Reavers (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Reavers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
In the fictional X-Men universe the Reavers are a team of criminal cyborgs. The most significant team of Reavers were dedicated to the destruction of the mutant X-Men, and a number of them especially wanted to take revenge on one particular X-Man, Wolverine. The name was originally used by a gang of Australian cyborgs. The name later referred to a a group under the leadership of Donald Pierce, comprised of the three survivors from the original Reavers along with other cyborgs.
Contents |
[edit] History and incarnations
[edit] Donald Pierce and the Hellfire Club
The first of the future Reavers to encounter any of the X-Men was Donald Pierce, when he was the White Bishop of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, who bears bionic arms and legs. Once, when Wolverine broke into the Club's Manhattan mansion, he severed Pierce's cybernetic arm from the rest of his body. Months later, Pierce rebelled against the rest of the Inner Circle, which was dominated by mutants led by Black King Sebastian Shaw. Pierce abducted Shaw's aide Tessa and held her captive. However, Pierce was thwarted by Professor Charles Xavier and his new team, the New Mutants. Tessa regained her freedom, and Pierce was expelled from membership in the Inner Circle.
Three other future members of the Reavers, Cole, Macon, and Reese, were formerly mercenaries employed by the Inner Circle. On the same night that he first met Pierce, Wolverine also encountered a squad of Hellfire Club mercenaries who had been sent to find and kill him. Wolverine lashed out at three of them—Cole, Macon, and Reese—with his adamantium claws, leaving the three of them severely wounded. The Inner Circle then had the three men converted into cyborgs. Cole, Macon, and Reese took Wolverine prisoner when the Inner Circle attacked the X-Men's Westchester County headquarters months later, but Wolverine overcame the three men once more. They were seen again working directly for Donald Pierce when he rebelled against the rest of the Hellfire Club.
Lady Deathstrike had herself transformed into a cyborg by the other dimensional being called Spiral, in an attempt to gain the means to kill Wolverine, as adamantium had been bonded to his bones in a process stolen from her father, Lord Dark Wind. She then led Cole, Macon, and Reese in an unsuccessful attempt to slay Wolverine in Manhattan.
[edit] Ghost town
Meanwhile a group of cyborg thieves calling themselves the Reavers had been operating out of a base in Australia. Their base was a ghost town which was inexplicably equipped with advanced computers and a sub-basement and tunnel system. The Reavers coerced the mutant teleporter Gateway to teleport them from Australia to locations around the world to conduct their violent robberies. Informed of the Reavers' existence by Roma, the X-Men expelled them from their Australian base, which they then co-opted for their own use. The X-Men destroyed some of the Reavers and forced most of the rest to enter the Siege Perilous. However, three Reavers (Pretty Boy, Skullbuster, and Bonebreaker) escaped.
The Reavers were then reassembled under the leadership of Donald Pierce. Pierce combined the three survivors of the original Reavers with Lady Deathstrike and the three former Hellfire Club mercenaries into a formidable team. While the X-Men, whose numbers had dwindled, were away from their Australian base, the Reavers retook the ghost town. When Wolverine returned from a leave of absence in Madripoor to find the X-Men gone, he was taken by surprise, captured, tortured and crucified by the Reavers.
Meanwhile, Psylocke who had a premonition (apparently transmitted by Gateway) of danger awaiting in the ghost town, took drastic action to escape when the X-Men were teleported back to the ghost town. Through telepathic mind control, she forced the remaining X-Men (herself included) to travel through the Siege Perilous, barely escaping the approaching Reavers and mystically rebirthing the X-Men elsewhere with no memory of their real lives. Wolverine later escape the Reavers only with the aid of Jubilee.
The Reavers then attacked Muir Island, theorizing that it was Wolverine's most likely destination. During the assault on Muir Island, Skullbuster was rendered inoperative by sniper fire from Forge. Donald Pierce later transformed a gravely wounded pilot named Cylla Markham into the new Skullbuster (although she usually just went by the name Cylla).
[edit] Upstarts and humans
As part of the Upstarts' game, Trevor Fitzroy dispatched his own Sentinels to the Reavers' Australian hideout to kill Pierce (and anyone else they found there) - only Pierce, Lady Deathstrike and Cylla escaped the massacre (Pierce seemingly only making it as far as the Hellfire Club before he was "killed").
More recently, Donald Pierce put together a new group of Reavers, composed of young anti-mutant humans, who included Elixir, who was unaware of his mutancy at the time. They were defeated by the New Mutants. Pierce himself had the skin decayed from his body by Wither and was turned over to the police, while Elixir saved Wallflower's life with his healing power and was expelled and beaten by the group as a result. The group later broke Pierce out of prison and made another attempt on Elixir's life, but were defeated by the surviving core members of the original New Mutants team.
[edit] Known Members
First Team:
- Bonebreaker (deceased)
- Skullbuster (deceased)
- Pretty Boy (deceased)
- Various unnamed other members (deceased)
Second Team:
- Donald Pierce (leader)
- Lady Deathstrike
- Cole (deceased)
- Macon (deceased)
- Reese (deceased)
- Bonebreaker (deceased)
- Skullbuster (deceased)
- Pretty Boy (deceased)
New Line-Up:
- Elixir (quit)
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Ultimate Reavers
Rather than being a specific team of supervillains, the Ultimate continuity's version of the Reavers are human gladiators who have undergone surgery to become cyborgs for the specific purpose of hunting down mutants on live television. They are led by Ultimate Deadpool.
