Dr. Ashley Kafka is a supporting character appearing in Marvel Comics and later in multiple spin-offs and dramatizations of the Spider-Man titles. Ashley Kafka was inspired by therapeutic hypnotist Frayda Kafka and was created by writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Sal Buscema. Dr. Kafka works as a psychiatrist for the criminally insane at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane in New York City, and is a sometime ally of Spider-Man. Her first appearance was in The Spectacular Spider-Man #178 (July 1991) and the appearance of her death came in 2013 during The Superior Spider-Man #4 (April 2013).
Ashley Kafka has appeared in various Spider-Man media and was featured in the 2014 film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as a male character portrayed by Marton Csokas.
Biographie
Ashley Kafka grew up in New York with her Mother and her sister, Norma, who had been born with severe facial birth defects and was mentally challenged. Kafka looked after Norma while their mentally ill mother accused Norma of being the Devil, who she believed to have ruined her life. Growing up, Kafka struggled to avoid conflict and maintain a somewhat peaceful environment in her household. Their mother died when Kafka was nineteen years old and Norma was left at a psychiatric hospital, where she died a short time later. Kafka then went to college and the Empire State University where she studied psychology and earned a degree.
Kafka went on to become a professional psychologist specializing in the criminally insane and, under the funding and supervision of the U.S. government, went on to found a successful maximum security sanitarium called the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, in which she treated super-criminals.
During her time at Ravencroft, she treated many criminals, one of her patients noted his experiences when he witnessed a battle between Spider-Man and Vermin. Despite a reluctance to cease treating uncured patients, Kafka has attempted, but has so far been unsuccessful, to rehabilitate certain patients such as super-criminals like Carnage, Electro, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Chameleon and Carrion, all of which have been in conflict with Spider-Man for years.
When Kafka's success rate came into question due to the constantly high number of super-villains at the Ravencroft Institute, she was replaced for a time by Leonard Samson as the sanitarium's director. Samson eventually left the facility which saw Kafka return as the head again.
Kafka was killed by Massacre, who ripped out one of her eyes to get past a retinal scanner when he attacked the Ravencroft Institute during a breakout attempt.