Wraith (Marvel Comics)


Wraith is the codename of four unrelated fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is also the surname of the character John Wraith.

Publication history

The Brian DeWolff version of Wraith first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #48 and was created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.
The Hector Rendoza version of Wraith first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #392 and was created by Scott Lobdell and Salvador Larroca.
The Zak-Del version of Wraith first appeared in Annihilation Conquest: Wraith #1 and was created by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Kyle Hotz. Wraith is set to return in Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw's 2019 relaunch of Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Yuri Watanabe version of Wraith first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #600 and was created by Dan Slott and John Romita Jr.

Fictional character biography

Brian DeWolff

Brian DeWolff was a former patrolman for the New York Police Department who was shot by criminals and rescued by his father, ex-Commissioner Phillip DeWolff. Determined to see his son, who was rendered catatonic, survive, Phillip resorted to using experimental technologies to restore Brian's health. During the restoration process, both Brian and Phillip were accidentally exposed to the machinery's ray; this process gave Brian psionic abilities, including the ability to read minds, induce illusions in the minds of others, project psionic force bolts and control the mind of another person, but also mind-linked him with his father and left him susceptible to his mental domination. Under Phillip's psionic control, Brian operated as a vigilante, killing both several criminals and innocent civilians by his insane father's decree. He fought Spider-Man, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and his sister Jean DeWolff until he was defeated by Spider-Man and Iron Man.
During their trial, Brian fell under the mental possession by Phillip once more, but Phillip was defeated by Doctor Strange and Iron Man. Strange revived the Wraith's own consciousness, and he was reunited with his sister, Jean. Once overpowered and the true circumstances revealed, Brian regained his independent will and was found innocent of the crimes; his father went to prison. The Wraith became a costumed adventurer and joined with Iron Man, Jean, and others in battling Midas. He also aided Spider-Man and Iron Man against Whiplash and the Maggia.
When his sister Jean was killed by the Sin-Eater, the Wraith was driven mad with grief and he decided to take vengeance on the whole New York Police Department. When he arrived at a police station, he was shot by the Scourge of the Underworld who was disguised as a policeman and attempting to murder Flash Thompson. His original form was destroyed, but he later transferred his mind into the body of another. He led the Vampire's Lair Club against police, but he was killed again by Morbius, the Living Vampire.
The Wraith was later among the seventeen criminals murdered by the Scourge who were resurrected by Hood using the power of Dormammu as part of a squad assembled to eliminate the Punisher. While the Wraith was scouting the city, the Punisher shot him in the chest with an arrow.

Hector Rendoza

Hector Rendoza was living in Boston when his mutant powers manifested at the age of sixteen. A large crowd formed on Boston Common, many who knew Hector when he was not translucent, intending to kill him. Jean Grey froze the crowd with her telepathic powers and recruits Hector. He is one of many she gathers to help rescue the X-Men from Genosha, where they are being held by Magneto.
He was shown to be depowered.

Zak-Del

Wraith is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Although Wraith first appears in the prologue as a vision, his first physical appearance was in Annihilation Conquest: Wraith #1 in "Annihilation Conquest"
Wraith is the son of Kree scientist Sim-Del, who created a power source sufficient to "light an entire galaxy". Kree society banished him, but he continued his work, using the power source to turn the barren planetoid he inhabited into a paradise. The Kree then simply destroyed him, his wife, and all trace of his work. However, his son was sent off in an escape ship. The ship drifted into The Exoteric Latitude, the space of the Nameless, an offshoot of the Kree who were once ancient Kree explorers lost thousands of years ago and their bodies were invaded by the Exolon, parasites that feed on the souls of living creatures. The Nameless made Zak-Del into one of their own and was promptly infected with the Exolon. Because he had become a Nameless, he was subjected to endless self-inflicted torture, as this is the only way a Nameless can remember their life before losing their soul. He was haunted by the image of the signet ring worn by the man who killed his parents, and that is what brings him to Kree space — to hunt down that man. Wraith defeated the leader of the Nameless and he stole their polymorphic weapon and a ship that transported to journeyed back into the galaxy to hunt down the man. Although his time with the Nameless made him rather cold and shows brutal efficiency as a fighter, Wraith retains some pragmatic yet moral standards.
Wraith is first seen when he incapacitated an entire Phalanx battle-cruiser, drawing the attention of both the Phalanx and the Resistance forces led by Ra-Venn opposing them. Because he was able to make the Phalanx feel fear, both sides wished to add him to their ranks. He is tracked by the Phalanx to the resistance's base, and in allowing them to escape, he is captured and brought before Ronan the Accuser, head of the Kree empire since the end of the Annihilation War, now slave and Head Inquisitor of the Phalanx. Though Ronan subjects Wraith to all manner of horrible torture, inflicting more pain than any Kree would be able to withstand, Wraith refuses to give up his origins, finally prompting an infuriated Ronan to attempt to impale him on a large spike. Wraith simply pulls himself off and immediately heals. Ronan states that due to his seeming immunity to pain, he is not Kree, he is something else, like a wraith. This amuses the son of Sim-Del, and he decides that Wraith is a suitable new name for himself. He then divulges his origins and indicates that he pities Ronan because he is a slave. The Accuser decides the greatest torture he could inflict would be to make Wraith a slave to the Phalanx for all time, and he promptly infects Wraith with Phalanx technology.
Wraith does not succumb, however, and simply puts himself into a coma-like state, which infuriates Ronan personally and annoys the Phalanx. A vision of Sim-Del in Wraith's mind convinces him to continue fighting, as only the punishment of the man with the signet ring could set his and his wife's spirits free. His father also convinces him that he cannot find the man alone, and so Wraith enlists the help of Super-Skrull and Praxagora. The trio escape and meet up with the Resistance, saving them from a Phalanx warship. Although he has little interest in the war with the Phalanx, Wraith accepts the offer to join the Resistance and fight the Phalanx in return for their help in tracking down the people who murdered his family. With Wraith and crew's assistance, the rebellion manages to capture a Phalanx scientist who has information on the Phalanx's super weapon. After determining the deployment point and the time of the attack, the fleet launches a suicide mission to deliver Wraith, Super-Skrull and Praxagora to the scene, where they infiltrate the Phalanx fleet and find the weapon, a Phalanx-infected Supreme Intelligence. Here Wraith again sees his father's spirit, speaking through the Supreme Intelligence, who instructs him not to stop the weapon, but to let it activate, and then to release the Exolon and absorb the Supreme Intelligence's soul, not only saving the Kree, but also dealing a massive blow to the Phalanx and freeing Ronan from the Phalanx's control. Wraith also convinces Ronan to overcome his shame and lead the Kree against their captors. He himself remains with the resistance, not revealing what he has truly done, to later use the Supreme Intelligence's soul to become a beacon of hope for the people.
Wraith and allies travels to the planet Kree-Lar, a ceded territory of the Kree that is home to Ravenous and enemies to the Kree, at Ronan's behest. Wraith makes his wariness and distrust of this mission clear to Ronan before their ship is attacked and are sent crashing into the planet. The group land on the surface and found that the Phalanx engaging warfare with the Ravenous, but Wraith uses his Exolon parasites paralyze the Phalanx and stop the fighting. Recognizing Wraith being the key to dealing with the Phalanx, the Ravenous agreed to allow the group to see their leader. During the audience, Wraith demonstrates his powers the Ravenous before subduing him, allowing Ronan to access the secret chamber underneath the throne. Ronan leads Wraith the 15,000 Kree Sentries that lays dormant in the chamber, which Wraith and Praxagora reprogrammed to make the sentries immune to the Phalanx's abilities. As Ronan launches the 15,000 Kree Sentries to Hala to destroy all Phalanx and Phalanx-infected Kree on the Kree homeworld Hala, Wraith stands quietly aside as he watches Ronan enacts his plans and orders Ravenous to get them a ship to travel to Hala. Upon arriving in Hala's space system, the group notices other forces are fighting against the Phalanx, Praxagora is possessed by Ultron, who is the Phalanx Technarchy's primary director, and stuns Wraith so he can transfer his essence into the Sentries and adds them to his army. Ultron kills Praxagora and explodes the ship, but Wraith and the others are saved by the Super-Skrull' force field, who takes them Hala's surface. Upon seeing Adam Warlock and Phyla-Vell battling a giant-size Ultron, Wraith aids them by using the Exolon to trapped Ultron in his current body, allowing Phyla-Vell to finished him off. After the battle, Wraith uses his Exolon to purge any Phalanx-infected Kree citizens before continuing on his quest to find his family's killer.
After Gamora killed Thanos in Infinity Wars, Wraith attended Thanos's funeral and witness Starfox showing all the guests a recording of Thanos stating that he uploaded his consciousness in a new body before his death. While Wraith watches everyone angrily debate whether Thanos was telling the truth, they are attack by the Black Order, who steals Thanos's body and rip open a hole in space, sending Wraith and everyone else into the rip. Wraith and many others are saved by Gladiator and the Shi'ar Empire, allowing Starfox to continue recruit warriors to find Gamora, the most likely candidate to be Thanos's new body. Wraith brings up the issue of the Black Order, but Starfox assure they are searching for them and Nebula states that the team should track down Nova to find Gamora's location. The Dark Guardians found Nova and ambush him, wounding him enough to crash land onto a planet. Wraith demands Nova to tell Gamora's location, stating the fact he doesn't want to harm him if doesn't have to. Wraith also reveals his reason for helping Starfox is so he could find Knull, the ancient malevolent primordial deity who created the Klyntar and the Exolon. Wraith wants to have Knull free him from the Exolon parasites. When Gladiator and Cosmic Ghost Rider orders him to back off, Nova takes the chance to fly off again, but the team plans to track down again. As Nebula predicted, Nova leads them to Gamora, who was about Star-Lord's ship, and attack. Amidst the chaotic battle, Starfox and his team easily overwhelmed the Guardians and captured Gamora. After delivering Gamora to Starfox, Wraith demanded that Starfox uphold his part of their bargain. Starfox handed Wraith a flashdrive of all the information he collected on Knull, though he told Wraith the intel is not very much. When the Black Order and Hela appeared, Wraith didn't intervene since he already got what he needed.

Yuri Watanabe

Yuri Watanabe is the fourth and most recent character to take on the Wraith mantle. She first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #600 as herself, a captain in the New York Police Department. The character was created by Dan Slott and John Romita Jr.
In The Amazing Spider-Man #663, a new Wraith appears, targeting Mister Negative's criminal syndicate. During one such attack, the Wraith unmasks to reveal the face of Jean DeWolff, later revealed to be a Chameleon mask. It is later revealed that the Wraith is really Watanabe, pretending to be the ghost of DeWolff to scare the criminals she targets.
Wraith accompanies Carlie Cooper into going to Grand Tauró where they chase Antoine Morant, a banker of notorious criminals, searching for information about the secret bank account of Superior Spider-Man. Carlie and the Wraith catch up with Morant, who was shredding some documents out of fear. Carlie catches the document, discovering that is actually all of the equipment and technology for the Arach-nauts and the order for his Spiderlings, all coming from the secret account of Doctor Octopus, putting Carlie one step closer to the evidence she needs to unveil the secret of Superior Spider-Man once and for all.
After Carlie is kidnapped by the Green Goblin, Yuri investigates Otto more hoping to find Carlie's whereabouts. She confronts Otto during the Goblin Nation attack for info on Carlie but is knocked out by the transformed Carlie. She then aids the Avengers and Cardiac against the Goblin Knight, and they are assisted by Spider-Man.
In the "Spiral" storyline, Yuri's faith in the justice system is shattered when Tombstone is released from prison after the crime boss was responsible for killing her mentor during a shootout between his gang and the police. She receives photographic evidence from Mr. Negative that the person who released him, Judge Howell, was one of Tombstone's customers and arrests the judge without contacting the CSI after obtaining more evidence as the Wraith with Spider-Man. With a crime war looming in the local precincts, she continues to receive tips from Mr. Negative on where big crime overlords such as Hammerhead and Goblin King are meeting so she and Spider-Man can take them down.
Spider-Man notices she is becoming more brutal in her approach and believes Mr. Negative is using her. He is later proven right when Mr. Negative begins to take over the turf due to the two-crime fighters taking out his competition and tries to frame her for murder. When Howell dies in prison from a stab wound, Yuri's chief ends her career for her quick arrest contributing to his death. After a fight with the Circus of Crime, she realizes she has been playing into Mr. Negative's hands and kills one of his men, claiming that Yuriko is dead while the Wraith lives. When she attempts to kill Mr. Negative, Spider-Man tries to convince her to change her ways. She ultimately prefers no longer being bound to the law and fights her former ally to go after Martin Li, but Spider-Man knocks her out and goes on to defeat Mr. Negative himself. When he returns to the scene, he finds Yuri has abandoned her costume and taken the mask with her.

Powers and abilities

The Brian DeWolff version of Wraith possesses a variety of psionic powers as an effect of energy from advanced technology procured by Phillip DeWolff. The Wraith had the psionic ability to control the mind of one other person at a time. He had the ability to cast illusions indiscernible from reality in the minds of one or more people simultaneously, thereby making reality appear to change or making himself seem invisible. He also had the psionic ability to induce mental pain in others equivalent to the physical pain which would be caused by what they were perceiving without causing his victim physical injury, the telepathic ability to read minds, and the psionic ability to affect Spider-Man's mind in such a way as to shield himself from detection by the latter's "spider-sense." He also carried a smoke pistol of unknown origin. Brian De Wolff has received police training in armed and unarmed combat.
The Hector Rendoza version of Wraith can turn either his skin or others' skin translucent.
The Zak-Del version of Wraith is experienced fighter and possesses an unidentified polymorphic weapon which can take on a variety of forms, including a gun, a whip, a small blade, and devices like binoculars. As a Kree, Wraith possesses his species' unique physiology, having far greater natural attributes than a human and is resistant to poisons, toxins and diseases. Due to the Exolon parasites that infect and maintain his body, he possesses enhanced speed, strength and agility greater than a normal Kree, as well as an ability to heal himself from even the most egregious of wounds. He also does not age and cannot die, at least not in any way yet shown. By summoning swarms of Exolon, he can strike fear into his opponents, and, because the Exolon feed on souls, swarms of it appear—at least to the Phalanx— to eat the exposed soul of a living being. Due to the nature of the Nameless and their rituals of inflicting pain on themselves, he also has an unnaturally high tolerance for pain, not screaming or making any other negative reactions to it. Due to not being alive in conventional sense, Wraith also has an unspecific degree of immortality and is immune to scanners as he is not identify as a life-form. The Exolon also grants Wraith the ability to absorb energy blasts and the souls of other beings.
The Yuri Watanabe version of Wraith initially used technology such as Chameleon's mask disguise, Mysterio's equipment, and Mr. Fear's Fear Gas. Her primary weapons are yellow elastic straps attached to her costume that wrap up her enemies and allow her to swing around the city similar to Spider-Man.

In other media

Television