Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)

Wraith
Name	Yuriko "Yuri" Watanabe
Current Alias	Wraith
Aliases	Captain Watanabe, Jean DeWolff
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly NYPD, United States Army
Relatives	Kenneth Watanabe (grandfather) John Watanabe (father)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Eyes	Irises: Black
Hair	Black
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Vigilante; former police captain, soldier
Base of Operations	New York City, New York
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Dan Slott, John Romita Jr.
First	Amazing Spider-Man #600 (July, 2009) (as Yuri Watanabe) Amazing Spider-Man #663 (June, 2011) (as Wraith)
First	Amazing Spider-Man #600 (July, 2009) (as Yuri Watanabe) Amazing Spider-Man #663 (June, 2011) (as Wraith)

 The Yuri Watanabe you know? She wasn't real. That Yuri was a story I made up, a lie I told myself--The good grandaughter I thought I wanted to be. Do you know what a wraith is, Spider-Man? Its a wisp, a trace, a ghost--The fading memory of someone who's gone. There's a reason I took the mask back so easily after giving it up. I didn't understand that fully until I killed a man last night. Yuri Watanabe would have been horrified by what I did. But you know how I felt? I felt free! 

—Wraith

History

Early Life

As a child, Yuriko Watanabe was inspired to join the police when she was older by her grandfather, Kenneth Watanabe, who received the NYPD Medal of Honor. Her father, John, was an officer as well, but when she was serving in the army, he was convicted of accepting bribes. She became an NYPD captain, supporter of Spider-Man who investigated a Gang War between the Maggia and Mister Negative, the appearance of the new Hobgoblin and other criminals.

Wraith

File:Wraith.jpg

As the Wraith

Some time later, using Mysterio's equipment and that of other villains, Yuriko became the new Wraith, disguised as the ghost of Jean DeWolff (using a mask of the Chameleon), fighting criminals and intimidating them.

When her activities became notorious, her subaltern Carlie Cooper started to investigate and managed to discover Wraith's real identity. After helping Spider-Man and Anti-Venom to defeat Mister Negative and reveal him as the philanthropist Martin Li, Cooper convinced her to give up her career as the vigilante temporarily and also to work on covering her tracks better. Yuriko then took a leave of absence from her police duties and left New York for awhile.

Superior Spider-Man

Later, Yuriko began working with Carlie to uncover the true identity of the Superior Spider-Man. Wraith accompanied Carlie into going to Grand Tauró where they chased Antoine Morant, a banker of notorious criminals, searching for information about the secret bank account of Superior Spider-Man. Carlie and the Wraith caught up with Morant, who was shredding some documents out of fear. Carlie caught the document, discovering that is actually all of the equipment and technology for the Arachnaughts and the order for his Spiderlings, all coming from the secret account of Otto Gunther Octavius, putting Carlie one step closer to the evidence she needs to unveil the secret of Superior Spider-Man.

After Carlie is kidnapped by the Green Goblin, Yuri investigates Otto more hoping to find Carlie's whereabouts. She confronts Otto during the Goblin Nation attack for info on Carlie but is knocked out by the transformed Carlie. She then aids the Avengers and Cardiac against the Goblin Knight, and they are assisted by Spider-Man (who is now Peter Parker again).

Spiral

A while afterward, Yuriko and the NYPD surround an abandoned building where Tombstone and his men are prepared to open fire on the cops. While Spider-Man helps her and the police take down Tombstone, her mentor, Teddy Rangel, is shot in the crossfire and taken to the hospital, where he eventually dies from his injuries. To her outrage, Tombstone is released from prison by one of his customers, Judge Howell, and she receives photographic evidence from Mr. Negative of Howell's involvement with Tombstone but the chief denies the evidence. As the Wraith, she and Spider-Man go to a construction site containing Tombstone's men and evidence against Howell. Spider-Man questions her methods (as she used one of the henchmen's anti-tank missiles to open a vault), to which she tells Spider-Man that as the Wraith, she is not bound to the rules of a cop that Yuriko is bound to.

She angers her chief by arresting Howell without contacting the CSI using her evidence from her "anonymous source." Howell requests to talk to her at Ryker's and on the way, Spider-Man tells her that Hammerhead and Goblin King are interested in her precinct. During her meetings with Spider-Man and Howell, she expressed her anger at how "the system" operates. Mr. Negative informs her that Hammerhead and Goblin King are meeting at the Empire Royale to discuss who will take over Tombstone's turf. Wraith and Spider-Man take down Hammerhead and his men, with Spider-Man continuing to question her morality.

Spider-Man spots Yuriko getting info from Mr. Negative about a breakout that's about to happen at Ryker's Island. He and Wraith go over to stop Black Cat and the Enforcers. She takes down the Enforcers and finds that Howell's been stabbed in prison. Spider-Man finds her with a gun after hearing a gunshot and a wounded Tombstone, but she was framed by one of Mr. Negative's men. She confronts Mr. Negative after he fails to make a deal with the Ringmaster, where he reveals that she knows her secret identity, taking the hint from the Wraith and Spider-Man showing up at a crime boss meeting whenever he informed Yuri. The next day, the chief tells her that her career is over as Howell died from the stab wound, which wouldn't have happened if she took it slowly like the chief told her to. That night, she and Spider-Man go after the Circus of Crime, but realize that Mr. Negative set her up again, and she fell for it despite Spider-Man's warnings.Out of anger, she kills one of Negative's men and claims that Yuriko is dead while the Wraith lives.

During the gang war in the third precinct, she confronts Mr. Negative, determined to kill him. Negative escapes while Wraith defeats his men. Spider-Man arrives to try and convince her to change her ways, but she punches him to go after Mr. Negative. Negative corrupts a group of bystanders, but before she can fight them off, Spider-Man grabs her to avoid damage to the brainwashed civilians, knocks out Wraith and webs her, and defeats Mr. Negative. When he goes back, Yuri escaped the webbing and only took her mask, leaving the rest of the costume behind.

Attributes

Weaknesses

none known

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Yuriko wears a suit that uses Mr. Fear's Fear Gas and tentacles that are elastic to tangle opponents.

Weapons

Fear gas and tentacles

Transportation

Wall crawling with tentacles

See Also

• 37 appearance(s) of Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)
• 4 mention(s) of Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)
• 20 image(s) of Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)
• 6 quotation(s) by or about Yuriko Watanabe (Earth-616)