Night Raven
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| Night Raven | |
 Night Raven, art by David Lloyd |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Hulk Weekly #1, (January 1979) |
| Created by | Dez Skinn (writer) Richard Burton(artist) |
| In story information | |
| Abilities | Immortal vigilante. |
Night Raven is a fictional superhero appearing primarily in Marvel UK Comics, a division of Marvel Comics.
Night Raven first appeared in Hulk Weekly #1 (January 1979).
Contents |
[edit] Publication history
Originally created by editors Dez Skinn and Richard Burton, the early Night Raven stories were written by Steve Parkhouse with art by David Lloyd. Dez Skinn's immediate superior, Stan Lee, did not like David Lloyd's "blocky" artwork and John Bolton became Lloyd's replacement artist towards the end of the strip's initial run. The original Night Raven strip was greatly influenced by the pulp characters of the 1930s (the time period in which the strip was set), especially The Shadow and The Spider. Stan Lee felt the strip would work better in a contemporary setting, and so the time period of the strip was eventually shifted forward to the present through the plot device of putting both Night Raven and his nemesis, the Dragon Lady-like Yi Yang, into suspended animation and reviving them in modern times.
Night Raven was one of the few original characters created for Marvel UK in the 1980s, and quickly became a fan-favorite. During the decade, Night Raven appeared in various Marvel UK titles, including a run of text stories beginning in Marvel Superheroes by Alan McKenzie and continued in The Daredevils by Alan Moore and Jamie Delano.
In the 1990s the character had only a handful of appearances, most prominent of which was a graphic novel, Night Raven: House of Cards. The character's first American appearance was in a supporting role in the graphic novel Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty. In Death Duty, it is revealed that he is unable to die. Night Raven's immortality was contradicted later in the 1995 Marvel US miniseries Nocturne, in which it was revealed that the original Night Raven had died after being poisoned in the 1950's. One of his last acts was to create a battlesuit which was later donned by Graham "Gray" Poldark to become a new hero known as "Nocturne". It has since been confirmed that the Nocturne story did not take place in the main Marvel comics reality.
[edit] Bibliography
- Night Raven (by David Lloyd):
- "Night Raven" (with Steve Parkhouse, Marvel UK, 1979, collected in Night Raven: The Collected Stories, 1990)[1]
- "House Of Cards" (with Jamie Delano, one shot, Marvel UK, 1991, ISBN 1854002880)[2]
- Nocturne (by Dan Abnett, with pencils by Joe Fonteriz and inks by John Stokes (1-2 and 4), 4-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics, 1994)[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Night Raven: The Collected Stories at the Comic Book DB
- ^ House of Cards at the Comic Book DB
- ^ Nocturne mini-series at the Comic Book DB
