Changes: Terra (DC)

Revision as of 16:27, 23 December 2020

Tara Markov, better known as Terra, is the fictional supervillainess/anti-heroine in DC Comics, hailing from the Teen Titans comic series as well as its 2003 TV adaptation and 2013 spin-off of the same adaptation. She is a former member of the Teen Titans, and the apprentice of the criminal mastermind Slade, also known as [[Deathstroke]]. Her portrayal as former member of Teen Titans remained consistent in spite of some differences; whereas Terra is depicted as a hero-loathing sociopath that is largely bereft of positive traits or remorse in comics and Teen Titans GO! (in lesser extent as her sociopathy toned down to the point of becoming a vindictive jerk), she was portrayed into a more tragic villain in both 2003 cartoon and 2017 film Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.

Personality

In comic book series, she is a hero-loathing psychopath that known having some sort of mental illness. She mostly hid a brooding, dark personality. She also full of rage and hate, which may have stemmed from the fact that she was a national embarrassment because she was the product of an extramarital affair. It is said that in 2008 Terra miniseries, her mental illness was due to an element called "quixium" harvested from Strata, which had been used by Markovian scientists to grant her earth-based superpowers.

Powers and Abilities

In comics, Terra is easily able to bend the earth to her will (hence her name), anything from controlling small pebbles to large boulders. She has a strong sense in this ability, she can geokinetically control and manipulate earthly materials around her with her mind alone, but it is limited to only rocks, dirt, stones, boulders, concrete, soil, mud, brick, granite, marble, lava and magma. This because her powers not to the extent where she can influence/manipulate plant life. Various feats that she can do with her powers includes geokinetically use a large boulder to carry herself through the air; creating constructs such as floating platforms, earth pylons, rock cage, shield; creating huge fissures, crevices, earthquakes, mudslides, volcanoes, and tremors.

Biography

Past

Terra Comic Design New Teen Titans — Terra's design in The New Teen Titans

Tara Markov was the illegitimate daughter of the King of Markovia and his mistress, an unnamed American woman. Tara was sent to the United States to avoid scandal, but not before using an experimental machine designed by Markovian scientist Dr. Helga Jace, a device which endowed the young girl with incredible powers over the earth itself.

Tara was full of rage and hate, which may have stemmed from the fact that she was a national embarrassment because she was the product of an extramarital affair. At the age of fifteen, the young malcontent had already garnered a reputation for using her powers to do others' dirty work if the price was right. On one occasion, she picked up an assignment turned down by Deathstroke the Terminator, in which she was hired to kill a powerful African tribesman. Tara took the assignment. She became friendly with the king and his family, and later murdered him without remorse.

Working With Deathstroke and Infiltrating Teen Titans

Terra's reputation eventually brought Deathstroke’s attention to her, where he enlisted her as his ally to deal with Teen Titans. At that time Deathstroke has a bad history with Teen Titans where his son Grant aka. Ravager died as result of received imperfect superhuman enhancements from the H.I.V.E. and at that time accepted a contract from them to kill or capture the Teen Titans, a contract where Deathstroke vowed to finished in his honor. So, they conspired to defeat the Titans by staged the battle so Titans would recruit Terra into their ranks.

When Terra learned minor detail of Deathstroke’s background and attachment to his former family, wondered whether it made him soft to her. Deathstroke asked her whether her relationship with Titans made her soft as well, before they goes for training to test her combat capabilities. To his surprise, Deathstroke found Terra's geokinesis was so immense that she literally become a force of nature, forcing him used his every single capabilities and talents to survive her onslaught. Slade managed to survive, and is no longer questioned whether she lost her edge, and if anything is sharper than ever. Terra expressed her disdain over Titans again before continue her mission.

Argument With Beast Boy

With Terra’s mission goes smoothly, she become more and more closer to Teen Titans that everyone in the team considered her as true Titans and revealed their identities. Afterwards, both Kid Flash (Wally West) and Robin (Dick Grayson) left the team for different reasons, having lost two of their members (Robin being the leader), Donna Troy became the new leader of the team until Dick Grayson decided to come back after figuring out what he would do with his life. Even so, Deathstroke’s old friend become worry that she eventually betrayed them in the end, which Deathstroke reassured that it won't happened. Although, the only one whom suspicious with her nature is Raven, whom sense the darkness in her heart that so bad she wondered whether the said malice actually from her father Trigon or the others whom as worse as him. Spending times further with Titans allowed her to learned their exceptional capabilities which explained why with all of his talents Deathstroke is yet to be able to defeat them, but is aware that she is far stronger than any of them.

While possibility of Terra choose to side with Titans is something that Deathstroke never wanted to happened, the concern about her is her sociopathy, as she nearly blown her cover when Beast Boy tease her for fun several times. His teasing slowly went too far that in the fit of rage, Terra attempted to murder him by using her powers in more aggressive manner until the others interfered. Terra then made up the story to convince her that she was blackmailed to turned against them. Whilst being apologized, only Raven that not convince her lies.

Revealing Her True Colors and Death

Dick Grayson was attacked a few days later by Deathstroke in an attempt to capture him. The strange part of the attack was that Deathstroke didn't attack him as Robin, but as a civilian. After the confrontation, Dick manages to escape Deathstroke by losing him in the city and goes to see if his teammates are okay. After Dick notices that every single one of the New Teen Titans has been captured he meets Adeline Kane and her son Joseph Wilson (Jericho) who tells him that Terra has been working with Deathstroke, and it was because of that that Deathstroke had learned their identities and was able to attack them at their homes. Dick Grayson (Having taken the identity of Nightwing), now with the help of Jericho went to rescue the New Teen Titans from the H.I.V.E and Deathstroke.

Eventually, the captured Titans were held in a stronghold of Deathstroke's contractors, the H.I.V.E. Nightwing, and Deathstroke's son, Joseph Wilson (Jericho), raided the complex to rescue them, but were captured. When presented to Deathstroke and the organization in general, Jericho possessed his father when the latter recognize him as his son and freed the Titans, who then attacked the H.I.V.E. Not knowing of Jericho's powers, Terra believed Deathstroke to have turned against her. In retaliation, she went berserk. When the misunderstanding was cleared, she was still murderously furious at Deathstroke for going "soft" with love for his son. Changeling (as he was then known, a.k.a., "Beast Boy"), in an attempt to stop her rampage, shape-shifted into a small fly, then flew into her eye as a way to distract her. This finally pushed her over the edge as she pulled the whole H.I.V.E. complex down upon herself while trying to kill the Titans. Despite the discovery of her true intentions of joining them, a statue of her was placed in the memorial in Titans Tower. Her true activities were never made public, with her brother simply being told that she had died in battle.

Aftermath and Later Confrontations

Even after being told that Terra was died in battle, Brion aka. Geo Force later meet Batman whom revealed the truth behind her death and true agenda in an issue of "Batman and the Outsiders". This prompt Brion to change his Geo Force costume to green and gold, as he considered the original brown and orange too similar to the outfit worn by his sister.

Terra's death seemed not last long, as in "Blackest Night: Titans #1" Terra seemingly returns, confusing Beast Boy. Terra claims she had survived her apparent death and gone into hiding. The illusion is shattered when Starfire and Cyborg discover and attack the Black Lantern version of Lilith Clay, whose telepathy had been hiding Terra's true appearance, that of a rotting corpse. The Titans fight Terra, who is backed up by other Black Lantern Titans, includingPantha, WIldbeest, and Aquagirl. When Dove steps in, she destroys most of the Black Lanterns with a white energy blast. Terra is able to escape, along with Hank Hall and Tempest, and goes to torture her brother, Geo-Force, a member of the Outsiders. When Terra gets to the Outsiders headquarters, she meets Geo-Force, and plays innocent. She tells him what she's done as a Black Lantern and that she wants to have her connection severed. The rest of the team goes along with destroying her, but Geo-Force couldn't bear killing his sister. Terra eventually turns on the team, and tries to kill them, until she is stopped by Halo. Halo uses her light powers to turn Terra to stone, before destroyed her Black Lantern Ring.

New 52

In the New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), a blonde earth-powered heroine named Terra/Tara is part of Caitlin Fairchild's team The Ravagers. The team also includes Beast Boy, Thunder and Lightning and a new character Ridge.The Ravagers are a group of super-powered teens who have escaped the plans of Harvest in The Culling. The team was formed after the Teen Titans and the Legionnaires stuck in the present day were abducted by Harvest, and then later stopped the villain and escaped. Not surprisingly in the series Terra and Beast Boy develop a strong bond with each other which started in a place named The Colony where super-powered teenagers are deprived of their origins and family and kept as prisoners by a creature named Harvest where they suffer tortures, experiments and fight each other in order to remain only the strongest teens to be used by Harvest as a team to serve his purposes. In this place Terra defends Beast Boy from being attacked by other super-powered prisoners as he returns the favor later when Terra was in danger saving her.

Final Crisis

During the Final Crisis crossover, a group of teen supervillains calling themselves the Terror Titans begin abducting teenaged metahumans to use as competitors in the Dark Side Club, an underground arena where the young heroes are brainwashed and forced to fight to the death for spectators and wealthy patrons. After learning of the abductions, Terra goes on the run, eventually meeting up with fellow teen superheroes Aquagirl, Molecule, Offspring, Zachary Zatara, and the Star-Spangled Kid. While deciding on a course of action, the teens are ambushed by the Terror Titans, who proceed to overpower and capture them, killing Molecule in the process. Atlee and the others are taken to the Dark Side Club and subjected to the Anti-Life Equation, which causes them to become slaves to Darkseid and his cadre of followers. After winning several matches in the tournament, Terra is made a member of the Clock King's Martyr Militia, a team of brainwashed superhumans he plans to use on an attack in Los Angeles. Atlee and the others are ultimately freed from the Anti-Life Equation when Miss Martian, Rose Wilson, and Static lead a rebellion against the Terror Titans and capture the various members of the Dark Side Club.

Other Media

DC Universe Animated Original Movies Biography

In DC Universe Animated Original Movies, Terra's role in the series is more faithful with comics, but instead of sociopathic villain, she instead portrayed as more tragic and symphatetic anti-heroine as with her 2003 incarnation.

Justice League vs. Teen Titans

Terra made a brief appearance in the mid-credits of the animated film.

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