Trigon (comics)

Trigon
250x450px Trigon, art by George Pérez
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The New Teen Titans #2 (February 1981)
Created by	Marv Wolfman (writer) George Pérez (artist)
In-story information
Species	Demon
Place of origin	Hell
Team affiliations	Church of Blood
Notable aliases	Skaath, Ddrez, Devil, Trigon the Terrible, Trigon the Ravager

Trigon is a demon, a comic book character published by DC Comics. Trigon first appeared in New Teen Titans #2 (February 1981) and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

He is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, having enslaved many universes.

Fictional character biography

A sadistic, cruel, and powerful demon of inter-dimensional origin, Trigon is a result of the mating between a female member of a mystic sect and the god they worshiped. 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 six, he destroyed an entire planet. And by the age of thirty, he held dominion over millions of worlds in his dimension. 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 Satanic 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. Soon impregnated by Trigon, Arella discovered Trigon's true nature. When Trigon leaves Arella, Arella is 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" in order to suppress and control the demonic powers she inherited from Trigon. During this time, Trigon was aware of his daughter's whereabouts, but rarely intervened, except when a renegade monk of the cult 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 at present.

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 in order 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.

Sons of Trigon

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

In Titans vol. 2, #1, Raven states that Trigon has returned and is responsible for the recent attacks on past and present members of the Teen Titans. The cause of his resurrection from the dead has not been revealed. It is revealed in issue #3 that attacks by rival demons have spread Trigon's forces too thinly and left him desperately weak, which forces him to renew his attack on our dimension in hopes of creating a new power base. Jacob, Jared and Jesse, three of Trigon's sons, turn up in Titans #4. They have the key part in his return to life. Issue #3 also reveals that these new children have the ability to induce the seven deadly sins in any living being; the children in #3 induce wrath (Jared), lust (Jacob) and envy (Jesse). In Titans #4, they attempt to open the portal to Trigon's realm, but betray their father and steal what little power Trigon had left (an action that Trigon is actually proud of). The trio leave, thinking they have gained great power, and Trigon is left trapped in his realm. The three return a short time later, in Titans #5, corrupting their half-sister and turning her to their side. However, they are defeated by Raven and the Titans.

The New 52

Trigon makes his post-Flashpoint debut in issue one of the Phantom Stranger, as a part of the Third Wave of The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe). 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/Rachael Roth to him, in turn to spare Earth from his armies that were ready to search the Earth for her, having already destroyed Azerath years ago. In The New 52 it has been revealed that Trigon has at least four children, where Raven is the youngest, her older brothers are named Belial, Ruskoff and Suge. With Belial being the oldest and most civilized, according to himself, of the three brothers.

Later, Trigon returns to Earth, feeling confident in having swayed Raven to his side during their time together in the Under-Realms where time flows differently. It has been revealed that Trigon is the ruler of six kingdoms known as the Under-Realms, a collective title for the planets and dimensions under his rule and that he has grown bored with 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 under the rule of Raven, who he believes will mold them all in her own image, something only she can do as she has the capacity to love, something Trigon cannot.

As part of DC Villains month, Trigon will replace the Teen Titans as main character in their book for one issue named #23.1 with Deathstroke taking over #23.2. The Teen Titans book will then resume publishing after Villains Month has concluded. Though unconfirmed, the Villains Month event, leaves Trigons 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 planets inhabitants. As they had done billions of times before, they sentence him and his two guards to the Heart of Darkness, that would feed on their evils. However, they were horrified when the stranger not only resisted, but consumed the Heart of Darkness, along with the evils of a billion worlds, which heralded the true birth of Trigon. Now driven by insatiable hunger for evil, Trigon now moves slowly from universe to universe, spreading his devastating brand of evil in order to sate a hunger that knows no end.

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 a 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 endure it, leaving Trigon with only three sons, all of whom he considers failures. Then, one day, he is brought a human from Earth known as Arella, who gives him his first daughter; Raven, the most powerful of Trigons children, and the reason why Trigon now targets Earth for conquest.

Powers and abilities

Trigon is pure evil and a powerful demon. He's shown to be capable of immortality, energy projection, telepathy, size-shifting, super strength, virtual invulnerability, reality manipulation, telekinesis, and matter transmutation and matter manipulation. He was able to reshape the entire planet Earth on a whim; had drained the souls of millions of worlds; was seemingly omniscient; granted powerful psionic powers to Psimon; and could create hordes of demons under his command, as well as open wormholes to other worlds. In addition, Trigon was easily able to defeat the Teen Titans and the Justice League. Trigon can also take on a human form to deceive others. In this form, he appears as an attractive and muscular man with blonde hair and glowing gold eyes.

The Children of Trigon each wield the power of a Deadly Sin bestowed as a gift from their father. Jared unleashes anger and wrath in his opponents. Jesse sees into the mind of his victims and transforms himself into the thing they envy most as well as taking on said envy's powers and abilities to add to his own. Jacob invokes lust into the hearts of his prey. Raven also possesses this power, and is capable of inducing pride; however, doing so will leave her sick and nauseated for several days. It isn't clear whether this is caused by the demonic power itself or by her revulsion towards using it.

In other media

Television

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Trigon as seen in the Teen Titans animated series.

Trigon appears in the Teen Titans animated series voiced by Keith Szarabajka (in the first season) and by Kevin Michael Richardson (in the fourth season). He serves as the main antagonist of the fourth season. More or less the same as his comic counterpart, he is evil incarnate and probably the most terrible threat the Teen Titans face. He possesses vast reality manipulation powers, enabling him to reshape the surface of the Earth on a whim, revive the dead (either as superpowered undead servants or flesh and blood), and rip the fabric of space to transport his army across vast distances. He can bring a person's inner darkness to life, creating an exact replica of that person, down to their powers and memories. He also possesses more generic superhuman abilities such as firing energy blasts, creating forcefields, and pyrokinesis (control of fire) [the latter of which he can impart to his servants]. In the season one episode "Nevermore", he first appears unnamed and as a manifestation of anger within Raven's mind. As the main antagonist in the fourth season, Trigon reappears with a different appearance. Trigon resurrects Slade Wilson to force Raven into releasing him upon the Earth. In the three-part finale "The End", Trigon finally emerges and destroys the Earth; the Teen Titans are spared by a fraction of Raven's power before releasing Trigon. The Titans and Slade launch an all-out assault on Trigon, but are ultimately too weak to defeat him. In the end, it is Raven (in her White form) that defeats Trigon using her own strengthened mystical abilities of pure light to obliterate Trigon, undoing the destruction he had caused in the process. It has been mentioned by the show's writers that Trigon was a nightmare of a villain to them due to his near-omnipotent powers, meaning that realistically the Teen Titans would stand no chance against the villain if he attacked them. The original 'Terror of Trigon' story contained a solution due to the writers also being faced with the same problem and the show adapted it from the comics.

Trigon appears in the New Teen Titans shorts, with Kevin Michael Richardson reprising his role. In one short, he arrives at Titans Tower to visit Raven. When Raven tries to shut the door on him, Trigon sticks his huge fingernail in the door's way and gives Raven a stuffed bunny. Raven uses her powers to chop off his fingernail so the door will close and then uses her powers to tear the stuffed bunny to pieces.

Trigon appears in the Teen Titans Go! series, voiced again by Kevin Michael Richardson, with no connection to the original Teen Titans series. This version of Trigon is portrayed as being a bumbling dad who wants what's best for his daughter, which is for her to accept her demon heritage and join him in destroying universes. The Teen Titans didn't know that Trigon was Raven's father before his debut in "Dog Hand". Trigon's appearances have a reoccurring theme of tempting Raven to embrace her demonic heritage: buttering up his daughter's team mates by giving them new super powers in "Dog Hand", making Raven jealous by bonding with Starfire in "Caramel Apples", and literally getting in his daughter's head to drive insane in "Crazy Day".

Video games

Trigon is featured in DC Universe Online. He and his forces find their way to Earth and end up attacking Metropolis' Tomorrow District. He even takes control of Raven in a plot to destroy the city and captures the other Titan members Starfire, Cyborg, Nightwing and Donna Troy while corrupting them. When the players free the possessed Titans, Trigon's hold on Raven gets stronger, causing the players and the Titans to split up to find Raven. With help from Zatanna, the players end up heading into the portal to Raven's soul self where Trigon uses Raven's possessed spirit to attack the players. After helping Raven fight the last Possessed Raven Spirit, Trigon's evil escapes to Earth. While being brought into Earth by Brother Blood, Trigon then sends his demon minions to corrupt the citizens based on some of the Seven Deadly Sins. Brother Blood's plans to bring Trigon to Earth were thwarted by the players and the Sentinels of Magic. He is served by Demons, Embodiments of Sin, Soul Reavers, Soul Screams, Soul Shadows, Soul Strikers, Possessed Students, and Volatile Succubi. Alternately if you choose the Villain morality, you can help Brother Blood by entering Raven's psyche and destroying her resistance to Trigon which causes him to be unleashed through Raven.

Trigon is also a main element in the DLC Pack "Sons of Trigon", in which players are taking to an alternate dimension in which Gotham has become a wasteland and Circe is trying to release Trigon from his prison. Players fight Circe or Wonder Woman in the alert "Trigon´s Prison" in which Trigon himself is a scenery element that, although impossible to damage, will attack the players and summon demons until either boss (Circe or Wonder Woman) has been defeated. The game also shows the other sons of Trigon: Julius (gluttony), James (greed), Jared (lust) and Jack (sloth).

Trigon appears as a non-playable character in Injustice: Gods Among Us as assistance to Raven's super move. During Wonder Woman's fight with the alternate version of Raven, it is mentioned that the alternate iteration of Superman's victory will hasten Trigon's return. Trigon can also be fought against in the S.T.A.R. Labs missions, making him one of the only unplayable bosses. In addition to these, Trigon also makes an appearance in Scorpion's ending of classic battle where he had summoned Scorpion to the DC Universe.

Miscellaneous

Raven's mental image of Trigon also made an appearance in Teen Titans Go! #5.