Trigon (comics)


Trigon is a fictional supervillain published by DC Comics. He is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, along with Darkseid, Neron, Barbatos, Hades, the Anti-Monitor, Nekron, and the Great Evil Beast, having enslaved many worlds. He is an adversary of the Teen Titans and the Justice League, the father of the superhero Raven, and the husband of Arella.
Seamus Dever portrayed the disguised human version of Trigon in the Titans television series, a DC Universe streaming service exclusive. His real form was revealed as a red demon with horns cape-like outfit and four eyes and he does not have bat-like wings and/or a tail or both.

Publication history

Trigon first appeared in a cameo in New Teen Titans #2 and his first full appearance is New Teen Titans #4. He was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

Fictional character biography

A sadistic, cruel, dangerous, and powerful demon of inter and extra-dimensional origin, Trigon is a result of the mating between a female member of a mystic sect and the god they worshipped. 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, at the age of one, he ruled an entire planet, at the age of six, he destroyed an entire planet. By the age of 30, 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 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. After making love, Arella discovered Trigon's true nature after seeing his true form. Trigon sends Arella back to Earth, and Arella is pregnant and 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 named Juris 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 have tried to revive him several times.

The Sons of Trigon

Raven notices 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, but the motive for these renewed attack is that a war with rival demons has spread Trigon's forces too thinly and left him desperately weak, which forces him to turn his focus on Earth in hopes of creating a new power base.
Three of Trigon's sons, Jacob, Jared and Jesse, play a significant role in his return to life. The brothers have the ability to induce the seven deadly sins in any living being: they can induce wrath, lust and envy. They attempt to open the portal to Trigon's realm, but then betray their father and steal what little power he has left; this actually makes Trigon proud of them for proving to be just as evil as he is. The trio leave, thinking they have gained great power, and Trigon is left trapped in his realm. However, the three brothers then return and corrupt their half-sister, making her their ally. Eventually, they are defeated by Raven and the Titans.

''The New 52''

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Trigon makes his post-Flashpoint debut in issue #1 of the Phantom Stranger. 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 to him; in return, he pledges to spare Earth from his armies that were ready to search the Earth for her, having already destroyed Azarath years ago. In The New 52, it is revealed that Trigon has at least four children, where Raven is the youngest. Her older brothers are named Belial, Ruskoff, and Suge; Belial is 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 his demonic realm, where time flows differently. Trigon is shown to be the ruler of six kingdoms known as the Under-Realms, a collective title for the planets and dimensions he conquered, although he has since grown bored with the dull responsibilities of ruling 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 and pass the mantle of leadership to Raven, whom he believes will mold them all in her own image, something only she can do as she has the capacity to love, an emotion Trigon cannot feel or comprehend.
As part of DC Villains Month, Trigon replaced the Teen Titans as the main characters in their book for one issue named #23.1, with Deathstroke taking over #23.2. The Teen Titans book resumed publishing after Villains Month concluded. Though unconfirmed, the Villains Month event leaves Trigon's 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 planet's inhabitants. As they had done billions of times before, they sentence him and his two guards to the Heart of Darkness, hoping that it would consume the evil within them. However, they were horrified when the stranger not only resisted but consumed the Heart of Darkness, absorbing the evils of a billion worlds, and mutating into the being that would become known as Trigon. Now driven by an insatiable hunger for evil, Trigon moves slowly from universe to universe, spreading corruption and sin among the worlds he finds 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 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 survive mating with him, leaving Trigon with only three sons, all of whom he considers failures. Then, one day, he is brought a human woman from Earth, Arella, who gives him his first daughter Raven, the most powerful of Trigon's children, and the reason why Trigon now targets Earth for conquest.

Powers and abilities

Trigon is a very powerful demon who has Telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Superhuman Strength and Stamina, Reality Warping and Chronokinesis. He was able to reshape the entire planet Earth on a whim; had drained the souls of universes, destroyed entire planets and conquered dimensions, 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 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, he is also Immortal, meaning he cannot age and die of natural causes.
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 is not clear whether this is caused by the demonic power itself or by her revulsion towards using it.

Other versions

Television