Grim Reaper

How it all began

The Grim Reaper, Eric Williams, is the brother of Simon Williams, Wonder Man. When Eric was young he said to have just been born bad. Both Eric and his brother struggled trying to get their fathers approval named Sanford. Sanford was abbusive and mean like no other. The two brothers where totally different. Simon was quiet and shy. While Eric was athletic and wild. Eric was usually called the unusual one of the family. Thats when Eric started to do crime and he always tried to get his brother to do it with him. Eric admired he didn't want to do crime with him. Eric almost idealized his brother. He loved and resented his brother at the same time. Eric hated his fathers high-tech and fancy job. Eric became a criminal and a gambler. He became almost as good as the Maggia organized crime. His brother Simon joined the family job and took it over after his father had died. The business began to fail due to Stark industries. Thats when Simon went to Eric for help. But, Erics attempt failed so Simon went to last resort. Simon stole money from his own company to invest so he could save the company. But, Simon got caught and was arrested. Feeling like he couldn't let his poor brother go to jail. Eric lied and said that he did it instead of Simon saying he was just trying to take the blame. So Eric was arrested instead of his brother. This shows true love between the two brothers.

Simon was later transformed into Wonderman by Baron Heinrich Zemo. He planned to use him for evil against the Avengers. But, during the battle Simon ended up dying trying to save the Avengers. After that had happened they made a copy of Wonderman's brain patterns in order to resurrect him one day. Things went bad when Eric found out about this. He went mad and crazy when he found out his brother had died. So he ended up blaming the Avengers for his death. So he hired Tinkerer to build him a high tech arsenal shaped like a scythe. The scythe had parts and similar weapons to the robot Ultron. Ultron is a Avengers enemy who was interested in Erics family vendetta and also had a copy of Simon's brain patterns for experiment. He later used the brain patterns to create a android named Vision. Eric attacked the Avengers and almost killed them all. His plan was beaten by Black Panther. Eric escaped and came up with a plan. He got some other Avenger enemies like Power man and Man Ape and much more. They called themselves the Lethal Legion. They were defeated and imprisoned though. Thanks to the android Vision who Eric did not have the heart to kill.

After Eric got away from the Avengers he had a plan. He took and reserved his brothers body and offered that Visions mind be put inot the body and make him human. Only if he did not get in Erics way of killing the Avengers. But, Vision refused the offer though. Later, Eric partnered up with a Space Phantom and was being manipulated by Immortus. Later, Eric gained control of HYDRA. He would use them to attack the Avengers. He then offered Vision to the same deal he had said before but this time he would give Vision Captian Americas body. Vision acted like he wanted to but, he did this to trick Eric. But, that's when Vision helped the Avengers defeat the villians. During the fight Vision and Eric saved each others lives. Eric was captured and imprisoned again. He then escaped and got Simon's body back again. Simon was revived with the help of the robot Ultron. But, Simon had almost been like a zombie. So Eric had a voodoo master send the half dead Simon after the Avengers. But, Simon soon regain his mind and joined the Avengers. Later, Eric and Ultron attacked the Avengers. Eric imprisoned the android Vision. After that the Avengers had to decide whether the mutated Wonderman was Simon or if Vision was Simon. Eric decided Wonderman was the real Simon and tried to kill Vision but, Wonderman came and defeated him.

Later, Eric decided that both Vision and Wonderman were fakes of the real Simon. So Eric tried to kill them both but, he failed. After that he found a new lover named Nekra. He then recruited a bunch of villians to attack the Avengers. Now he had a new plan he would take parts of visions mind and parts of Wondermans mind and place them into a corpse of Brady Kent to create the real Simon. He would do this with the help of Voodoo. The Brady Kent corpse had been formed to look like the original Simon. The plan failed but, Eric realized something. That Vision and Wonderman were both his true brothers. Then Eric feel to his death while running in shame. After that Nekra revived him into a life like zombie. She teamed up with Eric as a zombie and the Bradly Kent zombie. They all went to the hospital where Visions wife Scarlet Witch was giving birth. But, during this Eric fell dead after Nekra's speel had broke. Eric was scared out of his mind when he found out he was a zombie. Thats when Eric teamed up with the Legion of the Unliving to attack the Avengers. But, it was unknown if that was the real Eric or not. Nekra made it so Eric was a zombie but could survive of others life force with his sythe. While testing his powers he ended up killing Nekra on accident. After that he became friends again with Ultron. But, he only did this to stop Ultrons plan of making all humans into robots. Because if he did this there would be no life force left for Eric to take. Both of the villains were caught by The Avengers. After this event happened Eric gained even more power. HE then caused an airliner to crash. He turned most of his victims into superhuman zombies to attack the Avengers and they almost won. Eric's Legion of the Unliving almost destroyed the Avengers. But, Eric's hold over the zombies broke when Vision forced Eric to admit he had killed himself and the Avengers were not to blame.

Once Eric failed to kill the Avengers he was controlled by Lloigoroth a demon. Once Wonderman died again he returned as a ghostly spirit. Once the barriers of life and death started to become weak Erics spirit returned to earth. Then Eric controlled the spirits of Wonderman and other dead Avengers to battle the living Avengers. But, the undead avengers were released from Eric's control by Scarlet Witch and they turned on Eric. They helped the living Avengers defeat Eric. All of the undead were returned home to their after lives. Also Scarlet Witch returned Wonderman back to his body. She also returned Erics life back when he admitted his love for his brother. Since then Eric has decided to stop his old ways of acting. He has even fought along with the Avengers to defeat Ultron. But, Eric still remains a criminal and still fights the Avengers. He was last seen working for the Nefaria crime family of the Maggia organization. Eric now uses trained mercenaries that he has bought from the  Taskmaster as a force known as Steel Skulls. Recently Eric was shown tied-up and badly bruised with the Vulture during the Civil War story arc by the Secret Avengers.

Eric will lead a new band of villains as the return of the Lethal Legion during the Dark Reign.  
 
Eric talked his brother Simon (Wonder Man) into joining his band of villains called the New Lethal Legeon. This band went-up against Norman Osbourne's Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. and lossed. Eric was stabbed while in prison at the Raft, and must undergo an operation. 
 

Powers

Erics has super strength, endurance, and was resistant to pain. He could drain life forces cause illusions and shape shift. He was able to use energy blasts, teleportation, and reanimate the dead . Also he could do matter restructuring.

Alternate Versions

Earth X

• An alternate version of Eric Williams appeared in here,in the Realm of the Dead.

JLA/Avengers

The Grim Reaper was shown in a back story of the Justice League and Avengers' team-ups. In one story, he and the Key stole the Serpent Crown and kidnapped Zatanna and Mantis to use them as a key to celestial power.

Television

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• The Avengers: United They Stand

• A version of the Grim Reaper also appeared on this animated series . His ties to Wonder Man, who also appeared on the show, remained intact, however his physical appearance was changed greatly. He wore full body armor and a helmet featuring a skull-like paint job.

Video Games

Captain America and the Avengers

The Grim Reaper is a boss character at the end of stage 2.

Marvel Ultimate 2 
Grim Reaper has been announced to make an appearance in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, either as an NPC or a villan.