Friday, April 2, 2021

#IReadsYou Review: TEEN TITANS: Raven

TEEN TITANS: RAVEN
DC COMICS/DC Ink – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Kami Garcia
ART: Gabriel Picolo with Jon Sommariva and Emma Kubert
COLORS: David Calderon
LETTERS: Tom Napolitano
ISBN:  978-1-4012-8623-1; paperback; (June 26, 2019)
192pp, Color, $16.99 U.S., $22.99 CAN

Rated: “Everyone”; Age Range: 12 and up

Raven created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez

Raven is a female DC Comics superhero.  Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, Raven first appeared in a special insert in the DC Comics digest magazine, DC Comics Presents #26 (cover dated:  October 1980).  She was one of the new members of a revamped version of the DC Comics teen superhero group, Teen Titans, that launched in The New Teen Titans #1 (cover dated:  November 1980).

Raven was the daughter of a human mother and a demon father (named Trigon).  Raven was a powerful empath who could sense the emotions of others.  She could also project her “soul-self,” which took the form of a large shadowy, Raven-like figure.

DC Comics introduces a new version of Raven in the original graphic novel, Teen Titans: Raven, published under the “DC Ink” imprint.  Recently made defunct, “DC Ink” offered original graphic novels for readers 13-years-old and older.  DC Ink titles, according to DC Comics, featured coming-of-age stories that encouraged teens to ask themselves who they are and how they relate to others.  [DC Ink is now known as “DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults.”]

Teen Titans: Raven is written by bestselling author, Kami Garcia.  Garcia is the author of “The Legion” young adult novel series and with Margaret Stohl, is the co-author of the “Caster Chronicles” series (the best known being the 2009 novel, Beautiful Creatures).  Teen Titans: Raven is illustrated by Gabriel Picolo with the assistance of Jon Sommariva and Emma KubertDavid Calderon colors the art, and Tom Napolitano is the letterer.  Teen Titans: Raven focus on a teen girl who moves to New Orleans to live with her late foster mother's family, as she struggles with memory loss and with the strange visions and voices she experiences.

Teen Titans: Raven opens in Atlanta, Georgia where we meet 17-year-old Rachel “Raven” Roth and her foster mother, Viviane Navarro, just before a tragic accident takes Viviane's life.  Three weeks later, Raven is in New Orleans living with Viviane's sister, Natalia Navarro, and her daughter, Maxine, also called “Max.”

Raven is trying to finish her senior year in high school, but starting over isn't easy – especially when you suffer from memory issues.  Raven remembers how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can’t remember things like what were her favorite songs, favorite books, or even her favorite candy.  Raven does not know who she was before the accident.  Luckily, Raven grows closer to her foster sister, Max, and Max's circle of friends accepts Raven.  There is even a persistent boy, Tommy Torres, who is crushing on Raven and who accepts her for who she is now.

Still, Raven hears voices in her head, and she can seem to make people do things she thinks about them doing.  Some of her dreams seem to be about things that people actually do in the waking world, and sometimes, a dark figure haunts her dreams.  And everyone around her apparently has secrets:  Natalia, Max, and even Tommy.  And worst of all, what secrets are Raven's lost memories hiding from her?

Including the two previous “DC Ink” graphic novels that I have thus far read. Mera: Tidebreaker and Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale, Teen Titans: Raven is the best written.  That is saying something because the Mera and Catwoman graphic novels were wonderfully engaging stories.  I think what I like about Teen Titans: Raven so much is that writer Kami Garcia focuses on the notion that what is important is what a person is now in the present.  What is less important is who you were, so while it is important that Raven regains her memories, she can be a good person regardless of her past and without her memories of her past.

Garcia also fills Teen Titans: Raven with so many wonderful supporting characters.  Garcia portrays Natalia, Max, and Tommy with such engaging personalities and with so many intriguing secrets that each could be the star of her or his own graphic novel.  Without spoiling anything, I can say that there is a female army (of sorts) that could carry a miniseries or a maxiseries or even an ongoing series.

Gabriel Picolo's art is so evocative, especially in portraying emotions and attitudes.  Picolo's graphical storytelling is at once a high school melodrama and then a tale of mystery and magic.  He balances the natural and the mundane with the supernatural and spectacular with the deftness of a veteran comic book artist.  Picolo's striking cover illustration also makes Teen Titans: Raven hard to ignore on a bookshelf.  Teen Titans: Raven doesn't have DC Ink's best art, but Picolo is good.  [I am still declaring “best art” for Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale.]

David Calderon's mercurial coloring adds to the sense of magic and mystery.  Calderon's use of two-color in some sequences and his juxtaposition of multi-color and two-tones matches the fragmented state of Raven's memories.  Letterer Tom Napolitano captures all the modes and moods of Garcia's story and Picolo's art, conveying the narrative while suggesting the ethereal.  That is a magic trick.

Teen Titans: Raven is the best Teen Titans-related comic book that I have read in several years.  After three DC Ink titles (and one DC Zoom title), I can say that, right now, DC Comics' best publications are its original graphic novels for juvenile readers.

9 out of 10

Teen Titans: Raven contains the following extras and back matter:
  • two author biographical pages
  • an 11-page,  full-color preview of the graphic novel, Teen Titans: Beast Boy, from Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo and David Calderon


Reviewed by Leory Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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