehouse and we are given some context, Tim Drake is dead and the Teen Titans have gone their separate ways. Raven, not really having anywhere to go moves in with her Aunt Alice, Uncle Jack and their three kids in San Francisco. They seem to be the literal opposite of her, in that Raven (real name Rachel Roth) is the daughter of a demon, likes wearing black and is pretty shy and her extended family appear to be pretty 'normal', very friendly and are devout Christians. She is looking for a more normal setting, but this might be too much. Later that night, Raven has a nightmare about her brothers (it is a little unclear, but maybe they are the other children/creations of Trigon)? Alice and family comfort her, which is pretty nice.
The next day is Raven's first day in a regular high school. (I think she is meant to be 17 and was home schooled her whole life by the priests of her mother's religion.) It doesn't start well and she gets sick, so to divert everyone's attention she makes them feel like their worst fears are coming true. Weirdly that seems to be being pregnant for most of the girls. A little bit later a group of kids decide to try and be friends with her, it goes well until she gets sick again and one of the kids goes blind with pain. A girl seems to be causing the kid's pain but in the chaos, the girl gets away, but everyone is fine. Or are they? We see a homeless man be taken over by that ball of light from the beginning and the boy in the hospital is too? Raven catches up with the girl from before but gets laid out. We find out that the girl's name is Taylor and she is friends with the group that tried to befriend Raven. She doesn't seem to be controlling the power, but it is controlling her. The last page we see many people all getting absorbed by white light and Raven is feeling all of their pain and fear.
The White Carnival, Chapter Two: The Fear Within: Raven's soul is ripped from her body and normally that is not a big deal since she can normally do this whenever she wants, but when her soul is dragged high into the sky, she teleports away and finds her back to her body. It is morning and her Aunt Alice comforts her but there is a creepy vibe. At school Raven admits that she used her empath powers to make the group of friends immediately like her. Also the kid (Archer) who went blind before and had another attack of weirdness at the hospital is totally fine and back in school. Another kid reports to the group that Taylor never came home from the carnival. Raven purposely sends her soul to check out Taylor's home, but it is totally normal.
Later that night, Archer is again pulled by the white light back to what looks like a carnival. Raven wakes up sensing pain and fear again. She sends her soul out and finds the warehouse with the orb of white light. She can tell that there are three others in it, but when she tries to enter it repels her. She is not the only one who finds it, shortly after her, cops find it and a bunch of onlookers. Pretty quickly many onlookers begin getting pulled into the orb. Raven tries to stop them but does not have much luck. The orb keeps saying things like, "Not ready" and "Soon." More and more are pulled in and the orb is getting bigger and bigger. In the last panel an unknown person sees what is happening on the news and says it is time to get dressed so they can go help.
The White Carnival, Chapter Three: Soul. Self.: Raven is having a rough night, she is pretty roughed up and all the souls being pulled into the orb are crying out in pain. The news reports that more and more people keep showing up and getting sucked into the ever growing orb. Raven sees another one of her new friends about to be sucked in and she is able to stop it from pulling this one in. Raven tries to break her friend free of the mind control but before she gets too far the orb grabs her and tells her it isn't time yet. Suddenly Raven is transported back to her room at her aunt's house, unable to remember anything that happened during the night. The whole family is having breakfast and seems pretty chill considering what is happening not far from their home. Her cousin's quickly remind her about a orb sucking up people and bits and pieces come back to her, but she is pretty freaked out. In her room she watches the news trying to remember and her Aunt comes in to tell Raven that she is loved and safe (some God stuff too).
As soon as Aunt Alice leaves an arm from the glowing orb shows up and pretty much beats Raven up then takes her back to the site where it is just floating. Raven finds the homeless man from before, it seems the guy was sick and dying but his soul was still good eats for the orb thing. Raven does her best again to stop people from mindlessly going into the orb, but she can't. Raven comes up with a plan to merge with a woman as she enters so that she can see what the heck is going on inside. Inside we see a carnival of horrors (kind of). Everyone is doing normal carnival things but they are really upset while doing them. Raven gets the boot again and is knocked out. They take Raven to the hospital where she runs into one of her friends from high school (sorry I didn’t feel like putting in a bunch of names) who witnesses Raven's soul try to leave her body (the poor hospital staff handles this as well as can be expected). Elsewhere a group of villain looking types are preparing to head to San Francisco. They in fact send out a video claiming responsibility for the orb and want five billion dollars to stop it.
Thoughts: So far this is not what I was expecting from a story about Raven. In my mind she is more the strong silent type. Seeing her worry about making friends and being friendly to her super religious family is a little odd. The pace of this also feels really weird, like why not let her actually have two seconds to try and make friends instead of having her trick people into liking her and having the big bad go so hard so quickly? To be clear, I am not saying I don't like the comic, I am just not sure that Raven was the character I would have chosen for a quick young adult comic. So far this volume feels a little out of place to many of the comics I have read in Rebirth. I am curious how this story will conclude and what this will mean for Raven moving forward once.
The writer of this volume is Marv Wolfman. He has been writing comics since the 1960's and in fact helped co-create many of the Teen Titan characters including Raven. He has a massively impressive amount of comic and screen writing credits from Robocop to Arrow. He even appears as himself in The Legends of Tomorrow show when they did Crisis on Infinite Earths, which is fun because he helped write the original comic run of the Crisis story back in 1985. Over seems like a cool dude who created or helped create a lot of fun characters.
As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Raven later this week, including my favorite cover and the best line from the volume.
Previous Posts: Deathstroke Vol. 1: The Professional, Part 1
Deathstroke Vol. 1: The Professional, Part 2
Next Post: Raven, Part 2
Note: All images belong to DC™
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