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The Reavers are a private military organization created and funded by the Hellfire Club. The members have been cybernetically enhanced into cyborg enforcers. They later splintered off into their own criminal organization based out of Cooterman's Creek in Australia.[1]

History

Origin[]

The first members of the Reavers were originally members of the Hellfire Knights, the Hellfire Club's private military force. They originally came into being when the mutant Mastermind attempted to mentally control Jean Grey in a bid to join the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle. In the resulting confrontation with the X-Men, Wolverine fell victim to Leland's mass-increasing powers, ending up in the New York sewer system and seemingly dying. Wolverine, very much alive, reentered the club through a secret sub-basement entrance. There, he attacked a group of mercenaries sent to track him down - Wade Cole, Angelo Macon, and Murray Reese - and critically injured them with his claws.[2] These men were eventually recovered and taken to the Body Shop, a shop run by Spiral, a servant of Mojo, that sold alien cybernetic parts to amputees and others who see the power of cybernetic limbs. The men and Yuriko Oyama were converted into cyborgs, becoming the first of the Reavers.[3]

X-Men[]

Reavers (Earth-616) from Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 229 001

First appearance of the Reavers

The original Reavers, which included Bonebreaker, Pretty Boy and Skullbuster set up operations in Cooterman's Creek in Australia, and worked with a local aboriginal man named Gateway. He was a Mutant who could teleport people anywhere across the planet. They used him and their new found upgrades to rob a banks across the world. On one outing to Singapore they kidnapped Jessán Hoan, which lead to the X-Men coming to her rescue. The X-Men took down the Reavers' operations. In the confusion, Bonebreaker, Skullbuster and Pretty Boy managed to get away and ordered Gateway to teleport them away, telling the Aboriginal that if he does so then his debt to them is paid. [4]

Reavers (Earth-616) from Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 248 001

The Reavers, officially led by Donald Pierce and working with Lady Deathstrike, plotted revenge on the X-Men. They were unaware that they were being watched by Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, who wanted the X-Men for themselves.[5] The Reavers practiced their coming attack on the X-Men by beating robot versions of the team. Nanny and the Orphan Maker, knowing of the coming deadly conflict with the Reavers kidnapped the X-Men.[6] They tried to track the X-Men unaware they had been transported to the Savage Land.[7] They captured Wolverine and hung him on a wooden X and tortured him. But later the town came under the fury of a powerful storm that seems to be encircling the whole globe. While the Reavers wait out the tempest inside, Jubilee freed Wolverine and the two escaped.[8]

Reavers (Earth-616) from Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 251 001

The Reavers found the crucifix empty and searched the base for the escaped Logan. Jubilee and Wolverine attempted to flee the complex before being hunted by the Reavers' cyborg hounds.[9] They escaped from the Reavers base, but the cyborgs pinpointed Muir Island in Scotland as their most probable destination and planned to invade the island.[10] The two X-Men held off the Reavers the best they could.[11] Freedom Force arrived as back up to help stop the Reavers attack, but with disastrous consequences to the team: Avalanche was wounded by Lady Deathstrike and Pierce killed Stonewall. Meanwhile Destiny Wass murdered in cold blood by Legion, who also snuffed out Pyro's flame attack at a critical moment in the fight. Forge turned the battle against the Reavers with a new sniper rifle that was capable of destroying Pierce's cyborgs. Skullbuster was killed, but the others Reavers escaped.[12]

In an Athens, Greece, hospital, Donald Pierce made the horribly injured Cylla Markham an offer she could not refuse. [13] In California, the Reavers destroyed a facility owned by Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club's White Queen. They intended to destroy as much property of Emma's as they have to, until they finally caught up with her.[14]

The Punisher[]

When Microchip tapped into the Reavers computer system, He stole plans to build a combat robot dubbed the "Dalek". The group found the hack and decided to seek revenge by trashing the Punisher's safe house and then went after Microchip and Castle.[15] Microchip created the Punisher's Exo-Armor to level the playing the field for Castle against the Reavers.[16]

Rogue and Ms. Marvel[]

Rogue was spat out from the Siege Perilous to land in the former X-Men base in Australia only to learn it had become the HQ of the Reavers. Surprisingly, Carol Danvers had body of her own again and, while she fought the Reavers, Rogue absorbed Gateway's powers long enough to teleport herself and Carol away.[17]

Lady Deathstrike[]

Lady DeathStrike took control of the Reavers and used them to hunt down Wolverine. [18]

Upstarts[]

A few years later, a member of the Upstarts, Trevor Fitzroy, sent Sentinels to destroy the Reavers because they were a threat to mutants and Pierce (as the Hellfire Club's former White King) was worth a lot of points in the deadly game the Upstarts played. Of the Reavers, only Lady Deathstrike and Cylla escaped the Sentinels and it appeared that Pierce had been destroyed. [19] Wolverine went to investigate and found the rest of the Reavers were completely wiped out.[20]

Lady Deathstrike tried to hunt down Logan again in order to extract his Adamantium-laced bones, completely unaware that Logan no longer possessed them since Magneto ripped the unbreakable metal from his body a short time ago. When she learned the truth she reluctantly left in peace.[21]

Wolverine and Punisher[]

The Reavers were sent to kill Wolverine and the Punisher. The two teamed up and struck back the cybernetic enforcers.[22]

X-Treme[]

They battled the X-Treme X-Men with a new female; Skullbuster [23]

New Mutants[]

An angry young man named Josh Foley joined the Reavers at the behest of his then best friend, Duncan. When Cerebra detected a mutant in the area, Dani Moonstar and Karma were sent to investigate. Meanwhile, the Reavers engaged a group of students from Xavier's in a fight, and Josh discovered he was a healer by healing one of his fellow Reavers. By knocking him out, he was able to hide this for a short time until he felt compelled to heal the mortally-injured Laurie Collins. Laurie developed a crush on him as a result. When the Reavers discovered Josh was a mutant with healing powers, they rejected him and retreated. Angrily rejecting Moonstar's offer to go to the X-Mansion, he went home, to find his fellow Reavers waiting for him, where they delivered a severe beating, and when his parents discovered he was a mutant, they disowned him.[24] With nowhere else to go, Josh reluctantly went to the Xavier Institute. He joined their trainee team the New Mutants [25] The Reavers came for revenge on Josh but were unsuccessful and he remained at the institute. [26]

Messiah Complex[]

Lady DeathStrike made an oath to the Reverend William Stryker, creator of the Purifiers. She promised to him that in the mutant's darkest hours she would help his Purifiers. She recreated the Reavers.[27] They caught up with Cable, just in time for the X-Force to attack.[28] Lady Deathstrike took on X-23 and was seemingly killed. The other Reavers died, but not without killing Caliban first.[29]

After being recomposed by Donald Pierce and gathered by Deathstrike, the Reavers assaulted Utopia, before being defeated by X-Force.[30]

Descendants[]

The Reavers were one one of the many enforcer groups working for the Descendants. Father used the Reavers as enforcers when the attacked the United Nations Headquarters.[31]

X-Force II[]

Reavers (Earth-616) from Cable and X-Force Vol 1 17

Cable, Hope, and X-Force went on a mission to the Reavers base to stop them from any future attacks on Mutants.[32]

Evan Sabahnur[]

Evan Sabahnur, the young clone of Apocalypse, was trying to rob a bank when he was interrupted by the Reavers. He noticed a woman was having a heart attack, and used his powers to crush the Reavers with a giant statue of a cat, then rushed the woman to hospital.[33]

Old Man Logan[]

After rumors of the return of the recently deceased Wolverine started spreading, the Reavers, lead by Deathstrike, began tracking him down. Unknown to them this was an older version of Logan, and the present one was still dead.[34] They eventually found him in the isolated town of Killhorn Falls, Canada, where Logan was attempting to live a peaceful life.[35] Deathstrike and the Reavers attacked the town, massacring it's inhabitants as revenge against Wolverine. At the end, Logan managed to kill all the Reavers except Deathstrike, who escaped after being seriously injured.[36]

The Return of Wolverine[]

A contingent of the Reavers led by a recently resurfaced Donald Pierce came to the burial sight where the X-Men left the molten remains of Logan's body. Bonebreaker mockingly chided the adamantium statue while pricking his finger on it's extended claws, they ended up tripping a silent alarm put in place by the crypt holder's friends in the event someone tried to desecrate it.

A firefight would break out between the X-Men's heavy hitters and the decadent remnants of the bionic mutant killers. Pierce, having taken on the job due to the all time lows he and his crew had hit in the following years, was being paid by an unknown buyer to excavate the fallen Canadian's remains for a handsome sum of money. The decayed cyborgs needed this score desperately. While the rest of their team worked interference between them and their mark, Pierce and Cylla got to work on cracking that dense slag shell surrounding their prize. Cylla had been upgraded with a Molecular Rearranger in order to break the unbreakable alloy surrounding their prize. Despite this, the process that took a lot of time. When they finally succeeded however, the two were disappointed to find Logan's body was no longer there.

Some time prior to their attempted grave robbery, Kitty had opted to remove Logan from the metallic outer layer he'd been trapped in, eventually giving him a proper burial within another undisclosed location, known only to a select few.[37]

Astonishing X-Men[]

The Reavers later reappeared in service of the secretly reinstated O.N.E organization. Where Donald Pierce and his cyber-mercs were deposited into the care of General Robert Callahan after the X-Men left them with Alpha Flight; whom, not being able to do much with them in the first place, left them at the doorstep of the current director of which.[38]

They were tasked by their new handler to incarcerate Miss Sinister in exchange for some bodily refits, upgrades and their freedom.[39] When they completed the task however, the crooked commanding officer revealed he'd rigged their refurbished bionics to short circuit in case they became unruly. Callahan opting to take Pierce and Cylla back to base with them in order to modify their mutant hunting equipment, while ordering the extermination of the rest afterward.[38]

After some time on the run from O.N.E. a contingent of Reavers attacked Hank and a visiting Alex Summers at the university the former taught at.[40] Beast would later examine the remains of one of their number to find a list mutant targets given to them by their former employers,[40] while Havok would come clean that the person they were hunting in the first place, was him.

With no other options available to them, Alexander accompanied by Warpath went to the remaining debilitated cyborg mutant killers for aid in rescuing their own. In exchange for the program data hidden within Alex himself, The Reavers found themselves briefly forced to ally with the X-Men to rescue their comrades from a shared enemy.[41] Allegiances which quickly turned sideways as the Reavers predictably betrayed their X ally's the second they deciphered the secreted code stored in Alex's brain.[42] The same nanobionic code they were fighting with Callahan to ascertain a piece of technoforming program that enabled any mechanical apparatus to override and assimilate any kind of mechanical or cybernetic operational system; be it biological, inorganic, purely motorized, or even Artificial Intelligence.

With this new upgrade in tow, the Reavers believed they had killed the X-Men. Eventually they moved on to attack the Xavier Mansion with their newly acquired sentinel bodies. They were eventually stopped by the still-alive X-Men and were once again incarcerated by O.N.E. shortly afterwards.[43]

House of X[]

In the wake of the new mutant homeland taking its place as a national superpower, Donald Pierce threw his lot, and resources, in with an all new anti-mutant gentlemen's club heralded as Homines Verendi.[44] Max Frankenstein took a plethora of ex-military, special forces along with other ne'er-do-well mercenary figures, all of whom that met with catastrophic infraction while battling mutants, into service under Verendi's banner for a personal project.[45]

He took these underlings of one bigoted faction or another unto his testing labs, transforming these dregs into a biomechanical augment private army to act as the hate group's personal strikeforce against Krakoa's humanitarian aid set up in the impoverished sections of Madripoor.[46]

Reavers[]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Technoforming program modules designed by Bastion

Weapons

Each team members' personal arsenal

See Also

Links and References

References

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