Yuriko "Yuri" Watanabe is a supporting character in the Marvel's Spider-Man series. She first appears in Marvel's Spider-Man, where she works frequently with Peter Parker's Spider-Man to tackle the rising crime in New York City. In the DLC expansion The City That Never Sleeps, a traumatic event occurs which causes Yuri to go rogue and cut contact with Spider-Man before resurfacing as the ruthless anti-heroine known as Wraith in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
History[]
Early history[]
Yuri was born around the year 1980 in Astoria, Queens borough of New York City.[1] Her father, a second generation cop, was imprisoned after it was discovered he was taking bribes from the Maggia. Her father's fall from grace motivated her to join the police force, with the intent of righting her father's wrongs and single-handedly taking on the Maggia.
Yuri started out as a detective at the NYPD's Chinatown precinct, but relocated several times in her career. Over the course of over a decade, Yuri brought down countless Maggia's fronts, earning the ire of Maggia and eventually earning her the rank of captain.
Over time, she formed an alliance with Spider-Man. She was one of the few authorities to really trust him, despite their sometimes-conflicting personalities. She would go on to give him her contact information, and the two would work together to tackle crime in the city.
Yuri also had an ill-fated history with street criminal Cletus Kasady, who constantly eluded capture.
Marvel's Spider-Man[]
Yuri serves as the main point of contact for Spider-Man within the police department. She works with him throughout the main campaign, providing leads on major and minor criminal activities and points of interest.
Spider-Man and Yuri in Keeping the peace
When the police move in to apprehend Wilson Fisk at Fisk Tower, Yuri asks for Spider-Man's assistance, which he provides. In the beginning of "Keeping the Peace", Spider-Man stops by to chat with Yuri, who asks for help restoring the department’s active crime database. Later, she appears in "A Shocking Comeback", alerting Spider-Man of Shocker's resurgence and later takes him to back prison. She is also puts Spider-Man in contact with veteran police officer Jefferson Davis, who had worked the Fisk case for many years prior to his arrest. After Davis' death, Yuri attends his funeral following the Inner Demons' attack on City Hall, standing in salute with her fellow officers.
After the Sable International mercenaries capture Spider-Man in "Dual Purpose", she arrives just in time to vouch for him. Later, after escaped inmates attack Ryker's Island and The Raft, she offers Spider-Man a ride via helicopter to help her control the riots. The helicopter is shot down, but Spider-Man uses his webs to prevent it crashing, saving Yuri's life. After the Sinister Six's attack on Spider-Man soon after, Yuri pulls him from the water, saving his life. She helps get him to the hospital but is disheartened when he insists on leaving. However, as the Sinister Six wreak havoc on the city, Yuri concedes and accepts his help recapturing the villains.
Some time after when only Doctor Octopus and Mister Negative remain at large, Spider-Man informs Yuri Oscorp has the Devil's Breath antiserum at their Upper West Side facility. However, she informs Spider-Man that a helicopter carrying Mayor Norman Osborn went down at the address of the facility. After Li is defeated, Octavius arrives, steals the antiserum, and kidnaps Norman to Oscorp Tower. Yuri calls one last time before Spider-Man goes after Octavius, informing him that she and the rest of her men were infected by Devil's Breath and were returning home. Yuri in particular, was planning on tending to her widowed mother, believing that no one should be alone in the middle of a crisis. Before the call ends, Spider-Man thanks her for being both a partner and a friend.
After he defeats Octavius, Spider-Man returns the antiserum to Oscorp, allowing them to mass-produce it and cure most of the infected, including Yuri. She returns to active duty, telling Spider-Man that the city still needs to be cleaned up, and for the job they need "Spider-Cop".
The City That Never Sleeps[]
Yuri in The City That Never Sleeps
In an effort to stop the brewing Maggia gang war, Yuri and her team break into Hammerhead's base with Spider-Man's help. Despite her efforts, the team is overwhelmed by Hammerhead, who leaves most of them dead. Yuri is emotionally scarred by the incident and forced to call the families of the fallen officers to inform them of their fate. Spider-Man reassures her that they will bring Hammerhead to justice, and the two continue working together to track him. However, when progress is slow, Yuri loses patience and launches a one-woman assault on the Bar with No Name, brutalizing every criminal in her wake, which greatly disturbs Spider-Man. She later appears during his fight with Hammerhead, where she apparently kills him with a shot to the head. Moments later, however, he is revived by a mole in the police department on his payroll whilst being transported to the morgue.
Yuri is placed on administrative leave in the aftermath of the Hammerhead incident. However, she has not given up her agenda against him or the Maggia. At some point, Spider-Man discovers a series of voice recordings and police records at the sites of various crime scenes across the city. The recordings document how the murders have been committed by a Maggia enforcer who is under orders from one of Maggia's Don to gain information on Yuri's current plans and state of mind. To that end, the enforcer blackmails Yuri's therapist after coming to see him under the guise of being a patient himself. It is revealed that the therapist is actually working undercover in concert with Yuri to apprehend and convict the enforcer for attempted murder.
When Spider-Man finds the last recording, he learns that the enforcer has discovered the therapist's true motives and murdered him in cold blood. Shortly after, he receives a call from Yuri, who asks him to meet her at Madison and 23rd. When he arrives, he finds the enforcer dead, his body tied to a water pipe, and Yuri nowhere to be found. She calls again and tells Spider-Man that while she still believes in the justice system, there are times when it simply doesn't work, something she considers unacceptable. She also admits that killing the enforcer felt good and that she feels that she has dispensed true justice, restoring some sense of balance to the world. Spider-Man implores her to turn herself in, saying that he is still her friend and that he doesn't want to come after her. Yuri refuses and tells him to do what he has to do and that she will do the same. She tells him goodbye and hangs up, leaving him despondent.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2[]
Yuri (now known as Wraith) is revealed on Kraven's target list.
Yuri, now operating as the vigilante known as Wraith, is identified on Kraven's list of targets in New York City. Following the Sandman's attack in the Financial District, Yuri crosses paths with Peter helping rescue civilians in the nearby hospital, having responded to the request on the FNSM App. The pair fight a group of cultists in the area together. After defeating the so called "Followers of the Flame", they follow a lead and confront the group's leader in their strong hold "The Flame" - Cletus Kasady. He taunts Yuri and Spider-Man and willingly discloses his location at an abandoned hospital in Astoria to them. Yuri is prepared to find him, but Spider-Man believes it to be a trap and suggests that they plan their attack carefully, to which she reluctantly agrees.
Yuri later calls Spider-Man again, insisting they meet up near the hospital to talk strategy. However, she goes inside without him and fights several cultists. She eventually finds and beats Kasady only for the arriving Spider-Man to stop her. However, Yuri desires to kill Kasady and breaks free of Spider-Man's web restraints to fight him as well. During the fight, Kasady blows the hospital up and escapes and Spider-Man saves Yuri before the building collapses. Yuri is unthankful, angered that Kasady escaped, and chastised Spider-Man for prioritizing his moral code over saving lives, before leaving.
Later on, Yuri is captured by the Followers of the Flame, who trap her under a train; they plan to enact their "Crimson Hour" by causing a massive explosion in Brooklyn. However, Spider-Man (having been informed about incident by Ganke Lee) arrives and fights them and a recovered Kasady. Spider-Man fights and defeats him, rescuing Yuri, but Kasady reveals his true objective was to obtain what was in the train's cargo: a second symbiote similar to the Venom symbiote. He douses Spider-Man in gasoline and threatens that the Crimson Hour will bring “truth, judgement, and carnage" before lighting the gas on fire and leaving with his followers on a helicopter. Yuri picks herself up, and chooses to save Spider-Man’s life, letting the cult escape in the process, reminding Spider-Man that she tries to save the most lives.
In the aftermath, Yuri calls Spider-Man and informs him that she will continue tracking Kasady's whereabouts by keeping up with his most notable aliases, with "Cletus Kasady" being one of several. The two agree that, once he resurfaces, they will bring him down for good.
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
Yuri Watanbe.
Yuri is a Japanese-American woman with chin-length black hair and an athletic build. She is often seen wearing a black leather jacket over a red and black flannel shirt with tight dark denim jeans and black shoes.
As of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Yuri now sports shorter hair. As Wraith, she wears a purple and gold jacket, black fingerless gloves, and black leather pants. Her mask matches her jacket, and covers her entire face, but not her whole head. The mask’s eyes are also glowing white. She also claims to have a tattoo of a tombstone with Spider-Cop's name on it.
Personality[]
The [justice] system works most of the time. But there are times when it doesn't, and to me, that's unacceptable. Some people put their trust in fate, or karma, or whatever. But I can only trust me.
Yuri Watanabe, The City That Never Sleeps, "Silver Lining"
Yuri is a no-nonsense individual with a strong moral code and low sense of humor. At the start of the game, she seems to regard her relationship with Spider-Man as little more than partners and says that she barely "tolerates" him, but as the story progresses, she shows more than once that she does genuinely care for his well-being despite their clashing personalities, such as taking him to the hospital when he is injured and getting upset when he leaves it to take care of crime despite being injured at the time.[3]
Yuri in her Wraith attire.
However, Yuri has a dark side: even before her fall from grace, she faced disciplinary charges for police misconduct, mainly in the form of excessive force against criminals. During the Maggia gang war instigated by Hammerhead, Yuri is slowly pushed to her limits by the infamous gangster. After Hammerhead attacks the NYPD precinct, Yuri completely loses control, giving into a rage-fueled brutality and throwing aside her partnership with Spider-Man and resorting to using lethal force. She becomes a ruthless vigilante upon her suspension from being a police officer, after losing faith in the justice system, reasoning how it does not work at times, straining her relationship with Spider-Man in the process due to her methods being at odds with his moral code.
Despite her aggressive personality, she still believes in protecting the innocent, just like Spider-Man. She once claimed that she is "trying to save the most lives," a job she points out Spider-Man still does rather well. She proves this by choosing to save Spider-Man rather than go after Cletus Kasady.
Abilities and equipment[]
A police captain, Yuri has been shown to be able to handle different types of firearms and appears to be a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. In the "Turf Wars" expansion episode she single-handedly takes out a room full of gunmen. With a Sable Rifle, she managed to break into the Bar with No Name and massacre all of Hammerhead's men there. With her extensive police training, Yuri is also able to pilot helicopters. Spider-Man describes Yuri as "cool under pressure and uniquely focused".[1]
Yuri's personal sidearm is a black semi-automatic pistol.
As Wraith, Yuri fights utilizing a golden Kusarigama, slicing with the sickle and swiping with the chain. Yuri regularly used the chain on her weapon to swing around the area in a manner similar to Spider-Man. Her skill in hand-to-hand combat has improved, she frequently employs acrobatic kicks and strikes, quickly dominating opponents.
Original appearance[]
In the comics, Yuri Watanabe has appeared as a version of the vigilante Wraith, originally John Wraith. Her first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #600 (September 2009).
In comic book lore, Yuri is seen to be an old friend of Jean DeWolff, who is a captain in the NYPD, as well as a good friend and very vocal supporter of Spider-Man. In the comics, her turning into a vigilante is accentuated by the justice system being unable to deal with Mister Negative, rather than Hammerhead.
Behind the scenes[]
- Tara Platt, the actress who voices Yuri, is the wife of voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Peter Parker/Spider Man.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Marvel's Spider-Man 2, character bio
- ↑ Marvel's Spider-Man, credits
- ↑ Marvel's Spider-Man, "Out of the Frying Pan..."