When the justice system fails to stop criminals, Detective Yuri Watanabe takes matters into her own hands and becomes the Wraith, a trace of what she once was, fighting by her rules and no one else’s.
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Police detective Yuri Watanabe decides to stem the tide of death by Super Villains by using fear to scare people straight as the vigilante Wraith.
The Evidence Room
As a Captain on the NYPD, Yuriko “Yuri” Watanabe directs her subordinate officers and works with firefighters of the FDNY to lock down active crime scenes and capture criminals.
Taking dangerous equipment from the police department’s evidence room, Yuri becomes the vigilante Wraith and uses a Jean DeWolff mask, posing as Jean’s ghost to frighten criminals. She uses the mask in conjunction with other stolen Super Villain paraphernalia, such as fear gas and elastic ribbons that she uses to ensnare her targets.
Criminal Elements
As a detective, she uses her police resources to track down Super Villains like Martin Li, AKA Mister Negative, and Lonnie Lincoln, AKA Tombstone, and supports vigilantes to do the same. Eventually, she allies with Mister Negative to help serve her need for justice, but in classic Super Villain form, he betrays her.
She goes up against the Circus of Crime, The Enforcers, Massacre, and even her ally Carlie Cooper, who temporarily transforms into a goblin and is made part of Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin’s Goblin Army.
Vigilante Allies
As an NYPD Captain, Watanabe becomes a stalwart supporter of vigilantes, assisting in their efforts in taking down criminals and criminal empires. Her most frequent ally is Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, and she even allies with him when she becomes a costumed vigilante herself.
Her ally in the force, Carlie Cooper, discovers her dual identity and instead of outing her, she helps her cover her tracks better.
Bending the Law
Captain Watanabe worked closely with Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil, whom she dubbed a “concerned citizen” after he and Spider-Man helped shut down Deke’s secret bar for Super Villains. Cops under her supervision were surprised that she worked with the vigilantes and appalled when she let Spider-Man go after it seemed he had killed someone.
She soon started living a double life as the vigilante Wraith, disguising herself with a costume and a mask created by Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, that made the wearer look like deceased police officer and Yuri’s colleague Jean DeWolff. Meanwhile, NYPD and forensic scientist Carlie Cooper found out about Yuri’s extra-curricular activities as the Wraith.
Wraith teamed up with Spider-Man to take down Mister Negative, and using the facial recognition software in her mask revealed Negative to be the philanthropist Martin Li, whom she revealed to Spider-Man and the world by connecting her feed to computers, televisions and phones. Cooper confronted Yuri about being the Wraith and demanded to know why she’d impersonated a colleague. Yuri explained how she and DeWolff were close and the ones that brought her justice were vigilantes Spider-Man and Daredevil. Cooper offered to help her cover her tracks better and advised Yuri to take time off as both Captain and the Wraith, which she took to heart.
She later worked with Cooper to find out who the real Superior Spider-Man was on account of his strange behavior. They learned that it was Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus, behind the wallcrawler’s mask. Cooper was kidnapped by the Green Goblin, leaving Yuri to face Otto on her own. She was soon attacked by Cooper who had been transformed by the Goblin Formula, but recovered to help the Avengers and a returned Parker against Phil Urich, AKA Goblin Knight.
Quitting her double life, she struggled to find a path to being a good cop. While on a mission to bust up a drug deal involving Tombstone, she lost fellow police officer and friend, Detective Rangel, in the battle that followed. Watanabe attended his funeral and afterward was approached by Mister Negative, who had intel on the corrupt Judge Anson Howell who was getting drugs from Tombstone. She knew his intentions weren’t pure though and that he was planning a turf takeover in the criminal underworld. Watanabe handed the photos over to the Chief of Police, suggesting they put out a warrant for the Judge’s arrest, but the Chief called her out saying that the pictures weren’t proof enough and to follow the rules. Tired of a broken system, Watanabe took matters into her own hands. She donned her Wraith duds and hit the streets. Watanabe knew Tombstone was dealing drugs from a construction site so she went there first, and along came a spider in the form of Spider-Man. She let him in on the plan, to find evidence of Howell’s connection to Tombstone, and blew open a vault at the site with an anti-tank missile. Spider-Man couldn’t believe she as a cop had taken such a risk, but she reminded him that Watanabe was the cop, where she was Wraith.
After Tombstone and Howell were both jailed in connection with the drug deal, Watanabe then received a lashing from her Chief for violating a direct order and arresting Howell using unsourced evidence and anonymous tips. Watanabe defended herself, noting she got results. The Chief sent her to Ryker’s Island State Penitentiary where Howell requested a meeting with Watanabe. On her way there, Spider-Man stopped her to warn her about the path she was on, and how removing Tombstone from the equation led to an escalation in the gang war. She met with Howell at Ryker’s where she learned he was only getting drugs for his ailing wife and that his life was now under threat from Tombstone. But she didn’t see it as a problem. Outside the prison, she was approached by Mister Negative again who shared another tip that the Goblin King and Hammerhead were meeting for a match fight to decide who would take over Tombstone’s turf. Wraith intervened at the match, and Spider-Man joined her but they were clearly fighting for different reasons. Wraith only wanted to protect the turf from the gangs, and was less concerned about the people she might hurt in the process where Spider-Man was more concerned about protecting people and catching the bad guys.
Wraith continued helping Negative’s plot, seeing him as a valuable informant and asked Spider-Man to help her prevent a Ryker’s jailbreak, which led to Negative framing her for wounding Tombstone. During the fray, she found Judge Howell on a respirator who had been stabbed by an inmate. It didn’t seem to shake her and she continued to stop the jailbreak. Howell died later, a fact she learned from her Chief who told her that her career was over. The initial shock of the news turned to acceptance and she justified her role in his death to Spider-Man. The pair later took on the Circus of Crime and defeated them, where she killed one of Negative’s men and sought Negative to enact her revenge for setting her up and ending her career. When Spider-Man intervened, Wraith admitted that she felt free by what she had done in taking a man’s life. Realizing people were in danger and he couldn’t save Wraith, Spider-Man knocked her out, webbing her up. She came to and escaped, leaving her costume behind except her mask.
