Origin

Yuri Petrovich was the son of Ivan Petrovitch, a friend of the Black Widow's. When Western agents (presumably Americans) failed to convince Ivan to defect to the West, they assassinated Yuri's mother; in the chaos that followed, Ivan and Yuri each believed the other dead. When the Black Widow and Ivan (he don't know, his father was alive) defected to the United States, Yuri was recruited by the Soviets agents. The government agents claimed to be Americans to make Ivan hate the Americans but were really Russians secretly training him to hate Americans enough to become their agent.

Creation

Yuri Petrovich was created by Bill Mantlo and George Tuska in the Champions in 1976 as the latest Crimson Dynamo. As the fourth, he was one of the earlier of a long line of Crimson Dynamos to appear in Marvel Comics.

Character Evolution

Yuri Petrovich's time as Crimson Dynamo was short-lived. He appeared in four consecutive issues of the Champions, after which he disappeared to character limbo for decades. The identity of Crimson Dynamo went on to pass through the hands of several other characters.

In 2011, the character emerged from limbo in the pages of Captain America. Ed Brubaker dusted Yuri off and used him as one of a handful of relatively forgotten Russian characters populating a gulag prison in Siberia where Bucky Barnes was imprisoned. Yuri was retconned into having a history with Bucky from Bucky's days as the Winter Soldier.

Major Story Arcs

Against the Champions

After his training was over, he was given the Crimson Dynamo Armor and was send to kill or capture the Black Widow and Ivan. Yuri and his allies (his girlfriend Darkstar, the Griffin, Rampage and Titanium Man) fought the Black Widow and her teammates, the Champions. During the mission, Yuri also learned his father was his second goal. When Yuri learned of the true nature of his "Western" captors, he went berserk. Darkstar teamed up with the Champions to subdue Yuri, and after he and his other allies were defeated. Yuri was returned to Russia, when he was deemed 'a miserable failure' and demoted to working in a Siberian camp.

Film and television

Animation

Iron Man (1995)

In episode 17, "Not Far From the Tree", the A.I.M. created a clone of Howard Stark and hired the Crimson Dynamo to penetrate into Stark Industries. He engaged in battle with Iron Man and lost. The Crimson Dynamo was voiced by William Hootkins.

In episode 21, "The Armor Wars, Part 1", Tony Stark learned that the Crimson Dynamo was using technology from Stark Industries. The Crimson Dynamo armor was similar to the armor worn by Valentin Shatalov in the comic, but Stark called him Юрий (Yuri). The Crimson Dynamo was voiced by Stu Rosen.