| “ | You don't know how long I've waited for this. I finally get to kill the Titans. | „ |
| ~ Terra |
| “ | You better dig down and find something inside yourself, or you are going to be eaten alive in here. | „ |
| ~ Terra |
Tara Markov, better known as Terra, is a supporting character in the DC Comics universe, originating from the Teen Titans comic series.
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 the 2003 cartoon and 2017 film Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.
Personality[]
In the comic book series, she is a hero-loathing malignant narcissist. She mostly hid a vindictive, hateful, dark personality, possibly stemming 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.
Geo-Force had also stated that Terra acquired her powers over a year before he did.[1]
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 Accelerated Healing: She can immerse herself in the earth and waves of lava and magma or produce sand to heal himself from grave wounds.
Biography[]
Past[]
Terra's doppelgänger/clone, Terra II
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.
Attempting to Kill Changeling[]
Terra’s mission, for the most part, goes smoothly. She becomes closer to the Teen Titans to the point that almost everyone on the team (except Raven) considers her trustworthy and reveals their identities. Afterwards, both Kid Flash (Wally West) and Robin (Dick Grayson) left the team for different reasons. Having lost two of their members (including Robin, the team leader), Donna Troy becomes the new leader of the team until Dick Grayson creates a new identity for himself. Even so, Deathstroke’s old friend Wintergreen becomes suspicious that Terra will decide to betray Deathstroke, although Deathstroke himself harbors no such doubts. Despite Terra's acceptance among the rest of the Teen Titans, Raven reveals that she has always sensed "corruptness" and "a feeling of inner evil" in Terra. But Raven is uncertain of her perceptions, wondering if perhaps it is Trigon's evil she senses or some other evil entity within her. While Terra learns much of their capabilities, she still believes herself to be far stronger.
Although Deathstroke never believed that Terra would side with the Teen Titans against him, his concern is about her sociopathy. His apprehension proves to be warranted, since Terra nearly blows her cover during a duel with Changeling, intended only for training purposes. During the course of their battle, Changeling repeatedly taunts her, eventually provoking her to a fit of rage. She attempts to kill Changeling, but is prevented due by the others. Quickly regaining control of herself, Terra then makes up a story claiming that she suffered a flashback and was attempting to kill the terrorists who had blackmailed her into working for them. Raven offers to use her empathic abilities to learn what troubles her, but Terra, keenly aware of Raven's suspicions about her, refuses to cooperate.
Revealing Her True Colors and Death[]
Dick Grayson was attacked in his civilian identity a few days later by Deathstroke, who was attempting to capture him. Although no match for Deathstroke, Dick manages to escape then goes to check on his teammates. Returning to Titans Tower, 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 (adopting his new identity as Nightwing) goes to rescue his teammates from the H.I.V.E. headquarters with the aid of now Jericho.
While successful in penetrating the H.I.V.E. complex, Nightwing and Jericho are captured. When presented to Deathstroke and the organization in general, Jericho possessed his father when the latter recognizes him as his son and frees the Titans, who then attacked the H.I.V.E. Not knowing of Jericho's powers, Terra believes Deathstroke to have turned against her. In retaliation, she goes berserk. Although the misunderstanding is cleared, Terra is still murderously furious at Deathstroke for going "soft" with love for his son. Attempting to stop her rampage, Changeling shape-shifts into a small fly, then flew into her eye as a way to distract her. This finally pushes her over the edge as she pulled the whole H.I.V.E. complex down upon herself while trying to kill the Titans. While the Titans manage to avoid the destruction, Terra is killed, having buried herself under the rubble. Despite the discovery of her true intentions of joining them, a statue of her is placed in the memorial in Titans Tower. Her true activities are 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 Markov a.k.a. Geo Force later meet Batman who reveals the truth behind her death and true agenda in an issue of "Batman and the Outsiders". This prompts 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.
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract[]
A year after the Trigon incident, Terra had been a new addition to the Titans during that year. She is standoffish and tends to insult her teammates, especially Beast Boy due to his affections, yet Starfire still works to make her feel welcome. During a training match, Beast Boy hugs her as a snake, which triggers a traumatic memory that leads to her almost killing him with her powers. None of the team are upset, offering compassion for her episode, which aggravates her due to her past of facing fear because of her abilities, thus she can't understand their kindness.
One night, the Titans Tower experiences tectonic disturbances, which is caused by Terra's nightmares making her powers go wild; the rest of the team wake her, and Raven attempts to calm her mind, but Terra refuses to be touched.
During a walk through the city, Terra senses the vibrations from Robin's footsteps along the roofs, so she confronts him on the roof. Robin tries to use his own example to explain that the Titans will accept her and help her overcome her trauma. Before the debate can continue, Deathstroke interrupts and attacks Robin; due to his empowerment from the Lazarus Pits, Deathstroke has the upperhand. While Robin almost gains the advantage, Terra uses her powers to knock him down and restrain him, during which she reveals her alliance with Deathstroke, to the rage of Robin. Due to Robin's typically antisocial manner, the other Titans aren't suspicious of his absence.
In Deathstrokes headquarters, Terra approaches him in a nightie, attempting to seduce him, but he rebuffs her advances, although reassures her that they will be together once the contract is complete, with the job capturing the Titans for cult and HIVE leader, Brother Blood.
When Terra is brooding by the beach around the Tower, she is joined by Beast Boy; he continues trying to reach her, but she counters by confessing her origins, with the manifestation of her powers frightening her parents, with the villagers of her home hunting her down and trying to kill her. Beast Boy offers sympathies, then noting all of the traumas in every team member, yet noting that they are able to help and accept each other, which allowed them have good lives in spite of their pasts. Beast Boy also explains that he believes the pain can actually make a hero even greater. Terra and Beast Boy kiss; Beast Boy jumps for joy, changing into different flying and jumping animals to express his happiness. Via her earpiece, Deathstroke congratulates Terra for a convincing "performance," which makes her sad due to her now conflicted loyalties.
Terra meets the trapped Robin in Deathstroke's headquarters, seemingly to convince herself that Deathstroke is the only future for her. Robin astutely deduces how Deathstroke exploited Terra's grief and manipulated her into obedience; her unstable mindset made Terra almost kill Robin, but she was interrupted by Deathstroke who reminds her they need the Titans alive.
Deathstroke creates booby traps that disable Beast Boy, Starfire, and Blue Beetle, while Terra ambushes Raven, knocking her out while she is off-guard; the mercenary fights Dick Grayson, but annoyed at how long it is going, he shoots Dick in the chest, who falls into the sea. Unbeknownst to Deathstroke, Dick had shielded his chest with thick knife board, and so he plans to retaliate and save his friends, as he changed into his Nightwing uniform.
When Terra is retrieving her possessions in her room in the Tower, Deathstroke startles her, however, he offers possibly manipulative understanding about how Terra feels attachment to the Titans because a year of deep cover would be long enough for anyone to become affectionate, although Terra denies this observation, seemingly more to reassure herself that her fraud and betrayal weren't awful decisions.
With all Titans barring Nightwing, Deathstroke believes the contract is complete, so he reveals Terra's allegiance to him to the group to taunt them; Beast Boy tries to appeal to her conscience, yet she rejects his attempts. Deathstroke expects payment, but Brother Blood refuses to pay since his power absorption machine won't work without six people, as such, Deathstroke allows Blood's second-in-command, Mother Mayhem, to shoot a tranquilizer dart at Terra, with Blood's men fitting her into the machine's final vacancy. Deathstroke irritably mentions that he should get a bonus due to providing not another peak human combatant, but a unique metahuman, which Blood honors with a higher payment.
While Deathstroke wants to leave, Brother Blood coerces him to stay to witness his ascension to what he believes to be godhood. The machine is activated, seeming to cause pain to the Titans and Terra, yet Blood feels elation as their powers and abilities transfer into him. Before the procedure is even halfway complete, Nightwing blows up the machine, freeing the prisoners, however, it was active long enough to give dangerous portions of power to Blood. Nightwing and Robin engage in battle against Deathstroke, while Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Blue Beetle fight Brother Blood.
Terra awakens and is enraged at Deathstroke's betrayal, so chaotically uses her powers to try to kill him; as collateral damage, she knocks down Brother Blood, whose limited gathering of power had already caused him to be at a disadvantage, but now is completely overwhelmed. Nightwing and Robin need to dodge as Terra hurls boulders at Deathstroke, who evades and attempts to placate her by claiming he was going to save her.
Brother Blood rants about his power, so Raven conjures a spell to show him true power, as the spell extracts all of the stolen abilities, as well as his own physical strength, leaving Blood an emaciated husk of his former self. Blood rants but now pleadingly about how he is destined for greatness, yet he is interrupted when Mother Mayhem shoots him in the head to spare her beloved his eternal life in prison.
Beast Boy tries to reach Terra, but out of remorse and shame, and likely to protect the one person she made a genuine intimate connection with, she builds a literal wall that prevents the Titans from reaching her at all; Deathstroke seems to accept his fate, as he falls into a rupture when Terra collapses the entire temple down on their heads.
After digging desperately through the rubble, Beast Boy finds Terra, but she is so injured by the debris that she is moments from death; Terra seems to show an expression of appreciation to him, but then dies in his arms.
On a podcast as a guest, Beast Boy comments that Terra was a complicated person who experienced a lot of suffering, yet at the end, she was a diamond - a hero at heart.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Tara Markov Clone (New Earth).jpg (153 KB)")
Trivia[]
- She was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.
References[]
- ↑ The New Teen Titans, v. 1, #37
External Links[]
- Terra on the Heroes Wiki
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