Ryker's Island

This article is about the fictional Marvel Prison. For the real life prison, see Rikers Island.

Ryker's Island
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Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (1963)
In story information
Type	Prison

Ryker's Island is a fictional prison facility for both conventional criminals, and superhuman criminals in the Marvel Universe. It first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 called simply "Island Prison".

It is the Marvel Universe counterpart to the real-world Rikers Island.

Fictional location history

Ryker's Island is named after Abraham Rycken (a Dutch settler in the 17th century) and was owned by his family up to 1884. The name of the Island ended up evolving to Ryker's Island. The island was then converted into a military training ground during the American Civil War. The Riker family produced a military leader of their own in the person of John Lafayette Riker (1822–1862) who led the 62nd New York Volunteer Regiment and was killed at the Battle of Fair Oaks.

In 1884, the Riker's family sold the island to New York City and it was converted into a jail farm. In 1932, New York City converted it into a prison for men on it. The original penitentiary building was completed in 1935, remaining in use to 2000. Since the island was only 90 acres (360,000 m²) in size, by the 1950s the facilities were overflown with prisoners.

By 1954, landfill had been added to the island artificially expanding it 415 acres (1.68 km²) in size with its jail facilities expanded accordingly. Ryker's Island now held prisoners of both sexes. By the early 1990s, Ryker's Island had been overflown with prisoners again. This time, the authorities added a barge that will be able to accommodate 800 prisoners.

Ryker's Island has a long history of corrections officials abusing their authority. There were illegal strip-searches of nonviolent inmates, beatings, indifference or encouragement of violence among inmates have all been reported over the years. Repeated indictments or convictions of the prison personnel have failed to resolve the problem.

Ryker's Island has plenty of security cells so that each one is designed specially for each super-prisoner ranging from Spider-Man's enemies, the Avengers' enemies, and the Fantastic Four's enemies. This was where supervillains were held before constructions of the Vault and the Raft.

Known inmates

• Blacklash
• Black Tarantula
• Blizzard
• Brotherhood of Mutants
  • Avalanche
  • Blob
  • Destiny
  • Mystique
  • Pyro
• Bullseye
• Carnage
• Chemistro
• Cheshire Cat
• Cobra
• Commanche
• Daredevil
• Dontrell "Cockroach" Hamilton
• Enforcers
  • Fancy Dan
  • Montana
  • Ox II
• Hood
• Jigsaw
• Kingpin
• Melter
• Mister Hyde
• Mr. Fish
• Nitro
• Punisher
• Rhino
• Sandman
• Spear
• Spider-Man
• Turk Barrett
• Ulik
• Venom
• Vin Gonzales
• Wizard
• Wrecking Crew
  • Bulldozer
  • Piledriver
  • Thunderball
  • Wrecker

Other versions

Age of X

In the Age of X reality, Ryker's Island was used to imprison apprehended mutants.

In other media

Television

• Ryker's Island is featured in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "Attack of the Arachnoid." Spider-Man is incarcerated there when Dr. Zoltan Amadeus copied his powers and framed him. Unfortunately for Spider-Man, Scorpion was also at Ryker's Island and attacked Spider-Man. Blastaar, Electro, Klaw, and Human Fly made cameos as inmates.
• Ryker's Island is referenced in the Fantastic Four episode "Now Comes the Sub-Mariner." After catching Warlord Krang, Human Torch mentions to Mister Fantastic that he dropped Warlord Krang off in a "swimming pool" at Ryker's Island.
• Ryker's Island is featured in the Spider-Man episode "Guilty." It is where Robbie Robertson is sent after being mind-controlled and set-up by the Kingpin. Originally, Robbie was supposed to be sent to New York State Penitentiary but Kingpin and Alistair Smythe hacked the computers so that Robbie would be sent to Ryker's Island. Once there, Robbie ended up cellmates of Richard Fisk and Tombstone. Both villains ended up using Robbie as a hostage to make their escape only to be thwarted by Spider-Man who manages to expose Richard's part in framing Robbie.
• Ryker's Island first appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Group Therapy." After being released from Ravencroft, Electro shuts down the power there enabling Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino, and the Enforcers (Ox, Montana, and Fancy Dan) to escape. Ox and Fancy Dan left with Hammerhead while Montana (upon donning his Shocker outfit) remained with the other villains and escaped on a motorboat to form the Sinister Six to attack Spider-Man. The villains that fought Spider-Man were defeated and sent back to Ryker's Island while Doctor Octopus and Electro were sent to Ravencroft. In "Reinforcement," Vulture, Sandman, and Rhino escaped again while the Mysterio the cops had arrested earlier was revealed to be a robot. In "Identity Crisis," Ned Leeds visits the real Mysterio at Ryker's Island for his opinion if Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same.

Film

• In the film Spider-Man 3, another police officer tells Captain George Stacey that Flint Marko has escaped from Ryker's Island.
• In the film Daredevil, Daredevil mentions Ryker's Island to Kingpin at the very end of the film.

Video games

• In a level in the Punisher video game, the Punisher is fighting villains in a prison. It is assumed that is Ryker's Island.
• Ryker's Island is featured in The Punisher video game.
• Ryker's Island appears as a level in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Spider-Man arrives there in order to spring the Tinkerer from jail.
• Ryker's Island appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. The heroes that were rescued by Nick Fury following the incident at the Geffen-Meyer Chemicals plant infiltrate Ryker's Island to get to the portal leading to Prison 42 in the Negative Zone.

See also

• Stryker's Island

External links

• Ryker's Island at Comic Vine
• Ryker's Island at Marvel Wiki