Friday, March 22, 2019

TITANS Casts Chelsea Zhang as Ravager


Deathstroke finally has a daughter.

Deadline has officially confirmed that the DC Universe series Titans has cast Chelsea Zhang in the role of Rose Wilson, better known to DC Comics fans as the superhero (and occasional villain) Ravager.  Zhang joins the show's second season along with Esai Morales as Deathstroke and Chella Man as Jericho.

According to the article, Ravager is described as "Daughter of the deadly assassin, Deathstroke, Rose Wilson was forced to undergo the same procedure that granted her father nearly superhuman abilities, becoming a weapon known as Ravager.  Ever resentful, she seeks out the Titans, not only for their protection, but to get back at her father.  Knowing how dangerous it is to be the offspring of their deadliest foe, the Titans take her in but that doesn’t necessarily mean they trust her."

Zhang, 22, is probably best known as Brittany on the Disney Channel series Andi Mack.  She's also appeared in the films The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and in episodes of Scream Queens and Chasing Life.


Created in 1992 by Marv Wolfman and Art Nichols, Ravager first appeared in Deathstroke the Terminator #15 as Rose Wilson, the daughter of Slade Wilson and a Hmong woman named Lillian Worth that Slade met on a search-and-rescue mission a few years after his divorce from Adeline Kane.  Believing it to be in the child's best interest, Worth kept Rose a secret from Slade, until Wintergreen, Deathstroke's assistant, discovered 14-year-old Rose and suspected that she was Deathstroke's daughter.  

When the second Ravager, Wade DeFarge (Deathstroke's half-brother), killed Deathstroke's friends and family, Ravager discovered Rose, captured her, and told her that Deathstroke is her father.  Wintergreen and Worth launched a rescue attempt, but Worth was presumed dead after she drove a Jeep off a cliff while trying to run over DeFarge.  Wintergreen successfully rescued Rose and escaped.

Rose tried to reach out to her father, but he turned her away, fearing for her safety because he believed himself to be responsible for the deaths of two of his sons, Grant (the first Ravager) and Joseph (Jericho).  Deathstroke left her in the care of the Teen Titans superhero team, but during a training exercise, Rose was injured and taken to the hospital.  Her precognitive powers emerged for the first time when she had a lengthy vision of Deathstroke's future.  She left the Titans shortly after and did not see them again until the Technis Imperative conflict, where she allied herself with the Titans to save fellow Titan Cyborg.

Later, Deathstroke anonymously alerted the Titans that Rose's life was in danger from DeFarge, and they fought to defend her.  All of the fighters were rendered unconscious by an explosion of halothane gas, and Rose awoke in Deathstroke's lair.  He apologized to Rose for abandoning her and said that she was the only family he had left.  Deathstroke suggested that she become his apprentice, offering DeFarge as her first kill.  Rose accepted the offer and took the name "Ravager" for herself.  

Deathstroke secretly injected Rose with the same serum that gave him his abilities, and it caused her to suffer from psychosis.  Deathstroke doubted Rose’s readiness to work with him and planned to disown her after she hesitated and was unable to kill Jericho while he possessed Beast Boy's body.  To prove her loyalty, she gouged out an eye to match his missing eye.

After Rose suffered a defeat at the hands of Batgirl, Deathstroke placed her under the tutelage of Nightwing.  Nightwing agreed to train Rose, while surreptitiously teaching her the values of heroism.  In order to test Grayson's loyalty, Deathstroke replaced Rose's missing eye with one carved from Kryptonite and pit her and Nightwing against Superman.  Rose attempted to kill Superman, but Nightwing used Superman's concern for the safety of not only the civilian bystanders but Rose herself, as her final lesson on altruism.  Following the bombing of Blüdhaven on Deathstroke's orders in the Infinite Crisis event, Nightwing informed Rose that the Kryptonite Deathstroke had implanted in her eye-socket was not just a danger to Kryptonians, but was also carcinogenic and lethal to humans under extended periods of prolonged exposure.  Enraged and heartbroken that her father would endanger her life so dismissively, and emboldened by Nightwing's tutelage, Rose broke all ties with her father and ran away.

One year after the events depicted in Infinite Crisis, Rose once again joined the Teen Titans.  With Deathstroke and his serum's influence gone, Rose appeared more balanced than previously depicted.  Robin admitted Rose to the team as a favor to the team founder and ex-leader, her former mentor Nightwing.

Zhang will be the second actress to portray Ravager in live action, after Summer Glau in the CW series Arrow, who played a version named Isabel Rochev.  The character has also appeared in the animated projects Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (voiced by Freddi Rogers) and Teen Titans Go! (voiced by Pamela Adlon).

Titans is expected to return to DC Universe for Season 2 sometime in Fall 2019.

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