The Kingpin is losing his grip as warped-experiments from sadistic research, The Unwanted, have escaped confinement while dead faculty of the supervillain-rehab return from the grave in Ravencroft: Institute for the Criminally Insane.
Facing investigations into staff-shakeups and blanket secrecy at the institute, Kingpin is confronted by Head of Security, John Jameson — aka the Man-Wolf, and former Ravencroft security chief —who threatens to go public on dubious consulting appointments at the infirmary. But when Jameson’s former love and trauma-therapist, the late Dr. Ashley Kafka turns up for her shift... matters have clearly taken a turn for the macabre.
Ravencroft, “the premier Superhuman Criminal Rehabilitation Facility in the nation,” was restored under the authority of Mayor Wilson Fisk, one-time crimelord and entrepreneur, after suspicious fires left the institute in ruins. Providing mental health resources to the criminally insane has proven challenging and Fisk has on-boarded a team of consultants, including Taskmaster, Scorpion, Moonstone, and Hobgoblin, whose portfolio aligns with the peculiar needs of Ravencroft’s clients. In a move to consolidate his power and control over Ravencroft’s mission, Fisk also retained the services of the notorious Norman Osborn in what might be seen as a repudiation of Jameson’s status as head of security. And a sinister secret has escaped the institute, as The Unwanted, twisted test-subjects tormented by the past administration, use supernatural abilities to dominate Kingpin, compelling him to release them from their captivity in the recesses of Ravencroft.
Security at Ravencroft is a top priority for Mayor Fisk with the secrecy of staff maintained for both their well-being and to avoid compromising safety measures. The concern in New York over the institute has garnered the attention of Manhattan resident, Reed Richards, who informed Kingpin, in no uncertain terms, he will be investigating his handling of Ravencroft’s opening — upon returning from the Negative Zone. When security chief Jameson threatens to go to the press with the identities of Ravencroft’s disreputable staff, Kingpin applies extortion, using the Man-Wolf’s terrible deeds to keep Jameson under his thumb and the murder of his lover, the late Doctor Ashley Kafka to justify the secrecy of Ravencroft’s staff. However, Kingpin’s stranglehold over the institute is shattered, along with his sanity, when Doctor Kafka turns up for the graveyard shift.
Before her death at the hands of one of Ravencroft’s patients, Doctor Kafka was a therapeutic psychiatrist, specializing in the rehabilitation of superhuman criminals, and director of the institute. Kafka was instrumental in suppressing Jameson’s metamorphosis into the blood-thirsty Man-Wolf, and, over their tenure as security chief and director at the facility, the two became romantically-involved. Have the Unwanted, released by an spellbound Kingpin from Ravencroft, raised Doctor Kafka the dead with their otherworldly powers? Has the Doctor returned in time to save Man-Wolf from his homicidal inclinations? Or has she been brought back to exact vengeance on the Kingpin and his villainous disciples? The next issue of Marvel Comics’ eerie psycho-drama, Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane is a must-read!
Ravencroft: Institute for the Criminally Insane is in comic stores now.
Source: Marvel