Peter Parker’s crime-fighting duties in Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4 were certainly made a lot easier with the aid and advice of Yuri Watanabe in his ear, and the former police captain has made a return in this year’s sequel, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, to suit up beside the web-slinger on the cityscape battlefield.
Wraith is a new character populating the sequel’s roster this time around, joining fellow newcomers Kraven the Hunter and the big bad Venom. Here’s everything you need to know about Wraith, including her role in the PS5 sequel and her comic-book origin.
Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man 2
Who Is Wraith In Spider-Man 2?
Wraith is a supporting character, ally, and secondary antagonist in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, appearing during The Flame side story. Revealed to be returning character Yuri Watanabe, Wraith is now a vigilante fighting crime in New York City alongside Spider-Man, however, Peter finds her methods questionable.
During Insomniac Games’ predecessor, Yuri was a supporting character and police captain who formed an alliance with Spider-Man as his informant inside the system. The imprisonment of Yuri’s father, who began taking bribes from Maggia, made her join the police force, and she quickly rose to captain. However, in The City That Never Sleeps DLC, Yuri is shaken by Hammerhead’s attack on her team, which leads her to take the life of the mob boss. Convinced that the justice system is flawed and willing to take the law into her own hands, Yuri goes rogue from the force, despite Peter encouraging her to turn herself in, and disappears.
Picking up in Spider-Man 2, Yuri returns in all four missions under The Flame side quest, which sees Spider-Man investigating a local cult that has been kidnapping civilians and promising an apocalyptic event known as the “Crimson Hour.” Yuri reveals herself to be the new vigilante Wraith, clad in a purple and gold masked suit and sporting a shorter haircut, and she’s been tracking the cult and its leader, Cletus Kasady, for a while. Even though the pair manage to stop the cult, free the prisoners, and put an end to the Crimson Hour, Spider-Man strictly follows his no-kill rule, but Wraith would rather see more criminals caught through death than have them escape. Despite serving as an ally for most of the side story, Wraith and Spider-Man do have a short battle together within The Flame’s hideout, when Wraith tries to kill the cult leader. Cletus manages to escape with the Carnage symbiote they stole from Oscorp, which prompts Wraith to start a new line of investigating to find him again which she says could take years. After The Flame side story is complete, Wraith jumps in from time to time to assist Spider-Man or Miles Morales with crimes going on around the city.
Wraith’s Powers & Abilities
Within Insomniac’s sequel, Wraith is shown to be a master combatant with enough strength and agility to contest Spider-Man, using her masked appearance to keep her identity concealed from both the public and the police force. Wraith primarily uses a bladed chain, shaped like a scythe, to swing around areas similar to the web-slinger, and she also uses this weapon to fight criminals by deploying it similar to a mace and chain. Wraith also uses tech she picks up from criminals around the city, including a blinding smoke screen that temporarily disorientates Spider-Man.
In the comics, Wraith utilized stolen tech from villains that were confiscated by the police force, including equipment from Mysterio, Mister Fear’s Fear Gas, and a mask from the Chameleon that would hide her identity. Wraith would also use yellow straps that she would attach to the suit that allowed her to swing around New York and tie up enemies similar to Spider-Man.
Yuri Replaced Jean DeWolff As Wraith In The Comics
First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #600 in 2009, created by Dan Slott and John Romita Jr., Yuri debuted similarly to the game as a captain in the New York City Police Department, frustrated over powerful, wealthy criminals managing to escape their comeuppance in the justice system. This prompted her to take on the Wraith mantle, in order to deliver a harder dose of justice that was forbidden within the force. Wraith debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #663 in 2011, and she was actually pretending to be the ghost of a former Spider-Man ally.
Jean DeWolff first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #48 in 1976 and worked as a NYC police detective who advocated Spider-Man’s heroic work. The Wraith in this run was revealed to be Jean’s brother, Brian DeWolff, who was being psionically controlled, and Jean later met her end at the hands of her partner-turned-villain Sin-Eater. Despite being resurrected in a convoluted Ben Reilly plot within Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy, Jean’s character was once again killed off by the Carrion Virus.
Yuri was then introduced to replace the character, but Jean was noted to be Yuri’s friend and mentor in the force. When Yuri first appears as Wraith, she pretends to be the ghost of Jean by wearing a mask created by the Chameleon in order to frighten criminals into believing the spirit of Jean had risen to seek revenge.
Meet Tara Platt, Wraith’s Voice Actor
Yuri Watanabe and her Wraith alter-ego are voiced by veteran American voice actor Tara Platt, who has accumulated over 300 roles in anime, video games, and live-action projects within a portfolio beginning way back in 1994. First appearing in television shows Hawaii Five-O, Castle, and Revenge, Platt later founded the independent film production company, Monkey Kingdom, with her husband and Spider-Man co-star, Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
Alongside voicing Yuri in both Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4 and its sequel, Platt has recently voiced Auroth in Netflix’s Dota: Dragon’s Blood, Zero in the video game NieR: Reincarnation, and Temari in Naruto: Shippuden.
In addition to doing voice work for The Last of Us: Part II and Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Platt also fulfilled the role of Reina in Rave Master, Kali Belladonna in RWBY, and Mervamon for 54 episodes of Digimon Fusion.