Avengers #352
Son of Darkness
In the abyss beyond time and space a storm rages as the undead Grim Reaper recites an incantation to summon the demon Lloigoroth. The creature — a massive hand with eyes on each finger and a gaping maw in its palm — emerges from the storm clouds in answer and asks what the Reaper wants from it. The man one known as Eric Williams explains that he wants to bring about decay, corruption, and death.
Moments later, the Grim Reaper appears aboard a commercial airliner destined for LaGuardia Airport in the middle of a raging storm. The villain sentences the passengers to death and then uses his scythe to breach the hull, causing explosive decompression that makes the aircraft crash, killing all on board.
The FAA asks the Avengers to head to the crash site to look for survivors. When the team — consisting of the Vision, Black Knight, Hercules, Crystal, and Sersi — arrive on the scene they are horrified to discover that someone had carved a skull out of a rock close to the crash site. They find no survivors but discover some of the wreckage is glowing. When the Vision manages to recover the airplane’s black box, the Avengers are allowed to take it back to their headquarters for examination.
Meanwhile, the Grim Reaper appears in a New York subway tunnel in front of a speeding train. Before it can hit him, the ghoul spins his scythe so fast it opens a vortex to the abyss that swallows up the train. With his preparations complete, the Grim Reaper is now ready to put his final plan in motion.
Back at Avengers Headquarters, the Black Knight and Vision examine the plane wreckage and blackbox for clues. The Knight is convinced that the evidence points to the use of necromancy when, suddenly, black smoke begins pouring out of the black box. From it emerges the Grim Reaper who announces that the Avengers will die as revenge for taking his life. After the Reaper vanishes, a meeting with the other Avengers is called. There, the Vision explains how the Grim Reaper is a long time foe of the Avengers. However, his claims that the Avengers were responsible for his death are false as the Vision was present when Eric Williams committed suicide. He also notes recent reports that the Reaper had been reanimated as an undead being.[1] In order to get to the bottom of this mystery, the Avengers all agree to head to the place where Eric Williams had died in order to search for clues.
When the Avengers arrive at the cave and go inside, the Grim Reaper unleashes a horde of bats, spiders, and rats to swarm them in the darkness. The heroes discover that these creatures are supernatural in nature and vulnerable to fire. With the Vision shielding his teammates with his dense body, Crystal uses her elemental powers to incinerate all the creatures inside the cave. Suddenly, the entire cave begins to shake as the massive form of the Grim Repaer rips his way into the tunnel. Confronting the Avengers, he once again begins spinning his scythe, creating another vortex and banishes the heroes into the abyss.
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Hercules, Vision, Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal), Grim Reaper, Lloigoroth
Continuity Notes
The whole situation with the Grim Reaper is actually quite complex. Let me break it down for you:
The origin of the Grim Reaper actually starts with his brother, Simon Williams, who was transformed into Wonder Man by Baron Zemo circa Avengers #9. However, the process was apparently fatal and he seemingly died.
Blaming the Avengers for the death of his brother, Eric Williams became the Grim Reaper in Avengers #52 and clashed with the team many times.
Following this, Simon’s brain engrams were used to create the Vision as explained in Avengers #56-57 and 134-135. Simon Williams also came back to life himself in Avengers #150.
After the creation of the Vision and the resurrection of Wonder Man, the Grim Reaper had attempted to restore his brother in one fashion or the other on top of trying to kill the Avengers. See Avengers #78-79, 102, 106-108, and 160.
His last attempt at doing so was to transfer the minds of Wonder Man and Vision into a specially prepared corpse to bring back the “original” Simon Williams. However, after seeing how Simon and Vision treated each other like brothers and his own mother’s acceptance of the android into the family, Eric committed suicide. See Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #1-2 and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2.
The Grim Reaper was reanimated on a few occasions in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12, Web of Spider-Man #46, and more recently in Avengers West Coast #65-68.
Topical References
The plane that crashes in this story is identified as belonging to Eastern Airlines. This should be considered a topical reference as that airline ceased operations in 1991 and was already dated when this story was published.
