CHARACTER PROFILES

The true creator of the Red Raven has been lost to the mists of time, many suspect that he may even have come from the mind of Jack Kirby himself, not beyond the realm of possibility, considering the similarities between the bird-men and other utopian civilizations Jack created. It could also have been Jack's collaborator of the time Joe Simon. Or both. Or neither.

On a stormy night in the mid-1920s a clipper plane was making a trans-Atlantic flight carrying Europeans bound for America. Suddenly tragedy struck, lightning caused the pilot to lose control of the ship. In the cabin a mother silently prayed for the life of her toddler. Out of no where an island appeared out of the clouds, floating there as if it were a petrified dirigible. Desperate and confused, the pilot crashed the plane into the sky-isle. All hands were lost, save for one young boy.

The origins of the Sky-Isle date back to the days when the human race was young. Untold millennia ago, the highly advanced alien Kree selectively evolved a small portion of the human population into something... Inhuman. After the aliens left, their mark remained. The Inhumans isolated themselves from the genetically inferior humanity, and evolved into a myriad of strange forms over the centuries. Some 25,000 years ago, flying members of the Inhuman race separated themselves from their non-flying brethren by creating the Sky-Isle, suspended by advanced Inhuman technology above the Inhuman city-state of Attilan. A rift was created between the two sects of the population, and in the end, Attilan and the Sky-Isle would be forever divorced in their fates. Overtime, the flying Inhumans stabilized their genetic deviations. Where the Inhumans could evolve all forms of unique and sometimes grotesque bodies, all avians had compatible biology. Hatched from eggs, growing to appear as normal humans, save for large, feathery wings.

It was on this flying city that the ill-fated plane and it's sole survivor crashed. The bird-men, our of a sense of morbid curiosity, inspected the wreckage left behind by their distant cousins, mankind. The boy was found, and brought before their king. While some among the bird-men wanted to kill the young human for fear he may one day destroy them, the king took pity on the young one, and raised him as his own son. Because of his flaming-red hair, they named him after their bravest bird: The Red Raven.

On his 21st birthday, some 15 years after he was found as a boy, the Red Raven returned to mankind. Determined to find the inherent good in the race of his birth, he set out into the world to "eradicate the elements that make for unhappiness in their world." Donning an unassuming suit, the Red Raven came to a major metropolis during the Great Depression, he saw food lines and unemployed, bitter men. Finding organized crime to be one of the roots of this problem, he set out to trap the mob-bosses with their own greed. The evil mobster Zeelmo attempted to bribe the Red Raven into working for him, but incorruptible, the Red Raven resisted. Angry, Zeelmo threw the unassuming man into a pit along with a hapless young woman named Andreva that had also offended him. Zeelmo filled the pit with "aging gas" causing the pair to hit middle-age and then senility within a matter of minutes (fortunately, they were able to joke about their dire situation). Undaunted, the Red Raven revealed his true self. He spread his artificial wings, tearing his ill-fitting human clothing. He then freed himself, and Andreva. Once free the effects of the gas wore off, but Zeelmo was hurled into the pit, which the Red Raven then firebombed.

With one mob-boss gone, the Red Raven set out to stop the next in line for Zeelmo's empire, Ratoga. With the help of the Royal Scientist, the Red Raven lured the gold-hungry mobsters into a trap using Avian technology as the bait. Red Raven used that technology to trap Ratoga and his men with their own gold, ready and waiting for the Police.

A few years later, when the Invaders fell under the mental control of the Red Skull, Bucky called on heroes to come to his side and stop his old friends. The Red Raven heard that call, and became a founding member of the Liberty Legion (see the team section).

In the decades that followed WWII the warrior class (possibly the banned "Bloodraven Cult" seen in Defenders vol. 2 #6) tried to rally the bird-men into war against the surface world. Peaceful avians looked to the Red Raven for salvation. He "destroyed" the warrior class. However, an artificial construct made in the Red Raven's image use "suspended animation gas" to place all of the bird-men, including the Red Raven, into a death-like sleep. The artificial construct separated the military complex from the rest of the continent in the sky and sank it bellow the ocean.

After watching over the sleeping avians for twenty years, the artificial construct raised the sunken complex just as the X-Man known as the Angel (now Archangel) flew overhead.

The faux Red Raven told the young mutant that the bird-men were a warlike race that wanted to eradicate the technologically and genetically inferior mankind for their pollution and self-destructive habits before he/it placed them in suspended animation. The android then attacked the Angel, sent him adrift on the ocean, and placed him/itself into suspended animation.

Not much later, Namor the Sub-Mariner sought out the Red Raven, hoping he would find an ally against the polluting surface-people. Learning that the body of the Red Raven (the artificial construct) was found in its cryogenic tube by the humans, Namor sought him out. The construct was revived, but Namor found that the man he had once considered an honored comrade had gone insane. The two battled publicly before returning to the sunken Sky-Isle. It's rocky exterior belied the vast importance of the mounds cargo. After telling Namor the plight of the bird-men, the Red Raven replica attempted to revive the Avians to once more do battle on mankind. However it appeared the bird-men had been dead all along, never having the chance to wake up from their artificial sleep. Now fully mad, the Red Raven robot was set to turn his angry against the world, but as the Sub-Mariner tried to stop him, the Red Raven was apparently killed as his own home began to crumble around them.

A few months later while Bruce Banner, the Incredible Hulk lost in battle to Bruce's once and future love Betty Ross (then Betty Ross-Talbot, later Betty Ross-Banner, now dead), who was trapped in the form of the gamma-powered Harpy. As the Harpy, Betty used her powerful wings to carry the defeated Hulk into the sky. Some eight miles into the sky, curious eyes watched the winged creature.

The Bi-Beast was a creation of the bird-people, charged with double duty as protector of the floating continent, and preserver of knowledge. Though sharing one body, the two heads of the Bi-Beast have very different personalities and posses very different wisdom. The upper-skull- brother possessed the Avian races knowledge of warfare and battle, while the lower-skull-brother was the repository for the cultural history of the bird-men. After the Red Raven android seemingly "killed" the entire race, the Bi-Beast took on the responsibility of preserving the now-abandoned home of their masters.

Witnessing the winged form of the Harpy, the upper-skull-brother was reminded of the bird-men, and wanted to get a closer look. The Bi-Beast then used the Avian technology to draw the two gamma-beasts to the island. In the thin atmosphere, the Hulk reverted to his alter-ego, scientist Bruce Banner. While the Bi-Beast found the Harpy to be an intriguing curiosity, he/they put Bruce Banner to work repairing the scientific equipment left behind by his/their masters.

Banner used the equipment to cure Betty, but the evil MODOK sent AIM to invade the Island, and the Bi-Beast was forced to destroy himself and his home to stop them from stealing technology. As Betty and Bruce escaped, the Bi-Beast recorded it's knowledge into a second Bi- Beast body, that has since encountered the likes of Thor, Quasar, and the Hulk repeatedly.

Sometime after the destruction of the Sky-Isle, a neophyte hero named Nova ran into some trouble with a mad winged-scientist known only as, the Condor. Little did Nova realize that the Condor was actually an exiled member of the bird-men. After many encounters with Nova, the Condor was transformed into an actual condor by the ancient wizard, the Sphinx.

Some years later Namor, now CEO of Oracle Inc., took it upon himself to excavate the destroyed Sky-Isle, and use it's technology to find solutions to the world's problems. Seizing the opportunity for new, unknown science, Diablo, the Master of Alchemy, tricked Namor into allowing him access for a "good" reason.

Sensing the impending doom presented by Diablo, a mysterious young girl left her home on another floating island, the Aerie, to stop the mad man from destroying civilization. Her name was Dania, but she took the name of her father, the Red Raven, and was created from the genetic material of the original Red Raven (and apparently an unknown Avian female), and she left her solitary home, the smaller Sky-Isle known as the Aerie, for the first time.

Red Raven II made Namor realize the folly of his ways, and the two were set to stop Diablo machinations, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He called forth an army of "dead bird-men" that he claimed had been sitting at the bottom of the ocean all of these years. In the end, the heroes prevailed and Diablo was sent to lick his wounds (or more accurately, his healing-potion laden mustache), but the Sky-Isle was completely destroyed. Before flying off to the hidden sanctuary from whence she came, Red Raven II scolded Namor for trying to pick at the bones of her people's lost civilization.

As it turned out, the "dead bird-men" were the true bird-men, finally, and really awakened from they're death-like-sleep. With them, the true Red Raven once more claimed his place as the chosen leader of the Avian race, while the artificial construct was destroyed in the battle to defeat Diablo.

Not much later Nova, now a little more experienced, again ran afoul of the Condor. Over the years Condor had found a way to regain some simblance of his old form, but was left with an inhuman looking body. Nova, with the aid of the Fantastic Four, was able to capture him, but they also captured some of his Avian technology, forbidden by ancient law from coming into the hands of mankind. This event provided a catalyst for the original Red Raven. He saw the capture of an Avian citizen, even an evil one, as the last straw, and chose this moment to strike back at mankind.

Mounting a massive attack on New York City (and apparently finding the perfect time to attack, at a moment when most of the cities heroes could not come to stop them) in an effort to retake the villain Condor. Their true Sky-Isle was massive, beautiful, and technologically decades beyond anything mankind could accomplish. Their warriors were armed with Avian technology, and a growing hatred for the ones responsible for filling their skies with smog. Alerted to the danger, Nova went to stop them, only to confront Red Raven himself, and his protector, the Bi-Beast. Before the situation could escalate any further, Nova convinced the bird-king to call off his attack, and rethink his methods of dealing with mankind. The Red Raven returned to his hidden home, and the Condor remained to rot in a human jail.

The Red Raven and the bird-men, including the second Bi-Beast and Dania, now live apart from mankind again, eight miles high, in their island in the sky.

NOTES

RED RAVEN'S POWERS: The Red Raven is a normal human raised in utopian environment with superior technology. As a result he is stronger, faster, and more agile than normal humans, and apparently longer-lived. His suit provides him extra protection, and a means of locomotion. His original wings were made of a membranous metal that could be concealed under a traditional 1940 business suit with nothing to hint at their presence. Later he adopted metallic wings that mimicked the feathered appearance of the bird-men's wings. These wings could be used as a battering ram and had the ability to shoot concussive blasts from the wingtips. The Red Raven has also been known to carry a gun of Avian design.

POWERS OF DANIA: Unknown. She has wings that are either detachable like her fathers, or possibly retractable, so as to allow her to look like a normal human girl. Her eyes seemed to glow with some unknown energy. She also appeared to have enhanced strength (though this may be a trait that every member of the genetically enhanced bird-men).

POWERS OF THE BI-BEAST: Aside from possessing the accumulated cultural and military knowledge of the bird-men, the Bi-Beast also posses strength to rival that of the Hulk. It should be noted that the Bi-Beast's size has decreased since his/their first appearance.

POWERS OF CONDOR: Condor now posses enhanced abilities thanks to his new hybrid form. He posses enhanced strength, retractable claws, and many technological enhancements thanks to his brilliant scientific mind.