Exterminators (Race)

Exterminators
Name	Exterminators
Aliases	Hungry Gods from Beyond All Known Reality
Affiliation and Identity
Identity	Secret
Physical Characteristics
Body Type	Humanoid
Hair	No Hair
Skin	Grey
Number of Limbs	4
Number of Fingers	5
Unusual Features	Fangs and tendrils in original, amorphous forms; Glowing geometric shapes on their foreheads and chests
Origin and Status
Origin	Monsters created by the Celestials to destroy their failures
Reality	First Cosmos
Base of Operations	Mobile
Place of Birth	First Cosmos
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Greg Pak, Marjorie Liu, David Lapham
First	X-Treme X-Men (Vol. 2) #12 (March, 2013)
First	X-Treme X-Men (Vol. 2) #12 (March, 2013)

 You...freed...us. You broke the walls...between dimensions. The walls the Celestials built...to contain us. We have felt it...for some time. Tears. Cracks. Fissures. Growing wider...with each of your leaps. You crossed dimensions...too many times...and weakened the Celestial prison that bound us. We are...free. We will feed. And we will grow strong. 

—Exterminators

The Exterminators are monstrous beings created by the Celestials before the Multiverse even existed. They are designed to consume energy and life, but the Celestials lost control and sealed them using the dimensional walls that separate the Multiverse. Erosion from multiversal travel allowed them to escape eons later, but before they could destroy the Multiverse, they were imprisoned once again, now in Earth-295.

History

Origin

Before the Multiverse, the Celestials were there to shape creation. Desiring a force of death and destruction to balance out life and creation, the Celestials granted life to the darkness, creating monsters. According to one account, the Exterminators -- initially amorphous but later manifesting humanoid forms -- turned on the Celestials and attempted to devour and destroy them. Unable to kill the Exterminators, the Celestials split the universe into the Multiverse and sealed the monsters inside one of the newly-created universes. The Celestials later developed the Death Seeds to replace them.

X-Termination

The Exterminators were trapped in their prison for eons until the walls between realities began to crack. Frequently travelling and teleporting from reality to reality and world to world weakened the walls. Tears, cracks and fissures grew larger and larger until the Exterminators were able to escape.

Exterminators killing Xavier Head

The rift first became known on Earth-13812 in the head of the Sphinx. Lord Xavier, the Witch King, Nazi Xavier, and Xavier Head began sacrificing civilians to an interdimensional rift to gain power. The transdimensional X-Men were able to rescue their Xavier and narrowly defeated Lord Xavier and Nazi Xavier. Unfortunately, the X-Men did not act quickly enough to save that world, and were forced to make an interdimensional jump, leaving that reality and all of its inhabitants to be consumed by the Exterminators' vortex.

Battling Death Seed–empowered Jean Grey

Meanwhile on Earth-616, AOA Nightcrawler and Dark Beast used the Dreaming Celestial to create a portal to their world of New Apocalypse. Unfortunately, this portal opened the rift between realities wide enough for the Exterminators to pass through to Earth-295. When the Exterminators emerged, they were greeted by the X-Men, the transdimensional X-Men, and the X-Terminated. One of the Exterminators departed to Earth-616 where he drained the Dreaming Celestial while the other two Exterminators remained on Earth-295, one feeding off the rift and the other persuing the team that went to find the Death Seed, a powerful Celestial item that could possibly defeat them. Jean Grey embraced the Death Seed and she was able to fend them off, even when more began to escape, but she was not enough to win. They were imprisoned within Earth-295 when Nightcrawler sacrificed himself to seal off that universe from the rest of the Multiverse.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

The Exterminators can absorb and consume energy, even that of Celestials and portals. The more they absorb, the bigger and stronger they get. Light and concussive blasts (such as Dazzler's lasers or Cyclops' optic blasts) seem to be the easiest for them to absorb. The Exterminators are highly resistant to telepathy and can take over the telepath trying to manipulate them. While their skin's durability is limited, they have vast regenerative powers. Touching an Exterminator drains one of their life and energy.

Weaknesses

Even in a container, the Death Seed hurts the Exterminators

Iceman's ice can slow them down, albeit briefly.

The Exterminators are weak against the Death Seed. It repels them and they cannot absorb its power. When an Exterminator tried to grab a container containing the Death Seed, its hand got burned and it screamed out in pain. Jean Grey believes the Death Seed can kill them and she was able to fight multiple Exterminators simultaneously using it.

Habitat

Population

Millions, possibly billions.

Notes

• The origin of the Multiverse would later be retconned in Ultimates 2 (Vol. 2) #6 as a result of the Celestial War instead of the Celestials sealing the Exterminators.
  • Despite this, it does not seem to be completely retconned. Logos acknowledges the Exterminator story when he confronts the Celestials in Ultimates 2 (Vol. 2) #4 (two issues before): "It is said that your kind created life and death in their current form. That you created the Multiverse itself in the fire and conflagration at the dawn of all things." This is a reference to the Exterminators' origin story as it involves the Celestials creating life and the Exterminators as death, and later the Life and Death Seeds.

Exterminators as black goo

• In their backstory, the Exterminators are shown to look like black goo-like creatures.

Trivia

• The Exterminators are similar to the Horde in that they are both instruments of death and destruction used to balance out the Celestials' life and creation.
• The Exterminators are one of many beings that were assigned by the Celestials to manage life, evolution, and creation. Others include Apocalypse, the Beyonders, and the Kings in Black.

See Also

• 8 appearance(s) of Exterminators (Race)
• 11 image(s) of Exterminators (Race)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Exterminators (Race)
• 11 victim(s) killed by Exterminators (Race)