Raven #6 Review

Writer: Marv Wolfman / Artist: Diogenes Neves / DC Comics We reached the finale of Raven and feel like we’ve come a long way, having seen her begin skeptical of her distant relatives as an adoptee in a foreign-feeling home, to setting out to save one member’s life in what feels like the ultimate stakes despite the literal thousands of others trapped in the peril of losing their souls. The stakes are in fact high for all of San Francisco, but the emotional pull comes from two other places: Raven’s determination to save Mary-Beth, but also Raven’s ability to find the strength to defeat the white, soul-sucking “thing” without losing herself to the evil buried inside her. We left issue #6 with her questioning in climactic fashion if she needs to be evil to do good, as the evil inside her is her greatest source of strength, and we find that answer in even better climactic fashion here. After finally entering the “thing” she is knocked unconscious, repeatedly, where she wakes back up again with no memory of the previous battle, and the build of those scenes as Raven struggles to psychologically spar with her unknown enemy is incredible.

Raven is at her scariest when she’s angry and her most endearing when she’s desperate; Raven’s character has an honesty you have to love, making you root for her each step of the way. We see both the anger and desperation though replaced by unity, a new source of strength lent to her figuratively and literally that rivals the power of her buried ev…