In many ways, he is the reason his brother died. Introduced in Avengers #52 (1968) by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, Eric Williams is the troubled younger brother of Simon Williams, the future Wonder Man. While Simon would take over the family business, Eric joined the Maggia. When the family business began to fail, Eric convinced his brother to seek aid from the Maggia and embezzle the company’s funds. Simon was found out and arrested, being freed by Zemo and made into Wonder Man. After initially tricking the Avengers, Simon would switch sides, but the effect of his powers made them believe he had died. Learning of his brother’s death, Eric transformed himself into the Grim Reaper and sought revenge against the Avengers for his brother’s death.

He would attack the Avengers a few times, as well as setting up his own team, the Lethal Legions. The focus of his revenge was Vision, who he believed stole his brother’s life because he was using his brother’s brain patterns. Grim Reaper would propose that Vision transfer his mind to the preserved body of his brother, but Vision refused. Simon would later return to life and Grim Reaper attacked the Avengers to put his brother and Vision on trial to determine who was the real Simon Williams. Wonder Man defeated his brother, causing Eric to believe that neither of them was his brother.

He would later send his Lethal Legion to attack the West Coast Avengers and kidnaped his brother and Hank Pym. When the Avengers went to rescue them, Eric would flee with Vision and Wonder Man but fell off a cliff to his death. He was later revived as a Zombie by his lover Nekra and he went to attack Scarlet Witch while she was giving birth to the twins. He battled Vision and Magneto and during the combat, he discovered that he was still dead, turning back into a corpse soon after. He was later revived by Nekra again, but this time learnt he could only live by absorbing the life force of living beings, starting with Nekra. He would battle his brother again and would later team up with Ultron. He would later summon a demon to gain demonic powers. He sent his version of the Legion of the Unliving against the Avengers, but the demon would arrive and devour him.

He would later send deceased Avengers members to attack their former teammates, but this event would see some of them get revived, including himself. He was sent to an asylum but was later kidnapped by drones sent by Ultron and taken to Slorenia, where Ultron had killed most of the population of the country. He was rescued by the Avengers but snuck away. He later set up a new team of the Lethal Legion against Norman Osborn, but they were defeated by the Dark Avengers. He was later chosen by Amatsu-Mikaboshi during the Chaos War but was defeated by a revived Vision. He would later arrive at the Uncanny Avengers press event, with Rogue accidentally killing him. The Apocalypse Twins would revive him, and he later would attack Vision’s new family only for Vision’s wife, Virginia to kill him. He was later revived when Dr. Strange revived all of Las Vegas.

Grim Reaper is a classic yet little known Avengers villain, battling some of the most powerful members alone or with the Lethal Legion or Legion of the Unliving. He would receive a figure as part of the Ant-man Ultron wave.