Raven/Black Shadow

Raven/Black Shadow is the name of a limited comic series from the Heroes of the Void Universe. Written by Ezekiel Rage with art by multiple artists, the comic focuses on the character Raven and her path of revenge.

The title premiered on Monday, October 1st 2012 alongside two other Books - Nightfighter and Monger - and was completed on July 24th 2014 after 5 issues, spanning 100 pages.

The title is special in a way that it is not a full fledged story. It focuses on the same events and switches perspectives but the entire story is very compressed. Also each issue is done by a different artist. Originally created to support newcomer artists the series has a lot of different art styles and concepts.

Plot
Synopsis

Raven is talking to Hank Masters to get information on her father. he tells her that a package is to be delivered this very night in club Retinal Fetish. She throws Masters into a corner and hauls a grenade at him before walking away. In the club Talya is already getting the package when Raven arrives. A shootout ensues and people get hurt.

Outside, Black Shadow takes care of the people when the entire club explodes due to the shooting. As Raven runs from the arriving police she heads into an old warehouse where she witnesses Black Shadow beating up some thugs that smuggle an orange powder. After Black Shadow disappears she takes a rock and rolls it in some of the orange powder that fell to the wet floor, creating a slimey substance. She takes the rock and brings it to her friend Keith to analyze it. While he works she takes a shower and sleeps for the day. When she wakes up Keith tells her that the substance is a potent acid. So she heads back to the warehouse to investigate when she runs into Talya who survived the explosion but lost her hair. They fight and Talya is winning when Black Shadow shows up and helps Raven. They team up to bring Lucius down so they head back to Keiths place. But when they arrive they find him dead.

Black Shadow deduces that he probably got in contact with the orange powder residue on Raven's coat. He promises Raven to take the files Keith collected about the powerder and bring them to his police contact. He will await her at Lucius old mansion afterwards but she has to promise him not to storm in guns blazing. If she does, Lucius will walk. Raven promises and Black Shadow brings the files to his friend Marcus. Meanwhile Raven goes to the Mansion alone and confronts Lucius and Talya. She tells them that she is done and that she does not intent on fighting anymore. She just demands to be left alone and that she wants to know what was in the package Talya got from the Nightclub.

Lucius shows her the package and all it contains is a sword. Lucius claims to be a collector but Raven does not believe it. She can see markings of code on the blade and Lucius confesses that the code is the formula for his orange powder. Since all his digital transfers are monitored, he had to come up with another way of getting the formula. Suddenly,  Black Shadow crashes through a window and tells Lucius and Talya that they are under arrest but Lucius just smiles and mentions that he already took the code from the blade and put some explosives on it. The sword explodes and Black Shadow can save Raven in the last second. Talya begins to attack Black Shadow and Raven fight Lucius. During the battle, Black Shadow cand efeat Talya but Lucius is much stronger than Raven. In desperation, she grabs a package of orange powder and smashes it into Lucius' face.

Lucius starts to melt down and Raven is horrified at what she has done, especially when Talya breaks down in tears and calls her a murderer. As the police arrives, Talya pleads with Black Shadow to let her go in return for information about Red Smile. But Black Shadow ties her up nontheless and escapes with Raven. The police storm in and see the situation. Talya says she will tell them everything about Raven and that Raven is to blame for Lucius' death. Outside however, Black Shadow promises Raven that it is over and that he will make sure her name does not come up with the case. They shake hands and depart as friends, and Raven is now finally free.

Characters

 * Raven O'Hara
 * Talya Lassiter
 * Black Shadow

Development
Originally, Raven was supposed to be a solo series spanning 15 issues. It would have covered her entire life via a series of extensive flashbacks. The first five issues would have lead up to Raven heading to Lucius' mansion for the final battle. The next five issues would have been the same events from Talya's point of view and the last five issues would have been the final battle and closure to Raven as she moves away from Los Angeles.

Nightfigther was supposed to appear instead of Black Shadow and the orange powder was originally the purple fungal compound from Nightfigther's suit. This changed very early on though when the timeframe for the story was set. The story was moved to Los Angeles and Nightfigther was replaced with Black Shadow. The entire story was compressed to be told in ten issues instead when the changes were made. The issues would have had 24 pages each, with each issue except the first and the last concluding with a flashback to Raven's life.

The flashbacks would have shown her at various points in life. The most important one would have occured during the shower scene from issue 3, where Raven would remember being burned alive in Lucius mansion. Due to the new format, all those flashbacks were cut, however the scripts still exist and will probably be incorporated into other storylines featuring the character.

The final format was chosen when the idea of creating a newcomer book formed. Wuxy was supposed to draw the first two issues but due to time constraints he could only draw one. So each two issues with 24 pages were compressed to one issue with 20 pages - a radical edit. The book launched on Octobrer 1st 2012. All flashbacks were taken out, and lots of scence involving characters talking were omitted as well. The dialogue was moved to action heavier scenes to go with the new format.

After wuxy completed his issue, Rave84 took over for issue 2. Her style contrasted completely with what wuxy did, as it was much rounder and more feminine, with thicker lines and bigger heads. Due to this, it was decided that each issue should feature a completely different artstyle to show off various artistic designs. DidiHer was asked to color the book because the colors would carry over between artists, making the different artstyles flow together.

Miseve took over for issue 3 and she brought a very stylized and feminine artstyle to the book. By then the fnal format was already established and it was just a matter of following the concept through. DidiHer ended her coloring stint at the halfpoint of the issue due to personal reasons and various colorists took over for a page each.

Crayons, who did issue 4, delivered a very classic comic booky style. During his tenure it was decided that the final issue should be a collaborative effort by all artists. Everybody was given the same script just with different markings, due to the pages they would all draw. The final issue was colored mostly by ChokoJin who at this point also re-colored older pages. On July 24th 2014 the series concluded as planned.

 Artists

Lineart

 * Wuxy
 * Rave84
 * Miseve
 * Crayons Hubbard

Colors

 * Wuxy
 * iDynamyx
 * Merina Sky
 * Feather Factory
 * Avisfeather
 * DidiHer
 * Ezekiel Rage