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 1930's (the time period in which the strip was set), especially The Shadow and The Spider.
Night Raven was one of the few original characters created for Marvel UK in the 1980's, 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 (#382-386) by Alan McKenzie and continued in The Daredevils (#6-11) by Alan Moore and Jamie Delano. His period setting was gradually moved from the 1930's up to contemporary times by the plot device of having him rendered apparently immortal and indestructible but in constant pain and gradually losing his sanity as a result, due to the machinations of his equally immortal arch foe, the Oriental female crime lord Yi Yang.
In the 1990's 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.
Night Raven is glimpsed in the first issue of the The Twelve, where he is one of many costumed heroes pictured in Berlin in a scene dated April 25, 1945. He plays no part in the subsequent story and it is unclear whether or not the creators realized that this would appear to contradict the character's existing continuity.
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