THE GATHERERS

Membership: None named

Purpose: To gather genetic material for the Celestials

Affiliations: Black Queen, Celestials, Damocles Foundation

Enemies: Arcadia Deville, Ulysses Dragonblood, Lucas Guthrie, Tyrone Guthrie, Sledge, X-Force

Aliases: "Golems"

Base of Operations: Unknown; scattered across earth

First Appearance: X-Force I#96 (November, 1999)

Powers/Abilities: The Gatherers are robot drones designed to gather genetic information and deliver it to their masters, the Celestials. They view most lifeforms as hostile, and will attack unprovoked. They possess flight, superhuman strength, energy blasts, and can "devolve" creatures into forms like those of their ancestors.

History: (X-Force I#97 (fb))- Millions of years ago, when the First Host of the Celestials visited earth, Gammenon crafted humanoid Gatherers with which to gather genetic material for the Celestials to experiment with. With the information received, the Celestials were able to create the Eternals and Deviants, as well as place the X-factor within the genes of humans. When the First Host departed, they left several Gatherers behind, inert.

(X-Force I#96 (fb))- Over ten years ago, a Deviant under the name of "Randy Lee Watson", disguised as a human, stole one of the Gatherers from a warehouse to bring it to the Damocles Foundation. However, "Watson" was killed by a guard's bullet, and his partner Lucas Guthrie was left with the shipment, having thought he was stealing cigarettes. Lucas enlisted his brother Tyrone, who advised him to complete the delivery, and it was accepted by two men of the Damocles Foundation, Finn and Weller. However, Tyrone's young son Sam tagged along unnoticed, and happened upon a Damocles laboratory where they were experimenting on humans. Finn and Weller determined that they would have to kill the Guthries, but as the Gatherer came to life, Lucas was able to strike one of the Deviants into the machines. The Gatherer broke free of its restraints, and set about killing Finn and Weller while the Guthries set the captured people in the laboratory free. Before the Gatherer could catch up to them, the Deviant Sledge arrived, and fought off the Gatherer, finally destroying it through unknown means.

(X-Force I#96 (BTS))- Having at last located another Gatherer in the Marianas' Trench, Dr. Chandra and Dr. Segismund Joshua rendezvoused with Odysseus Indigo, head of the Damocles Foundation in Brazil, planning to use the remains of Joshua's creation Reignfire to awaken the Gatherer under their control.

(X-Force I#97)- The remains of Reignfire were grafted to the Gatherer by Dr. Joshua to serve as a solar battery, but before the Damocles Foundation could activate it, their base was invaded by X-Force, Sledge, Ulysses Dragonblood, Arcadia Deville and the Black Queen. While Indigo fought them, the Black Queen used her magic to awaken the Gatherer herself, placing it under her control. She used it to devolve members of Damocles' SWORD into lizards, but before she could do anything more, Arcadia Deville and Danielle Moonstar focused their quantum powers together and tore the Gatherer to pieces, destroying it utterly.

Comments: Created by John Francis Moore, Anthony Williams, and Mark Morales.

Big thanks to Titanos for supplying the images.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Gatherers should not be confused with:

• The Gatherers, agents of the High Evolutionary, @ New Mutants Annual#4
• The Gatherers, Proctor's team of superhumans culled from alternate realities, @ Avengers I#355
• The Gather Rod wielded by Gammenon, @ Eternals I#7
• Gammenon the Gatherer, their Celestial master, @ Eternals I#4

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