Marv Wolfman on "Raven" Mini-Series

[wayshway]

Writer Marv Wolfman has been interviewed by Comicon.com's PULSE News about the upcoming Raven mini-series, based on the Teen Titan he co-created with artist George Perez. Wolfman discusses the recent changes to Raven's status quo and how the current comics character and the mini-series was influenced by her depiction on the Teen Titans animated show.

One of the most mysterious members of the Teen Titans is getting the showcase as Raven takes center stage for a five issue limited series. But just what's going to be revealed about the empath? Although cryptic in some of his responses, we did manage to get a few secrets from writer Marv Wolfman about his mystical creation.


THE PULSE: Raven has always been a very troubled enigmatic character who had to keep so much of her true self in check for fear of letting loose the beast within - which we've seen in the various incarnations of the Teen Titans. When you originally came up with this character, what were your inspirations? How did you lay the groundwork for this character?



MARV WOLFMAN: I'd been asked to put a Dr. Strange-ish sorcerer character in Titans but I refused to, so I tried to come up with something else that was 'dark' but someone who wouldn't cast bolts, etc. Why copy Dr. Strange? He'd been done better than I could do. This eventually morphed into Raven. She came from several places as well as springing "whole" cloth. I had done an empath character in Werewolf by Night called Topaz. She wasn't an empath in any way like Raven - she just was empathic - but I liked the concept of taking what an empath could be and going all the way with her but in a completely different direction. Also, when I was a teenager I had come up with a character first named Gabriel and then Janus (not the Janus from Tomb of Dracula although similar to that one in that this Janus was, among other things, the son of the devil). This fit into the parents vs. children concept I was playing with in Titans. They combined, but then Azarath, her mother, her background, her peaceful background, etc. sprung whole cloth out of the character. If Raven had the power to release the devil, so to speak, then it made sense to me that the society who tried to help her would be one that believed in pacifism, that would do anything to stop the devil from coming into the world. Everything built off of that. Then George Perez came in with that incredible design and we went from there.


THE PULSE: What surprised you the most about the direction this character took the more you got to know her? How did your interpretation of her change as your "comics muse" spoke to you?



WOLFMAN: Raven's origin just clicked in a way many don't. You honestly can't plan for those things to happen; they either do or don't. There was little that surprised me with her because the origin just worked out so well and everything that came afterward built from there, but I was surprised at how more and more of her origin played out in bigger and deeper stories. I was coming up with Raven bits later on in the Titans run that I never could have imaged earlier, but they all came from what was set up on day one; nothing was done just because it sounded cool at the moment or because I wanted to explore some brand new idea that actually would have made no sense. Now, not every idea may have worked out well, or was even right to do, but they all did logically stem from her character.


THE PULSE: What did you think of this latest version of Trigon's daughter? Was it a version you were immediately intrigued with or did it take a while for this "younger" Raven to grow on you?


WOLFMAN: I had destroyed Raven's body in the Titans comic, but it was always clear that her soul-self was still alive. I never got a chance to put her in a new body, although I had proposed a story to do that just as DC announced they were doing the new series. I think Raven being in a young body is fine because in many ways she never had a chance to grow up; on Azarath she'd been kept locked away from her mother and ever