Origin
Donald Pierce first appeared as a high ranking member of the Hellfire Club inner circle, where he held the position of White Bishop, during that organization’s first direct encounter with the X-Men. During this conflict, he battled Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, and when Wolverine nearly severed his arm it was discovered that he was a cyborg. The Hellfire Club inner circle was eventually defeated and Donald Pierce’s whereabouts were unknown for several years.
Major Story Arcs
Reavers
He later appeared with Lady Deathstrike and three other resurrected mercenaries( Cole, Macom, and Reese) who had been fatally wounded by Wolverine during the Hellfire’s first skirmish with the X-Men. All five characters were consumed by their desire for revenge against the X-Men and Wolverine in particular. To that end Pierce created an army of cyborgs out of low-life thugs and a few mercenaries. He named his army “The Reavers.”
After rescuing Tyger Tiger from the Reavers, the X-Men expelled the cyborgs from their Australian outback headquarters, and appropriated the base for themselves (though Pierce was not present during this encounter, and was not yet revealed as the Reavers’ creator). The Reavers set out to defeat the X-Men, mounting a return to their old headquarters, this time with Pierce and Deathstrike present, but after the X-Men had escaped through the Siege Perilous they only managed to capture Wolverine who they tortured and crucified, Jubilee saved him from the cross. At one point Pierce created two super intelligent sentient androids ( Elsie Dee and Albert) to kill Wolverine but they developed ethics and turned on Pierce and abandoned the Reavers.
A few years later a member of the Upstarts Trevor Fitzroy, sent sentinels to destroy the Reavers because they were a threat to mutants and Pierce (as the former White King) was worth a lot of points in the deadly game the Upstarts played. Only Lady Deathstrike and Cylla escaped and it appeared that Pierce had been destroyed. The rest of the Reavers were completely wipe out. Despite his apparent death he resurfaced to trouble the X-men once again. He recently started an anti-mutant hate group and enlisted several members. He revealed a plot to take militant terrorist actions against mutants and was thwarted by the X-Men. He was beaten by Wolverine in hand-to-hand combat even though he is several times stronger than Logan. It is revealed that little to no human tissue remains in Donald which shows how he was able to survive the slaughter in Australia.
Pierce recently tried to take over Sebastian Shaw’s new Hellfire Club, launching an attack and slashing Shaw’s chest. Though Shaw was left critically injured and later needed to be hospitalized, he was able to punch off Pierce’s head. Whether or not Pierce could survive such an attack, his fate remains uncertain.
Young X-Men
He is later seen in Europe where he was having his implant repaired when he was forcefully recruited by the Purifiers. He was then later put into a table along with other prominent enemies of the X-Men where Bastion used the Magus technorganic virus to implant it on all of them including Donald. He later recruited the Young X-Men under the guise of Cyclops. He used the team to try to overthrow Sunspot on his position in the Hellfire Club but he was discovered and defeated by the Young X-Men at the cost of Wolf Cub‘s life.
Second Coming
Donald Pierce is seen as a prisoner of the X-Men, along with Shaw and Scalphunter. They are watched over by Danger who talks with Rogue while checking on the prisoners. Suddenly, Rogue gets the location of Hope, without understanding why and she goes off to see Emma. Later, while Emma uses Cerebra, the entire system crashes and each X-Men team loses contact with one another. It is revealed that Pierce was intentionally captured for the purpose of destroying the X-Men’s systems. This was planned by Bastion. Bastion then contacts Donald Pierce, who begins to destroy the systems of Utopia and he causes an explosion that destroys all of the jets and Blackbirds of the X-Men, while elsewhere Vanisher is taken out by Steven Lang and his henchmen.
Doing so prevents Hope from moving anywhere, as all of the teleporters at this time have been taken out. Donald Pierce then appears in the midst of the explosion and apologizes for not being able to see the end of the mutant race. He is quickly and brutally killed by a single blast from Cyclops.
Return
The battle of Second Coming would not be the last of Pierce however. As the Avengers Unity Squad accompanied by new members made a raid on a villains exclusive cruise liner in search of the Red Skull, Pierce was seen onboard playing a game of chance with the rest of the Inner Circle.
He would be seen again after the death of Wolverine, he and a Reaver contingent being assigned to steal his adamantium encased remains from his current resting place in Alberta, Canada; but were beset by the X-Men when a silent alarm was triggered. Using a molecular rearranger his accomplice Cylla was able to crack open the outer shell of his grave marker.
After breaking the shell open, they’re disappointed to find it empty of Logan’s body as his fellow mutants had phased it and buried it in a separate location.
Powers and Abilities
Donald Pierce is a cyborg with superhuman strength. His reflexes and agility are also inhumanly fast. These attributes are derived from his artificial body. His body has great resistance to damage and even if it is destroyed, as long as his head is intact he will probably survive. There is nothing left of his original human body except the head, and how much of the head is even original is unknown. It is unknown if he still has his original brain or if he uploaded his memories, intelligence, and thought engrams into a cyborg computer brain.
Aside from his physical advantages, Donald Pierce is a genius in robotics, cybernetics, and electronics. In these fields he has developed technology that exceeds that of conventional science by approximately two centuries.
Alternate Realities
Earth-295
During the war against Apocalypse, Donald Pierce spent four years in the pens in a Reaver program, a cybernetics project which infused humans with cybernetics. Pierce helped develop the master technology feeling he had no choice and saw thousands die for what he did. Apparently, several cyborg clones of Pierce surfaced as part of the Reavers project, one of whom then infiltrated the territory of the Human High Council in an attempt to destroy the Council fleet and later attempted to kill Gateway, an ally of the HHC. After the fleet was assembled for an attack on Apocalypse’s empire, the clone infected Carol Danvers with the remains of the Reaver Vulture to aid him. He also used Brian Braddock to drive the aircraft, but Braddock attempted to kill him but the clone stabs Braddock in the process killing him. Later he kills an doubtful Carol Danvers. The clone was later killed by Weapon X.
Following Weapon X becoming Weapon Omega, the real Donald Pierce became a member of the human freedom fighters the X-Terminated called Goodnight and spent every day since then trying to atone for his part in the Reaver program. Despite that, his comrades don’t fully trust him and think he could turn on them at any moment. Pierce doesn’t help matters by acting arrogant to give them no reason to think otherwise. and in his spare time was also a member of the Hellfire Club, although he absolutely despised the company he kept there. Using his connections and acquaintanceship with Sebastian Shaw, Pierce provied the X-Terminated with intel concerning Weapon Omega and his operations.
As Goodnight, Pierce helped rescue the reporter Harper Simmons from Keeper Murdock and the Hounds, battled alongside the team against Prelate Summers, freed a captive team-mate Deadeye from Omega’s followers and took part in an assault on Henry McCoy‘s lab where McCoy and Sugar Man were reviving several dead mutants to serve Omega.
At the behest of Prophet, the leader of the X-Terminated, Pierce tracked down Bruce Banner, now amnesiac and no longer remembering his true identity. Helping Banner realize who he was by evoking anger and causing him to transform into the Hulk, Pierce told Hulk that Betty Ross was alive and in order for the two to be reunited Hulk would have to battle Omega. Hulk did so and perished in the conflict as Pierce and the rest of the X-Terminated were left wondering if Betty Ross was really alive or if Prophet had made that up for the sake of having the Hulk serve as a distraction for them.
When the X-Terminated went into final battle against Weapon Omega, Pierce successfully manipulated Sebastian Shaw to reveal the whereabouts of the Shadow King, one of Omega’s loyal followers. Soon, the Shadow King was paid a visit from Pierce who defeated the Shadow King by trapping his consciousness in a cloned brain of the insane dead mutant Quentin Quire.
Shortly after, Sebastian Shaw exposed Pierce to Azazel and the two took him captive and tortured him for months. Eventually, Pierce was freed but was so badly injured that Bolivar Trask had to make at least 70% of him cyborg. Pierce paid an imprisoned Shaw a visit where he secretly poisoned Shaw’s water rations, killing him in exchange for making it so that Pierce is now a cyborg like those clones of him who ran around in service of Apocalypse.
Earth-1610
In this reality, Donald Pierce has not appeared yet, but has striking resemblance with the Ultimate Deadpool, the cyborg leader of the Reavers, who hunted down Spider-Man and the X-Men in Krakoa Island.
Earth-58163
In the House of M reality Pierce was a member of the Human liberation Front during this timeline.
Television
X-Men: The Animated Series
Pierce appears alongside the rest of the original Hellfire Club members in the X-Men: The Animated Series version of “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” specifically in the episode “The Inner Circle.” He, like in his original comic appearance, only has one cybernetic arm. Out of his congeries, he has the least amount of dialogue and does not appear again for the rest of the series, not even as apart of The Reavers, which was a team he helped found.
Wolverine and the X-Men
In Wolverine and the X-Men, Donald Pierce was a member of the Hellfire Club which attempts to release the Phoenix from Jean Grey. Yet, Sebastian told Emma that the mission have somehow evolved and the mission includes killing Jean. Pierce was among the members who agreed on it. It then caused Emma’s betrayal to the club which became the reason for the Hellfire Club to be against her and Scott. Donald Pierce attacked Emma and hurt her. As a revenge in behalf of Emma, Scott attacked Pierce with an optic blast.
Film
Logan
Donald pierce is a major antagonist in the film Logan, portrayed by actor Boyd Holbrook from the Netflix series Narcos. In the movie, Pierce is the leader of the Reavers, a cybernetically-enhanced group who hunt and kills mutants for Zander Rice. They are the muscle for Transigen, a nefarious corporation with a goal of wiping out the entire mutant species. He and his gang hunt a young girl named Laura (actually a clone of Wolverine) so that Transigen can experiment on her, but Wolverine and Professor X fight to protect her.
At the close of the film, Pierce is killed by the surviving mutant children Transigen created.
Merchandise
- Donald Pierce appears in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection from Eaglemoss Publications.
- Donald Pierce appears in The Marvel Chess Collection from Eaglemoss Publications as a black pawn.
- Donald Pierce appears in the HeroClix figure game.
- Donald Pierce appears in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the San Diego Comic-Con-exclusive Hellfire Club box set.