Warning! Spoilers ahead for Shazam #1!
A new group of superpowered youths is learning what it means to be heroes in Teen Titans Academy, and students with abilities in the mystical arts are training with one of DC’s greatest magic users: Raven. While her talented pupils are certainly lucky to have her as an instructor, Raven may sadly be teaching them to one day take her down.
Raven faced many obstacles on her path toward heroics. As the daughter of the demon Trigon, she spent many of her early years fighting off her father’s evil influence and fearing that she would one day follow in his footsteps. Luckily, with help from her fellow Teen Titans, she’s managed to keep Trigon at bay. Unfortunately, DC’s Future State event shows Raven falling to the darkness yet again, only this time, she is overcome by an even greater evil. In order to save her friends as they battle the Four Riders of the Apocalypse, Raven sacrifices herself by absorbing the enemies into her own essence. This action transforms her into a monstrous entity referred to as the Unkindness, who eventually goes on to destroy the known universe. Luckily, these events have yet to occur, but with her precognition showing her a coming dark future, Raven has reason to worry.
Thankfully, Raven is not alone, as Nightwing, Starfire, Donna Troy, Cyborg, and Beast Boy are all working alongside her at Teen Titans Academy. While the rest of them have their own duties, Raven mainly works as a teacher and as the school’s counselor, which seems fitting due to her abilities as an empath. When she’s not lecturing or acting as a confidant to her students, though, Raven is taking a fairly hands-on approach to teaching the school’s magic users. This is very apparent in Tim Sheridan, Clayton Henry, Marcelo Maiolo, and Rob Leigh’s Shazam #1, as the young Billy Batson struggles with failing powers.
After a battle gone awry, Billy decides to seek out Raven because his powers as Shazam are magic-based. When he approaches her, however, she is already in the middle of a session with another student named Dane, who is showing some impressive capabilities of his own. Dane asks Raven if they can pick things up tomorrow and then clears out so that Billy can talk to her. Knowing what’s been going on with Billy, Raven sits the young hero down and asks him to show her the vision that he saw when his powers went on the fritz. By the end of their conversation, neither Raven nor Billy is any closer to an answer, but as the story continues, the mystery begins to unfold.
It’s nice to see Raven taking the time to help both Dane and Billy individually. Her control over her own powers and her experiences as a Teen Titan lend themselves well to her new role as a teacher and her students already seem to be making some huge strides. Of course, the extent of many students’ powers at Teen Titans Academy has yet to be discovered, but the magic users have already accomplished some fairly impressive feats. At the end of this issue, Dane shows off some far-reaching teleportation abilities and in Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook #1, Stitch, the magically animated rag doll apprentice of Doctor Fate, uses their telekinetic powers to save a group of fellow students from a collapsing wall. Obviously, Billy Batson still needs some work, but with his extensive history as Shazam, he’s proven that he has some major skills.
Hopefully, Raven’s training serves her pupils well, as her premonitions for the future look bleak. If the events of Future State are truly on the horizon, the Teen Titans are going to need all the help they can get and Raven’s lessons may just give her students an edge if she ever does turn evil.