Red Raven

Origin

One of the first airplanes to cross the Atlantic Ocean crashed into a floating island which was the home of a race of Inhumans call the Bird-People also known as the Winged Ones. The Bird-People looked like an ordinary human, except for large, feathered wings, which enabled them to fly. The island was able to float due to powerful anti-gravity drives. The crash happened because the island was concealed in a dense fog bank; a small boy was the only surviving member of the crash.

It was determined that the lone survivor was to be raised as one of the Bird-People and was named Red Raven because of his flaming red hair, in the following years he is given a suit with large artificial wings, in the suit miniature anti-gravity mechanisms were fitted which enabled him to fly. On becoming an adult Red Raven decides to return to the world of the human race below.

Creation

Red Raven, created by writer Joe Simon and Louis Cazeneuve, debuted in Red Raven Comics #1, published by Timely Comics in August of 1940. The title was canceled after its debut issue, abandoning all the features from the first issue and becoming The Human Torch with issue two. The character remained unused for over two decades before being revived as an antagonist to the X-Men in the 1960s.

Major Story Arcs

World War II

During World War II Red Raven gained membership into an organization of costumed adventurers named the Liberty Legion. During the war years Red Raven saw mankind’s brutality towards others, disillusioned he returns to the island. Upon his return he discovers that the Bird-People believe the humans to be inferior and had decided to defeat the human race while they were still fatigued from World War II. Red Raven argues in vain with the ruler of the Bird-People saying that the humans still greatly outnumbered them and would wipe out the Bird-People race if they went to war. To save the Bird-Peoples lives, Red Raven used a gas that placed them in suspended animation, each individual including himself was given his or her own suspension capsule, then he sank the island to the ocean floor, setting a timing device that would return the island to the surface some years later awakening him first.

Meeting the X-men and Namor

Years later the island rose to the surface only to be discovered by the mutant Angel. Fighting broke out between Angel and Red Raven after which he again sank the island and returned to suspended animation. Not long after this, an undersea quake ripped his capsule loose and on the surface Red Raven regained consciousness, but was unable to move. A former ally, the Sub-Mariner came to his aid, but the suspended animation methods he had used had seriously affected his reasoning.

Red Raven now intended to revive the Bird-People, destroy humanity, and take over the Earth, but when Red Raven tried to awaken the Bird-People, he found that the capsules had malfunctioned, and all had died. Anguish took over and Red Raven lashed out at a main control panel causing an incredible explosion, killing himself and destroying the island. Or so we thought.

Red Raven gets a daughter

Sometime during all of this he had a daughter, by the name of Dania. Mad scientist Arnim Zola created numerous proto-husks from DNA samples of deceased heroes and villains including Red Raven whom he called his Corpse Corps. These resurrected husks would secure riches to fund his genetic experiments but come into conflict with Deadpool after Animus steals some files from him. The merc with a mouth kills Red Raven and cuts off his wings with a handsaw . Deadpool destroys most of the proto-husks and defeats Arnim Zola. Red Raven eventually reappeared alive, and revealed that he’d faked his own death, that of the Bird People, and the sinking of the island

Clashes with Earth’s Heroes

Red Raven became more weary of the outside world as time went by, and even started to see the outside world as a thread to his own civilization. This brought him into conflict with some of earth’s mightiest heroes. He would eventually clash with the Defenders and later the Order as well as a fight against Nova, the Human Rocket, when Red Raven started an all-out war against the human race. Red Raven eventually left the earth alone altogether, in hope that earth would do the same to him and his people.

ARMOR

Recently, Red Raven was recruited by ARMOR and joined a team led by Dum Dum Dugan in an excursion to an alternate reality plagued with flesh-eating zombies. Raven sacrifices himself to save his teammate Taxi Taylor, a woman with the ability to cross dimensions. Raven is turned into a zombie and later destroyed. Dum Dum, Taxi and the surviving team members manage to destroy the multi-versal zombie threat.