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Harvest, the superhero-hating archenemy of the Teen Titans in the New 52 era has since become one of DC’s greatest forgotten threats.
The Teen Titans have faced many dangerous foes over the course of the team’s history, but few can claim to be deadlier than Harvest. Although this time-traveling supervillain hasn’t made a prominent appearance since the New 52 era, Harvest served as the first major villain of that generation of Teen Titans, and he nearly took the team out of commission for good.
Harvest debuted in 2012’s Teen Titans #7, by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth. The man who would become Harvest was originally an unnamed colonel who lived in the 31st century, an era where metahumans are commonplace. After a metahuman claims the life of his only child, Harvest develops a deep hatred towards all metahumans and makes it his mission to resolve what he perceives as the overabundance of people with superpowers . Knowing he can’t achieve this in the 31st-century with the likes of the Legion of Superheroes opposing him, Harvest steals advanced technology and travels back in time to the 21st-century in the hope of altering history and creating a new future that better represents his twisted ideals.
Upon arriving in the present-day, Harvest gets to work on his plans by forming the organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E, which begins hunting down teenagers with powers. Those who are captured by N.O.W.H.E.R.E are taken to the Colony, a secret holding facility in Antarctica that also serves as the organization’s headquarters. Once there, the young metahumans are tortured and experimented on the orders of Harvest, who seeks to take complete control over the new generation of metahumans and use them to re-shape the future. When the prison reaches its maximum capacity, Harvest forces the captives to fight one another in a brutal battle royale, the Culling, and the survivors are drafted into the ranks of Harvest’s personal guard, the Ravagers.
N.O.W.H.E.R.E’s crusade is actually the catalyst behind the formation of the Teen Titans in New 52 continuity, with Tim Drake’s Red Robin setting out to stop N.O.W.H.E.R.E by gathering a team of young metahumans who can take the organization down. Over the course of “The Culling,” Tim meets and recruits many of the New 52’s Teen Titan’s core members, including Cassie Sandsmark’s Wonder Girl and Superboy. After overcoming their initial distrust, the team solidifies and sets out to stop N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and rescue the kidnapped metahumans. Harvest is aware that the newly-christened Teen Titans are out to thwart his plans, however, and decides to include the team in his latest Culling after he gets the drop on the team and captures them.
Upon awakening at the Colony, the Teen Titans are almost immediately attacked by the Ravagers, whose members at this time included the likes of Garfield Logan’s Beast Boy, and Tara Markov’s Terra. Also caught in the midst of the Culling is “The Legion Lost,” a small group of Legion of Superheroes members who have recently been stranded in the past. Working together, the Teen Titans and the Legion defeat the Ravagers, only to be confronted by Harvest himself. After failing to convince the assembled teens that his methods, while reprehensible, are needed to prevent metahumans from running rampant, the supervillain engages the Titans while the Legion Lost free the other captives and set the Colony to self-destruct.
Harvest had many more encounters with the Teen Titans after the events of “The Culling,” acting as the group’s de-facto archenemy for quite some time. With his exceptional combat skill, insidiously strategic mind, and unique animosity towards young heroes, Harvest was a compelling and consistent threat that the Titans always struggled to overcome. Despite all of this, Harvest has not made any prominent appearances after The New 52 era ended, leaving the fate of the character and his many machinations uncertain.
And with the launch of Infinite Frontier reintegrating every pre-existing DC timeline back into continuity, the founder of N.O.W.H.E.R.E is poised to return at any moment to resume his war with the Teen Titans.
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