CRIMSON DYNAMO

Real Name: Yuri Petrovich or Petrovitch/Yuri Ivanich Bezukov (see comments)

Identity/Class: Human technology user;
    Russian citizen

Occupation: Former Russian government agent 

Group Membership: Formerly led unnamed group including Darkstar, Griffin, Rampage, and the Titanium Man (Boris Bullski)

Affiliations: Formerly those listed under group membership;
    formerly Lenya (his dog) and Alexi Bruskin

Enemies: Angel (Warren Worthington III), Emerson Bale, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Brackett, Alexi Bruskin, Champions of Los Angeles, Darkstar, Richard Fenster, Ghost Rider (John Blaze), Hercules, Iceman, Medvedev, Ivan Petrovich, Rampage, Winter Soldier (James Barnes)

Known Relatives: Ivan Petrovich Bezukov (father), unnamed mother (deceased)

Aliases: Caged Bird, Outcast;
    Krashni Denamit (codename in Russian)

Base of Operations: Currently unknown;
    last reported in a Siberian work camp;
    formerly a building in Los Angeles, California;
    formerly Western Berlin, Germany;
    formerly Moscow, Russia

First Appearance:
(Yuri Petrovich/Outcast):   Champions#7 (August, 1976)
(Crimson Dynamo):             Champions#8 (October, 1976)

Powers/Abilities: Yuri has no superhuman powers, but the Crimson Dynamo armor granted him superhuman strength (Class 10-25), durability, flight speed (110mph), and electrical energy blasts as detailed under comments.

Height:6'; (Dynamo Mark III) 6' 5"
Weight: 195 lbs.; (Dynamo Mark III) 575 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

History:
(Champions#10 (fb)) - When Yuri was five years old, he lived a happy life with his parents.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Yuri stayed by his mother's side as Ivan angrily refused an offer from "Western agents" Medvedev and Brackett to come use his skills as a scientist and master technician in their service.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Shortly thereafter Ivan sent his wife and little Yuri away for a time to protect them from retribution for his refusal. However, before they could reach the mountains, they were ambushed by Brackett and Medvedev. His mother was killed, and Yuri was taken away by the men, while Ivan was told that both had been killed.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Yuri was held in Western Berlin for nine years, where the "American agents" trained and educated him, brainwashing him to work against the state. Unbeknownst to Yuri, Brackett and Medvedev were agents of Russian Commissar Alexi Bruskin, who had engineered the whole thing to make Yuri a blindly loyal agent of Russia who hated America.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Maintaining his loyalty to Russia, Yuri used a jury-rigged radio, using the name "Caged Bird" to communicate with "Home Perch" (Alexi Bruskin) and request rescue.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Bruskin and his agent Boris rescued Yuri, killing his captors and bringing Yuri back to Russia. Upon returning home and learning that his father had defected, Yuri believed that his father had allowed him and his mother to be killed to sever his ties to his family and to Russia.

(Champions#7 (fb) - BTS) - Yuri became known as the Outcast.

(Champions#7 (fb) - BTS) - Yuri became lovers with Laynia Petrovna, the Russian mutant known as Darkstar.

(Champions#8 (fb) - BTS / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#3: Crimson Dynamo (fb) - BTS) - After Alex Nevsky was assassinated by Russian agents, the Crimson Dynamo armor was given to Yuri Petrovich.

(Champions#8 (fb) - BTS) <Nineteen years after Yuri was separated from his father> - As the Crimson Dynamo, Petrovich was assigned to capture "three embarrassing defectors"--his father ("Ivan Petrovich"), the Black Widow, and Alexi Bruskin--and return them to Russia. He recruited his lover, Darkstar, and the Titanium Man, as well as the American mercenary the Griffin. He also contacted and made plans with Stuart Clarke (Rampage).

(Champions#7 (fb) - BTS) - Yuri sent the Griffin and Darkstar to take Clarke from a hospital where he was recovering after a battle with the Champions.

(Champions#7) - The Griffin and Darkstar eventually claimed Clarke, despite interference from the Angel and Ghost Rider. Yuri, meanwhile, spied on the Champions, learning of the next day's dedication ceremony for the team.. Yuri escaped without detection and planned to use the ceremony as the means to gain revenge on his father.
    The Titanium Man confronted the Black Widow and Bruskin.

(Champions#8 (fb) - BTS) - The Black Widow and Brushkin were captured by the Titanium Man and brought back to Yuri, who implanted a bomb into the chest unit in Clarke's Rampage armor, telling Clarke it was a communications device. Rampage was sent to confront the Champions, reveal the Widow's capture and prepare them for negotiations. Yuri also sent the Griffin and Darkstar to observe from outside the Champions' office to make sure things went as planned.

(Champions#8 - BTS) - Rampage did as instructed, and when he activated the "communicator," the explosion badly injured Clarke and demolished the Champions' office, but the Champions, and their allies, Ivan, Richard Fenster, and Emerson Bale, were uninjured.

(Champions#8) - While his allies argued over when they would act against the Champions, Yuri appeared in his Crimson Dynamo armor, reminding them that he was in charge and they would act only when he commanded. Shortly thereafter--while the rest of the Champions looked for clues on the missing Widow--Yuri led the Griffin and the Titanium Man to assault Hercules and the Angel at the dedication ceremony.

(Champions#9) - Yuri had minimal success against Hercules--even taking a swipe from a folding chair-wielding Richard Fenster, but eventually he and his allies defeated Hercules and the Angel, as well as the Ghost Rider, who had arrived and joined the fight.
    Meanwhile, Ivan and the Iceman tracked the circuitized black pearl always carried by Bruskin to the place where Yuri's group was holding the Widow and Bruskin, but Yuri, the Griffin, and the Titanium Man then returned to their base. Yuri took out the Iceman with an electrical blast, and then he and his allies confronted Ivan and the Widow, revealing his identity to Ivan, who had thought him dead.

(Champions#10 (fb) - BTS) - Yuri had the Black Widow, Bruskin, and Ivan placed in restraints aboard their ship while the rest of the Champions were imprisoned within a cell deep within the San Andreas fault.

(Champions#10 (fb)) - Yuri shared his origins with his captives, but when he sent the Titanium Man to stop the US planes pursuing them, the Titanium Man went beyond his orders and began destroying them. Yuri flew out to stop him, at which point Bruskin revealed the truth behind Yuri's abduction. When Yuri and the Titanium Man returned to the plane, Ivan tried to tell Yuri the missing information, but Yuri hurled him away. Darkstar freed the Widow and Bruskin so Yuri could be forced to listen, and Yuri blasted Darkstar for her betrayal. Needing more power to force Yuri to listen, Darkstar freed the Champions from their prison.
    Yuri grabbed the Widow, but not before she could blast their ship's controls and send it into a dive. Yuri--keeping a tight hold on the Widow and Darkstar--and his flighted allies flew the others to a nearby Russian sub led by Captain Andreyivich, where they were confronted by the Champions. Bruskin grabbed a Russian soldier's gun and fired on Yuri, trying to force him to release his hostage, the Widow. The effort was successful, but Yuri turned on Bruskin, striking him with a blast intended to be fatal. Knowing that Yuri had slain Bruskin without knowing him to be the one responsible for his mother's death and his imprisonment, Darkstar saw Yuri as a cold-blooded murderer, and she turned her Darkforce power on him.
    The Titanium Man and Griffin were captured by the Champions, and Darkstar asked Ivan what she should do with Yuri. Ivan told her that she would have to make the decision because he no longer even knew Yuri. Darkstar released Yuri, and he flew away, telling the fools that they hadn't seen the last of the Crimson Dynamo.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#3: Crimson Dynamo (fb) - BTS) - Upon returning to Russia, Yuri Petrovich was stripped of the armor.

(Captain America I#616 (fb) ) - Yuri pre-programmed a new Crimson Dynamo prototype to break him out of prison during his trial. Winter Soldier was sent after him and shot him down from the sky with a bazooka, preventing Yuri from fleeing the country.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#3: Crimson Dynamo (fb) - BTS) - Yuri was sent to a Siberian work camp. The armor was passed on to KGB agent Dmitri Bukharin.

(Captain America I#616) - Yuri approached Barnes, the former Winter Soldier, when he got incarcerated at the same gulag. Yuri got angry when Barnes didn't even recognize him and had one his henchman punch Barnes. Yuri then left with his two henchman because guards were watching and Yuri didn't want to cause an incident. The warden later told Barnes who the man he didn't recognize was. That night two guards brought Barnes to Yuri, who told him that he was running the prison, and that he hated Barnes and could actually do something about it. Yuri had Barnes brought to the arena for a fight with another prisoner: Ursa Major.

(Captain America I#617 - BTS) - Watched by Yuri and the other prisoners Barnes beat Ursa Major. The warden later conversed with Colonel Rostov to tell him that Yuri's plans for Barnes apparently were at odds with Rostov's, but Rostov didn't care because he considered Yuri only a useful fool.

(Captain America I#618) - After Barnes beat Boris Bullski, the former Titanium Man, in his second battle and badly injured him with a morning star tossed to him by the guards, Yuri called him a cheater. Barnes cost Yuri a lot of money by taking out Bullski for that long and attacked Barnes, starting a prison riot. During the riot one of Yuri's men took a shotgun from a guard, but Barnes' former trainee Wolf Spider (Niko Constantin) saved Barnes from Yuri and his men only to attack him himself a short time later.

(Captain America I#619) - Yuri and the other prisoners watched Barnes in his third fight against the Unicorn (Milos Masaryk). Barnes escaped the gulag when Unicorn's energy beam caused a massive explosion after hitting the prison's generators.

Comments: Yuri Petrovich/Outcast created by Tony Isabella, George Tuska, and Vince Colletta.
    Crimson Dynamo (Yuri Petrovich) created by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, and B. Patterson.

Since Ivan Petrovich's full name has been revealed to be Ivan Petrovich Bezukov, would it stand to reason that Ivan's son, Yuri, would have the same last name?
If the middle name is supposed to be related to the father, would he more correctly be known as Yuri Ivanovich Bezukov?
    It's probably worth noting that in translation from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Romanized version the west uses, a lot of spelling variation occurs. a fairly reliable source informs me that although all are technically incorrect, -itch and -ich endings (ie Petrovitch or Petrovich) are Americanizations, and are more indicative of pronunciation. Apparently, the -ic suffix (ie Petrovic) is more accurate to the original spelling, and is how, apparently, it should be written down. I got this info off of a Russian language student, so I'm unable to say how accurate it is.
--that guy with the sideburns

The Crimson Dynamo armor description is taken from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#3: Crimson Dynamo entry.

    Yuri wore the Mark II Crimson Dynamo armor (see comments), an electrically-powered, computer-assisted carborundum-matrix alloy exo-skeleton equipped with a number of offensive weapons. It has been tested to an overall tensile strength of 10.5 atmospheres (155 pounds per square inch), and 15 atmosphere (220 psi) at the joints. Because of its internal ribbing, its impact point tensile strength is able to withstand a concussive force equal to 40 pounds of TNT, which is in the range of medium-sized anti-tank weaponry. The armor is also unimpaired by great temperature variations from -130 F to 5,300 F (just below the melting point of iron). Fully insulated and pressure regulated, the armor maintains an environment of standard atmospheric pressure (14.7 psi) at 76 F (skin temperature). The armor has an air filtration system capable of Chemical-Biological-Radiological decontamination for periods up to 18.75 days (450 hours). It also has its own self-sufficient compressed air supply for periods of up to one hour. The suit has several integral layers of government classified items, including a thin layer of lead, as well as a layer of focused high-gauss magnetic fields which serves to repel fast-neutrons and alpha-particles (among the principal and most dangerous aspects of nuclear devices).
    The Crimson Dynamo's armor is equipped with high-density, exotic batteries which power micro-fine compound-surface flat armature motors, that behave like motors 20x their size and capacity. Through the use of extremely large capacitors (devices that contain vast quantities of voltage and amperage in a small volume: the Dynamo's average capacitor is a 75 farad unit) and taking advantage of DC motors' ability to function at 500% of their normal ratings for short periods of time, the Dynamo's suit can enhance the wearer's strength to a maximum of 50 times (placing Petrovich somewhere in the Class 10 range; notably it can support its maximum weights for about 3 minutes before armature failure may occur). Without undue strain, the armor is able to operate at 85% optimum performance for 22 hours, and thereafter 5% decrease every additional hour. The armor can operate at maximum output for a period of 2.7 hours, when cumulative armature failure will severely impair nominal functions.
    The armor contains two chemically-fueled boot jets, each mini-turbo fan rated at 1,200 pounds static thrust, yielding a gross lifting capacity of 1,800 pounds (his own armored weight plus @ 1,200 pounds) for up to 12 minutes without refueling. Lifting only his own weight, the fuel lasts up to 25 minutes. The boot jets give the suit a maximum speed of 110 mph, and a loaded speed of 50 mph.
    The major offensive weapon is the armor's electronic circuitry which has hand-blasters capable of shooting a high-frequency lightning-like discharge of 1,000,000 volts a maximum distance of 100 feet. The boot-jets and the hand-blasters may be used at the same time, because they are powered independently of each other.
    The Crimson Dynamo's armor is not as strong, durable, versatile, or energy efficient as that of Iron Man.

    It should be noted that this was the armor worn by Petrovich's successor, Dmitri Bukharin. There may well have been significant upgrades since Petrovich wore the armor. In addition, the functions of the armor were written based on the knowledge of technology as of 1982. Due to the sliding timescale, Yuri would have worn the armor 8-10 years ago, tops, and would likely have added higher-tech armor, especially the computer-assisted aspects if the entry were written today. Also take into account that this was the first handbook, and a lot of power upgrades occurred in later editions (for example, the Master Edition rated the Mark III armor with Class 75 strength). I'd guess the Mark II to be Class 25, at least.

    There were a lot of references in the original story to the Soviet Union, which are topical, and should be replaced with Russia.

In Olshevsky's X-Men Index Crimson Dynamo's name was given as Yuri Ivanotich Petrovitch.
--John McDonagh

Petrovich has partial entries as part of Crimson Dynamo entries in OHotMU I#3, Deluxe Edition#3, Master Edition and All-New OHotMU Update#2.

Profile by Snood.. Captain America update by Markus Raymond