0 Talk

Eric Williams (Earth-616)

Grim Reaper

Gallery

Real Name

Eric Williams

Current Alias

Grim Reaper

Relatives

Sanford (father, deceased),
Martha (mother),
Wonder Man (Simon Williams) (brother),
Vision ("brother"),
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) (estranged "sister-in-law")

Affiliation

Leader of the Lethal Legion; ally of Space Phantom, Ultron, Nekra, Black Talon, Goliath (Erik Josten), Man-Ape; member of the Maggia, Former member of the Sinister Six ;

Base Of Operations

Mobile

Status

Alignment

Identity

Citizenship

Marital Status

Occupation

Professional criminal

Characteristics^[1]

Gender

Height

Weight

Eyes

Hair

Grey, (formerly blond)

Unusual Features

Prosthetic scythe in place of a right hand

Origin

Universe

Earth-616

Place of Birth

Paterson, New Jersey

Place of Death

A cave in the western United States

Created by

Roy Thomas, John Buscema

First appearance

Appearance of Death

Avengers #52
(May, 1968)

Chaos War: Dead Avengers #3
(March, 2011)

1 HistoryEdit
2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit
- 2.1 Powers
- 2.2 Strength level
3 ParaphernaliaEdit
- 3.1 Weapons
4 LinksEdit
- 4.1 Discover and Discuss
- 4.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

Early Years

Eric Williams, the brother of Simon Williams (also known as Wonder Man), was born in Paterson, New Jersey. Eric was always the black sheep of his family. His mother would tell him that he was 'born bad', while heaping affection on Simon. Eric's father was charged with disciplining him, but was abusive and uncaring. He even preferred to watch TV lazily, while Eric was torturing the family cat. At the same time, their mother Martha was loving and attentive to Simon, making Eric bitter and jealous.

One day Eric was playing with chemicals in the garage, and caused a fire which burned down their house. Simon felt guilty for having not stopped Eric, and resolved to be responsible for Eric from there on. As they grew older, Simon grew studious while Eric was an athlete. Eric also became more rebellious, and tried to get Simon to join him in his petty thefts. Eventually Eric joined the Maggia and moved to Las Vegas. Meanwhile Simon took over the family business, Williams Innovations.

Partly due to competition with Stark Industries, Williams Innovations began to fail. Desperate, Simon turned to Eric and his mob ties for help. Simon embezzled money from the company to invest with Eric, but Simon was caught and jailed. Simon was freed from jail by Baron Zemo, induced by an offer of revenge on Tony Stark by defeating Iron Man and the Avengers. Simon was transformed into Wonder Man, in order to infiltrate the Avengers. Zemo's empowering process also poisoned Simon, ensuring his loyalty in exchange for the antidote. Simon's better nature won out though, and he died saving the Avengers from Zemo's trap.

Learning of Simon's death, Eric was inflamed with guilt and anger. Through his Maggia contacts, he contacted the Tinkerer who provided him with his scythe weapon, which was further enhanced by Ultron with coma-inducing abilities. Taking the name "Grim Reaper," he defeated the Avengers but was beaten by the surprise appearance of the Black Panther.

Later, the Grim Reaper confronted the Avengers with his Lethal Legion comprised of the Living Laser, Power Man, the Man-Ape and the Swordsman.^[1] The Legion was defeated when the Grim Reaper found himself unable to strike down the Vision, having discovered that he possessed Simon's brain-wave patterns.^[2]

Civil War

The Grim Reaper was apparently one of the many villains who escaped from the Raft prison^[3]. After being at large for several months, the Grim Reaper was eventually tracked down by Captain America and Cable, who together with their other friends brought the Reaper down. He was placed back into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. Grim Reaper was next seen teamed with Man-Ape & Saboteur; how he escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. is uncertain.^[4]

Dark Reign

The Grim Reaper later formed a new lineup of the Lethal Legion as part of a plan against Norman Osborn, after Osborn's rise to power. The team is ultimately defeated by the Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. agents and imprisoned in The Raft. While there, the Grim Reaper is stabbed in the heart by an inmate loyal to Osborn, and has to undergo an operation. It is also revealed that his brother Simon is a member of the Legion, also imprisoned in the Raft.^[5]

It was then revealed that Grim Reaper had formed the Legion so Osborn could be seen as a hero for taking them down, as well as have Wonder Man look bad and make him and his Avengers look better to the originals. With his death faked he then left for Europe to set up a new power base for Osborn.^[6]

Chaos War

When the mad god Amatsu-Mikaboshi declared war on the parthenons of all worlds, he instigated the Chaos War by rallying an army of alien deities and destroyed the realms of the dead, flooding souls into the world of the living. Williams was chosen as one of his servants, who, along with Nekra, were charged with killing the Avengers. In order to defend them, Vision, whose soul was returned to Earth along with other fallen heroes, detonated himself, killing Williams in the process.^[7]

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Originally, the Grim Reaper was a purely technological-based villain with no innate super-human abilities. The techno-scythe he used as his trademark weapon had the ability to make the blade spin at rapid speed, making the weapon usable as a buzz-saw, missile shield, and an improvised helicopter. It could also fire energy blasts and gas pellets, and dispense electric stun shocks on touch.

The Grim Reaper later gained some magic-related abilities: he can re-animate the souls and bodies of the dead, either through voodoo training received from Black Talon or powers bestowed upon him by Lloigoroth. The Grim Reaper has also performed various magically-based feats including but not limited to: teleporting himself and others, summoning demons, creating illusions & clairvoyant viewing.

Power Grid ^[8]

Strength level

The Reaper's physical strength is supernaturally heightened slightly beyond the natural limitations of the human body.

ParaphernaliaEdit

Weapons

Grim Reaper's Scythe. His right hand has been amputated and replaced with an apparently magical scythe. The scythe is magically sharp and is capable of energy blasts (much like the original), but has also been used to drain energy.

LinksEdit

Discover and Discuss

Search this site for: Grim Reaper · Eric Williams · Eric Williams (Earth-616)
Search the Forums for: Grim Reaper · Eric Williams · Eric Williams (Earth-616)
Discuss this and other characters on the forums

Footnotes

Retrieved from "http://marvel.wikia.com/Eric_Williams_(Earth-616)"

Wikia