Terra (Justice League/Teen Titans)

"'My name's Tara Markov. But you can call me Terra.'"

Terra (Tara Markov) is a DC Comic Superheroine. She is the primary female protagonist in Justice League: Knights of Rao (alongside male protagonist Superman) and a major protagonist in the alternate plot of Teen Titans Season 2.

Early Life
Tara was once a child girl in Markovia who used to wander around her home's gardens and was at the moment unaware of her superpowers. One day, she was playing with a fox her mother adopted until she witnessed Wonder Woman battling the alien queen Maxima. Just after the Amazon Princess defeated the villainess, Tara watched as Maxima attempted to stab Diana in her back with a hidden dagger. But before Maxima could do it, Tara surprising made the first use of her powers by forging numerous stone pillars which badly injured Maxima. Right after the alien queen was removed from Earth, Tara tried to run away to avoid punishment until she was spotted by Wonder Woman. Seeing kindness in Tara's heart, Diana lovingly sympathized with her and the two formed a Mother-and-Daughter like friendship. Before Diana left, Tara gave Diana a small locket with a picture of herself so that Diana would never forget about her. Diana vowed that she never would and they shared a small but loving farewell embrace. Since then, Tara started dreaming of becoming a heroine like Wonder Woman is.

Years passed, but Tara had not forgotten about her childhood heroine and continued pursuing her dream to become a heroine. One day, however, her home was attacked by the forces of Vandal Savage and, with the Justice League unable to help her brother Brion (who had become the superhero Geo-Force) stop the invasion because Lex Luthor had framed them for crimes they did not commit, she was attacked and stripped of some of her memories by Ravager, who has sent by her father Slade to capture her and make her a living weapon. Tara, with some but little control of her powers, had managed to barely escape. She had lost some of her memories of her life, although some started referencing her as "Terra", but vowed to return until she was ready to make things right.

Meeting the Titans
Sometime later, Terra begun traveling around the world trying to keep her powers under control and also working to find answers about her past. One day, she was being chased by a giant scorpion monster in a canyon near Jump City until she barely defeated the creature by crushing it with a stone she threw in it, which was part of a trap she was leading it to. Her actions where being observed by the Titans (as well as Slade, who claimed to have seen her first). The Titans eventually decided to let her spend a night in their tower and also recruit her to the team. However, after a high conflict between the Titans and their villainous nemesis Slade, who claimed to know how to help her with her out-of-control powers, she decided to leave to avoid more danger.

Regaining her Lost Memories
Shortly after leaving Jump City, Terra ended up confronted by Slade once again. But before the villain could get any close to her, he was repelled by a business suited man who revealed to have the true answers for Terra's problems. The man ended up revealing himself to be Superman, who was at the time working his way to overcome guilt over his failure to stop Vandal Savage's killing of national leaders (including Tara's father Viktor), which was caused by Lex Luthor's framing of the Justice League. Just then, Superman took Terra to his headquarters the Fortress of Solitude and gave her a small star which contained Terra's memories, explaining that it is the loss of her memories which caused her to lose control of her powers. The star merged with her mind and heart and completely restored her memories of her identity and past life. She had also discovered that she could also control Electricity, Metal and Ice. Later on, she reunited with her mother Amelia and her brother Brion (although she also mourned the loss of her father). Before Superman left, Tara shared with him a piece of her family's power, giving him the ability to control Crystal at will. Superman also vowed to train her to help her become that heroine she dreamed to be.

Sometime later, after teaching her how to master some of her powers, Superman secretly took her to the Justice League's headquarters in the Watchtower for a genuine tour before taking her to the Laboratory, where she was allowed to use the Costumizer to craft for herself her own Superhero Costume and the VR Computers to make herself ready to battle the threats the Justice League and the Titans fought against. After Superman left to answer the Justice League's call for help, Tara used the Costumizer to craft for herself a one shoulder red and white leotard with large blue boots, golden belt, bracelets, necklace and leg rings and a red mask and used the VR Computer to practice her abilities by battling and defeating virtual images of the Leaguers' primary villains (Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Cheetah, Sinestro, Professor Zoom and Black Manta) one by one. Just then, she was allowed to roam free as long as she stays out of trouble and out of the villains' sight. Tara agreed to do so as she also vowed to humiliate every tyrant in the world, letting Superman agree with the truth she knows: that too much tyranny is the real threat affecting Earth. She and Brion later watched as Superman put on a Blue Lantern Ring before departing to Odym, where he would find the strength to forgive himself.

A New Team
During her quest to expose criminals on the world, Terra also started to form a new team of young heroes who are also determined to be like the Justice League and the Titans. She started by recruiting Hiro Okamura, a young but highly intelligent boy from Japan with an I.Q. of 210 also known as the Toymaster, after saving him from a group of Project Cadmus mercenaries who were sent by Amanda Waller to capture him and recruit him to the Task Force X program. Later on, the two exacted to search for three young boys who secretly had superpowers of their own.

The first three were Collin Hill, an 9 year-old human member of the Blue Lantern Corps, Milo Chaves, a former theater actor who became an werewolf-like beast after exposing himself to the curse of an unknown artifact and became Alpha Wolf, and Jason Burke, a young teenager who was given with the powers of the Olympian legends by an mystic artifact given to him by his deceased father and became Omega Knight.

Terra also recruited Lana Lang's daughter Amber, who had become a member of the Indigo Tribe for her strong sense of compassion, and John Stewart's daughter Dionne, who had become a Green Lantern like her father and dubbed herself the Emerald.

Other recruits were a group of teenage sportspeople with metahuman abilities who were brought together as a family by their trainer Mike Falsworth (who was also another victim of Savage's rampage) and saved by Terra from terrorists working for Savage. They formed an Chess game-themed superhero team named the Royal Guard Patrol (paralleling the Royal Flush Gang).

Terra also went to Dakota City, where she and Toymaster helped Static and Gear deal with Ebon and Hot-Streak and, admiring their performance, recruited them to the team.

Element Shadows
During her quest to recruit members for her team and humiliate tyrants, Terra also infiltrated a secret Project Cadmus lab and spotted a scientist experimenting on unknown organisms which can absorb Earth's elements and bond with an organic host body. The organism eventually broke free, bonded with Terra and absorbed her abilities to control Earth, Ice and Metal. Terra was able to control the organism, which she dubbed "Element Shadow", and duplicated it. The organism ended up splitting in three different types of Element Shadows (each of them with the element it duplicated from Terra, and all able to manipulate Electricity) and went for a ramapage across the Lexlab Facility. In the middle of the chaos, Delilah Snow (the daughter of Caitlin Snow/Winter Star and the deceased Ronnie Raymond) ended up bonded with three fragments of each of the Shadows, enveloped her into a bodysuit with the Earth Shadow as the skin, the Metal Shadow being the Leotard-like suit and the Ice Shadow forming the hair, the Owl wings and Fox tail. Thanks to her own abilities to manipulate Matter (which she adapted from her father), she was able to control the organism. Terra latter watched as Delilah joined the rampage when the Element Shadows showed her a vision of Savage killing her father (which caused a nuclear explosion which likewise killed the other National Leaders, including Tara's father Viktor Markov) and exacted revenge on Tala for letting this happen. Tala tried to stop her, but Delilah fought back and attacked her in cold rage. Just then, Delilah was approached and calmed down by her mother Caitlin and convinced to leave with her while Terra and her teammates exposed and depowered Tala. As Tala faced accusations for her crimes and the Element Shadows departed to unknown places, Terra watched as Delilah and Caitlin had a mother-and-daughter heart-to-heart before Caitlin allowed her daughter to train with Terra, who eventually saw Delilah (who dubbed herself New Gaia) as a new recruit for the team.

Knights of Rao
With her team assembled and dubbed the "Knights of Rao" (a homage to Krypton's Sungod who Superman mentioned), Terra and her team begun their campaign of humiliating Earth's tyrants by going on a crime-fighting spree at the same time they got proofs about the corrupt government agents and officials. They also foiled ruthless oppression acts against human society (Bullying, Forced Marriages, etc). Also, thanks to Omega Knight's knowledge of the Olympus' universe, Terra and her team managed to create an formula composed of the River Styx and used it to strip numerous super-powered Tyrants of their powers as they did to General Wade Eiling, who tranformed himself into a monstrous Super-Soldier in his attempt to get rid of all metahumans, and Klarion the Witch Boy.

Second Encounter with the Titans
During their hunt for Tyrants, Terra watched as her teammates went to Odym, where Superman offered to teach them some more lessons about Justice in a Blue Lantern way. Just then, Terra was alerted of Vandal Savage having unleashed the monstrous Ternion and assembled Supervillains to destroy the Justice League and the Titans. And she and Arisia Rrab went there to help the heroes. Right after helping defeat Ternion and Savage (who was still unaware the Knights of Rao existed) retreated, Terra eventually saw another opportunity to expose another Tyrant when Maxwell Lord arrived. Using the files Toymaster collected, Terra exposed him for creating Cinderblock, Plasmus and Overdrive and for selling weapons for Slade. As he faced the Titans' ire, Lord begged for theirs and Terra's mercy, to which she gave him two choices: the Brave one (which was to atone for his crimes and surrender to the authorities) or the Cowardly one (which was to hide in the shadows like other metahumans had to do). Too afraid to goto prison, Lord choose the Cowardly one and retreated to the Sewers as Batman and Nightwing were confident that he would not hide for long enough. While the League and the Titans rejoiced their victory, Terra won the heroes' gratitude for her help. Raven was sure that Terra was training with someone, and Terra propperly showed her and Starfire her mentor's home. They watched as Superman (under his alter-ego of Clark Kent) visited his wife Lois Lane and their daughter Lara. Their happy reunion brought emotional tears of joy to Starfire, to which Tara replied: "I know how that feels.".

Knights of Rao and Titans Mash Up
As she was watching as her teammates training, Terra was also remembering the last night she spent in the Titans Tower (which did not end so well). Tara admitted regret for accusing Beast Boy of telling the Titans about the trouble she had on controlling her powers (which she wanted to keep in secret because she was too ashamed of it), to which Beast Boy, who was watching and listening, forgave her because he knew she was just too conflicted (also, there was no shame about the lack of control in one's powers) and the two reconciliated to the others' delight.

Another Truth from the Past
Sometime latter, Terra visited Wonder Woman's homeland in Themyscira. There, she was gently greeted by Diana's mother and the Amazon's Queen Hippolyta, who revealed, much to Tara's surprise, that she was her mother Amelia's mentor. Using the Oracle's Eye (an artifact which allows the user to review the events of his/her past), Hippolyta showed Tara that Amelia was Hippolyta's most appreciated and beloved protégée and one of Diana's childhood best friends alongside Lois Lane as well as for Diana's half-sister Mera. Hippolyta also revealed that Diana was there with Amelia and her husband when Tara was born and she showed her some very kind mother-like love. It was at this point Tara accepted that Diana was more than just her heroine; she was also her godmother. Tara and Hippolyta shared a very passionate embrace before she left back home. Also, while heading to Metropolis, she encountered Diana, who was sitting next to the sea waiting for her and the two shared another Mother-and-Daughter embrace as Diana admitted how proud she was of Tara for what she did.

Undercover
During a mission to put an permanent end on Kobra's terrorism, Terra helped the Justice League and the Titans get close to the Kobra base by faking their deaths by her hands and the destructions of their headquarters and disguising herself as Slade's brainwashed apprentice (all thanks to extra-realistic holograms projected by Toymaster and Vicki Vale and Iris West's deceptive reports as Green Lantern, Star Sapphire and Raven hid the Watchtower into another dimension and Terra, Cyborg and the Atom shrunk the Titans Tower into miniature levels). She and Martian Manhunter (who was possing himself as Slade) kept Savage's forces occupied as their teammates made it through the fortress' underground. Both J'onn and Tara also knew that Lex Luthor (who was planning to apprehend Savage and have him clear his name out of the New Brainiac incident ) and both agreed not to let him get what he wanted.

As the Justice League and the Titans continued to go underground, Martian Manhunter (still disguised as Slade) and Terra continued distracting Savage's forces with Anti-Bullies (disguised as Slade Robots) until J'onn demanded a truce and bargainned with Savage. Under Toymaster's instrcutions, Beast Boy (who was hiding within Terra's disguise in the form of a flea) sneaked through the fortress' security systems and sabotaged them. As J'onn spoke with Savage over their plan, Beast Boy and Terra managed to collect data containning information about Savage's future plans and report back to the others. Just as they overheard Luthor ambushing the fortress with an army of Lexbots with him, Toymaster told Terra that it was time for Phase 3: to break Luthor's confidence.

As Luthor and his robots directly attacked the Kobra agents, J'onn eventually claimed that he "changed his mind about his bargains" and took Savage to a fight, on which he staged an accident (on which Savage damaged the remote control systems of Slade's armor), on which Terra (as her teammates suggested her to do) pretended to have gone berserk and used her Geokinetic powers to create an chaotic earthquake around the fortress, causing it to slowly collapse. Savage ordered Mirror Master, Giganta, Bane and Doctor Light to recover the weapon and evacuate the fortress, but the two villains were ambushed by the League and the Titans, who defeated them and successfully destroy the weapon. Seeing the failure of his plan, Savage retreated as he taunted Luthor that he had lost everything. As she continued shaking the fortress, Terra stopped Luthor from saving her and faked her own death by letting get apparenty crushed to death by the collapsing debris until Superman speeded up to her position and saved her. Luthor returned to Lexcorp enraged with his failure as hallucinations of Tara's spirit haunted him (he also hallucinated having her blood in his hand). With their mission complete, the Justice League returned their headquarters back to their respective places as they overheard news about Kobra's ultimate downfall. Terra, feeling that she almost became what Slade planned to turn her into for real, disposed of her Slade Armor, vowing to never wear it again, and put on her JLA Tech-made costume. Feeling that their friend was no longer conflicted as she was before, the Titans offered Terra and her Knights of Rao a place in the team, which she and her teammates accepted.

The Fall of Tyranny
During the Justice League's battle with the Apokolipians, Terra and her team also aided Colonel Steve Trevor defeat Savage once and for all by stripping him off his Immortality with the River Styx formula and left him to die in his damaged space vessel, which crashed in a warfield where Darkseid was battling Superman. Terra and her team also helped the Justice League win the battle with Darkseid by destroying the Apokolipian Gems which allowed the Dark Lord to invade Earth without other gods and entities to forbid him. Later after the last gem is destroyed, Terra and her team watched as Darkseid faced his punishment and was forbidden by the Olympian Gods and the Guardians of Oa from ever leaving Apokolips to invade other planets. Terra and her team were latter praised by the League for their help and accepted by them as their trainees.

Rejoining the Titans
Sometime latter, Tara enjoyed a moment with Superman's wife Lois Lane in a Mall before they were met with Starfire, who was greatly happy to see her, and Raven and invited to visit the Titans Tower, where Beast Boy was likewise pleased to see her. Terra also helped the team when the Tower was invaded by a swarm of Parademons led by Kanto, who was determined to capture Starfire for Darkseid, and a pack of Gordanians guided by Blackfire, who still wanted to obliterate her. She helped the Titans battle the aliens as she also called Superman for help.

Right after Kanto and Blackfire are defeated and their alien groups are driven away, Superman invited the Titans for a tour in the Fortress of Solitude while hearing of his past adventures and battles. Raven approached Terra and confessed she had her doubts about her, believing that Terra was a double-agent working for Slade, and apologized for it, to which Terra gently forgave her because she knew Raven was just following her instincts. Just then, Superman and the Titans answered a distress call from a Lexcorp Employee who was asking for Superman's help on dealing with Mongul, who invaded Luthor's laboratories to take over his weapons and experiments. The heroes answered their call, determined to stop Mongul (and even destroy Luthor's creations if they have to).

While Superman and Cyborg fought Mongul, Terra and the rest of the team fought against Mongul's pawns and decided that the only way to keep the alien warlord from collecting Luthor's protocols was to destroy them and the Titans, aware that Luthor is just another maniac and psychopath like Slade, did so. Luthor tried to protect his creations by attacking the Titans with one of his warsuits, but the young heroes easily defeated him before Terra exacted to disable and destroy every Kryptonite shard present in the facility, although Nightwing convinced her to spare at least one... just in case. Terra and the Titans latter watched as Mongul was defeated by Superman ad Cyborg, who combined his components with an Apokolipian Motherbox to teleport Mongul to other limits of space via Boom Tube. The Titans latter regrouped in Clark's civilian home, where they had dinner with his wife Lois and their daughter Lara. Terra, filled with greater confidence, decided to stay with the Titans.

Superhuman Abilities

 * Geokinesis / Terrakinesis: As her name is Latin for "earth," Terra has the exceptionally strong elemental ability to create, control and manipulate the earth and other earthly substances and materials; such as crystal, sand, stone, rock, dirt, brick marble, mud, sand, wood, concrete and even Kryptonite (which she can either enable and disable at will). She can hurl and lift boulders, generate earthquakes, mudslides, avalanches, quicksands, fissures, project spikes of stone from the ground and tunnel through the earth. Terra often transports herself and others by riding on a large slab of earth.


 * Cryokinesis: Terra is also able to manipulate ice and snow, enabling her to create devastating snow storms and freeze objects and enemies with very small effort.
 * Electrokinesis: Terra is also able to manipulate Lightnings and Electricity at will, enabling her to charge or drain technological objects.
 * Metallokinesis: Terra is also able to manipulate Metal at will the same way she can control Earth.

Peak Human Abilities

 * Leadership Skills: Terra's dedication with her teammates and her will to train them also make her a natural leader (she had also learned from Superman that being a leader is not only about giving orders, but also to guide her allies and show them the way).
 * Hand-to-Hand Combat Skills: Terra is also a talented hand-to-hand combatant who had Self-Defense lessons from Batman and Wonder Woman.
 * Indomitable Willpower: One of the main sources of Terra's experience with her Elemental abilities is her Indomitable Willpower, which is equivalent to Green Lantern and Star Sapphire.
 * Genius Level Intellegilence: Similarly to Toymaster and other Science Geniuses, she is also smart enough to hack computers and make good use of technology.

Superman
"I won't let you down, Clark. I'll be finishing what you started and you'll get your honor back." "I know I will. You're a good girl, Tara. And I know you're destined for many wonderful things. Just like Diana and other friends I've met are."

- Terra assuring Superman she will make him proud of her before he leaves to Odym. Terra has a very strong bond between Prodigy and Mentor with Superman and is greatly loyal to him.

Lois Lane
"Clark really had the right idea in marrying you." "And training you to be like him and Diana."

- Terra and Lois Lane Terra also has a very kind respect for Lois Lane, who is also very kind and caring for her, as shown when Lois comforted her and her teammates over the loss of their loved ones, which is the main reason they see Tyranny all over the world as the world's true threat.

Wonder Woman
"I just wanted to help people. Like you and Clark do. I never wanted to hide anything from you." "You never really could or had too. I'm your godmother. You're my godchild. That changes nothing between you and me." "I just... I just wanted to make you proud." "You already did it. By doing what you swore to do, you've become these people's dream and messager of Hope. You're pure light, Tara. And I love you."

- Terra and Wonder Woman having a loving heart-to-heart between Godparent and Godchild Terra also has a very loving relationship with Wonder Woman, who was for a long time ago Tara's childhood heroine and idol. Tara became eventually closer to the Amazon Princess after learning that Diana was also childhood friends with her mother Amelia and, years later, Tara's godmother.

Geo-Force
"Dad would've been so proud of you." "Of both of us."

- Geo-Force admiring his sister's work Tara also has a very loving relationship with her family, including her brother Brion, who was the first of the family to start acting as a superhero. She also wins his pride by doing what he does and by forming the Knights of Rao.

Batman
"I know you heard kids say many things about me. Many things about what I might be, but none of them were true. So I assure you... you don't need to fear me."

- Batman telling a young Tara Markov not to be afraid of him before revealing his identity to her. "I understand why you and your teammates see Tyranny as the true threat just like Luthor sees us all as menaces. I respect that. I do because I know... I know how it feels to lose someone you care for. I'm really sorry for you all." "We believe in you. None of you could be there because you were just taking orders. Even the ones that shouldn't be followed. You're not to blame."

- Batman and Terra sympathizing which each other over the loss of their loved ones. Terra is also well related to Batman and sees him as a good mentor who is as kind as Superman. She was also aware of his identity of Bruce Wayne since her childhood. It is also shown that, as a child, she had doubts of how Batman really is like, despite many children incorrectly deducing that he was either a leaping robot, a living shadow or even a vampire. But the Dark Knight eventually earned her trust when he was revealed to be a very human warrior in a Bat-based armor and he revealed himself as Bruce Wayne, whose family was for a long time very loyal to the Markovs.

Supergirl
"When Brion ever asks for your hand, can I be the Bride's maid?" "Hehehe. Sure. Although, you know, you're not my only choice." "Yeah, I know."

- Terra and Supergirl Terra is also a very close friend to her mentor's cousin Supergirl, whom she sees as the girl her brother deserves.

Beast Boy
"So, hum... about today... well... I almost lost control when Grodd took over my mind. So... thanks for standing up for me." "It was really you who stood up for me when Slade wanted me to lose control. I owed you that."

- Beast Boy and Terra before she kissed him. Terra also has a very strong bond with Beast Boy, who had a big crush on her and was closer to her since she met the Titans for the first time. She also developed rather romantic feelings for him. They eventually became a couple after their team up with Batman and Flash against Grodd.

Starfire
"Just ignore him, Star. He's just calling you like that because he never met a Tamaranean before." "But what if he is right? What if I am...?" "I don't think you are. Nobody does. Not after the things you did before." "Like what?" "Along with the many times you and the Titans saved the world. And I remember well that you were the one who saved us all when Brainiac attacked. You took him out and fixed the damage he's done. That was you, not Val-Yor. And that was amazing!" "I guess you are right. Thank you so much, friend."

- Terra comforting Starfire over Val-Yor calling her a "Troq" (a racist nickname for Tamaraneans which means "a nothing", a worthless person.) When they first met, Starfire became instant friends with Terra, similarly to Beast Boy, and would often compete with him to hang out with or hug Terra. Starfire also became very pleased when she learned that Terra found a mentor on Superman, to whom the Tamaraneans had a great respect for his heroic duties on Earth as well as his actions as leader of the Blue Lantern Corps. Terra also comforted Starfire over the fact that Starfire could not find a suitable mentor like she found Superman by claimming that he and the Justice League would not regret training her.

Raven
"That's your mentor. Isn't he? (Terra nods for yes) He seems like a pretty good man." "One of the best I met in my life." "Well... you were pretty lucky for that."

- Raven making her complements with Terra as they watch Superman (as Clark Kent) from the distance. Though initially hostile and mistrusted, Raven is also a close friend to Terra. While she became pleased to know that Terra's mentor was a good man with a family to look after, she became more pleased when that man was revealed to be the secret identity of Supeman.