A Touch of Hellfire: The Hellfire Club Thread

[Shadowcat]

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Welcome to the world of debauchery, depravity, kink and capitalism. The Hellfire Club began in England as a club for the upper echelons of English society to indulge in their inner sexual demons. After watching an episode of the Avengers, Chris Claremont and John Byrne came up with a group of wealthy and powerful Mutants and humans who would use their status to enrich themselves and influence the government to their whims. Over the years we’ve seen several faces come in and out of the group. From being completely decimated in the early 90’s, to seeing different rosters, but they haven’t seen a return to prominence since the 80’s. Who are your favorite members? Favorite storylines involving them?

[Shadowcat]

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Elias Bogan: Lord Imperial of the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, and rumored to be the original inspiration for the Club, held no official role at the New York Branch, yet was deeply connected in the upper echelons. He originally came into contact with a young Sebastian Shaw, who gambled a poker game for the freedom of Emma Frost for Shaw’s fortune, and Shaw won, thanks to the aid of Tessa. He’d later abduct Sage, and give her the bleeding eye tattoos. His abilities include possessing others who exhibit blood from their eyes while under his possession. He prefers to possess telepaths in order to increase his influence. He’s thought to be an immortal mutant, and a telepathic entity like the Shadow King.

[Shadowcat]

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Sebastian Shaw: The Black King, became a self made millionaire by 30, and a billionaire by 40, joined the Hellfire Club due to his great personal wealth, would join the Inner Circle after catching the attention of then White King, Ned Buckman. After losing his first wife, Lourdes Chantel to a Sentinel attack, heband Emma Frost went to work on rebuilding the Inner Circle with Mutants and super powered individuals to advance their own desires. He and the Hellfire Club would clash several times over the years with the X-Men, until after a fight with futuristic Sentinel, Nimrod, forced them into an uneasy alliance, resulting in Magneto and Storm joining the Inner Circle. He’d soon fall victim to an assassination attempt at the hands of his son, Shinobi, as part of a plan by the Upstarts to take the former Inner Circle’s places.

He’d return after a few years, reclaiming his role as Black King, but unfortunately was never able to reach the glories of Inner Circles past.

[Bafflement]

Shouldn't Trevor Fitzroy be on the voting list?

[yogaflame]

Shouldn't Trevor Fitzroy be on the voting list?

Was he a Hellfire Club member? I thought he was an Upstart, you know, the group who systematically destroyed the Hellfire Club.

[Bafflement]

Was he a Hellfire Club member? I thought he was an Upstart, you know, the group who systematically destroyed the Hellfire Club.

Well, Shinobi Shaw's already on the list. As far as I know the Upstarts were lower-ranked members of the club who wanted to take over. Leadership of the Hellfire Club was meant to be the ultimate prize in their game.

[yogaflame]

Claremont's Hellfire Club was an interesting addition to the X-Mythos. After him, it fell in significance to the point of becoming a parody. While he ultimately wasted it in his Hellfire and Brimstone arc, I did enjoy Millar's more direct correlation to real world secret societies(Freemasonry, Illuminati, etc).







Given Emma's reapplication since Morrison as an X-Man, even if she has apparently gone 'bad again', I doubt modern Marvel will lean into the more obvious occult aspects of the concept in lieu of just 'rich people being naughty', as it is often positioned as, but in theory the Hellfire Club could be a very potent, and scary, antagonist for the X-Men.

I would love to see a re-imagined Inner Circle of Amahl Farouk, Selene, and straight up evil Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost just go hard with the debauchery and evil magick and all that, trying to enslave the world under their iron fist, but such a story is probably too much for Disney-Marvel at this point.