The acclaimed Marvel Comics hero. That hero is Night Raven, a Shadow-inspired, 1930s-era pulp avenger who appeared almost exclusively in comics published by Marvel UK.
Appearing as a masked, gun-toting avenger of the night, little was revealed about Night Raven’s backstory when he initially debuted. The character fought crime in Depression-era New York City, often branding his stylized logo on evil-doers’ foreheads after gunning them down. Although the character originally didn’t have any powers, a later adventure saw Night Raven exposed to toxic chemicals by his arch-nemesis Yi Yang. This gave Night Raven immortality and near-invulnerability, but left him scarred and with chronic pain.
Created by editors Dez Skinn and Richard Burton, writer Steve Parkhouse and artist David Lloyd, Night Raven first appeared in the anthology title Hulk Comic #1, though David Lloyd was eventually taken off the strip by Stan Lee. Not long after, Dez Skinn left Marvel UK and established his own comics magazine, Warrior, the same publication where Moore had an idea, which he relates in the article “Behind the Painted Smile” in Warrior #17: “It struck me that it might be possible to get the same effect by placing the story in the near future as opposed to the near past.” Moore and Lloyd further developed the concept into what would become V for Vendetta, and the rest is history.
Even though recalling classic pulp heroes like the Shadow, what with V in his cape and slouch hat and Night Raven in his trenchcoat and fedora. Both characters are also psychologically damaged from past trauma that gave them their enhanced abilities. V’s past as a concentration camp survivor who was experimented on gave him increased strength and a superior intellect, and Night Raven’s exposure to toxic chemicals similarly gave him enhanced abilities but left him in constant physical pain. Most crucially, both characters wear masks that cover their entire faces, their frozen expressions hiding any hint of the characters’ true motives and feelings in any given situation.
Night Raven continued to appear in various Marvel UK publications in the 1980s, many of them eventually written by Alan Moore himself. But after a handful of appearances in the following decade, the character virtually disappeared from Marvel completely. Yet Night Raven’s greatest legacy just might be how the Marvel Comics character inspired V for Vendetta, one of the most important works of the late twentieth century.
Source: Warrior #17
