Known by many names—the Pale Rider, Kree with No Name, Paleface—this assassin becomes best known as Wraith, the warrior who cannot die, tire, or feel pain. Born Kree, but made more by the Nameless and Exolon soul parasites, he is endowed with powers that he uses to hunt down his parents’ killer.
Driven Towards Revenge
Allegedly driven into a self-imposed exile by the Kree merchant houses for creating a device that could “bring light to the entire galaxy,” the Kree inventor Sim-Del and his family become targets for death by a secret Kree military society. The boy Zak-Del witnesses his parents’ brutal slaughter by a man wearing the society’s signet ring before the family’s robot sends him off on a spaceship. The ship falls through a wormhole into the Exoteric Latitude, home to the pale androgynous Nameless Kree—survivors of a long-lost exploration team possessed by the native swarming Exolon soul parasites—one of whom stabs Zak-Del in the heart, releasing his soul to feed the Exolon, who possesses him, making him a Nameless Kree. The former Zak-Del grows up learning their barbaric ways, discovering how intense pain is evidently all that enables them to remember their former lives, but the need to avenge his parents’ murders allows the now-grown man to consciously recall his past. Defeating the Nameless’ leader, the young man takes the leader’s weapon and spacecraft and escapes.
Arriving in the Kree Empire intent on finding his parents’ killer, the pale Kree instead encounters invading techno-organic Phalanx troops who try to assimilate him. He uses the Exolon swarm to strike fear into the Phalanx; unable to assimilate the extreme emotion, they shut down. Kree resistance front leader Ra-Venn tries to recruit him to their cause, but the Nameless one is captured by the Phalanx before he could refuse her. Kree Emperor Ronan, forcibly undergoing assimilation into a Phalanx Select, tortures the calm pale Kree and names him Wraith.
Exolon Parasitic Powers
After the Exolon traps Zak-Del’s soul, the Exolon parasites cover Wraith’s body in a black membrane, enabling regenerative healing, unspecified enhanced strength, and immortality. The membrane also prevents scanners from identifying him as a life-form. It is unclear if they help him survive in space. Unlike other Exolon hosts, Wraith can remember his pre-Exolon existence through sheer willpower.
Wraith can cause the Exolon to swarm (controlling them from miles away) and use “the sight of an exposed soul” to strike deadly fear into his opponents, coat up to 15,000 giant objects at once to protect them from being hacked by techno-organic beings like the Phalanx, and absorb energy blasts and the souls of other beings. If he is rendered unconscious, the swarm disperses. As a native Kree, his body is denser and more durable than those of normal humans, making him about twice as strong before his Exolon powers.
Wraith is an experienced fighter, carrying a polymorphic weapon that can be mentally transformed into any weapon or device he can think of, including a whip (which can be electrified and cut through most metals), knife, energy blaster, bo staff/spear, or binoculars. This weapon is a talisman of the Ancient Kree, it knows the thoughts and anticipates the needs of its wielder. Wraith rides an apparently mentally controlled motorcycle-like spaceship, armed with energy guns. It is unclear if it protects its rider safe from space’s rigors, or if any non-Nameless Kree can operate the bike.
Binding Ties and Combatants
Kree-born, Wraith is raised by the Nameless Kree who live in the Exoteric Latitude and has his soul taken from him. He goes up against the Phalanx, a techno-organic race that assimilates whole societies, but he resists their assimilation thanks to his powers.
Alongside Ra-Venn, Ronan, Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, Kl’rt, AKA Super-Skrull, and Praxagora, Wraith uses his powers to help defeat the rogue A.I. villain named Ultron, protecting the Kree from his control.
To rid himself of the Exolon parasites, Wraith partners with the Dark Guardians, Eros, AKA Starfox, Kallark, AKA Gladiator, Frank Castle, AKA The Rider (Earth-TRN666), and Nebula to hunt down Gamora in exchange for information about the symbiote and Exolon god Knull from Starfox.
A History of Hunting
Enraged by Wraith’s assertions that he would never be a slave like Ronan, Ronan fitted him with the Select technology, determined to turn Wraith into a puppet of the Phalanx. With the dead Kree leader Supreme Intelligence (SI)’s aid, Sim-Del’s ghost visited Wraith, telling him the Parasite star system had what he sought. Needing allies, Wraith freed fellow prisoners Kl’rt, AKA Super-Skrull, and the robotic empath Praxagora and escaped Phalanx custody. Arriving at the star system, he gave his aid to Ra-Venn’s rebellion; in return she swore to help Wraith find his parents’ murderer.
Learning of the Phalanx’s plan to use a revitalized SI’s psychic echo to convert all resisting Kree to their cause, Wraith, Super-Skrull, and Praxagora went to destroy it. Confronting the dead SI via his father’s ghost, Wraith agreed to absorb the SI’s soul into his Exolon swarm, using the resultant fear backlash to paralyze every Phalanx within range. A humiliated Ronan tried to get Wraith to kill him, but Wraith convinced Ronan the Kree needed his leadership to survive the Phalanx invasion. Following Ronan to the Kree Ceded Territories to retrieve a cache of Kree Sentries untouched by the Phalanx technovirus for use in freeing Kree homeworld Hala from its conquerors, Praxagora and Wraith prevented the Sentries from being forcibly taken under Phalanx control. However, Phalanx leader Ultron took control of Praxagora and used her to knock out Wraith, causing the Exolon swarm to disperse and allowing Ultron to control the Sentry armada and fuse them into one giant robot body for himself. A recovered Wraith then aided the Titanian Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, by coating Ultron’s body with the Exolon to trap his mind within while Quasar destroyed him. Afterwards, Wraith used the Exolon to purge the last of the Phalanx taint from the infected Kree citizens before continuing on his quest to kill the man with the signet ring.
Desiring to be free of the Exolon, Wraith gets involved with the Dark Guardians, and their leader Starfox, who promised him information for the head of the recently killed Thanos’ daughter Gamora—they speculated that Thanos would transfer his consciousness to her to avoid death. Hunting her down, they track her old flame, Richard Rider, AKA Nova, and Wraith immediately disables him. He tells him he searches for Knull, the Exolon God so that he may free himself of the black curse he suffers. Wraith nearly strangles Nova with his polymorphic weapon until The Rider stopped him. Nova escaped but led them straight to their target, finding Gamora amongst the Guardians of the Galaxy. A battle ensued between the two groups and Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, threw himself in front of a laser blast meant for Gamora and seemingly died. The Dark Guardians captured Gamora and departed. Starfox held up his end of the bargain and gave Wraith a data drive containing information about Knull.
