Crimson, typical Raven
History:The Raven is an ancient organization consisting of 24 individuals (“four and twenty blackbirds” as Crimson describes the group) scattered throughout the world. New York, however, was home to six of them. The Raven feeds on human distress and has the ability to walk among the general population un seen.
Crimson, a prominent member of the Raven, but not the leader, discovered a new sensation, draining the emotions from a mutant. Crimson set out to dominate Archangel during the period of time that he was terrorizing the city. Other members of the Raven warned Crimson off, but she continued to follow through with her plan to attack Archangel.
Meanwhile, one of the Raven, Azure, fed off a human, but the man survived. Azure visited the hospital in order to kill the man so he couldn’t tell the world about their existence.
At that point Archangel flew in through the window and Azure immediately put him in mind control. Archangel, however, possesses great willpower and broke free. He instinctively sliced out with his wings, decapitating the Raven attacker. Azure’s body was consumed in flame.
For the first time in 200 years, a member of the Raven had died. One of the rules of the Raven is that the circle must be complete and the re placement has to be the person who killed the Raven member. The Raven, as a group, captured Archangel to convert him to their cause. Crimson placed a power inhibitor on Archangel to keep him from breaking free of their mind control.
With Archangel captured, the rivalries within the Raven began to flare. Whoever took Archangel’s emotions would probably be the new leader of the group. Crimson and Cobalt were the two main contenders for that honor.
The Raven also captured the policewoman, Charlotte Jones, a friend of Archangel, for him to feed on once the conversion has taken place.
X-Factor, with the aid of Forge and Banshee, tracked Archangel to the Raven’s residence and broke in on the ceremony just when Archangel was about to feed on Jones. Archangel fought off the compulsion to at tack his friend, so Crimson decided that she would just feed on the strong-willed mutant. Jones escaped and ripped the inhibitor off the powerless Archangel. He threw off the mind control and beheaded Crimson with a slash of his wing.
Meanwhile, the battle was going poorly for X-Factor when Jean Grey killed Cobalt by crushing his head with a hurled ankh. With the destruction of their current leader, the Raven circle was broken beyond repair and the remaining Raven members imploded and dissolved into their true forms of shrieking, noxious red mists, which then rose into the night sky. Whether they survived the en counter or were irreversibly destroyed has not been revealed.