ANGELA CLEAVER
Real Name: Angela Cleaver
Identity/Class: Human, former government agent
Occupation: former government researcher
Affiliations: former member of TRACE; Sabre (pet dog); Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Night Raven, Ivan Petrovich
Enemies: Yi Yang and her agents
Known Relatives: Roy (husband, deceased), Howard "Howie" (son), Joe (uncle), Addy (aunt)
Aliases: none
Base of Operations: LaFitte, Louisiana; formerly New York City.
First Appearance: Mighty World of Marvel#14/2 (Marvel UK, July 1984)
Powers: None. Angela is experienced with computer use and research. She has limited experience with espionage, combat, etc. She is paraplegic, unable to move her legs, and requires the use of a wheelchair.
History: (MWoM#14/2(fb))-Angela Cleaver
was born around the early 1940s. As a young girl, Angela enjoyed
traveling to upstate New York and visiting the dairy cow farm of
her aunt Addy and uncle Joe.
In the early 1960s (see comments), Angela Cleaver had recently
graduated from college with an interest in computers when she was
approached with the opportunity to serve her country. She had
really felt a part of it all. She was married to a man named Roy,
and around 1969, she gave birth to her son, Howard. Her husband
was killed in 1971 during the Viet Nam conflict.
As time passed, she came to realize that the
only reason she, an African American woman, had gotten her
position had been as a token of the early sixties tendency
towards a facade of liberalism. Twenty years of being shunted
from one low key sector to another, of having her talents used
and neutralized, had left her fatalistic, but with a hard core of
resentment. With twenty years seniority they had hidden her away
in the offices which dealt with everybody else's cast off cases.
As of 1979, she was placed in charge of running the department of
TRACE. After five years with this job, she still wasn't sure what
to do.
(MWoM#14/2-16/2)-In
1984, following the nuclear explosion which occurred during a
battle between the Night Raven and Yi Yang, Angela was assigned
to investigate the mysterious vigilante. Angela had already
started a small file on the Night Raven, filing away news
clippings as she encountered his name repeatedly while
researching other subjects. Angela saw this assignment as a
lever, to enable her to finally get some real power.
Night Raven, believing he had killed his decades long foe, had
wandered about aimlessly, and had been struck by a full speed
train. He was believed to have been dead, and brought to a
coroner. His mask identified him as the Night Raven, and Angela
was called in to take over the investigation. She brought his
body to TRACE doctors for the examination, but "When
they cut into him, he took it real bad." The Night
Raven had not been killed, but had been in an inert state as his
body tried to recover from its massive injuries. As soon as the
pathologist's knife cut into him, he sat up, and in a disoriented
frenzy, he grabbed the scalpel and slew the pathologist.
Night Raven regained his senses, and directed Angela, who had
been watching from an outside booth, to return to him his
clothes. Virtually mesmerized, she unlocked and opened the door
separating her from the scalpel holding, naked, horribly scarred
maniac who had just killed her associate, and she did as he
requested. Before long, she had taken him to the ambulance and
was driving him away into upstate New York. After awhile, she
relaxed enough to ask him some questions, and received some
insight into the madman that was the Night Raven. Eventually,
however, TRACE and other law enforcement agents, believing her to
have been kidnapped by the Night Raven, tracked them down and set
up a roadblock in front of them. Completely caught up in the
madman at her side, Angela rushed the roadblock, breaking through
it, but flipping the ambulance in the process. She was knocked
unconscious, but the Night Raven was more resilient and pulled
her to safety. She couldn't feel her legs, and knew she never
would again. The Raven said, "They will find you ssoon.
I musst go now. Perhapss you will hear of me again one day."
Then he walked out of her life, leaving her paralyzed from the
waist down. She was more concerned about the debriefing she would
receive, but knew she could handle it.
Angela retired and moved to Laitte, Louisiana, but she continued to keep tabs on the Night Raven, whom she referred to as her savior.
(Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty)-When Night Raven resurfaced in the modern era in Russia, it sparked a lot of interest in his past. The information contained in the now defunct TRACE's files was the primary resource on him, and since Angela had compiled all of that data, interest developed in her as well. Agents of the Russian mob, allied with Yi Yang tracked her to Louisiana. Ivan Petrovitch, an ally of the Black Widow, who was also investigating the Raven, attempted to save her from them, but they were both captured. Her pet dog, Sabre was killed in the process. Angela and Ivan were brought to Xanadu, the Siberian Base of Yi Yang, in order to lead the Night Raven there as well. During the struggle with Night Raven and the Black Widow, Yi Yang attempted to push Angela into an energy core to kill her, but Angela grabbed hold of the wall and pulled Yi Yang over the edge instead. Night Raven pulled Angela to safety before going after Yi Yang once more.
Comments: Created by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis.
The initial story involving TRACE was a text/prose story. My summary cannot begin to do it justice. Get it and read it.
Rambling/pointless/moot thoughts (not to be
confused with Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey): Topical meets
Real time meets Marvel time and the problems begin. Night Raven
is immortal, and his adventures span from before World War I into
the modern era. His encounters with Angela Cleaver and TRACE are
supposed to have taken place in real time, in 1984. That's fine.
Then the Death Duty story pulls in modern era characters, like
Nick Fury, the Black Widow, and SHIELD. These characters all have
pre-modern era ties, and although SHIELD is supposed to have
started around the onset of the modern era, it could easily be
tweaked a little to have been around before. So, you could almost
twist Death Duty into occurring before the modern era...even
Phobos' former school's break-up could be pre-modern era, but not
too far--the Soviet Super Soldiers were students there...Anyhoo,
it will be some time before Real Time stretches Angela's age too
far for the story to make sense (as of 2002, she's about 60 years
old, 10 years older than when the Death Duty took place), and
since we'll probably never see her again, and since about 9
people have read Death Duty, I guess it'll be ok.
Junk Food for thought. Dorkas Farkas.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
Ward, June, Wally, or Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, from
the show, Leave it to Beaver
Sabre, her dog, has no known connection to:
Sabre of Earth-Killraven, @
Amazing Adventures II#22
le Sabre, the Black Knight
foe, @ Marvel Super-Heroes II#17
Sabretooth, the Wolverine foe, @ Iron Fist I#14
TRACE has no known connections to:
Tracer, Richard Bloom, @
Deathlok Annual#2
TRACE,
Tactical Research And Cultural Examination, was an obscure,
small, covert US government research operation in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. Angela Cleaver had run the group, but following
her retirement after her injuries, the group faded into
obscurity. Its exact fate is unknown, but Fury mentioned that it
was no longer active in the modern era.
The only other agent identified is Ray Cowerie
(#16/2), who organized the roadblock, and ended up bouncing off
of the windshield of the ambulance when Angela ran the block. He
was not pictured.
The pathologist who examined and was killed by
Night Raven (#14/2)was unnamed.
--MWoM#14/2 (15/2, 16/2
Sabre was Angela's dog in
Lafitte, Lousiana. Angela commented about his age, but he was
still spry enough to attack Ivan Petrovitch when he was dound
snooping outside of her house. Sabre leapt to attack Angela's
kidnappers, but was quickly gunned down by them.
--Fury/BW: Death Duty
First Posted: 04/04/2002
Last updated: 08/02/2002
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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