Teen Titans 23.1 - TRIGON

[perletwo]

Well, this issue was all kinds of a messy origin story for Trigon. 3 1/2 pages.



So, there's like this giant cosmic heart that eats eeeevil, and it has acolytes who all look just like Lord Voldemort. The acolytes go around scourging planets of eeeevil and feeding it to the heart, which always has room for more jello eeeevil. But now three acolytes are upset - eeeevil has reappeared on a world they've already scourged. This has never happened before! They identify the source as a three-man hunting pack and zero in on the leader. But feeding his soul to the heart doesn't really work out so well for them....



Yep, that's our Six-Eyes. As a tribute to the acolytes that birthed him, he wears their skins as his...loincloth, I guess.

Anyhoo, like the heart, Trigon's a creature of unquenchable appetite. MOAR EEEEVIL! FEED ME SEYMOUR! But. The barriers between dimensions won't let him through so he can get down to the serious business of conquest. But he figures out a fun workaround: He can bring a single female through the barrier, knock her up, send her back with bun in oven, and she'll give birth to a mini-Trigon he can possess and use to conquer.

Good plan! Except for the parts where it seldom works. Either the moms don't survive the conception, the Trigon Juniors don't survive the birth, or the moms commit suicide. But he gets right down to it with Brides from countless worlds, and it's all very disturbingly Marcus and Ms. Marvel. He ends up with three sons, "and when Trigon saw them, he knew they were weak...disappointing...and useless."

Also, not every world has a willing bride:



That's Cassie's armor, which was found on an archaeological dig IIRC. When is this happening? Who knows? Who cares?

For a minute there I thought it might be Arella inside the armor, and being Bride of Trigon'd was the price of defeat. Which could've been interesting. But no.



Thus producing Raven, which I'm not sure I get the stress on Trigon producing a daughter, unless he wants his'er'self to keep giving birth to infinite his'er'selves? Icky thought. Anyhoo:



Umm....Okay...I guess? How do we go about this? Do we clap our hands and yell, "I do believe in demons"?

Or maybe Arella's talking to Deathstroke, who's up next week in #23.2. Admit it, "Who would win in a fight, Deathstroke or Trigon" would totally be a fanboy wet dream matchup.

Incidentally, those defeated and/or tied up Titans on the cover? Don't appear anywhere in the issue. I call bait & switch!

Comments

[coldfiredragon]

The sad thing about this issue? It was written by WOLFMAN! I was so disappointed in it!

I hope she is talking to Slade, that, as you said, would be fucking amazing!

[pteppic]

Even genius is allowed an off day.

[rdfox]

Particularly when all indications are that it's Mediocrity writing the plot and merely allowing Genius to script the dialogue.

[ruhig_knight]

It's like trying to create an original painting but instead forced some "Paint-by-Numbers" kit. Of stick figured. Pretty much applied to almost all of DC writing staff.

This isn't the first for Wolfman either. His writing was also particularly disappointing in 2009's abysmal TT/Titans/Vigilante "Deathtrap" crossover... very, very disappointing and admitted to how the "controversial" ending was editorial mandated.

[icon_uk]

He did some great stuff in his Nightwing run, undoing a lot of the mess of the Bruce Jones ISSUES THAT NEVER HAPPENED. He made Dick a likeable, competent guy again (which took some doing).

Alas, along with the cosmic shadowy bloke going"You should be dead" plotline leftover from Infinite Crisis that never went anywhere, in the Vigilante arc he basically demoted Dick to bit part player in his own ruddy title to promote how badass the new Vigilante does. The story was editorially curtailed so it wasn't entirely his fault, but he didn't help much that Dick is made to look like a putz because he doesn't kill the way Vigilante does and we never got a decent rematch.

(It's also a shame as there's a long sequence where Vigilante holds a boxer-shorts clad Dick Grayson captive by tying him to a chair which should have been my idea of hog heaven but which didn't quite gel)

[ruhig_knight]

I've heard of his Nightwing run and how it helped Dick A LOT. I haven't got a chance to read them myself though BUT I do think I remember WHAT NEVER HAPPENED. But I can believe you about the Vigilante part, in "Deathtrap" Wolfman payed more attention to Vig and most of the Titans came off as he was writing off of Editorial's notes for them... Also brings to mind how he stated in an interview for Villain's Month that he didn't read any comic with characters he created written by others...

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, doing an origin for these kinds of characters are kind-of hard to do because you don't want to lose the mystery, but this really doesn't sound all that interesting.

"Admit it, "Who would win in a fight, Deathstroke or Trigon" would totally be a fanboy wet dream matchup."

Wasn't that done in the some of the last episodes of the animated series?

[rdfox]

Some of the last episodes of Season 4, yes, it was.

[bizarrohulk]

Honestly, this looks like something Chaos! Comics would have published in the 90s. All it's missing is an albino in a leather bikini.

[goggle_kid]

Wow... they actually found a way to make Trigon more rapey.

That's impressive in a depressing way.

[jlroberson]

But the rapey stuff here was all there in the original. It was a version of the introduction of Domini in TOMB OF DRACULA, which wasn't rape exactly but definitely had ROSEMARY'S BABY overtones. (Wolfman was very into the Satanic Sex Cult theme during the late 70s and early 80s--there was also Brother Blood; I'm not really knocking it though, because those stories were fucking cool) But actually this is more like Domini: in the original, I seem to recall Raven's mom did not give herself at all willingly to Trigon, whereas here she does.

Now there is the addition of the woman Trigon rapes in order to get into this reality that you see here. I do not think that was in the original. It's also very odd--and reminiscent of what happened to Carol Danvers in AVENGERS back then. So if you mean that makes it more rapey, sure.

But Trigon has always been rapey. But then, he's a demon and usually presented as the embodiment of all evil, and I'd say that would probably include rape, to be fair.

[perletwo]

Yes to all that, which is why I referenced Ms. Marvel and Marcus. But this issue is also much more graphically rapey than the old series, as depicted in three or four pages of assorted Brides I left out for space and trigger considerations. Because nUdc is EXTREEEEEM!

[goggle_kid]

I know that. But well... the whole "wanting all the world's women to have his demon spawn" thing. It takes it to such an extreme so out there it would be comical if it wasn't so damned squicky.

[q99]

Yea. I've actually seen that type of plot before and it's always very... yuk, in a way that makes me instantly lose interest in the story. Bad-edgy.

[silverzeo]

If Raven's mom is back... would that mean Danny Chase would come back soon... oh god, what if he does? DC does NOT treat too kindly to the sidekick kind... look what they did when they try to reintroduce Maritain Manhunter's alien sidekick... turned him into a falling child star like character... and when they made WOnderdog from the SuperFriends show into, least face, pretty much Scrappy Doo from the live action movie: in which he become a giant demon... which would have work if he was STILL a good guy.

Think about: Who guards the Titans Tower when the Titans are away? 2 Nerd and a demon dog who can change size. Marvin and Wonderdog could have been like the Finn and Jake in DC mainstream universe, yeah it sounds alot like "Stanely and his Monster", but hey, if both Flash and Cpt. Marvel in the Batman Beyond book can have the same gimmik of having their family team stuck in their heads, they can pull that stunt out...

[big_daddy_d]

What the hell is with DC in making characters who are too damn powerful into rapists?!

[jlroberson]

In Trigon' case it's not new. See above.

[perletwo]

*nods* I remember in an early interview back when the 80s NTT run began, Wolfman talked a little about how Raven was always going to have issues with physical love, because in her mind sex is *always* rape, always about the power imbalance, because of her origin story. Though in the original version Trigon was more about seduction and betrayal, like with the fall Hippolyta.

[ruhig_knight]

It's good to see Arella (very likely, I guess) still alive but past experiences have lead me to expect her dying very soon or just being a forgotten plot thread or some kind of out-of-the-blue retcon from this...

[perletwo]

I had an idea that Trigon might be holding Arella and/or Azar hostage to get Raven to toe the devoted-daughter line, and either by killing them or them sacrificing themselves she'd be able to really cut loose against him in battle. But it's looking more like they may have raised Raven specifically as a weapon against him, as in the original.

[capnduckman]

Is it me, or does his Bounty Hunter look Lobo-ish?

[perletwo]

I had to go into the nU Lobo post a couple below this one just to make sure it wasn't a sneaky cameo. To me he looks a lot like old-U Lobo without the wacky edge.

[icon_uk]

We've seen old style Lobo in the Nu52 (as some sort of imposter that bishi-Lobo is out to deal with?) so it may still be him.

Lobo spoilersfor JL23.2

[star_of_airdrie]

It appears to be Lobo but according to the JL/Lobo 23.2, 'our' Lobo is actually an imposter (after um, 30 years???) and Sorry/Not Sorry Boy Band Lobo is back - not sure from where - and intends to kick the fraggin' arse of the imposter who has had all his fun all these years. (Sorry/Not Sorry is his catch phrase: NuLobo is apparently on Tumblr.)

[donnblake]

Scans_Daily, it's never just you.

[superfangirl1]

So Cassandra's armor was created by powerful magics to battle Trigon?

While that means he cant really hurt the wearer if fully suited up, the wearer cant kill him either. However, the Armor is also the reason Trigon begins making his own kids; to have an army whos every member was to be more powerful than Cassandra's armor.

[perletwo]

If I understand this correctly, the armor and Cassie's lasso also drain/absorb Trigon's energies, which has gotta be a help. Dangit, now I'm going to have to go get the weak-ass "origin of Cassie's armor" issues of TT, aren't I? Where she accidentally goes all spiky?

[espanolbot]

Always wondered why the Spectre didn't ever show up to get rid of Trigon to be honest...

[md84]

You might as well ask why Spectre didn't go after every villain in the DCU. The explanation was that Spectre only punishes people according to the Presence's will. He doesn't go after every murderer, only those who would apparently escape justice otherwise. Trigon got his ass kicked repeatedly by the Titans, so he was already being punished.

[bruinsfan]

Weren't most of the stories featuring Tirgon pre-Crisis and set on Earth-1, whereas the Spectre was on Earth-2?

[perletwo]

See, this is the problem with making Trigon a demon-GOD - either he can be killed and the Titans can manage him, or he's a Darkseid-level threat and the entire DCU should be marshalled against him. They can't have it both ways.

We have seen the Phantom Stranger deal with Trigon, though, and he's more or less in the same mystical weight class as the Spectre, isn't he?

[donnblake]

I'm not sure... in most of the Phantom Stranger stories I've read, he is under some restrictions as to how he can act, which is why he goes and gets help from whoever's book he's appearing in. I don't know that I've seen a story where he really cuts loose.

[perletwo]

Well, in the story I was referencing (PS #1, DCnU) he was under instructions from TPTB to deliver runaway Rachel to Trigon so she could become Raven, which is not exactly facing off with yon Demon God. But Trigon addressed him more or less respectfully, by Trigon standards.

I have heard the Sons of Trigon popped up in later PS issues, but I haven't seen them, or how he dealt with them.

[q99]

-
See, this is the problem with making Trigon a demon-GOD - either he can be killed and the Titans can manage him, or he's a Darkseid-level threat and the entire DCU should be marshalled against him. They can't have it both ways.-

Wasn't it a case where, most of the time he actually manifests, there's reality-warping going on so that people outside the immediate vicinity (always near Raven and thus the other Titans) really can't do much?

[md84]

Trigon being a rapist is especially creepy since rape isn't just sick thrills for him, it's his means of increasing his powerbase. He's almost literally powered by rape.

Damn, this is worse than the actual rape demon in Hellblazer.