Life never feels so important and overwhelming as it does during high school. Over the course of “Teen Titans: Raven,” writer Kami Garcia tackles the all too familiar theme of having a teenage identity crisis, only with the added anxiety of doing it while having psionic abilities. Garcia accurately portrays what it’s like to confront those demons head-on. Even though the noise-canceling headphones that Raven wears throughout the comic may be able to block out the thoughts of those around her, they cannot hinder her own thoughts, which may be the scariest thing of all to a teen.
Written by Kami GarciaCover by Gabriel Picolo
Illustrated by Gabriel Picolo with Jon Sommariva and Emma Kubert
Colored by David Calderon
Lettered by Tom MapolitanoWhen a tragic accident takes the life of seventeen-year-old Raven Roth’s foster mom—and Raven’s memory—she moves to New Orleans to live with her foster mother’s family and finish her senior year of high school.
Starting over isn’t easy. Raven remembers how to solve math equations and make pasta, but she can’t remember her favorite song or who she was before the accident. When strange things start happening—things most people would consider impossible—Raven starts to think it might be better not to know who she was in her previous life.
But as she grows closer to her foster sister, Max, her new friends, and Tommy Torres, a guy who accepts her for who she is now, Raven has to decide if she’s ready to face what’s buried in the past…and the darkness building inside her.
From the #1 New York Times best-selling co-author of Beautiful Creatures Kami Garcia and artist Gabriel Picolo comes this first graphic novel in the Teen Titans series for DC Ink, Teen Titans: Raven.
Garcia uses intertextuality throughout “Teen Titans: Raven” with multiple allusions to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This works for Garcia on two levels. One being the way that Raven’s inner powers sit in the gray area between good and evil, where she could act upon them in either light. This is similar to the overall battle for life between the protagonists and the titular villain in Dracula. The second being the way that Raven is struggling with that identity crisis, unsure of who she is, what her past was like, and what her future entails, much like the identity of Mina Harker and Lucy Westerna, who teeter between the living and the undead in Stoker’s novel. The classic horror story emphasizes the underlying fear in Garcia’s plot that otherwise feels like a light, superhero-centric teenage dramedy.
Gabriel Picolo’s penciling is what’s increasingly become a house style for DC Ink/young adult-oriented books. This was first seen back in Cameron Stewart, Brendan Fletcher, and Babs Tarr’s “Batgirl” back in 2014. It has since been replicated with success in “Mera: Tidebreaker” and “Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale” earlier this year. That manga-influenced linework remains fresh though. That’s especially true when compared to the rather generic art teams that are thrown on Teen Titans and lower-tier DC books in the company’s mainstream continuity. Being free from the restraints of continuity leads to greater creative freedom. Would Raven really be wearing knee-high, lace-up Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars in a “normal” DC title? It all feels quintessentially 2019.
Colorist David Calderon makes use of a minimalist technique throughout the original graphic novel that knows when to let Picolo’s illustrations have the spotlight and to flash some vibrancy when Garcia’s script calls for it. Purple is obviously a color that’s been synonymous with Raven since her 1980s Teen Titans heyday. In a character-driven narrative like “Teen Titans: Raven,” less can be more, which makes the purple hues of Raven’s hair pop against the mostly grayscale backdrop of the rest of the book. When it comes to Trigon, Raven’s demonic father, who is slowly preying on her throughout the course of the story, Calderon goes for a watercolor-like approach. The bright red that jumps off each Trigon panel feels emblematic of the half-evil, untapped powers that lie within Raven, this tug of war-esque battle inside her that is as much about her telepathy as it is about her overall teenage struggles.
Continued belowThe emphasis on Trigon’s coloring feels connected to that intertextual references to Bram Stoker’s Dracula too. “Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings,” Stoker writes in his iconic 1897 work. Lost in her post-accident amnesia, Raven has never felt more alone as she transitions to a new foster home and faces the terror of transferring to a new high school. The brooding wings of Raven’s soul-self protect her against her wicked father, not unlike the way garlic and crosses aid the protagonists of Dracula against vampires. Coloring can accentuate a comic or it can make a comic a living, breathing work. Calderon gets quite close to the latter.
Letterers are typically the unsung heroes of any comic, but in a work such as this that is tailor-made for Generation Z, Tom Mapolitano gives a contemporary twist on typical word balloons and narrative structures. Text messaging is the default means of communication in today’s world. The current run of DC Ink original graphic novels has the endgame of providing a modern update on classic characters for a new generation of fans. Raven may be an empath, but is there anything worse than doom of waiting for a reply to a risky text sent to a crush? Mapolitano utilizing alternating text messages in lieu of thought bubbles is just so apt for this high school setting. While not totally essential to the overall story, it’s the little details like these that truly stand out in “Teen Titans: Ravens.” It feels akin to “Ultimate Spider-Man” nearly two decades later.
“She used to say we have to understand the darkness in the world if we want to find it,” Natalia says when quoting Raven’s mother’s favorite novel, Dracula. The darkness manifests itself in “Teen Titans: Raven.” Whether it be Raven’s literal powers, the nature of her troubled parentage, or the universal pain that comes from any teenager attempting to fit in, Garcia makes Raven a relatable character to all. She leaves Raven and readers alike with the reminder that “We learn from failure, not from success!”
