what the heck did they do to Raven's costume (and Raven in general) in the new DC 52?

[JimB]

It's DC that's at fault here. Marvel Comics has nothing to do with DC and how they severely mess up Raven's costume or personality in the new reboot.

Agreed, but I think the point being made is that DC is trying to ape the guys who were winning the market back during the speculation bubble.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

It's DC that's at fault here. Marvel Comics has nothing to do with DC and how they severely mess up Raven's costume or personality in the new reboot.

Agreed, but I think the point being made is that DC is trying to ape the guys who were winning the market back during the speculation bubble.

I agree with that statement, i was just pointing out to that user that it's DC not Marvel..

 

[Dragonbums]

The worst part about Raven's design is that by itself I think it's fucking awesome. As Raven though it's really radical.

The only thing I don't like about it is the shiny latex meant to show off dem curves and the obligatory boob window to show off her "assets".

 

[Dragonbums]

After the Starfire debacle I'm not even surprised anymore. I grew up with the television show, so I find all the character designs pretty sleazy, to say the least, and their characters personalities are atrocious. It's interesting that the little cartoon adaptation they made was actually more thoughtful and mature than the Canon material. Every time I see the characters now, all I can think of is this:

http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=311

That's what honestly pisses me off the most about all of this.

The Teen Titans show garnered a good fanbase of 2 million strong. If there was any good way to jumpstart an entire new line of comic book heroes, this was the perfect golden egg. And they took a shit on it. Prior to the show these characters were nobodies or one offs. Now all I have to settle with is Teen Titans GO. By it's own right they nailed the humor of it's predecessor...but I want THE Teen Titans back. Not whatever this crap was.

The worst part about all of this is that I actually would of started reading comics starting with a good Teen Titans one had they kept to the show and not do all this other trash.

 

[Mangod]

what does everyone else think of how they ruin Raven?

Funny thing? The first thought that poped into my head when I first saw this was "Wow, New 52 hit the reset button so hard, it turned Raven into a Boris Vallejo painting".

That... should not be my reaction to a reimagining. I can't speak for everyone else, but if they'd just stuck with the original Raven look, and just modeled those feathers onto her cloak and cowl it would have worked a lot better, me thinks.

Edit: And after a second look, I'm also getting early Spawn-villain vibes off of her now.

 

[WarpZone]

That is not what Raven looks like or acts like.. and yeah I know they updated and ruined a lot of other characters in the new 52, but come on.. why DC?.. why did you ruin such a interesting character who finally had a relationship with Beast Boy and was ready to move past so much of her awkward life.. into what ever she's become in the new 52..

Same reason they turned Amanda Waller from a non-nonsense bureaucrat with the cunning to devise a Batman plan to take out Batman into Charlie's Angels. Same reason they turned Harley Quinn into a goon with a hammer. Same reason they made all those other character-mutilating New 52 decisions you just glossed over as if they weren't important, just because they weren't happening to your favorite character.

They changed Raven because they're post-90's DC. And post-90s DC just doesn't care about storytelling or character.

Anyone who did care or was capable of hiring people who cared left the company long ago. It doesn't even matter if the evidence suggests that well-written stories with good art actually moves books. DC will keep imagining this demographic of grown men who think like horny teenagers that simply does not exist, will keep hiring writers and artists whose body of work fits that made-up demographic indefinitely.

DC does not care. They stopped caring long ago. And under the current leadership, they will never care again.

Sorry, that's the unpacked explanation; the surface-level explanation is the new costume shows more skin than the old costume. That's all they needed or wanted it to do, and the new design accomplishes that. Enjoy your gross alien corpse skull helmet thing, because OOOH, SCARY!

It's DC that's at fault here.. Marvel Comics has nothing to do with DC and how they severely mess up Raven's costume or personality in the new reboot

Whoops, my bad. I said Marvel when I meant to say DC. I'll just go back and fix that...

...aaaand fixed. I stand by the actual content of my comment. DC doesn't care. As long as DC is owned by people who cynically view the comic books business as an investment vehicle exclusively and an artistic medium not even a little bit, it will continue not to care. The reason Raven's design sucks is because they don't care. I don't know what else you could have expected the answer to be, frankly.

 

[00slash00]

I don't know, how DID they ruin her? Personally, I think the costume looks cooler and I really like the feathers. I mean they definitely sexualized her more, which I'm not a fan of, but it's no worse (and really, considerably better) than the majority of female superhero costumes.

 

[Zontar]

I think it's perfectly in line with DCs logic. Their primary goal is to sell comics, and as Starfire and Harley Quinn show, they don't care if they ruin a character to do so.

I'd always had a passing interest in DC, and planned on jumping into a few titles to test the waters. 52 stopped that from happening.

Actually they made harlequinn better. She has her own comedy comic now. Since the suicide squad is no more, and Joker is missing, she is trying to form a normal life while dodging assassins.

Its dark and is full of double entendres, but its funny here and there. Even if its darker humor.

Believe it or not, they managed to make Harlequinn more independent and modern feminist than anything else. Catwoman is up there too. As usual, wonder woman is no where in sight.

I've read some of it, and I'm not impressed in the least. They could rename Harley and the comic would actually be the better for it. Harley isn't supposed to be independent, she isn't supposed to be doing her own thing, what she is supposed to be is someone trapped in an abusive relationship with the Joker that's tragic because of the fact that no matter what he does to her, she won't stop loving him.

She was a sympathetic character because everything she did was either something he used her for, or that he forced her to do (be it forced physically or mentally). The moment she started doing her own thing, she stopped being Harley, and the moment she became a child-killing mass murderer she stopped being sympathetic.

This is DC we're talking about, the characters aren't people, they are ideas given names. Just like Joker doesn't work as a star in his own comic line that isn't a miniseries because he NEEDS batman on a conceptual level, she needs Joker to the point where outside of a limited series you just can't make her work.

This is what I hated most about Nu52 (the list of reasons is long) they ditched everything which made the characters who they are and replaced them with someone who doesn't look anything like the characters used to and acts as such, who is said character in name only. The fact that the best character to come out of the 90s is on the list is depressing.

 

[Zontar]

Snip

Well personally I hate it. The changes that have been made have turned her into a completely different character who isn't Harley. One of the biggest problems DC has is the fact that all the characters, being the embodiment of an idea or a concept, can't be changed too much without them no longer being said character.

Harley's situation was one that everyone could identify with, and with it being DC it was taken to the extremes for the worst with her character. The undying, unquestioned love and the constant rejection driving her to madness is something more then a few of us can identify with. Her being infected by the same chemicals which brought down what little we knew about Joker's backstory and have it be part of hers as well? Not so much. That easy of identification is the reason she went from a one-joke character in Batman: TAS into one of the most popular DC characters, and taking everything which made her Harley and throwing it out the window, well, had it not been for Redhood and the Outlaws that would be the thing which pissed me off most about Nu52.

 

[FPLOON]

Huh... I don't know if I should question why Raven looks more like a "raven"... or if that new look should remind me of Witchblade?

Regardless, it looks cool, I guess... and it's not like we don't have the old Raven look to always fall back on...

 

[KR4U55]

I think the feathers are a great idea, but the stupid helmet/cloak is....stupid. Also the gray skintight thing with the feather bikini is very weird. The re-design would be great if they ditched those.

Also I haven't read any of the New 52 Teen Titans. As far as I know is kinda fun but meh sometimes.

 

[Cybylt]

"I'm a bird. Caw."

I can totally see the lady Femto thing someone mentioned before.

My thought afterwards was wondering if her nipples face sideways, because that's a super wide cut scale-leotard... thing.

 

[mecegirl]

Where the hell are her nipples? That costume makes very little anatomical sense to me. Why did raven need to turn into the fetish painting of someone who's been watching too many tool videos? The character design in of it's self is not objectively 'bad' it just isn't raven. In a different universe (one with nipples in it) it could work for a different character.

Oh you. Didn't you know? Nipples don't exist in superhero comic book land.

(Yay anatomy fail!)

 

[Mangod]

..I actually like the look of new Raven.

I'll freely admit that the new design isn't bad, but it's not Raven. I'm reminded of JLA: Act of God; the redesign isn't terrible, but it's not what the characters should look like.

Those people in the forefront? From left to right; Red Devil, Justice, The Hand and The Green Man... or as they are more commonly known, The Flash, Supergirl, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. The new designs aren't bad, but they should have been entirely new characters, not an old character that's been changed for the sake of change.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I think it is amusing that everyone's love of a character is skin deep. Change the costume and they somehow lose all interest in a character when it shouldn't matter at all.
I should add though that I don't read comics anymore. However I find the idea of fans just wanting more of the same endlessly to be kind of weird. What is wrong with doing something different? Do you really want to see/read the same thing over and over again until the end of time?