WARNING: The following article contains minor spoilers for Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage #1 by Frank Tieri, Angel Unzueta, Guiu Vilanova, Rachelle Rosenberg and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
At a glance, Marvel's Ravencroft Institute might just seem like the answer to DC's Arkham Asylum, the mental institution that usually houses some of Batman's most dangerous villains. However, Ravencroft has a history of its own that stretches throughout Spider-Man's world and beyond.
In the wake of Absolute Carnage, Ravencroft has played an increasingly important role in the Larger Marvel Universe, and that's being expanded upon in the Ruins of Ravencroft series of one-shots. Since Ravencroft seems set to play a big role in Sony's Spider-Man movies like Venom 2 and Morbius, we're taking a closer look back the history of Marvel's scariest psych ward.
While Ravencroft has gone through several incarnations, it's always ostensibly been a place to help those who are mentally ill. However, the history of the land it sits on isn't as clean or antiseptic as one might hope a hospital is. As Ruins of Ravencroft #1 revealed, the land on which it was built was considered cursed by the local tribes before the 15th century. The only people who dared venture on the land were a dedicated following of cannibals who worshipped Knull, the symbiote death god who Carnage summoned to Earth in Absolute Carnage.
The connection between the Institute and the symbiote Carnage appears to be deeper than anyone realized. The Carnage symbiote's primary host is Cletus Kasaday, and his familial connection to the facility dates back to the 17th century. On the land that would eventually become Ravencrot, Cletus' ancestor Cortland murdered the ancestor of Ravencroft's founder, Jonas.
After Ravencroft proper was built, Cletus Kasady was born there, as revealed in Web of Venom: Carnage Born #1. After his infant cries went unheard in Ravencroft's screams, he died before returning through mysterious means. Perhaps because he remembered part of his birth, Cletus formed a life-long fixation on Ravencroft.
Years later, the Ravencroft Institute officially made its introduction during "Maximum Carnage" in Tom DeFalco and Ron Lim's Spider-Man: Unlimited #1. Under the direction of psychiatrist Doctor Ashley Kafka, the institute gained a reputation for treating superpowered individuals with mental illness.
Within Ravencroft, Cletus first met fellow lunatic Shriek, and the two became a kind of psychotic Bonnie & Clyde in "Maximum Carnage." During Spider-Man's infamous "The Clone Saga," a cosmic being named Judas Traveller put Spider-Man and his clone, the Scarlet Spider, on trial at Ravencroft. Carnage even learned Spider-Man's true identity of Peter Parker during the trial, and it was only because of the psychic manipulations of Judas Traveler that Carnage forgot.
Near the beginning of Absolute Carnage, Carnage briefly used Ravencroft as his base of operations before Deadpool burned the asylum down. Now, New York City Mayor Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, has expedited its reconstruction so that it might hold the most dangerous members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery.
The Ravencroft Institute was such a big fixture in Spider-Man's world that the go-to site for supervillain treatment also played a big role in film. Ravencroft was the holding facility that tortured Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it was prominently featured in the '90's Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spectacular Spider-Man.
While it's not clear if Ravencroft will be featured in Morbius, Woody Harrelson's Cletus Kasady will almost certainly transform into Carnage in Venom 2, and there's no better place for him to do that than Ravencroft Institute.