I’ve been wanting to get into comics– especially superhero comics–and I’ve been buying a bunch of random comic book runs of popular characters as well as characters that I liked. As I was browsing through the Forbidden Planet website, looking at the latest comic releases for that week, I saw that a sale was ongoing so I figured I’d browse through the sale selection too. That’s when I found the ‘Teen Titans: Raven & Beast Boy (Box Set Hardcover)’ on sale from £22 to only £9.99!
Straight to the basket it went.
Teen Titans: Raven
by Kami Garcia
Edition: Hardback, 192 pages
Publication Date: July 2nd 2019 by DC Ink
ISBN: 139781401297732
Edition Language: English
Series: Teen Titans #1
Goodread blurb:
When 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.
This was my first introduction to Raven and to the Teen Titans. I probably should have read a little bit more on the Teen Titan history, however as I said I am newbie and figuring out where to start with comic books can be overwhelming. The amount of different sources that provided different reading orders and reading guides can be quite confusing. Add to the fact that I prefer having a physical copy of my books rather than digital copies, so getting a hold of older runs can be quite challenging (and expensive!).
Kami Garcia’s version of Teen Titans’ Raven provided us with a brief backstory to the character’s origin. We follow Raven Roth a 17 year old girl dealing with memory loss and adjusting to her old life after a tragic accident. When strange things start happening, Raven starts to question just who she really is and questions whether or not she is prepared to find out.
It’s important to note that this is a graphic novel, so we don’t get the complete story just yet. If you enjoy this book, you will have to buy the next couple of volumes to complete the story in it’s entirety. Luckily, the graphic novel doesn’t end on a serious cliffhanger that has you scrambling to get your hands on the next book. However, I am interested in following the Raven’s story so I will be continuing on with the series. There wasn’t a whole lot of action, which I can see due to Raven still figuring out her identity and the powers that come with it. It is only towards the end where we really see Raven use her powers. The overall plot was very much focused on Raven and her characterisation rather than fighting the bad guys.
My favourite part was definitely the artwork. The illustrations in this graphic novel is absolutely amazing. I think I spent more time looking at the illustrations rather than the text on the pages. Gabriel Picolo, the illustrator, did a great job using different hues and shades of purple to illustrate the changes in the tone of the story. Darker shades of purple for the more intense scenes, while lighter, pastel purple for the scenes where Raven is with Tommy. The emphasis on the colour purple is really symbolic as I’m assuming purple is Raven’s ‘signature’ colour and it’s the colour that appears the most throughout the novel.
Overall, I did really enjoy this brief introduction to a new DC character. As mentioned, I will definitely be checking out the next books in this series and I can’t wait to learn more about Raven and the rest of the Teen Titans.
3 stars.
Have you read ‘Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia or any of her other books? Let me know what you thought of them in the comments below!
Novelstorian 
great review! this looks like a fun graphic novel, and i’ll definitely be checking it out. thank you for bringing it to my attention!
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I’m really glad to hear that. Hope you enjoy reading!
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