REAPER: Page 2 of 2

Publication Date: 12th Nov 2021
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY page 2

These twin explosions, combined with the unstable nature of the two realities since the Black September event, created a tunnel that swept up all the participants and deposited them on the Ultraverse’s Godwheel space habitat. Reaper, Siena and the three Ultras were also joined by the unstoppable Juggernaut, whose dimensional exile had placed him in the path of Amber and Siena’s vortex. As the motley crew huddled together to survive in the strange environment, Reaper was approached by one of the local Tradesmen. Intrigued by the idea of opening trade routes to an Earth other than their dimension, the Tradesmen augmented Reaper’s scythe with the potential to cross dimensions. Reaper would get home and in exchange he would authorize the Tradesmen business on behalf of his Earth. Eager to finish the deal, Reaper jumped his fellow “Exiles” and created a circuit between Siena and Amber to open another dimensional tunnel. [All New Exiles Infinity]

The Exiles arrived in Manhattan, but the Manhattan of the Ultraverse and not Reaper’s home. Furthermore, they arrived just as a quarter of the city was devastated in a massive eruption that became known as Ground Zero. Blamed for the catastrophe, the Exiles chose to remain together for a sense of security. They found themselves targeted by the authorities, as well as the black ops agency Aladdin who previously employed Shuriken. The Exiles sought refuge at the penthouse of Brandon Tark, ‘Strike’s civilian identity. Intriguingly, Juggernaut and Siena Blaze discovered they were only about half as strong in this foreign dimension as they were at home. Reaper escaped this reduction in power thanks to the Tradesmen tech in his new scythe, making him in fact even stronger here than he was back home. Reaper was quicker on the uptake than his partners due to his interaction with the Tradesmen, but Juggernaut and Blaze soon realized as well that they were on a different Earth than they knew. [All New Exiles #1]

Siena was intent on forcing Amber to open another dimensional tunnel so they could go home, but the X-Men beat her to it. Following Juggernaut’s trajectory through dimensions thanks to Gateway, the X-Men instinctively got into a fight with Reaper and his new allies. Reaper continued to look out for himself, and abandoned the other Exiles to the X-Men as he tried to hop a ride home back through Gateway’s continuing portal. Instead, he found an entity known as the Firewalker existing in the space between dimensions, eager to feast on him.

The X-Men and Exiles joined forces against the beast, and soon realized it was growing in power whenever it made contact with one of the Exiles. Reaper and the others broke contact and allowed the X-Men to drive the Firewalker back into the dimensional vacuum until Gateway could close his portal. It seemed the Firewalker would be waiting between dimensions for the Exiles if any of them tried to hop worlds. Unable to bring the Exiles home (or to justice), the X-Men reluctantly returned to their Earth empty-handed, while Reaper and his teammates resigned themselves to search for some other way back to their Earth. [All New Exiles vs. X-Men #0]

The Tradesman eventually got back in touch with Reaper, and neither side was happy with their deal. Both had expected Reaper’s scythe to take the Exiles back to his Earth, not the one in the Ultraverse. As they argued, the Tradesman was the first to suggest Reaper might actually prefer the Ultraverse over home, able to command more respect here after starting over than back as a mere cog in the Mutant Liberation Front. Their negotiations turned violent and Reaper momentarily immobilized the Tradesman with his power before a hunter named Hellblade arrived and killed the alien for being in his way. Hellblade was after the bounty on the Exiles for Ground Zero, and the skirmish between him and Reaper drew out the rest of the Exiles. ‘Strike’s identity as Brandon Tark was compromised by the damage done to the penthouse, sending the team on the run again. However, their heroism protecting innocents during the brawl temporarily convinced Hellblade they were innocent of Ground Zero’s events, and he came to join the team until the true culprit could be unveiled. [All New Exiles #2-3]

The Exiles continued to build their reputation as Amber was possessed by the Phoenix Force and drawn into a massive confrontation involving the Ultras’ Entity on the Moon, the X-Men and UltraForce. [Phoenix Resurrection: Revelations] As time passed, Reaper came to appreciate the Tradesman’s observation. He experienced far greater notoriety and success with the Exiles than he had cultivated on his own Earth. When the Tradesmen came after him as a delinquent client, the Exiles stood together and defeated their Harvester unit. The Tradesmen wanted compensation for the member killed by Hellblade: an Exiles killed, or compound interest taken out of the lives of the nearby town. Acting as if he were complying with their demand, Reaper struck Juggernaut with his scythe and seemingly disintegrated him. As the Tradesmen left, apparently satisfied, Reaper explained to his teammates he had actually used up a residual teleport charge in his power scythe from when the team arrived at Ground Zero. Reaper was now committed to remaining in the Ultraverse to build his new reputation. [All New Exiles #5]

The Exiles continued to spend their time on the run, hunted by the traditional authorities and agents of Aladdin. The role of team powerhouse was taken by new recruit, Cayman, although Amber still didn’t forgive Reaper for sending Juggernaut away. The team confronted an entity known as Maxis, an alien synthoid intent on copying their powers. It was injured when a nascent Ultra caught in the battle overloaded its systems, but it only fled and was not destroyed. Seductive siblings named Buck Lonestar and Velvet Fist tried to infiltrate the team on behalf of Aladdin. They deliberately spurned rivalries between Reaper and Cayman (and Amber and Siena), while also draining the fugitives’ powers as they slept. ‘Strike and the other members recognized the threat and worked to drive the pair away. After Aladdin’s latest round of attacks, the Exiles decided it was time to take active measures to clear their names, and return to Ground Zero. [All New Exiles #6-10]

Reaper and the Exiles hoped to find some evidence of the guilty party at Ground Zero, but were almost immediately attacked by Ultra mercenaries looking to cash in on the bounty. Reaper was knocked out early in the fight and snagged by Siren, an enterprising Ultra who thought she had found a quick payday. While escaping through the sewers with Reaper, though, she ran across Ripfire and his tribe. The other Exiles caught up with Reaper, but Maxis had reformed and found them as well, seeking other Ultras to copy. The Exiles were ripped apart by the battle, but the arrival of UltraForce gave them a reprieve. Together, the two teams were able to temporarily disable Maxis again. [All New Exiles #11, UltraForce (2nd series) #12]

The Exiles and UltraForce were surprised by the arrival of an invasion fleet of the Alien Elite, vengeance-seeking refugees hunting the malevolent force behind Ground Zero and the destruction of all their worlds known as the Demonseed. The Alien Elite were intent on destroying the Earth if it meant killing the Demonseed as well, just as they had done to Maxis’ world. Eventually, the combined force of Maxis, mutants and Ultras drove the Alien Elite off-planet, although they left with a grim warning about finding the Demonseed before it was too late. Black Knight of the UltraForce discovered Maxis had space-warping capabilities, and convinced the creature to open a portal sending him home to his Earth and the Avengers. Reaper and Siena Blaze decided they had had enough of the Ultraverse as well, and agreed to return home with the Black Knight. [Ultraverse Unlimited #2]

Reaper fared poorly after returning to his original universe. He and Siena Blaze were captured by the revived Weapon X Program along with dozens of other mutants. They were taken to a hidden concentration camp called Neverland for housing. Many mutants, including Siena, were deemed too dangerous or useless to live and were murdered shortly after arriving. Reaper and his old teammate Wildside were among the “lucky” ones, held prisoner and subjected to tests and experiments by the scientists on staff. When recruiters came around offering a way out of Neverland for anyone willing to serve the program, Reaper and Wildside practically jumped at the chance. [Weapon X (2nd series) #5]

Reaper and Wildside were augmented by the Weapon X Program with morphing cybernetics in their limbs. In Reaper's case, his existing bionic arms were modified to extend a scythe blade from his own hands instead of carrying it separately. The Director of the Weapon X Program was playing a long game with politics and public relations, so their mission brief was causing terror. Reaper and Wildside were ordered to massacre humans in public in order to stir up further anti-mutant sentiment and justify the Program’s actions. The two former MLF members didn’t care about politics, and were happy to slaughter humans if it meant staying alive. However, Cable had assembled a group called the Underground to oppose the Weapon X Program. He sent out Domino and Maverick to confront Reaper and Wildside at their latest blitz. The duo managed to get their hands on Domino, but Maverick shot through his partner to bring them down anyway.

The Underground brought Reaper and Wildside back to their headquarters for interrogation. However, mental blocks implanted in their minds made it impossible for them to disclose information about Neverland, even under enhanced interrogation. Cable was forced to use his telepathy to actively probe their minds and force information to the surface. He was only able to get a few details from them before the combined force of Cable’s telepathy and the resistance of the mental blocks fried their brains, leaving Reaper and Wildside basically brain dead. They were recovered and brought back to the Weapon X Program, but their prognosis wasn’t good. [Weapon X (2nd series) #7-11]

Although he eventually recovered from Cable’s brain-blast, Reaper was among the millions of mutants who lost their powers to the Decimation on M-Day. [New Avengers (1st series) #18] Reaper’s bionic limbs were still working, and he lent his strength to a group known as X-Cell, former mutants searching for the truth behind the Decimation. Believing the U.S. government must have been responsible, X-Cell threatened political targets while demanding answers. Val Cooper of O*N*E reached out to the detective agency X-Factor Investigations, and X-Cell found themselves at odds with the detectives over their terrorist acts.

They sought refuge in Mutant Town, meeting with the former mutant Quicksilver who had regained powers by using Terrigen crystals. Pietro had used the crystals to restore other mutants’ powers temporarily but, as the X-Cell’s Callisto knew, those powers were painfully unstable and could kill the recipient before fading. Pietro believed he had a new way to harness the crystals and convinced Reaper, Abyss, Fatale and the group’s leader Elijah Cross to be his test subjects. The X-Cell members regained their mutant powers, and set out to confront the X-Factor members who had hunted them down. Minutes later, however, Cross proved Pietro’s process was still unstable when his body violently exploded in the streets. With a ticking timebomb in the other members, Abyss panicked and drew Reaper and Fatale into the dimensional void in his chest. He reasoned that the unique temporal qualities of the Brimstone Dimension might be the only thing that could preserve their lives. [X-Factor (3rd series) #19-20]

[Note: A depowered mutant resembling Reaper did appear in Son of M #6 before the X-Cell arc. He was one of the first mutants repowered by Quicksilver’s Terrigen-based touch after Pietro discovered the ability. However, this mutant went unnamed and the art implied the mutant power he was regaining was his bionic morphing hand, actually a cybernetic from the Weapon X Program. And since the subsequent X-Cell issues presented Reaper as unfamiliar with Pietro’s abilities and their consequences, the Son of M character likely is not him canonically.]

Sometime later, an A.I.M. scientist named Hoffman extracted Reaper, Abyss and Fatale from the Brimstone Dimension. He had developed a process that drained them of their unstable mutant energy, saving their lives but also leaving them depowered once more. Hoffman used their energies to grant himself power, but a new X-Factor team from Serval Industries arrived to rescue them. Hoffman was defeated, but Reaper, Fatale and Abyss were disgusted to see Quicksilver as part of X-Factor. They had no forgiveness for Pietro, and left on their own rather than with X-Factor. [All-New X-Factor #1-2]

The Mutant Liberation Front became active again as the Office of National Emergency signaled the creation of a vaccine which would prevent the X-Gene from manifesting at puberty. While his former colleagues reached out to him, Reaper chose not to get involved in the movement again. Instead, he was living a life of petty crime, stealing from a pharmacy when the X-Men caught him, looking for information on the MLF’s activities. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #14] Since the founding of Krakoa, many MLF members have been seen in the Akademos Habitat, living in their own private Omega House among the biomes. Reaper has yet to appear, so it is uncertain whether he is on good terms with his former teammates or will undergo the Crucible to regain his powers.