Princess of Markovia

TARA “TERRA” MARKOV

Powers• Earth manipulation, which encompassed causing earthquakes, controlling lava, and shaping rock and dirt.• She couldn’t fly, so she’d float on a chuck of earth.

Relationships• Upon first meeting Terra, Beast Boy was head over heels in love with her. And she reciprocated, or at least pretended to.

Relationships (cont.)• Her most notable relationship was with Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke the Terminator. During their partnership, the two developed a sexual relationship, despite Terra only being about fifteen at the time.

Origins• Tara was the illegitimate child of the king of the country of Markovia. She was granted earth-manipulating abilities, and Tara was sent to live with her mother in the United States to avoid a scandal and public outrage.• Tara grew up an angry child, being the result of an affair. She started using her powers to do missions assigned to her by bad guys like mob bosses.• She eventually partnered with Deathstroke to take down the Teen Titans, under the name “Terra”. She did this by infiltrating their headquarters and destroying them from the inside.• During the final battle, Jericho possessed Deathstroke’s body and acted as if he had betrayed Terra, traumatizing her so much that she killed herself by collapsing a bunch of rock upon herself.

• Despite her horrible

treatment of them, the Titans

genuinely cared for her.

Personality• Terra is relentless in her actions. She shows little to no remorse for the horrible things she does and at the end of the day, just asks for her paycheck for having done someone’s dirty work.

Weaknesses• Her main weakness appears to be her insecurity, as evidenced by the events leading to her death.

Rebirth• Years after her death, Terra was reborn as Terra II, an almost exact replica of the original Terra, but without the influence of Deathstroke.• Terra II was killed by Black Adam before the

Titans could figure out her origins.

Recommended Readings• Terra’s main arc is titled “The Judas Contract” which is Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3

The TV show• The second season of the Teen Titans television series was an adaptation of “The Judas Contract” with some major differences.

VS.

SPOILER ALERT!!• If you haven’t seen the television series and don’t want to be spoiled on the events of the second season, do not proceed past this slide until you have seen it.• If you have seen it and knows what happens, then you may proceed at your leisure.

Terra’s character

• Terra is introduced as a confused, easily-influenced, yet outgoing girl who has trouble controlling her powers and feels very insecure about it. Feeling betrayed when her secret gets out, she runs away to train with Slade, becoming his apprentice. She then infiltrates the Titans’ home and gives all of their inside info to Slade, and then brings them down. • During the final showdown, she

shows remorse for her actions and sacrifices herself to stop a volcanic eruption from killing everyone.

• Terra is introduced as a refugee, having supposedly been held hostage by terrorists. The Titans take her in and she immediately begins to relay everything about them to Deathstroke. • She never shows any

remorse for anything she does to anyone.

Television Comics

Terra II

• During the end of the fifth season, Beast Boy sees a girl who looks exactly like Terra and decided to follow her and ask her questions. She reveals her name is not Terra and that she remembers nothing about being a Titan.• It was never explained where

she came from, but a popular fan theory suggests that she came to life upon Trigon’s demise one season prior and repressed any memory of her time with the Teen Titans.

• Terra II, as explained by Terra III (whose story I will not delve into right now), originated from a realm called Strata.• Terra II was introduced as a

member of the Team Titans, an alternate version of the Teen Titans.

Television Comics

Relationship with Deathstroke/Slade

• Terra first got mixed up with Slade during her first mission with the Titans, where he coerced her into coming to him, should she wish to control her powers better.• She quickly jumped at the

opportunity once Robin seemed to have discovered that she couldn’t control them.• She became his apprentice and

was used by Slade to destroy the Teen Titans. While it’s never explicitly stated what their relationship was beyond master-student, some fans suggest that it was sexual based on Slade’s language towards her.

• She met Deathstroke when she was given a mission to destroy the Titans via infiltration.• The two of them became

very intimate with one another, and their relationship even became sexual.

Television Comics

General overview

• Terra is a much more sympathetic character in the television series.• She knows that the made a

mistake when she joined Slade and attempts to redeem herself, even if it meant turning to stone.

• Terra is, for lack of a better word, a monster.• Up until her death, she

shows complete detachment from any sort of human empathy or compassion.

Television Comics

The End