Teen Titans

Raven

Kami Garcia, Gabriel Picolo (Illustrator), DC Ink (JUL 2) Softcover $16.99 (176pp), 978-1-4012-8623-1

The Teen Titans’ resident mystery girl goes solo in Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo’s graphic novel Teen Titans: Raven.

The latest in DC Ink’s line of young adult graphic novels focuses on Raven, a super-powered heroine best known as a cloaked and hooded member of the Teen Titans. Here, Garcia takes elements of Raven’s long-established origin story and adds new situations and details, setting her in New Orleans as Rachel Roth, the survivor of the car accident that killed her mother.

Rachel has a limited memory of who she was before the accident, but as she begins a new life with her aunt and foster sister, clues begin to present themselves. Rachel hears people’s thoughts, sees things that aren’t there, and develops powers of telekinesis. Things come to a head at the prom, where her demon father Trigon appears to claim her, voodoo magic aids in her defense, and a mysterious masked figure appears, claiming knowledge of how to stop Trigon.

Garcia brings Rachel to life as a kid drawn to darkness—bram Stoker’s Dracula figures prominently—who’s also trying to figure out typical adolescent stuff, like her feelings about a certain boy. The book’s colors are muted, with a limited color palette of black, white, gray, and shades of red and purple—enough to set the book’s mood and give Picolo’s art a bit more kick than standard black and white would have provided. Relatable to its intended modern audience but true to the spirit of the character, Teen Titans: Raven is a refreshing and entertaining take on teen heroism that builds a solid foundation for future stories.