Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty #1
Death Duty
On a freelance mission for SHIELD, the Black Widow has been investigating someone called Blackbird who has been slaughtering members of the Boyevik, soldiers in the Russian mob. Clashing with a trio of mobsters at Moscow University, Natasha is able to get one of them to talk. He explains that three days prior a man in bird shaped mask — who they have later started calling the Blackbird — came to them seeking a woman named Yi Yang. When they didn’t answer, the mystery man started slaughtering the mobsters, killing many before the rest had a chance to flee.
After getting the information she was looking for, Natasha is greeted by a Russian intelligence official named Yuri Petrovitch, who is her contact while in Russia.[1] As the two leave in a car, Yuri tells Natasha how the mob has been boosting their ranks by enlisting former soldiers. The country’s organized crime unit also finds themselves woefully inadequate as many politicians are in the mob’s back pocket. The Blackbird killer was mostly targeting mob figures until recently when Leonid Kostoev turned up dead. Showing her a picture of the body, Natasha notices that the killer placed a bird faced emblem on his forehead.
She decides to report all of this back to Nick Fury who, after a few minutes of checking SHIELD’s records, has a lot of information. He suspects that this “Blackbird” might actually be Night Raven, a vigilante that was active in Chicago and New York in the 1930s. He frequently clashed with a woman named Yi Yang, who was a notorious opium dealer during that period. According to reports, Night Raven was said to have been killed by Yi Yang, but no body was ever found.[2] Fury has old reports from the Tactical Research and Cultural Examination Agency (or TRACE) that note that Yi Yang was active until the 1980s when Night Raven turned up once more before both fell off the radar again. Last record of Night Raven was more recent when he was seemingly killed by Yi Yang and had his body disposed of in the East River. However, this could not be verified as no body was ever found.
Hearing all this, Yuri notes that Russia has seen an increase in drug trafficking in recent years. This explains why Night Raven might be in the country, but they are puzzled to figure out how someone that old could still be alive and spry enough to commit these murders. Little do Natasha and Yuri know that they have just driven past Night Raven, who has ducked into a nearby alley. He interrupts a gang of Russian mobsters who are in the middle of mugging a young couple. The mobsters fire at Night Raven, but no matter how many bullets they put into him, he doesn’t die. The vigilante then uses his daggers to slaughter the mobsters and then brands their foreheads with his trademark bird insignia.
The following morning, the Black Widow has the body of Leonid Kostoev exhumed so they can search it for clues. Natasha finds it strange that the paramedic’s post mortum is not included in the original findings and the original coroner has abruptly gone away on vacation. Yuri thinks that Natasha is finding conspiracy where there is one and assures her that they’ll get the coroner’s finding in a week, as Kostoev’s family is eager to have him finally put to rest. Moments after they leave, the new coroner gets an unexpected visit from the Night Raven.
That night, Natasha breaks into a police station so she can go over their computer records. Although she doesn’t find entirely what she is looking for, its at least useful information. When the alarm goes off, she manages to escape before officers arrive. Swinging across the city, she then spots a man being chased by Russian mobsters and comes to his aid. Despite her skills, the Widow is quickly overpowered and restrained. However, before the mobsters can execute her, Night Raven appears and begins gunning the crooks instead. Night Raven slaughters all the mobsters except for one, which he tries to question for the location of Yi Yang. Unfortunately, a sniper kills the mobster before he can talk. Both Night Raven and Black Widow take to the rooftops to try and chase the sniper down. However, a police helicopter arrives and catches Night Raven in its spotlight. The vigilante ignores them when he is ordered to stand down and they open fire. Riddled with bullets, Night Raven then falls off the roof to an alley below.
When the authorities arrive on the scene and begin searching the area, they are shocked to discover that Night Raven somehow survived and managed to escape. While Yuri believes Night Raven must be wearing some kind of bullet proofing, Natasha points out that he had been shot with high caliber automatic weapons that a bullet proof vest couldn’t possibly stop.
The following day, without any other clues to follow, Natasha calls her assistant Ivan Petrovitch and asks him to look into the one lead they have to go on. She wants him to track down Angela Cleaver, the last principal investigator on the Night Raven/Yi Yang case before TRACE was shut down. Ivan agrees to track her down and see what she knows, and is particularly interested in learning how the old enemies have managed to live this long.[3]
Meanwhile, at Yi Yang’s Siberian hideout, she has just finished making love with a man with leopard spots. She tells her paramour not to get too comfortable as her final trap has been laid out and she intends to finish Night Raven off once and for all. Her lover agrees, wanting to take out the vigilante personally.
At the same time, in Lafitte, Louisiana, Ivan Petrovitch locates Angela Cleaver’s home. However, the woman lives remotely and has a guard dog on property, that attacks him right away. Ivan fights the dog off, but this distracts him long enough for the wheelchair bound Cleaver to grab her gun. She wants to know what Ivan and his Russian buddies want from her. He tells her that he isn’t with Russians who have apparently been harassing her recently, but is working for SHIELD. He asks Angela to tell him everything she knows about Night Raven and Yi Yang. Since Ivan knows all about the pair, she figures he also knows about her time with TRACE.
She explains that she worked for the former spy agency for over 20 years, no easy feat for a Black woman. It was during that time she inherited the investigation into both Night Raven and Yi Yang. She was the one who had Night Raven’s body recovered from the East River. She was present when they were about to do an autopsy on Night Raven’s horrifically scarred body. They were all shocked when, suddenly, Night Raven got up off the table. When the other agents tried to shoot him, Night Raven killed them all. The only reason why Angela survived that night was because she choked like a rookie. Night Raven then took her hostage so he could escape from the hospital. Along the way, Angela he confirmed to her that he had finally killed Yi Yang. Soon TRACE came after Night Raven and while her investigation went up in flame, Night Raven made sure she didn’t join it. Unfortunately, during the altercation she took a bullet to the spine and had to retire on disability as she was now confined to a wheelchair. A competent hacker, she has been able to keep an up-to-date file on Night Raven ever since. She was able to track down Night Raven’s origins, learning that he is Indigenous of Southern Alberta, Canada.[4]
That’s when Ivan hears someone coming and the two have to make a hasty retreat. Angela’s dog Sabre, sacrifices himself to give them the cover they need to escape. Ivan is able to load Angela into a handi-capable hovercraft so they can make a hasty retreat into the swamp. Their pursuers try to follow in a speed boat, but they are unfamiliar with the tight terrain of the swamp and end up crashing, causing their boat to explode. Once they have gotten to safety, Ivan calls Natasha back and tells her everything he has learned from Angela. However, as he is reporting in he is ambushed by a creature with leopard spots.
Natasha is concerned about Ivan’s safety but is confident that he can look out for himself. However, there is not much she can do as she is in the middle of Russia about to raid a mafia warehouse. However, before they can launch their surprise attack, Night Raven shows up and begins slaughtering the criminals. In the confusion, Yi Yang tries to escape in a helicopter. When Natasha fires her grappling line onto one of the landing ski’s, Night Raven grabs hold of it and cuts the Widow loose. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get very far before Yi Yang blows him a kiss then shoots him in the head, causing the vigilante to fall to the ground.
Natasha rushes to his side and reveals that she knows his origins and wants to help him stop Yi Yang. Removing his mask and revealing his horribly scarred face, Night Raven is surprised that she knows something about his life. He fills in the blanks, telling her of his childhood where he dreamt he was a raven and his grandfather told him that this mean that his life would become strange and twisted and that death would be his constant companion. The man who would become Night Raven wouldn’t know what his this meant until he served in World War I and experienced the horrors of war. He was institutionalized for a time however his grandfather’s words never left him, and he never forgot his spirit bird.[5] He eventually became the vigilante known as Night Raven and fought crime in the 1930s. This led to his crossing paths with Yi Yang, who became his most constant foe.[6] Even when he wanted nothing more than to die, Yi Yang took that away from him and was her constant tormentor. She even gave him a new life at one point, and it was at that point that he realized that he forgot his original features up until that point. Realizing that his old self died a long time ago, he concluded that the only part of him left was the Night Raven.[7] When he discovered Yi Yang was now operating in Russia he came after her to end he life once and for all.
The Black Widow agrees to help him catch Yi Yang, but insists on doing things her way. The two then retreat while the Russian authorities are still busy dealing with the remaining mobsters. As they retreat back to Night Raven’s hideout, he tells her that this whole ordeal was part of Yi Yang’s constant game with the vigilante. When they arrive, Natasha is surprised to see Ivan tire up inside. That’s when they are confronted by Snow Leopard, Yi Yang’s lover. He explains that he was one of Professor Piotr Phobos’ mutant trainees, but was left abandoned when the operation was shut down.[8] He explains that he had no purpose until he was found by Yi Yang who gave him one and became his lover. Yi Yang then took over Phobos’ former facility and turned it into their private paradise that she now calls Xanadu.
As the Snow Leopard is telling them all of this, Yuri Petrov has managed to catch up with Natasha and Night Raven, and has been listening in on the conversation from the skylight. He is found by one of his fellow officers who has been bought by Yi Yang and the two get into a fight. It sends both men crashing through the skylight and in the ensuing scuffle, the light bulb in Night Raven’s hideout is shot out, plunging the room in darkness. As everyone fights in the darkness, Yi Yang returns in her helicopter. Unimpressed with Snow Leopard’s failure, she drops a grenade into the hideout. Luckily, Night Raven is able to drag the Black Widow out just as it goes off. Natasha is worried that Ivan might still be trapped inside the burning building, but he managed to get loose from his bonds and escape just in time as well. Now knowing where Yi Yang is hiding out, Night Raven and the Black Widow agree that their next stop is Xanadu, but not before Natasha calls in reinforcements.
That evening, as Yi Yang sleeps, she has a nightmare that she is being chased across the frozen tundra by a massive conspiracy of ravens. She wakes up from this dream and realizes that this wasn’t just a nightmare, but a sign.
The following morning, the Black Widow leads Ivan and a team of Russian soldiers into Xanada. They are guarded through the facility by one of Yi Yang’s captured mobsters. There they ambush her armed guards. They press onward into the middle of the facility where the reactor that powers the facility is stored. There they are greeted by Yi Yang who reveals that Snow Leopard was actually one sibling in a group of triplets. She also has Angela Cleaver as her prisoner. She also reveals that the soldiers with them are in her back pocket and has them execute the man who led them there. That’s when one of the soldiers rips his face off, revealing that he is actually Night Raven in disguise.
A fight breaks out and in the ensuing brawl, one of the Snow Lepoards is thrown into the reactor. Meanwhile, Angela struggles to get free and manages to slam her motorized wheelchair’s controls forward sending both her and Yi Yang flying off the catwalk they are watching from. While Angela manages to grab a guard rail, Yi Yang plumets into the reactor as well. After throwing the last Snow Leopard into the reactor pit as well, Night Raven comes to Angela’s rescue. While this is happening, one of Yi’s men gets the drop on the Black Widow but Yuri gets between them and takes the bullets that are meant for her. That’s when Nick Fury and a compliment of SHIELD agents arrive on the scene, turning the tide of battle.
Miraculously, Yi Yang and one of the Snow Leopards survived the fall into the reactor and try to make their getaway. With Fury and the SHIELD agents busy, Natasha and Night Raven give chase. As Yi Yang tries to escape in a helicopter, the last Snow Leopard tries to keep Night Raven at bay but falls under the roar of his guns. Standing directly under the chopper, Night Raven opens fire, killing the pilot and sending the aircraft crash landing on him, seemingly killing both himself and Yi Yang in the process.
In the aftermath of the battle, Natasha confers with Nick Fury. She admits to him that returning home has been a culture shock and Russia’s current situation makes her feel like a stranger in her home land. Fury tells her to give it time and she’ll get used to these changes, saying that at least she has a choice, unlike her friend Night Raven who they assume is dead. However, there is exposed ice around the crash sigh, suggesting that perhaps Night Raven and Yi Yang may have cheated death once more.[9]
Recurring Characters
Black Widow, Night Raven, Yi Yang, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Ivan Petrovitch
Continuity Notes
Despite what a poorly researched crowd sourced website might thing, this Yuri Petrov is not the son of the Black Widow’s confidante, Ivan Petrovitch. It just happens that both of these men have the same exact name. The names Yuri and Patrov are both quite common in Russia, it’s the equivalent to something like John Smith. If that’s not enough for you, Yuri Petrovitch (last seen in Champions #10 at the time of this story) has been locked away in a Siberian prison camp as we’ll learn in Captain America #616 and 618.
Up to this point, Night Raven had been a character unique to Marvel UK, appearing in titles that were exclusive to Great Britain, most of the time in prose stories. See Hulk Comic #1-20, Savage Action #1-4, 6, 8, 12-15, Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #382-384, 386, 389-395, Daredevils #6-11, Mighty World of Marvel (vol. 2) #7-13, 15-17, Savage Sword of Conan (UK) #85-92, Captain Britain (vol. 2) #1-2, 6-14, and Night Raven: House of Cards #1. Fury’s report that Night Raven was seemingly killed at Yi Yang’s East River property. This story has yet to be told, so far as I can tell.
Here, Ivan appears that he is surprised to hear that Night Raven and Yi Yang could still be alive after all these years. Which is odd considering that he and Natasha have both enjoyed having their life spans expanded by the Red Room per Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1. One could assume that he’s maybe being sarcastic here, or perhaps he is just ignorant that others have been able to cheat death by other means.
So by this point we are coming to realize that both Night Raven and Yi Yang are at the very least long lived.
Night Raven’s source of immortality (which is more of a curse than anything else) was due to a mysterious chemical agent that Yi Yang exposed him to. In addition to making him immortal it also causes him constant pain. See Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #390.
According to Wolverine: The Best There Is #4: Yi Yang had become a master of anatomy and through this knowledge for over 3000 years. This story states that she has been alive for about 6000 years. Presumably she exposed herself to the same chemical agent.
For more on Night Raven’s origins see Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #382, Mighty World of Marvel (vol. 2) #13, and Night Raven: House of Cards #1.
Night Raven and Yi Yang first crossed paths in Hulk Comic #17.
Yi Yang’s attempt at giving Night Raven a new life, one that he ultimately rejected, as told in a prose story that was published in Captain Britain (vol. 2) #10-12.
In the past, the Russian government killed any mutants that were born in the country. That was standard practice until Phobos came around and convinced his government that training found mutants to become super-soldiers was a better idea. Phobos’ operation was shut down after it ran afoul of the Hulk, see Incredible Hulk #258-259.
Yi Yang will turn up alive again in Wolverine: The Best There Is #1-12, while Night Raven is revealed to be still alive in Marvel Comics #1000.
Topical References
This story was written shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As such, references to the state of Russia are specific to that period of time. Any references to the collapse of the Soviet Union and any other Cold War references made in the present tense or as happening recently should all be considered topical. Modern readers should instead interpret the situation as one where relations between the United States and Russia have softened relations due to events unique to the fiction rather than any specific real world event.
It is stated here that the Russian mafia has been recruiting soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. This is in reference to the Soviet-Afgan War which took place from December 1979 to February, 1989. Russia lost that war faster and more efficiently then when America tried the same thing 20 years later. Anyway, references to this conflict as happening in the recent past should be considered topical as well. Modern readers could interpret this as the Russian mob recruiting former soldiers coming home from an unspecified conflict that is unique to the fiction (kind of like how the Sin Cong Conflict has replaced the Vietnam War.)
This story states that Night Raven and Yi Yang were active from the 1930s until the 1980s. References to these decades should be considered factual as these characters have extended lifespans, thus explaining how they can have been around in those eras and still be alive in the Modern Age. However, the part of the story where Night Raven was seemingly killed and dumped in the East River should be considered as happening in the Pre-Modern Age since by that point Angela Cleaver was investigating the case (See below for more explanation on Angela’s involvement.)
The Black Widow theorizes that Night Raven must be in his 90s at the time of this story. Which would be the relative age of someone who was an adult in the 1930s around the time this story was originally published in 1995. This assessment of Night Raven’s age should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication. Like other long lived characters that have survived into the Modern Age, their actual age will be in a constant state of change as the Sliding Timescale continues to push the Modern Age forward in time.
Nick Fury refers to Night Raven and Yi Yang as “Bonnie and Clyde”. He is referring to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, two infamous bank robbers in the 1930s. Both were gunned down while on the run from the police in 1934. Since then the couple have become staples of American crime history, their romance often romanticized. Calling a pair “Bonnie and Clyde” has become shorthand for referring to a romantic couple that are up to no good. That all said, since B & C are historical figures and the fact that Nick Fury grew up in that era, his making this reference wouldn’t be considered topical.
The computers in this story are depicted as having monochrome CRT monitors. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
Angela Cleaver is stated as having left TRACE in the mid-1980s. Angela later states that she worked for the organization for about 20 years. Earlier in the story, Fury states that TRACE was shut down “a few years ago”. Angela is depicted here as a woman in her in her 40s. This timeline and these dates all work as they are relative to the date of publication. However, the Sliding Timescale would continue to age Cleaver up if she had actually left TRACE in the mid-1980s. As it seems unlikely that she had acess to a means of slowing or stopping her aging process, we must assume that this is a topical reference. We could assume that while TRACE exist in the 1980s and wasn’t shut down until sometime in the Modern Age. If we accept that, then we could assume that Angela’s employment started in the Pre-Modern Age until she left the agency. We could also assume that she inherited the Night Raven/Yi Yang case file from retiring agents.
Yuri refers to the Oträd Mobiĺný Osobogo Naznačenija (OMON, aka Special Purpose Mobile Unit, aka Russia’s version of a SWAT team) as the “Schwarzeneggers of New Russia”, this is in reference to actor and former body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is better known for his huge muscles than he is for his acting chops. At the time this comic was published he was at the height of his career due to his various roles in action films like Predator, the Terminator, and Commando. This should be considered a topical reference as, time of this writing in January, 2023, Arnold is now 75 years old and has retired from action roles in film due to his age.
Angela Cleaver refers to Night Raven as a Native American. However, since Night Raven originates from Canada that’s not entirely accurate. Credit where credit is due at least she didn’t refer to him as an Indian like most characters would have around the time this comic was published. That said, the proper term for the Native people of Canada (short of knowing which specific culture they originate from) is Indigenous or Aboriginal Canadian.
