Ravencroft

Ravencroft Institute
First appearance	Web of Spider-Man Annual #10 (1994)
Created by	J. M. DeMatteis Sal Buscema
In-universe information
Type	Prison
Locations	Westchester County, New York
Marvel Comics

The Ravencroft Institute is a fictional maximum security prison for the criminally insane appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The place later grew to one of the leading maximum-security facilities in the country specializing in the treatment of superhuman criminals.

Description

Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane was a maximum-security asylum for the mentally ill. Many insane murderers and supervillains, such as Carnage, and Venom, have been kept at Ravencroft.

Publication history

The institute was first mentioned in Web of Spider-Man #112, written by Terry Kavanagh. The institute officially opens in Web of Spider-Man Annual #10 (1994), written by Terry Kavanagh, with art by Jerry Bingham.

History

Ravencroft Institute was built on land that was considered cursed by local indigenous tribes since before the 15th century, having been claimed as territory by a cannibalistic cult worshipping the dark god Knull. Doctor Jonas Ravencroft, a descendant of British settler Molly Ravencroft, who was murdered by her husband, Cortland Kasady (an ancestor of Cletus Kasady) in the 17th century, purchased the land in Westchester County in 1899, determined to provide proper psychiatric care for the people of New York. Despite numerous setbacks, by the early 1900s he had established the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. At some point, Doctor Ravencroft took to recording a journal detailing the history of Westchester County, his family, and the Ravencroft Institute.

In the modern era, Dr. Ashley Kafka was the founder and first director of Ravencroft. John Jameson was head of security. Both get fired in Spectacular Spider-Man #246, and Dr. Leonard Samson becomes Ravencroft's new director. The institute hasn't appeared since and in Leonard Samson's recent appearances, he owns a private practice.

The institute reappeared in Vengeance of the Moon Knight. In this incarnation, it housed mostly non-superpowered psychopaths and had an imposing metal front gate with a Gothic façade similar to DC's Arkham Asylum. Ravencroft's known patients include Carnage, Chameleon, D.K., Doctor Octopus, Electro, Green Goblin, Gale, Jackal, Massacre, Mayhem, Mysterio, Prism, Pyromania, Ramon Grant, Shriek, Venom, Vulture, and Webber. The storyline after Absolute Carnage, Ruins of Ravencroft eventually explains its true origin. It turns out that the institute is more than just for the criminally insane. It used to act as a staging area for superhuman experiments, particularly supernatural individuals such as Dracula during the 20th century, where Jonas Ravencroft unleashed the vampiric monsters on the Weapon Plus personnel before committing suicide.

Massacre soon escaped and shot Dr. Kafka in the process. Cletus Kasady was reanimated and took control of the Knull-worshiping cult, and had Jameson, whom he had infected with a branch of his symbiote, kill the guards and lure Spider-Man and Venom into a trap. Kasady infected the inmates with pieces of his symbiote, turning them into Carnage doppelgängers. Carnage claimed the asylum as a base for the cult, resurrecting Demogoblin using Shriek as a sacrifice. However, Deadpool unwittingly disrupted the cult's rituals and burned the asylum to the ground to escape.

Crimelord Wilson Fisk - using his influence as mayor of New York - financed the cleanup of the destroyed asylum, intending to have it rebuilt to further his own nefarious purposes. During the cleanup, Jonas Ravencroft's journal was discovered, as was as an underground facility hidden beneath the south wing. Despite Reed Richards' efforts to ensure that the rebuilt Ravencroft Institute was a proper psychiatric institution, it was rebuilt as a prison for dangerous supervillains, with John Jameson lamenting that history would only repeat itself. Proving this prediction true, Fisk hired supervillains Norman Osborn, Taskmaster, Mac Gargan, Karla Sofen, and Roderick Kingsley as staff members.

In other media

Television

• Ravencroft appears in Spider-Man, with Eddie Brock, Cletus Kasady, and Harry Osborn as prominent patients.
• Ravencroft appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, with Electro, Doctor Octopus, Cletus Kasady, John Jameson, and Eddie Brock as prominent patients.

Film

• Ravencroft appears in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Dr. Ashley Kafka as a leading scientist and Electro as a patient until Harry Osborn breaks him out. After Harry was defeated by Spider-Man, he also became a prisoner of Ravencroft.
• Ravencroft appears in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Frances Barrison was taken away from St. Estes Home for Unwanted Youth to Ravencroft until Cletus Kasady breaks her out.

Video games

Ravencroft also appears in the tie-in video game The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in which Oscorp uses it to conduct secret experiments.