Terra Appreciation-I'm not really bad, I was just written that way

[Rockym]

DC Forum Appreciation Thread rules:

1) No negative comments about the honoree of this thread. It's an appreciation thread, not a non-appreciation one.

2) No negative discussion about any competitors of the honoree of this thread (i.e. John Stewart in the Hal Jordan thread). No ifs, ands,
or buts. Find another non-appreciation thread to do that, just not here.

3) No negative comments about other versions of the character. For example, if you like the DCU version of Cyborg, but hate the DCnU
version (or visa versa), just appreciate the earlier version and keep your comments about the latter to yourself.

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We all know she was created back in the 80s for the New Teen Titans storyline and
miniseries, The Judas Contract. Yes, created to be evil as Marv Wolfman had stated,
and many fans seem to accept that and dismiss the character's evolution since then.



Even though she died in Judas Contract, she returned years later as a member of the
team from the future called "Team Titans". She was introduced as a clone of the original
Terra, but as things progressed, more and more evidence was uncovered that revealed that
she wasn't actually from the future, but the present timeline. Eventually, Markovian tests
showed that she was indeed Tara Markov, but GeoForce decided to keep the truth from
her because he could see finding out that she was the original would only devastate her.
She was eventually killed off again and brought back as Atlee. I'm not a big fan of this version
of Terra though.

She was also featured prominently in the animated Teen Titans series, she was the story
arc for season 2. She was changed from what she was in the comics, to a more tragic
character, who started out as good but was turned to evil by Slade, but turned back to
the good side in the end but sadly got turned into a stone statue.


That wasn't the end of her in the series though, she was mentioned and referenced extensively
throughout the season 4 story arc about the Trigon incident and then "returned" in the
series finale "Things Change." Though the ending left many fans including myself, upset
and angry. It's because of her character in the series, that Terra grew a respectable
sized fanbase.

Personally, the way she was portrayed in the series, caused me to look at the original
comics in a completely different way. I felt that since Terra's past and how she came
to be working with Deathstroke was never actually explained, I thought that maybe she
could have started out good and was turned evil by Deathstroke. Several retcons also
suggest this.

Terra was even brought back when DC rebooted with the New 52. Her and Beastboy were
introduced together as members of the team, The Ravagers. They bonded and were in a
nice relationship together, but were sadly torn apart when the series ended after 12
issues. Terra was last seen in the final issue of New 52s Deathstroke vol 1. She was
fighting with him and Deathstroke knocked her out with a concussion. She wasn't shown
or mentioned in the last couple of pages that followed and hasn't been seen or heard from
since.


I really want to see if there are other fans like me, that actually like Terra, and not
just because of the TV series. I feel that the character had come a long way since the
original Judas Contract storyline, but DC seems to not want her to become popular. So I
wanted to show my appreciation of Terra and see if anyone else felt the same as I do.

Also, I would really love to see the new 52 Terra return once again. I really thought her new beginning was great.

[Harpsikord]

Eventually Terra II was revealed to be a completely separate character. I choose not to believe that.

I love the title of this thread.

I have a lot of feelings about the 'original' Terra.

[Rockym]

Eventually Terra II was revealed to be a completely separate character. I choose not to believe that.

I love the title of this thread.

I have a lot of feelings about the 'original' Terra.

I completely agree with your theories. Except for the part about killing herself because she found out she was being used. If you remember, Jericho took over Deathstroke's body and attacked Terra, making her turn against him. She lost control of her powers and brought the HIVE building down on herself, killing her.

I don't recall ever seeing that reveal. I just remembered she had gone to Markovia to have tests done so she could settle her fears that she wasn't that Terra. But the results said that she was, but GeoForce kept it from her.

Here's a blog that talks about that and Terra's entire history in the DC Universe up through 2010. There's a lot of good and eye-opening info there:

http://historiesofthingstocome.blogs...ch/label/Terra

[Harpsikord]

It's been a whiiiiiiiiiile since I read The Judas Contract, so yeah, I didn't remember the Jericho thing. Thanks for the refresher!

The reveal was in the Atlee mini-series. Basically, they made it that Terra II was from the same place that Atlee was and it was kind of stupid. I choose not to believe it.

[Rockym]

I never read any of the Atlee stuff. But everything I read about her seemed kind of stupid. They should have just made Atlee not have anything to do with Terra. That miniseries story sounds like they tried to retcon "Terra II" to make up for the brutal way they killed her off.

[baycitybomber]

Judas Contract.jpg
From The Judas Contract.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

This isn't an appreciation thread, this is a thread for folks who refuse to accept Marv Wolfman and George Perez's own stated intentions for who and what Tara Markov really was. Let's be honest here, the fact that you're relying so much on "retcons" and stories from other media adaptations to push an interpretation of the character that flatly contradicts what her creators meant for her, this isn't really an appreciation thread at all.

[The Darknight Detective]

This isn't an appreciation thread, this is a thread for folks who refuse to accept Marv Wolfman and George Perez's own stated intentions for who and what Tara Markov really was. Let's be honest here, the fact that you're relying so much on "retcons" and stories from other media adaptations to push an interpretation of the character that flatly contradicts what her creators meant for her, this isn't really an appreciation thread at all.

There probably should be two appreciation threads: one for the original bad Terra and another for the good one. On second thought, maybe there should be another for the more complicated version from the Teen Titans show, too.

[darkseidpwns]

This isn't an appreciation thread, this is a thread for folks who refuse to accept Marv Wolfman and George Perez's own stated intentions for who and what Tara Markov really was. Let's be honest here, the fact that you're relying so much on "retcons" and stories from other media adaptations to push an interpretation of the character that flatly contradicts what her creators meant for her, this isn't really an appreciation thread at all.

Shhhh, it's all Deathstroke's fault, no better yet its all Wolfman's fault and Perez's fault. If it weren't for them Terra would... yeah she wouldn't exist at all.

[Lee]

Terra was a great villain for the one storyline she was created for.

[The Darknight Detective]

Terra was a great villain for the one storyline she was created for.

Couldn't agree more, Lee. The other Terra, OTOH, was also fine in her own right.

[byrd156]

I prefer evil psycho Terra over the animated version that everyone holds so highly. She was evil and she broke everyone's hearts, the characters and the readers, and then she died. Trying to make her a tragic character instead of who she really was created to be just doesn't hold the same emotional weight to me.

[Lee Stone]

The original Terra was a masterstroke of Wolfman's writing ability. He portrayed her in such a three-dimensional way that not only convinced the characters, but the readers, as well, that she was truly a hero.
And unlike any retcon (ala Max Lord) or any character heel-turn (ala Hal Jordan/Parallax), the reader could actually go back and re-read all of her appearances up until that fateful ending and see all the pieces perfectly laid out.
What made the revelation so shocking was that the readers were just as blindsided by the twist as the Titans were.

[Agent Z]

This isn't an appreciation thread, this is a thread for folks who refuse to accept Marv Wolfman and George Perez's own stated intentions for who and what Tara Markov really was. Let's be honest here, the fact that you're relying so much on "retcons" and stories from other media adaptations to push an interpretation of the character that flatly contradicts what her creators meant for her, this isn't really an appreciation thread at all.

Pretty sure these posts are against the thread rules.

[The Darknight Detective]

Pretty sure these posts are against the thread rules.

Nobody has stated anything negative about Terra here. As long as that remains the case, I have no objections.