RAPTOR

Real Name: Damon Ryder

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Vigilante;
    former biology professor, research scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None;
    formerly Kaine, Ben Reilly

Enemies: Kaine, Harry Osborn, Alexa Reilly, Amanda Reilly, Amy Reilly, Ben Reilly, Screwball, Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Known Relatives: Laura Ryder (wife, deceased), Rory Ryder (son, deceased), Phoebe Ryder (daughter, deceased), unidentified father

Aliases: None

Place of Birth: Jamaica, Queens, New York

Base of Operations: Mobile;
    formerly Portland, Oregon

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man Annual II#36 (September, 2009)

Powers/Abilities: After his mutation, Damon Ryder possessed superhuman strength (lifting 5 tons), endurance, speed, and senses. He could elongate his lower jaw and grow long, bladed teeth, and could extend large, razor-sharp claws from his forearms. He also carried a machine pistol. Ryder was a skilled and highly educated scientist, with doctorates in both palaeontology and genetics; however, after his mutation, he was prone to irrational behavior and memory lapses.

Height: 5'11"
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Red

History: (Amazing Spider-Man II#608 (fb) ) - Biology professor Dr. Damon Ryder theorized that instead of birds, dinosaurs had evolved into humans, and began working to create a human/dinosaur hybrid. When his lab assistant transferred to Ithaca to be with his girlfriend, he sought out a new one - and found one in the form of Ben Reilly (secretly a clone of Peter Parker). Over the next three months, he and Reilly tried to grow their hybrid in a petri dish without success; soon, Ryder's funding began to run out. Desperate, he inserted their first successful batch of recombinant dinosaur DNA - batch 896 - into a living test subject: himself. Later that day, concerned about Reilly's apparent lack of friends and family, he invited Reilly to come have dinner at his home with his family. There, he and Reilly explained their theories to Laura, Ryder's wife; after dinner, Ryder told Reilly that they'd made a breakthrough. The next day, Reilly learned about what Ryder had done with the DNA and angrily confronted him. 

(Amazing Spider-Man II#609 (fb) ) - Ryder explained to the horrified Ben that the dinosaur DNA had given him increased strength and enhanced senses, and that their project now had immense medical and military applications. When Ben grabbed his wrist, Ryder lashed out at him, and the two briefly fought before Ben left, telling Ryder to wait there until he could find a doctor to purge the DNA from his system. Ryder instead went home and retired to his study, where he began to develop physical mutations, growing a distended jaw and fangs. Reilly came to see him there.

(Amazing Spider-Man Annual II#36 (fb)/Amazing Spider-Man II#610 (fb) ) - When Ben tried to get Ryder to a hospital, Ryder lashed out at him again. Just then, Reilly's vengeful clone "brother" Kaine leapt in through the window to attack Reilly. Ryder ran out of the study, but his increasingly bestial nature took control of him, and he slew his wife and children in a blind rage. He regained his senses as Kaine and Reilly's battle set the house ablaze; Reilly came in to save him, but seeing Ryder's family dead, he attacked Ryder. Ryder had  no memory of his actions, so when Reilly told him what he'd done, he accused him of lying, and blamed Reilly for the murders. Ben knocked him unconscious and dragged him out of the burning house to safety.

(Amazing Spider-Man Annual II#36) - Ryder, now the costumed Raptor, eventually tracked the Reilly family to Boston, then spied on them for six months until a family reunion at the Top of the Hub restaurant drew out Peter Parker - who Raptor mistook for Reilly (who had since died). Raptor waited for Parker to go to the washroom, then struck. Crashing through the window, he tried to slask Parker with his claws, but Parker tackled him right back out the window, leaving Raptor to plummet to the ground. As he shakily stood up, he was attacked by Spider-Man, who launched a truck at him. Raptor pulled his gun and opened fire on Spider-Man, who dodged and made Ryder fire into the crowd instead. Raptor stabbed Spider-Man in the gut with his claws, but was horrified when he saw the damage he'd caused. Spider-Man took advantage of his distraction and began beating him, but Raptor threw him off and fled to a tour bus-boat. Spider-Man followed him, and their battle continued there; Raptor transformed his jaw and tried to bite Spider-Man until the web-slinger knocked him onto the highway. Raptor tried to escape to track down "Reilly", but Spider-Man threw him onto a bridge, pinned him, and unmasked him, at which point Raptor revealed that Ben Reilly had killed his family. Spider-Man told him that Reilly was dead, but Raptor didn't believe him. He broke from the shocked Spider-Man's grip and escaped on the back of a truck.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#605/2) - Having traced the Reilly family from Boston to Forest Hills, Ryder spied on Parker at a taping of the reality competition show Sewn Up. There, he saw Parker's friend Harry Osborn with Parker's cousin Amy Reilly, and decided to strike at Parker's family, first.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#610 (fb) - BTS) - Kaine sought out Ryder, who lied and told him that he could arrest Kaine's clone degeneration if he would help kill Parker.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#608) - Ryder tracked Parker to the offices of Front Line, where he had reporter Norah Winters point him in Parker's direction. He confronted Parker (who still denied being Reilly) and threatened his family, prompting Parker to punch him; in response, Ryder lost it and began pummelling Parker until a pair of Front Line staffers pulled him away. He left, but not before leaving a copy of the Portland News' story about the house fire, complete with a police sketch of Ben Reilly. He found the spider-tracer Parker had planted on his trenchcoat during their scuffle, and gave ot to Kaine, who used it to ambush Spider-Man in an abandoned office building. Later, he visited Parker's apartment, leaving a burnt stuffed animal that had belonged to his son, and another copy of the Portland News article, with Parker's roommate, Michele Gonzales.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#609) - Ryder came to the Parker home in Queens, where he took Parker's cousins Alexa, Amy, and Amanda, plus Harry Osborn, hostage at gunpoint. When Parker arrived, Raptor told him that he was going to kill his family in front of him, just as Reilly had killed his. 

(Amazing Spider-Man II#610) - At Ryder's invitation, Kaine came to the Parker home, as well; when Harry Osborn tried to rush him, Ryder struck him with his gun. Raptor then set off a flare, starting a fire in the house so that "Reilly" could know what he'd put Ryder through. Before he could kill the hostages, however, internet super villain Screwball burst in, having been summoned by Parker. While she fought Raptor and Kaine, Parker freed the hostages and slipped into his Spider-Man costume. He joined the fray, taking out Screwball, and once again reiterated that Reilly was dead. This time, Kaine backed him up, and pulled off Spider-Man's mask, claiming that Parker was Reilly's clone - but that he was capable of whatever Reilly was, and thus deserved death as much as Reilly had. Raptor agreed, and attacked Parker, who beat him down, stating that Ben Reilly was no murderer, and neither was he...and to prove it, he webbed up Raptor and let him live. When Parker was distracted by the arrival of the police, Kaine rescued Raptor and took him back to his hideout; when Ryder admitted that he couldn't cure Kaine, the clone strangled him.

Comments: Created by Marc Guggenheim, Pat Olliffe, and Andy Lanning.

Raptor's fate is left unrevealed at the end of Amazing Spider-Man II#610, but given Kaine's track record, he's probably extinct.

Raptor is, I think, a deliberate attempt to create a '90s-y Clone Saga villain. He's mysterious, he's got claws, he's got the oh-so-1993 name "Raptor"...and it works. If this guy had actually been around in 1993, he totally would have been my favorite Spider-Man villain.

Raptor has a profile in the OHotMU 2010 A-Z Update#5, which reveals the names of his children.

Ryder's theory that humans are descended from dinosaurs is, of course, completely ridiculous. I hope that was Guggenheim's way of showing us that Ryder was a crackpot, and not a demonstration of his own scientific literacy!

The Reilly family is, of course, Aunt May's family - Ben took his alias from her maiden name.

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Raptor, aka Damon Ryder, has no known connections to

Laura Ryder

(Amazing Spider-Man II#608 (fb) ) - Dr. Damon Ryder brought his lab assistant, Ben Reilly, to his house for dinner, where he met Ryder's wife, Laura. During dinner, Damon and Ben tried to explain their theory on humanity's descent from dinosaurs to her.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#609 (fb) ) - Laura was at home when Damon came home after a fight with Reilly over Damon's testing their research on himself. Damon wasn't feeling well, and Laura tried to get him to lie down, but he insisted on working in his study. When Ben came to see him, Laura showed him in.

(Amazing Spider-Man II#610 (fb) ) - The mutated Ryder killed Laura in a blind rage. Her body was incinerated when the Ryder house burned down.

--Amazing Spider-Man II#608 (608 (fb), 609 (fb), 610 (fb)

Rory & Phoebe Ryder

(Amazing Spider-Man II#608 (fb) ) - Dr. Damon Ryder brought his lab assistant, Ben Reilly, to his house for dinner, where he met Ryder's children, Phoebe and Rory. 

(Amazing Spider-Man II#609 (fb) ) - When Ben Reilly came to the Ryder house to see Damon, Rory and Phoebe were playing in the living room.

 (Amazing Spider-Man II#610 (fb) ) - The mutated Ryder killed Rory and Phoebe in a blind rage. Their bodies were incinerated when the Ryder house burned down.

--Amazing Spider-Man II#608 (608 (fb), 609 (fb), 610 (fb)

images: (without ads)
Amazing Spider-Man II#609, p20, pan1 (main image)
Amazing Spider-Man II#608, p15, pan5 (Ryder)
Amazing Spider-Man II#610, p17, pan4 (claws and teeth)
Amazing Spider-Man II#608, p14, pan3 (Laura)
Amazing Spider-Man II#608, p14, pan1 (Rory & Phoebe)

Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man Annual II#36 (September, 2009) - Marc Guggenheim (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Pat Olliffe & Andy Lanning (inks), Stephen Wacker (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man II#605/2 (November, 2009) - Fred Van Lente (writer), Marco Checchetto (art), Luke Ross (pencils), Rick Magyar (inks), Stephen Wacker (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man II#608-610 (December, 2009-January, 2010) - Marc Guggenheim (writer), Marco Checchetto (art), Luke Ross (pencils), Rick Magyar (inks), Stephen Wacker (editor)

Last updated: 09/24/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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