Raven: Daughter of Darkness Vol. 1

Raven: Daughter of Darkness #1-6

by Marv Wolfman, Pop Mhan (Illustrator)

She is the daughter of a demon and an ally to heroes. But for Raven, trying to build a normal life as high schooler Rachel Roth is the greatest battle she's ever faced...and she's about to be tested again.

Her infernal father Trigon is determined to usher in hell on Earth by building an army of unstoppable warriors, using the power of his daughter as the doorway. Now Raven must join forces with her estranged mother Arella and the mysterious sorcerer Baron Winters to stop Trigon's plot.

The fight will send Raven rocketing through time and space. It will put the lives, and souls, of everyone close to her in jeopardy. And if this Daughter of Darkness fails, a far more terrible one may rise to take her place...

Acclaimed writer Marv Wolfman ( The New Teen Titans ) and Pop Mhan ( Batgirl ) proudly present Daughter of Darkness Vol. 1 --the opening chapter of an astonishing adventure starring one of comics' greatest young superheroes! Collects Daughter of Darkness #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2018

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raven deals with Trigon yet again. This has been played out SO many times. It's time to bring in some new elements for Raven to fight. That being said, the story is decent and I love the supporting cast. I love the dichotomy of having Raven living with her religious aunt's family when she's the daughter of a demon and was raised by a pagan cult. It looks like Wolfman is backdooring a new Night Force series in this book. (He created the original.) Pop Mhan has moved away from his manga roots into a more traditional DC house style with his art.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was umm.. okayish I guess.

Its pretty forgettable tbh but its an okay read and nothing new, repeating the same old elements about Raven but they could have gone somewhere new tbh.

The story starts with Raven saving her friends and dealing with the new family when she feels she is attacked by some other faceless girl "Azure" and later finding there are more of these faceless girls and then on the personal front, her friend Teri's grandma dies and so who will take her custody and the appearance of her mother and the drama with religion and beliefs when suddenly all is put to the threat as some other beings approach and we see the return of Trigon through weird means and its the usual hoopla of Raven vs Trigon and who will wi and the sacrifices and the predictable ending with the family and all.

Its alright, like I said pretty forgettable. It could have done something new but does the same old Raven vs Trigon and I kinda am over it, like I am sure there is more to her character other than this. Do something new! But okay good to see this new angle and I like how it fleshes out her family but the thing with Teri was so un-needed and it felt so much filler and un-needed.

So overall do give it a read, the art is okay, nothing special, you might feel monotonous but yeah 2.5/5!

[Wing Kee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not completely horrible but it’s also pointless.

World: The art is okay for the most part, the line work and the colours are nice but when the action happens the art does get a bit messy. The world building is the same old same old. This is a continuation of Wolfman’s other Raven series and it has the same group of friends for Rachel which is a good thing, but I don’t know if it’s even in continuity and whether it really matters. There is the issue that Raven stories by Wolfman can’t get away fro Trigon and we have the same old same old again with the pieces of the world being used again and again and it’s really boring.

Story: The story is boring and pointless cause it’s the same story again. It’s Trigon again. Sure we have the other daughters but it’s still Trigon. Is there no other story to tell with Raven that does not deal with Trigon? Is there no creativity available for Raven? This story is pointless. It’s not bad, it’s just pointless.

Characters: Raven is the same emo self again and this is fine cause this is an emo character, you would not fault Spider-Gwen being the same. However the story she’s surround by is just so boring and pointless and her arc is the same one and her emotional beats are the same ones that this book is pointless.

A retread of a redone and redone idea that makes this book pointless.

Onward to the next book!

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

C list character once again rebooted, once again destroyed by SJW DC. When you combine blase sexual perversion presented as normal, a condescending disdain for religion, the persistent trope of brave mothers protecting superkids from horrible abusive fathers (that's one stereotype they see no problem with reinforcing - if you know of any major publications that gender-swaps this trope I'd love to hear it), all larded on top of a story that uses literally faceless hordes of enemies and all you get is a waste of time.

[britt_brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t love nor hate this. I haven’t read many Raven stories, but other reviewers complain that there is nothing new here. She battles Trigon yet again, blah, blah, blah. Fair enough. I don’t think I need to continue the series. Maybe I’ll try one of the earlier renderings instead.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not real familiar with the Raven character but I thought this collection was really interesting and fun. Many of the other reviews claim this story is "played out." Who cares? It's still a great read.

[Owen Townend · Rating 1 out of 5]

A clumsy introduction to the beloved Teen Titan.

While my background knowledge of Raven is limited to the cartoon show, I get the feeling her origin deserves more attention to detail than shown in this comic. Wolfman has written some iconic DC comic storylines in the past but this certainly isn't one of them.

My main complaint is that events happen too rapidly. This wouldn't be such a problem if there weren't so much going on. First there is Raven trying to be a normal teenager and niece to devout Christians, then there's a strange mystical Baron watching her life from the fireplace and telling a leopard named Merlin about how she will die on Christmas Eve. Then there are mercenaries and scientists working in the name of Trigon, Raven's demon father, trying to apprehend her. Then there are faceless girls who are determined to thwart Trigon but also sacrifice Raven in the process.

Such plot elements do occur in other superhero comics but Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Vol. 1 doesn't really give any of them a chance to breathe before rushing to the next thing. Add to this that the end of one issue barely resembles the beginning of the next and you can see why I became confused and frustrated.

To find a couple of positives, Wolfman does write Raven's difficult family dynamic well and I loved the concept and colourful nomenclature of the faceless girls. Also Mhan's artwork is consistently rich and perfect for the magical action sequences. Nevertheless Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Vol. 1 remains a difficult read to enjoy and a poor starting point for anyone wanting to get to know this fascinating metahuman.

Still, if you're familiar with Raven and are keen to see Wolfman's approach to a solo series, you might find Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Vol. 1 worthwhile.

[Travis Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not for me, granted I dont know much about Raven so I thought this would be a good place to start but I just don't like it. First off I understand Marv Wolfman is a big deal, I even saw him at a few panels for comic con and he was a cool knowledgeable guy. However his writing for this book feels off, the language feels dated and some of the storytelling is just clunky. The character Raven seems cool to me but I just dint but what Wolfman was selling. The story is OK at best, The main story about Raven and these freaky eyed girls is just not super exciting to me. The other side stories with the Baron and Ravens friends are shit. The Baron is just written terribly on accident or purpose i dont care. The other story about Ravens friends and their dying grandma felt so dated and stiff I started skipping panels TBH. The art is good in a retro sort of way but not enough to detract me from the snooze fest of a story. Pass on this series for sure

[Jason Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a pretty decent read. I can think of nothing really bad to say about it, but neither can I think of anything really great to say. It just seemed to be more of the same for Raven. She is such an awesome character; can't they give her a good story without making it all about her dad? I'll definitely finish off this miniseries when I get access to the other six, but I just think it could have been better.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]

Raven’s had a rough year. After the “death” of Tim Drake, the disbandment and re-emergence of the Teen Titans, and her own solo adventure against the White Carnival, she’s ready to just relax a little and cope with the usual problems of being a high school teenager. However, when a new threat emerges and sends psychic teenagers with enormous eyes and no mouths against her, Raven knows she’s not going to be able to take a break any time soon. Plus, Baron Winters wants to recruit her for his new Night Force – but Raven’s having none of it. Oh, and what’s a Raven adventure without a hint of Trigon?

This volume, the follow-up to Marv Wolfman’s Raven mini-series from last year, collects the first six issues of the twelve issue mini-series. That said, they feel like a complete story for the most part, with the problems that Raven faces in these issues coming to a close by the end of issue six and a new threat looming on the horizon at the same time. I’m guessing Wolfman is probably just treating this as one long-form story, but it’s nice to get to the midway point and feel like we’ve actually gotten somewhere rather than trying to deal with the same thing for twelve issues and letting things get unnecessarily dragged out.

Speaking of, the plot’s a bit of a weird one. Raven’s revelation that she has “sisters” seems like another way to tie her back to Trigon, and I do think that we’ve had enough Raven/Trigon stories to last a lifetime, so I’m glad that this is truly dealt with by the end of these six issues to open up the next six for something a bit different, like the previous mini.

Wolfman spends a lot of time building up Raven’s supporting cast and reintroducing her mother which I feel is a good move, since Raven’s usual supporting cast consists of the Teen Titans and that’s usually about it. His internal monologue for her is pretty spot on too; I especially love ‘Raven Fact Number X, by Raven’, which gives me Flash Fact vibes.

All six issues (and in fact it seems all twelve) are pencilled by Pop Mhan. I’ve not paid much attention to Mhan previously, and just seen him as a fill-in artist for certain books, but he falls into the ‘slick line’ category of artists which I particularly like, and Lovern Kindzierski’s colours give everything a dark and creepy feel where appropriate – the sequences in Baron Winters’ mansion are especially spooky. Considering this is a twelve issue mini-series, having this much consistency between issues (as well as having them all out on time) is a rarity in comics these days.

If you liked Wolfman’s previous Raven series, this is more of the same. I’m honestly not 100% sure what the point of the series is, other than to have some Raven collected editions on the shelves when Titans finally launches on DC Universe, but it’s an inoffensive series that lets one of DC’s greatest legacy writers continue to play with one of his best characters. It’s a little repetitive, and maybe a bit silly, but it’s not hurting anyone.

[David Palazzolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always nice to see Marv Wolfman return to one of his creations, even though the current iteration of Raven bears only a slight resemblance to her New Teen Titans days. I guess I’m just old but I liked that iteration better (and not just Raven back then, but Vic, Kory, Joseph and “Changeling” Gar as well). Having said that it is a decent story with none other than Baron Winters having a prominent guest role in the proceeding (another Wolfman creation) and it seems like this series is going to wind up being a something of a back door pilot to a possible revamped Night Force series. The only thing I really wish they had changed was the choice of illustrators—this is no knock against Pop Mhan, who is an excellent artist (I loved him on Spyboy), but he is wrong for the series. A series like this needs someone who blends far more shadows in their work and has a less conventional super hero look—our Big Bad, Trigon, looked too ordinary, not the pinnacle of evil that he is. DC has had that problem with their recently ended HellBlazer too.

[Alex E · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to disparage a legend like Marv Wolfman, but this book was not to my liking.

A large part of the problem is that the writing styles of yesteryear do not flow well in today's more modern comic book titles. There is too much exposition, the overall pace feels clunky as we stumble from one scene to the next, the character motivations are 1 dimensional, etc...

Of course this takes nothing away from the man's legacy, but I do think that it's DC's mistake to have an older legend write a book about a teenage girl. It just makes no sense.

The art is serviceable but nothing extraordinary, which is another detriment and reason why its hard to connect to this book. The title is a great big exercise in "who cares?" and while I know there's another volume, I don't think I can slog through the last 6 issues.

Read this if you are a die hard Raven fan... I guess. Otherwise skip right over it.

[Kait · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed with this volume. It was fine, but that's about it.

My biggest problem with this series is Wolfman's lack of contractions for Raven. It drives me insane. I keep picturing Raven talking like Starfire in the old Teen Titans cartoon. And it ruins a really cool character for me.

The story was nothing special. Some faceless girls attacking, an annoying Baron guy, and the death of a friend's grandmother. I honestly didn't know enough about Raven's friend or even Raven's relationship with this friend to care that her grandmother died. The Baron guy was just annoying and I wanted to skip his panels every time I saw them (I didn't, but I wanted to). And the faceless girls . . . were just kinda there? I don't know, they didn't really read as a threat to me and their goals seemed to flip and flop across the issues, leaving gaps in their motivation. That could just be me though.

Raven's mother and Raven's relationship with her mother also bothered me. Raven reads her mom's mind or whatever and sees what a sociopathic brat her mom was and is just like "Oh you've been through so much! I feel so bad for you." Which is not the impression I got at all. I honestly just wanted her mother to go away or die or something.

The art was . . . also fine. Nothing that really bothered me or distracted me from the story, but nothing that really wowed me or grabbed my attention either.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a previous volume that set up Raven living with her aunt and uncle, so I wasn't lost in this, though the tone changed a fair amount between that volume and this one. I don't have a ton of history with the character beyond that, as I am only just getting into DC comics, though I watched a fair amount of the Teen Titans cartoon, which is why I care about the character at all, I expect. While she is rather different than her cartoon incarnation (particularly in powers), I expect this was designed to draw in new readers, rather than older ones, since it rehashes the Trigon story that apparently every other reviewer is tired of, but which seems kind of central to the character to me. I could see how it might get old, and readers might want something different, but this volume also sets up something different, with the house outside of time, and hopefully that will lead to some different stories. As far as this one goes, it was a little weird, with the girls with only eyes, but I enjoyed it, and it gives Raven some character in a civilian identity, which is kind of interesting. I'm in for the next volume, anyway.

[Kyle Dinges · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was better than I was expecting it to be. By that I mean I was expecting it to be bad and it was...fine I guess? It might be a case of having low expectations and it slightly exceeding them. I remember feeling similarly about Wolfman's last Raven series a few years ago.

I will give credit to Wolfman in that he seems to have been able to modernize better than some of his peers. Still, some of the dialogue is clunky and reads like something written 25 years ago. Also, some of the stuff going on is truly weird. Trigon is the big bad (of course) and this is really about his breeding plan and weird offspring from, ummmm, raping females of all different species. You know what, I'm really talking myself out of this one now that I'm putting my thoughts in writing.

Mhan is a fine artist. It's very DC House style, which you know you'll be getting on one of these smaller books. I do like the idea of giving these b and c list characters who can't carry an ongoing series their own six or twelve issue series every couple of years.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I was originally going to give this 3 stars but bumped it up one. I did like the overall story however what was offsetting was that I had to reread some sections to make sure I fully understood what was going on.

Raven continues her unending fight to prevent Trigon from taking our world. In this book, there is an entire scientific branch dedicated to hunting Raven and owning a collection of biological experiments of Trigon off spring. Mixed in are side stories of Raven attempting to learn about her religious family around the Christmas holiday and her mother asking for her to return home. By the end of the arc, the families reach a peaceful resolution giving hope to Raven and her mother. Its sweet but not as sweet as a group of characters I will refer to as The Sisters and what they were willing to do to help Raven fight off Trigon. Even that in itself is a story of family and the bonds we make when it comes to protecting one another and wanting to protect others.

[Katya Starling · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are parts that are confusing, but I adore Merlin and definitely want to read more of him and Raven. I also really appreciate how the religion part was handled in this volume. It's not forced yet shows that Christians and other religious and non-religious people can be genuinely good people without forcing their values on one another and how a family can overcome the differences in religion to truly love each other. As a Christian myself, I can honestly say our God does not want to force people to love Him. That's one of the biggest reasons, I'll always believe, He gave us humans free will: so that we can CHOOSE to love Him, not be forced, just as we can CHOOSE to love each other, family and not, regardless of our beliefs and any other differences.

[Brandy Cross · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read this twice now and both times I've been struck by how wasteful this is. The concept is good, the characters are good, the plot points are good. Yet it consistently fails to strike any note that is interesting, truly enjoyable, or really anything other than mediocre. The art is forgettable. The questions of morality that have always made Raven so very interesting are a footnote, relegated to a comment here and there and quickly forgotten. The overarching story eventually semi-resolves one of them, but the method and the buildup are neither satisfying nor worthwhile.

This is light, occasionally funny, but "meh", why would you bother

[Kristina Mlynarova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's start with the art again. I would give it a 4/5, not my favorite style but perfectly matches the characters and storyline. It's also incredibly detailed.
I would give the story a 3. The dialogue is incredibly flat, the author makes Raven sound like she is 5 instead of 16. There are interesting parts to it, like when Raven finds out that she is the only 'normal' one out of the other monsters that are Trigon's children. Those 2 pages alone made me happy to be reading it. But everything else just screamed of stereotypical tropes. Raven's mother Angela rebels by having sex with a demon? And now her daughter has incredible powers? What a crazy thing haha.

[Sandra Del Rio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable for the most part: a little slow at the beginning, but the second half of the book was really engaging. Fun themes throughout, and I really appreciated Winters’ character (even if he wasn’t really too important to the story until the ending?). Can’t wait for a Raven story to be independent of Trigon, though! Geez, I hope the next one isn’t so heavily reliant on her paternal lineage.

Also, I have always loved Arella, so it’s nice to finally see her so active in her daughter’s adventures.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled a little with this series because I'm so attached to the version of New Teen Titans Raven. This story is very much in alignment with the Raven in the DC Universe show. She is younger and separated from her mother. When Raven is attacked she goes through a time traveling adventure and saves the world from her demon father. The art is fantastic in this volume even if I found the story hard to follow at times.

[Sara I · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast-paced volume and overall, I enjoyed it. However, I was definitely more interested in what was going on for Raven than I was for Rachel. Which isn't to say that part of the story was not important, just less interesting for me as I was eager to discover what was going on with some of the mysterious elements in the story; who Azure and her sisters were and what their intents might be and the Baron, who seemed to be watching over everything.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10

Raven's one of the coolest characters in DC in my opinion, with a lot of nostalgia for someone like me who first really fell in love with DC from the TV show Teen Titans. It's disappointing how boring and mundane this comic is. Trigon's incredibly bland and his presence on the panels is so uninteresting. Rachel as a character feels shallow and boring. Overall just a comic book seemingly made for the sake of making it. Not a fun read.

[Gennai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. It sounded really neat, but it’s just the same old misogynist stuff. Men taking over the world by subjugating women and taking away their voices (literally). Characters aren’t developed enough to be meaningful, completely ignores the effects of trauma most of the characters went through, and definitely not convincing that the main character is only 16. Not worth the time

[Júlio Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bem okay, a história tem um bom desenvolvimento da Ravena e a história é bem genérica, MAIS UMA VEZ a Ravena está lidando com o Trigon quem diria. Mas tbm tem pontos positivos e muito me agrada a ideia da Raven tendo que aprender sobre o mundo humano e descobrindo coisas de sua origem, vale a leitura mas não é obrigatória nem pra quem é fã

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't fully see how this fits into the overall DC universe. And there are things about the story, like her friends and some of their trials, that are not tied enough into the plot to make this volume work for me.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did because Raven is a really neat character - but it felt like there was a lot of threads going on here and I found it difficult to keep up with them all. That said, tied together nicely at the end of the arc. Would probably read more in this series.

[Will Cooper · Rating 1 out of 5]

'S bad. I don't think the (should have been) very basic storyline makes any sense. There's children who want to be friends and hang out and someone dies and a caped baron with a almost talking jaguar and a fire pit of magic and Trigun who breeds with a lot of monsters and mouthless sisters. Yikes.

[Michael Bongiorno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the previous Raven mini series. Confusing and repetitive.

[Munirah Mn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually better than the previous miniseries spinoff, although the story starts to get interesting in #3.