u/iamusingtheinternet3

I was just thinking about this because of the thing in the new Halloween anthology (Quoth the Raven... Whatever) where Constantine says he owes Trigon a soul, implying that he's entered some kind of classic demon deal with him where Trigon has done something for him, and in return Constantine must provide him with a human soul.

This doesn't make sense for multiple reasons. Most crucially, it's the first time anything like this has ever come up with Trigon. Of course, selling your soul to a demon/the devil is a trope that's literally over a thousand years old, but Trigon specifically has never been shown engaging in that kind of thing in canon. The closest thing I can think of is the deal he made to bring Slade back from the dead in the cartoon, but even that wasn't really a soul trade thing, and of course it's not canon in the comics.

Of course, sometimes new elements are added to comic characters (usually not by casually mentioning them in ten page anthology comics with no real context or reason for being there, but I digress). However, I would argue that Trigon being a demon who makes deals for souls actively doesn't make sense.

The reason for that is quite simple: while Trigon does eat mortal souls to gain power, he has so many of them that it's quite literally not worth his time to do something for one human to get one soul. He consumes the souls of a planet's worth of people when he destroys a planet, and he does this all the time. It's like offering a billionaire $100 to mow your lawn. Are there people out there who would mow your lawn for $100? Of course. But why would a billionaire waste their time doing it when they already have so much money that $100 would make no difference? Trigon's got more important shit to do than do a favor in exchange for one soul. He also just in general hates doing anything good or helpful, so that part of it would hold no appeal to him. The only soul he'd go out of his way to get and potentially be willing to make deals for is Raven's.

I make this post not really because of the Halloween anthology, but because it is a common misconception I see in fanon (that has now bled into something canon) and I wanted to outline why I think it just doesn't work for Trigon, even though this trope does work for other demon DC characters.

Really wanted to like it, but ugh. Even for a short anthology story where honestly, barely anything happened, it had multiple really weird moments with Raven. Spoiler warning, though honestly, it's ten pages, so there isn't much story to spoil.

• Why is Raven drawn looking so young, and acting kind of inexperienced, when she's canonically in her mid/late twenties and has been a superhero for a decade?
• In a similar vein, I didn't really get the "what would Dick do" bit when she's interrogating the suspects. Again, she's an experienced superhero--nearly as experienced as Dick! Idk, it wasn't the worst thing ever, and I can see her referring back to things Dick has taught her, but the way it was framed made her feel inexperienced, and the whole thing felt kind of unnecessary. Which brings me to my next point:
• Once again, this story falls into a very common Raven writing problem of people forgetting powers she's been well established to have since her debut. Raven can use her powers to pull information out of people's minds. She didn't even have to intimidate them, she could've just done that.
• I audibly groaned out loud when Trigon came up. And if you know me, you know I love Trigon and don't object to him being a villain in Raven stories nearly as much as a lot of other Raven fans. But he felt totally shoehorned in here, and his inclusion didn't really make sense. And of course, this speaks to another very common Raven writing problem: not knowing what her deal is beyond being Trigon's daughter.
• Which brings me to the ending. What does Constantine mean by "owing Trigon a soul"? Trigon has never been shown making those kind of devil deals with anyone. The closest thing I can think of is his deal with Amanda Waller in Titans 2023, but that wasn't a soul exchange, it was a pretty basic "you do this thing for me and I give you power" move. Otherwise I can't think of him ever making deals with humans in the comic continuity.
• But far more egregiously, Raven just being fine with Constantine giving a soul to Trigon is insane. Even though this is a bad guy who clearly deserves to be punished for his crimes, giving someone's soul to Trigon is far beyond cruel and unusual. Raven knows how evil Trigon is, and her whole mission in life is to stop him from hurting people. Obviously she wouldn't balk at bringing down a villain who's hurting people, but I can't believe she'd want to sentence them to an eternity of torture, especially if the torturer is Trigon.

Anthology stories with Raven are almost never good, and unfortunately this one did not break the mold. I normally wouldn't dedicate a whole post to it, but since this is the only thing with Raven coming out at all for the rest of the year, and the only thing with Raven that was scheduled at all, it was especially disappointing. She's officially in limbo now, and this is her last send off? Ugh.

This weekend, I travelled to Baltimore Comic Con, and was lucky enough to get to talk to Jason Aaron! I asked him if either of the women who’ve been speculated to be Raven were actually her.

Short answer: no, neither of them are her.

Long answer: the first woman is The Phantom Stranger. Where it gets more interesting, however, is he did confirm the second woman is a Trigon priestess! So Trigon is indirectly confirmed to exist in the Absolute universe. He said that there are no concrete plans to add Raven just yet, but he expects she will be added as more Titans characters are added to the universe.

You can read the entire thing here

Be as vague or specific as you like! (For example: a new mentor, a new relative, a new love interest, a new enemy, etc)

It can be anything, just something that (to the best of your knowledge) you came up with and haven’t seen anyone else echo.