Trigon (comics)

Trigon (/ˈtraɪɡən/) is a supervillain appearing in media published by DC Comics. He is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, having enslaved many worlds and dimensions. He is an adversary of the Teen Titans and the Justice League, the father and arch-enemy of the superhero Raven, and husband of the human Arella.

Not to be confused with the Yasuhiro Nightow manga Trigun.
Trigon
Artwork for the cover of Teen Titans #23.4 (November 2013).
Art by Eber Ferreira and Eddy Barrows
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceNew Teen Titans #2 (December 1980) (cameo)
The New Teen Titans #4 (February 1981) (full appearance)
Created byMarv Wolfman (writer)
George Pérez (artist)
In-story information
SpeciesDemon
Place of originHell
Team affiliationsChurch of Blood
Notable aliasesSkath
Ddrez
Evil
Trigon the Terrible
Trigon the Ravager
The Lord of Madness
Lord Trigon
King Trigon
Master Trigon
Abilities
See list
    • Demonic physiology
    • Superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, senses, durability, and intelligence
    • Dimensional travel
    • Flight
    • Immortality
    • Shapeshifting
    • Teleportation
    • Electromagnetic spectrum vision
    • Regeneration
    • Molecular manipulation
    • Spiritual manipulation
    • Weather manipulation
    • Pyrokinesis
    • Telekinesis
    • Telepathy
    • Master swordsman
    • Superpower bestowal

Trigon has appeared in several DC Comics-related media, such as Teen Titans (voiced by Keith Szarabajka in the first season and Kevin Michael Richardson in the fourth) and Titans (portrayed by Seamus Dever in the first two seasons and by Craig Burnatowski in the fourth).

Publication history

Trigon first appeared in a cameo in New Teen Titans #2 (December 1980) and his first full appearance is New Teen Titans #4.[1] He was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.[2]

Fictional character biography

A sadistic, cruel, dangerous, and powerful demon of inter and extra-dimensional origin, Trigon is a result of the mating between a female member of a mystic sect and the god they worshipped.[3] A side effect of this pairing is that their child was filled with the cast-off evil energies of the inhabitants of Azarath, forming him into their personification. At birth, Trigon killed everyone around him (including his own mother); at the age of one, he ruled an entire planet, and at the age of six, he destroyed an entire planet. By the age of 30, he held dominion over millions of worlds in his dimension.[4] There is some confusion regarding the origins of Trigon, as he claims to have existed as formless energy since the beginning of his own universe, while the energies cast off by Azar and Azarath simply allowed him to take physical form roughly a thousand years before DC's present day.

Arella was a depressed woman who decided to join a cult known as the Church of Blood that was trying to kill Trigon. When the ritual was performed, Trigon, disguised as a handsome male, emerged and married Arella. After making love, Arella discovered Trigon's true nature after seeing his true form. Trigon sends Arella back to Earth, and Arella is pregnant and on the brink of suicide when she is found by an extra-dimensional cult and is brought to Azarath, where she gives birth to their daughter Raven. Raven is brought up to "control her emotions" to suppress and control the demonic powers she inherited from Trigon.[5][6] During this time, Trigon was aware of his daughter's whereabouts, but rarely intervened, except when a renegade monk named Juris attempted to cast Raven as an infant into another dimension to avert her potential threat; Trigon struck him down at the moment of the deed, and allowed the cult to keep her safe for the time being.

Raven learned of Trigon's intentions to conquer the Earth and vowed to stop him; she initially approached the Justice League, but they refused her on the advice of Zatanna, who sensed her demonic parentage. In desperation, she reformed the Teen Titans with several new members to fight her father. The team was eventually able to defeat Trigon and seal him in an interdimensional prison. However, Raven still had to fight her father's influence as he was not completely destroyed.

Trigon eventually escaped and came to Earth, taking control of Raven and destroying Azarath in the process. The Titans came together and tried to fight Trigon, but were contaminated by his demonic influence and killed Raven; this allowed the souls of Azarath to possess her and use her as a channel to kill Trigon - the demonic possession had been part of a plan to defeat Trigon, as the Titans would never have killed Raven on their own — blasting him out of existence with a beam of purifying light. Although Trigon is gone, his followers (led by Brother Blood) have tried to revive him several times.[7][8]

The Sons of Trigon
Three of Trigon's sons. Left to right: Jesse, Jared, and Jacob. Artwork from Titans (vol. 2) #3 (2008).

Raven notices that Trigon has returned and is responsible for the recent attacks on past and present members of the Teen Titans.[9] The cause of his resurrection from the dead has not been revealed, but the motive for these renewed attack is that a war with rival demons has spread Trigon's forces too thinly and left him desperately weak, which forces him to turn his focus on Earth in hopes of creating a new power base.[10]

Three of Trigon's sons, Jacob, Jared and Jesse, play a significant role in his return to life. The brothers have the ability to induce the seven deadly sins in any living being: they can induce wrath (Jared), lust (Jacob) and envy (Jesse).[11] They attempt to open the portal to Trigon's realm, but then betray their father and steal what little power he has left; this actually makes Trigon proud of them for proving to be just as evil as he is.[11] The trio leave, thinking they have gained great power, and Trigon is left trapped in his realm.[11] However, the three brothers then return and corrupt their half-sister, making her their ally.[12] Eventually, they are defeated by Raven and the Titans.[12]

The New 52

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Trigon makes his post-Flashpoint debut in issue #1 of the Phantom Stranger.[13] In this incarnation, Trigon has an extra set of eyes, giving him six in total. He has struck a bargain with the Stranger to return his offspring Raven (living under the assumed name of Rachel Roth) to him; in return, he pledges to spare Earth from his armies that were ready to search the Earth for her, having already destroyed Azarath years ago. In The New 52, it is revealed that Trigon has at least four children, where Raven is the youngest. Her older brothers are named Belial, Ruskoff, and Suge; Belial is the oldest and most civilized, according to himself, of the three brothers.[14]

Later, Trigon returns to Earth, feeling confident in having swayed Raven to his side during their time together in his demonic realm, where time flows differently. Trigon is shown to be the ruler of six kingdoms known as the Under-Realms, a collective title for the planets and dimensions he conquered, although he has since grown bored with the dull responsibilities of ruling them. At first, he ruled through his own power, then through conquest on the battlefield and finally through subterfuge. His ultimate goal is to unite all seven realms and pass the mantle of leadership to Raven, whom he believes will mold them all in her own image, something only she can do as she has the capacity to love, an emotion Trigon cannot feel or comprehend.

As part of DC Villains Month, Trigon replaced the Teen Titans as the main characters in their book for one issue named #23.1, with Deathstroke taking over #23.2. The Teen Titans book resumed publishing after Villains Month concluded. Though unconfirmed, the Villains Month event leaves Trigon's origins in question. Long ago, in another universe, a trinity of beings called the Divine attempted to eradicate the concept of evil through an item known as the Heart of Darkness. When the Divine return to a world they believed liberated, they find it in utter chaos along with the being they believe to be responsible, only because he appears not to be one of the planet's inhabitants. As they had done billions of times before, they sentence him and his two guards to the Heart of Darkness, hoping that it would consume the evil within them. However, they were horrified when the stranger not only resisted but consumed the Heart of Darkness, absorbing the evils of a billion worlds, and mutating into the being that would become known as Trigon. Now driven by an insatiable hunger for evil, Trigon moves slowly from universe to universe, spreading corruption and sin among the worlds he finds to sate a hunger that knows no end.[15]

Much later, Trigon encounters a woman wearing a suit of armor specifically crafted to counter his immense powers. Though neither is able to slay the other, Trigon is forced to retreat, swearing that members of his blood would return in their thousands to destroy the wearer of the Silent Armor. Trigon has since set his plans into action, only to run into the problem of most of the mothers of his children being unable to survive mating with him, leaving Trigon with only three sons, all of whom he considers failures. Then, one day, he is brought a human woman from Earth, Arella, who gives him his first daughter Raven, the most powerful of Trigon's children, and the reason why Trigon now targets Earth for conquest.

During the DC Rebirth event, Trigon was killed by Bizarro.[16]

Powers and abilities

Trigon is one of the most powerful demonic beings in the DC universe. He possesses Superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, senses, durability, and intelligence. Trigon is strong enough to gut Ares, the God of War, and knock around the members of Superman's Regime, fast enough to keep up with the likes of Superman and Flash and is virtually impervious to most methods of attack having shrugged off attacks from the Teen Titans and reality-warping imp Mister Mxyzptlk. He can fly, teleport himself and others to various locations, and even break through the barriers of other universes with enough power. His common methods of attack are his energy and hellfire blasts. His energy blasts are powerful enough to one-shot both the Teen Titans and the Justice League and his hellfire blasts were strong enough to burn Mister Mxyzptlk. He also likes to attack his enemies with energy blasts fired from his eyes. He's also extremely skilled at using telekinesis, being able to use it on such a scale that he can manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe and distort the space-time continuum. He can additionally manipulate matter, transmute elements, and warp reality to the point where he's been able to effortlessly turn the Earth and all its inhabitants into stone, bring people back to life as skeletons, and dissipate the atoms of his minion Psimon through light while still allowing him to remain conscious. Trigon can also create, summon, and materialize dark energy, shape-shift and manipulate his size to become as tall as a skyscraper or as small as the average man. Being a Demon, Trigon also has a habit of devouring souls but has once devoured the souls of an entire universe on a massive scale. Also in the New 52, Trigon devoured the evil Heart of Darkness artifact which causes him to be hungry for evil and allows him to grow stronger in the presence of evil energies or beings by feeding on their evil. He's also a master of sorcery, being able to fire blasts of mystical eldritch energy at opponents, mind control thousands of beings, cast powerful illusions, and even temporarily or permanently grant other beings with superpowers like the time he transformed an ordinary guy into someone with vast psychic powers. When Trigon gets hurt, he has a powerful healing factor to fall back on, which allows him to regenerate from virtually nothing, though the speed at which he can heal is unknown. Alongside this, his mind is unblocked to the entire universe meaning he has extensive knowledge of events before they happen and often knows his opponent's next move before said enemy even decides it and is aware of practically everything that is going on in the plane of existence he's in thanks to his upper eyes. So, he essentially is Omniscient.

Other versions
  • In the DC Bombshells continuity, Das Trigon was a primal mountain spirit in the German Alps who had a change of heart after his lover Azaria gave birth to his daughter, Rachel. After Azaria's death, Trigon reverts to his monotonous ways and accepts Killer Frost's offer for a place in their new world. Raven has visions of her father's horrendous actions and confronts him in Russia, where he was one of the mythological creatures working for Captain Cold. Raven offers her father a chance at redemption as he aids her in confronting Faora. Faora kills Trigon, resulting in Raven's magic becoming unstable and transforming her into a demonic beast. As she calms down, Faora injects herself with a sample of Raven's unstable demonic blood to become Doomsday.
  • Trigon makes appearances in Tiny Titans as Raven's father and occasional substitute teacher. This version of Trigon is depicted as a silly, bumbling, but devoted father who often walks Raven to school. He enjoys skating wearing silly wigs, barbecuing if he can get the grill going, spending time with Raven and a toddler Kid Devil and he also enjoys surfing with Principal Slade from the school when they leave Lunchlady Darkseid in charge.

In other media

Television
Trigon as he appears in Teen Titans (2003).
  • Trigon appears in Teen Titans (2003), voiced by Keith Szarabajka in the first season and by Kevin Michael Richardson in the fourth season. This version possesses vast reality manipulation powers, the ability to revive the dead, manifest victims' inner darkness into an evil copy of them with their memories and powers if applicable, the ability to fire energy blasts, create force fields, and pyrokinesis. Due to these abilities making him near-omnipotent, Trigon was a nightmare to work with according to the series' writers, which led to them adapting the "Terror of Trigon" storyline since its writers faced a similar problem and were able to devise a solution. Following a minor appearance in the episode "Nevermore", in which a mental projection of Trigon representing Raven's anger appears in her mind, Trigon proper appears in the fourth season, in which he resurrects and tasks Slade with forcing Raven to release him. In the three-part season finale "The End", Trigon destroys Earth, though Raven secretly saves the Teen Titans, whom Slade joins in fighting Trigon after being betrayed by him. They mount an assault against Trigon until Robin rescues Raven, allowing her to obliterate him and undo his destruction.
  • Trigon appears in the "New Teen Titans" segment of DC Nation Shorts, voiced again by Kevin Michael Richardson.
  • Trigon appears in Teen Titans Go! (2013), voiced again by Kevin Michael Richardson. This version is a bumbling father figure who wants what is best for his daughter, which involves her accepting her demon heritage and joining him in destroying universes.
  • Trigon appears in Titans, portrayed by Seamus Dever in the first two seasons and voiced and motion-captured by Craig Burnatowski in the fourth season. This version created the "Organization" to locate his daughter Rachel Roth. In pursuit of his quest, he traps Dick Grayson in an illusionary world where Batman kills his enemies to make the former embrace his inner darkness and breaks Roth's will by making her believe her friends had beat Gar Logan to death. With Roth under his control, Trigon starts to destroy Earth until Gar helps Roth break his control, save Grayson, and defeat her father before sealing him in a small jewel. In the fourth season, the Church of Blood release Trigon so their leader Brother Blood can steal his heart and drink his blood.

Film
  • Trigon appears in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) film Justice League vs. Teen Titans, voiced by Jon Bernthal.[17] This version can create and send demons to possess others, such as Ra's al Ghul, and created Lazarus Pits. Trigon battles the Teen Titans and Justice League until they join forces to defeat him, with Raven sealing him in a crystal shard.
  • The Teen Titans Go! (2013) and Teen Titans (2003) incarnations of Trigon appear in Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, both voiced again by Kevin Michael Richardson. The former disguises himself as the "Master of Games" (voiced by Rhys Darby) to pit their respective versions of the Teen Titans against each other and use the battle to absorb his version of Raven's powers so he can resurrect his 2003 counterpart and join forces to conquer the multiverse. However, 2003 Trigon berates and belittles his 2013 counterpart, causing the latter to absorb him and transform into Hexagon. With help from their counterparts from throughout the multiverse, the two Titans groups take Raven's powers back, destroy the 2003 Trigon, and trap 2013 Trigon in a zombie-infested universe.
  • Trigon appears in the DCAMU film Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, voiced by John DiMaggio. Despite his imprisonment, he helps Raven survive Darkseid's invasion and destruction of Earth, gradually weakening her in the process. After Robin dies trying to save Batman, Raven's anger frees Trigon, who possesses Superman, kills John Constantine, and battles Darkseid until Superman breaks free upon witnessing Lois Lane's death. Raven and a revived Constantine combine their powers to restore Trigon's physical form and power so he can continue fighting Darkseid, giving them and their allies time to escape while Cyborg sacrifices himself to send Trigon and Darkseid through a Boom Tube and into oblivion.

Video games
  • Trigon appears as a playable character in Teen Titans (2006).
  • Trigon appears in DC Universe Online. This version is served by Demons, Embodiments of Sin, Soul Reavers, Soul Screams, Soul Shadows, Soul Strikers, Possessed Students, and Volatile Succubi. Additionally, the Sons of Trigon appear via a self-titled DLC, consisting of Jared, who possesses Jacob's powers, and game-original characters James, who can induce greed; Jack, who can induce sloth; and Julius, who can induce gluttony.
  • Trigon makes cameo appearances in Injustice: Gods Among Us.[18] He appears in Raven's non-canonical arcade mode ending, in which she inadvertently summons him while defeating High Councilor Superman; Scorpion's ending, in which Trigon summons the revenant under the belief that the former betrayed him, only to be killed by Scorpion; and as a boss in the S.T.A.R. Labs side missions.
  • Trigon appears in Teeny Titans.
  • Trigon appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Darin De Paul.

Miscellaneous
  • The Sons of Trigon appear in Smallville Season 11: Harbinger.
  • Raven's mental projection of Trigon appears in Teen Titans Go! (2004) #5.
  • A human character based on Trigon called Father Roger Trigon appears in the Arrow tie-in novel Arrow: Vengeance. This version is the founder and head priest of the Church of Blood and the head of Starling City's Zandia Orphanage who personally recruited Sebastian Blood and Cyrus Gold before dying prior to the events of Arrow's second season, with Blood taking over the Church of Blood and Gold the orphanage.
  • Trigon appears in DC Super Hero Girls, voiced again by Kevin Michael Richardson. This version is more forgiving than other incarnations, allowing Raven to attend Super Hero High and eventually taking part in various parent boards and activities as well.
  • Trigon appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic.

References
  1. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. The New Teen Titans #2
  3. Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 351–352. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  4. New Teen Titans #6. DC Comics.
  5. New Teen Titans #6. DC Comics.
  6. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  7. Teen Titans #8. DC Comics.
  8. Teen Titans #10. DC Comics.
  9. Titans (vol. 2) #1. DC Comics.
  10. Titans (vol. 2) #3. DC Comics.
  11. Titans (vol. 2) #4. DC Comics.
  12. Titans (vol. 2) #5. DC Comics.
  13. Phantom Stranger #1. DC Comics.
  14. Phantom Stranger #2. DC Comics.
  15. Teen Titans (vol. 3) #23.1-23.2. DC Comics.
  16. Red Hood: Outlaw #47. DC Comics.
  17. Sands, Rich (January 18, 2016). "Roll Call: Meet the Cast of Justice League vs. Teen Titans". TVInsider.com. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  18. Jenkins, David (March 19, 2013). "Injustice: Gods Among Us preview and interview – superhero kombat". Metro. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
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