"HARVESTER"
"HARVESTER"
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extraterrestial (race unidentified ("Farmers")) energy being
Occupation: Harvester of energy for his race
Group Membership: "Farmers"
Affiliations: Formerly Carla and the people of Picayune, Kansas
Enemies: Jeremy & Margo, Mike, X-Man (Nate Grey)
Known Relatives: Jeremy & Margo (genetic templates for humanoid form)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: dispersed throughout Earth;
formerly Picayune, Kansas
Place of origin unidentified (extraterrestrial and likely
extradimensional)
First Appearance: (BTS) X-Man#71 (January 2001)
(seen) X-Man#75 (May, 2001)
Powers/Abilities: The harvester's natural form is energy, though he assumed a semi-humanoid form to survive on Earth. He can manipulate energy on a planetary scale, though it may take him several decades to prepare things for his manipulations. He can also control the will of others, though mutants possess some degree of resistance to this power.
History:
(X-Man#75 (fb) - BTS) - One of the harvesters for a race of farmers, his race
had existed for tens of billions of years (see comments). Before Earth condensed
out of cosmic ash, the farmers had determined which stars generated the most
fertile planets.
(X-Man#75 (fb)) - Almost three billion years ago the farmers
found Earth, then just a volcanic soup without atmosphere; the oxygen was still
trapped in the vast primordial oceans. Via meteors, the aliens rained down
parasites that merged with the cells in the oceans, creating something new. Most
died, but some spawned generations of hosts infected with generations of
parasites, finally merging into a single creature. Evolution continued, with the
parasites eventually becoming mitochondria, the energy factory in all animal
cells.
Earth was used to develop better and better mitochondria, in
increasingly complex forms.
(X-Man#75 (fb) - BTS / 71 (fb) - BTS) - Thirty years ago, the
signal was sent to one of the harvesters, that Earth's crop was now ready
(marked by the sudden spurt in mutant development). He traveled to Earth, his
black transport sphere crashing to earth like a meteorite. Landing in Kansas, he
was investigated by a curious elderly couple, and he analyzed their genetic
structure, transforming his energy form into a physical form suited for Earth,
killing the couple in the process.
The harvester spent the next thirty years casting his net
over every mitochondrion on the globe.
(X-Man#75 (fb) - BTS) - The harvester made his home in Picayune, Kansas, slowly taking control of the residents of the town. Approximately five years ago, most of the residents of Picayune were left in a virtual walking coma, acting out their lives, but not possessing independent will or action--nothing unsanctioned by the harvester.
(X-Man#75 (fb) - BTS) - Mike, a mutant telekinetic, sought to escape Picayune, using his powers to carve an immense "Help Us" in the croplands of the city. He then took his girlfriend Carla and fled.
(X-Man#75) - The harvester discovered Mike and Carla, brought them back to Picayune, and erased his distress message. However, the message had already been seen by Nate Grey, who traveled to Picayune to investigate. Though initially reluctant, Mike brought Nate to the harvester. After a brief struggle, the harvester revealed that since he was bound to the mitochondria of every animal on Earth, attacks on him would hurt them, too. He revealed his true nature and intent to Nate, after which he began to go about his plan. Realizing his only option (and knowing that his own life was limited), Nate struggled with the harvester, converting them both into energy, merged himself with the harvester, and then merged his energies with every living animal on earth. Though both beings ceased to exist as individual entities, Nate's extradimensional energies tainted the energies of every cell on earth, and every cell that would descend from them, rendering the energy unusable to the farmers.
Comments: Created by Steven Grant, Ariel Olivetti, and Quique Alcatena.
Ah yes, another race with claims to have steered the direction
of life on Earth.
Add them to Gaea, That Which Endures, and later the
Celestials, as well as pretty much every race of gods, etc.
I guess they're not mutually exclusive, but we do tend the
consider the creation myths of the gods as some degree of hyperbole.
Technically, this guy is "a" Harvester, rather than "the" Harvester...but it's the only name used for him (and more than once, too), so I'm going with it. Eric J. Moreels from ComiX-Fan suggested "Anti-Man." I kind of like the name "Chondros" or "Kondros," after Mitochondria, but that's just preference.
"Tens of billions" would indicate more than one ten billion years, meaning they may be extradimensional and existing in a realm outside of Earth-616, or just that they preceded and survived the Big Crunch and the Big Bang.
Yes, I know nitrogen is the primary constituent of the Earth's atmosphere. The Harvester was only talking about the oxygen.
His arrival on Earth was obviously a parody/homage to the origin of Superman with a virtual "Ma & Pa Kent" checking out the spacecraft.
I hated the X-Man series through issue #62, but then Warren Ellis and Steven Grant made it into something cool and different. Of course, once I liked it, it was doomed to cancellation.
Gonzalo García suggests that Harvester's race bombing Earth with parasites could be the origin of Sublime and/or That Which Endures.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
A mutant telekinetic in Picayune, Kansas, he was one of the few able to resist the mind control of the harvester. His failed attempt to escape drew the notice of Nate Grey, and Mike led him to the harvester. When Nate realized the only way he could stop the harvester, he touched the mind of Mike, making him his successor at tribal shaman to the mutants of Earth. He then left Kansas, seeking to fulfill his mission in life.
--X-Man#75
Margo &
Jeremy
Margo and Jeremy had had a serious relationship in the past, but were split apart when he was sent off to war. Eventually it seemed that Jeremy would never come back from the war and Margo married another man. After Jeremy returned, he and Margo re-started their relationship in secret. Twelve years later (and thirty years before the main story), they witnessed an apparent meteorite crashing in the wheat field in which they were having...relations. Seeing a black sphere in the center of the crater, they heard what appeared to be a crying baby withinh it. Jeremy rushed down to investigate, only to discover the energy creature within far too late. He fled, cursing Margo to run as well, but the alien harvester immobilized them, studied their genetic codes, used it to create a humanoid form for itself to survive on Earth, and then disintegrated the pair.
--X-Man#71 (71(fb)/75(fb)
images:
X-Man#75, p2
cover (face)
p14 (not including ads), panel 4 (incognito)
p26, panel 1 (true form)
p38, panel 1 + 2 (Mike)
X-Man#71, p2, panel 3 (Margo & Jeremy)
First Posted: 08/07/2004
Last updated: 08/07/2004
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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