Vigilantes and police officers are two sides of the same coin. Both try to maintain the law but one does so within the law while the other breaks tradition. Sometimes, masked vigilantes are cops behind the mask. Yuri Watanabe was a good cop fed up with the confines of her job so she took up a new identity as Wraith. So what lead to this frustration and how do you get a super-powered suit? Let’s find out!
Yuriko “Yuri” Watanabe grew up in a cop family, her father and grandather were both police officers before her. Her grandfather had earned the NYPD Medal of Honor while her father had been caught taking bribes. Both men inspired her desire to be in law enforcement where she would excel and raise to the rank of Captain. She was open about her support of the masked hero, Spider-Man and his work, even going so far as to work with him on cases. Through her work with Spider-Man and dealing with the limitations of the legal system, Yuri began to look into extra-legal methods to help keep New Yorkers safe.
Getting a hold of confiscated technology that many of Spider-Man’s villains used, such as Mysterio and the Chameleon, Yuri would build a costume and use the known heroic identity of Wraith. Thanks to her use of Chameleon’s tech, she could further disguise herself by making the criminal underworld believe she was the dead detective, Jean DeWolf, sister to the original Wraith. Now people were terrified that an undead threat was striking back against all criminals of New York City. She would team up with Spider-Man on several occasions to help deal with such threats as Mister Negative and having her identity found out by her 2nd Lieutenant, Carlie Cooper, before needing to take a break from both police and vigilante work.
When she would return to her life of fighting crime on two fronts, she would realize that Spider-Man was acting differently. This would be because he was actually Doctor Otto Octavius in possession of Peter Parker’s body but Yuri would have to team up with Carlie Cooper to figure this out. Once Peter Parker was himself again, Yuri would work with him again and the two would deal with threats when she was on and off the clock. Her time as Wraith lead to her getting more and more violent with criminals. This, with her cutting corners as a cop would lead to a suspect getting killed and putting her job at risk for such reckless behavior. Her obsession with stopping crime would get to the point of murdering at least one criminal, she and Spider-Man haven’t worked together as much since then.
There you have it! Yuri Watanabe has made her video game appearance in the Playstation 4 game, Spider-Man. She hasn’t taken on her Wraith mantle yet in this iteration but maybe in a sequel? She’s been in animated format but not appeared in any big screen form, perhaps that will change in the future. See you next time!
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Suggested Reading
Amazing Spider-Man #600
Amazing Spider-Man #663
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
Didn’t know she was a costume hero! I’m playing the game now and there’s no hint of it but don’t tell me if there is in the game lol Honestly haven’t picked up a Spider-Man comic in years but this is pretty cool