Ravencroft Institute
The Ravencroft Institute is a prison that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
The Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane was a mental asylum that existed in New York. In the early 1400's, the area was shunned by the Native Americans as being a cursed area where not even flowers were able to grow with the land itself being deemed to be soaked in blood. All the tribes that inhabited the region knew that even accidentally straying into the lands resulted in dire consequences. It was said that a race of cannibalistic heathens were said to had inhabited the area who preyed on any trespassers to their shrines. In 1524, the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano and his expedition came upon the land where the horror of what they had seen led to them cutting their voyage to the North American region short. As settlers began to inhabit the region, cities grew but the land where Ravencroft was located was given a wide berth with those few not heeding the warnings suffering from mysterious attacks. In 1664, Cortland Kasady and his wife Molly Ravencroft came from England to settle in the area despite the warnings. One day, his wife was out in the woods where she went missing and despite her husband's call for aid the townspeople refused to accompany him. Thus, he journeyed into the area himself to save his wife and was attacked by one of the cannibal tribe. He came to find Molly still alive with Cortland deciding to kill the cannibals to stop them from being a threat in the future. He went in alone into the cave that served as their shrine where he saw an altar that worshipped a heathen god where he was confronted by the deranged cannibal tribesmen. Cortland was force to kill the tribe but the encounter changed him and he began to hear the whisperings of their dark god. When he returned to the village, he killed 8 people before he was subdued where they built a prison for Cortland within the cursed land that became the country's first insane asylum. Whilst there, his love Molly came to visit him where she opened the cell and Cortland killed her whereupon he escaped into the surrounding woods with his fate being unknown. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage v1 #1) The land remained undeveloped for centuries where it was plagued by various incidents. This was until 1899 when it was purchased by Jonas Ravencroft in order to use it to address the lack of mental health care. Construction was fraught with problems and incidences but ultimately it led to the complete of the Ravencroft Institute. Among its early patients was man claiming to had been the Black Knight Sir Percy of Scandia who had served King Arthur and been displaced into this time period by Morgan le Fay. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1 #1) Other notable events included an encounter in 1918 with a man called the Master of the World who claimed to had been a 40,000 year old caveman. Later, in 1923, a unlikely pairing of a young Al Capone and Silas Burr fled the Institute. In 1932, a creature known as a skin walker was noted to had been present on the grounds of the asylum. In 1933, one detainee at the institute was a man claiming to be a god of lies. By 1945, Baron Blood had defected to the U.S. and participated in the program run by Professor Thorton at Ravencroft with Dracula participating in this alliance as they sought a cure for Vampire sensitivity to light. This saw them experiment on patients at the institute with this attracting the attention of Captain America and Bucky. During this time, Jonas Ravencroft killed himself rather than continue to operate under the callous scientists that had usurped his mental asylum. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Dracula v1 #1)
After his time at the Vault, it was decided to transfer Cletus Kasady to Ravencroft for psychiatric treatment after it was deemed that he was normal. Whilst there, the staff were unaware of him still possessing the Carnage Symbiote where after having a cut he transformed after which he began to slaughter the staff at the facility. During his time, he found another in-mate named Shriek who he freed with the pair deciding to go on a rampage in the city. (Spider-Man Unlimited v1 #1)
Later on, Dr. Kafka looked to treat Shriek and help her deal with her past trauma though found her patient in a violent state. This resulted in her being placed in a highly secured cell that helped contain her. Around this time, another of Ashley Kakfa's patients was Malcolm McBride who was struggling with the actions of his other persona namely that of Carrion. Attempting to ease him, she looked to show him Shriek but the brief sighting of McBride cased Frances Barrison to lash out as she became protective of her 'son'. This resulted in Shriek's powers managing to overwhelm the cell where she abducted Malcolm in an effort to restore his Carrion persona. In the process, she attacked Dr. Kafka and left her badly injured where she was in a hospital to recover from her injuries. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #390)
The hospital came to be visited by Dr. Judas Traveller who along with his students had come to Ravencroft as part of a grand experiment. Secretly, he planned to study the nature of evil and took over the facility where he issued a challenge to Spider-Man. Traveller had threatened to kill the in-mates unless stopped but warned that if Spider-Man stopped him then he risked letting the dangerous patents to escape and become a menace to society. (Web of Spider-Man v1 #117)
Michael Hall of Hall Industries was noted to had bought Ravencroft where he transferred the contracts of a number of its staff including Dr. Tanis Nieves. (Carnage v1 #2)
Massacre later managed to escape from Ravencroft where he was responsible for shooting and killing Dr. Kafka. (Superior Spider-Man v1 #4)
Three supervillain prisoners namely Freak, Will o' the Wisp and Conundrum were then infected with Symbiotes. These villains were dispatched by Carnage to hunt down Deadpool in order to claim the codices that resided in his body as a former Symbiote host. (Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool v1 #2)
In the aftermath, the ruined asylum was torn down with Mayor Fisk deciding to rebuild it and made John Jameson in charge of the facility. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage v1 #1)
Overview
It was said that Ravencroft was a necessary evil with some even considering it to be a failure. (Web of Spider-Man v1 #117)
Patients were restrained in separate security cells each designed to neutralise their specific abilities. (Web of Spider-Man v1 #117)
Inhabitants
Staff
- Jonas Ravencroft : the original founder of the Ravencroft Institute. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage v1 #1)
- Dr. Nathaniel Essex : a male doctor who worked at the Institute alongside Jonas Ravencroft where secretly he worked on hidden experiments on some of the patients at the facility. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1 #1)
- Claudia Russell : female doctor who worked alongside Jonas Ravencroft where she was secretly a werewolf. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1 #1)
- Victor Creed : served as a guard and worked for Dr. Essex. (Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1 #1)
- Ashley Kafka :
- Pournella : blonde haired female doctor who was attempting to treat Cletus Kasady when he freed himself by transforming into Carnage and began to slaughter the facility's staff. (Spider-Man Unlimited v1 #1)
- Landis : dark haired male doctor who was part of the team looking to treat Cletus Kasady but the serial killer freed himself by transforming into Carnage where he killed Landis along with other staff at the Asylum. (Spider-Man Unlimited v1 #1)
- Tanis Nieves : female psychologist who believed in helping hurt individuals and was assigned as the doctor for Shriek. (Carnage v1 #3)
- John Jameson :
- Edward Whelan :
Prisoners
- Logan : (Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1 #1)
- Carnage :
- Shriek :
- Marcus Lyman : a male who was married to Judy Lyman with the pair being traders when a car bomb detonated outside their offices which killed her and left Marcus with a piece of shrapnel in his head that cut certain connections in his brain leaving him cold and emotionless. He was later incarcerated at Ravencroft with him getting therapy from Dr. Kafka who learnt that Lyman no longer valued human life. Marcus later escaped and became a gun wielding supervillain named Massacre where he targeted people in the city. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #656)
- Will o' the Wisp :
- Conundrum :
- Freak :
Notes
- Ravencroft Institute was created by Terry Kavanagh and Alex Saviuk where it made its first appearance in Web of Spider-Man v1 #112 (May, 1994).
In other media
Television
- In Spider-Man, Ravencroft appeared in the setting of the 1990s animated television series. Dr. Ashley Kafka was shown as being a lead doctor at the facility who tended to the patients at the asylum.
Films
- In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Ravencroft Institute appeared in the setting of the live-action film with it having a time-worn tradition as a facility tasked with helping in mental improvement. The facility was headed by Dr. Kafka and was used to store dangerous experiments by select people at Oscorp Industries.
Video games
- In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ravencroft appeared in the setting of the video-game tie-in to the live-action film. The Carnage Killer was transferred there by Oscorp after he was captured by Spider-Man with Donald Menken looking to subject Cletus to experiments for his agenda.
Appearances
- Web of Spider-Man v1: (1994)
- Amazing Spider-Man:
- Spider-Man Unlimited v1:
- Carnage v1:
- Absolute Carnage v1:
- Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool v1:
- Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage v1: (2020)
- Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth v1: (2020)
- Ruins of Ravencroft: Dracula v1: (2020)
External Links
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