A
hero/
villain published by
DC Comics.
Terra first appeared
in
New Teen Titans #26 in 1982.
There are watershed moments in nearly all comic titles. The Dark
Phoenix Saga. Emerald Twilight. Knight Fall. The Death
of Superman. And in the Teen Titans, the greatest watershed event
was probably the Judas Contract.
The centerpiece of this story arc was Terra, a hero who was not
what she seemed. Terra was actually Tara Markov, the illegitimate
daughter of the king of Markovia. Because of her blood relationship,
to the royal family of Markovia, Tara was able to undergo the
special process created by Dr. Jace which allowed the members of
the royal family to possess earth-based super-powers. Tara gained
her powers under less than ideal circumstances, with Dr. Jace later
suggesting that Tara underwent the process without her knowledge.
The result was that Tara could manipulate earth and rock in a variety
of ways, from using them to support herself for transportation to
creating missiles of rock and stone.
Because the king of Markovia tried to keep Tara and her mother
a secret to avoid scandal, Tara grew up feeling unloved with a
lot of anger and frustration in her nature. She used her new
abilities and began to do mercenary work, selling her powers to
the highest bidder. She began to use the name Terra as a codename
during this time. She also came into contact with Deathstroke,
the Terminator, another mercenary. He had a contract on the lives
of the Teen Titans and partnered with Terra to fulfill the
contract.
Terra became a member of the Titans and gained their confidence.
Eventually, she found out their secrets, their weaknesses, and their
secret identities. She and Deathstroke then used this information
to capture them and turn them over to H.I.V.E. for execution.
Only Dick Grayson, the original Robin, escaped and with the
help of Deathstroke's son, Jericho, helped free his teammates.
At this point, Terra went berserk, feeling betrayed by both
Deathstroke and the Titans and brought a huge pile of rock and
soil down in an attempt to kill her former teammates. In the end,
she only managed to kill herself.
Years later, a girl with the exact look and powers of the original
Terra appeared with a group of super-powered youth from the
future. Though it was originally believed that she was another
girl who had been given powers like Terra, it was later revealed
that this new Terra was actually the original, though with no
memory of her actual past. Her brother, Brion Markov, the hero
Geoforce is the only person to know this to be true.