Surprise comebacks, Magneto’s secrets within secrets revealed and Monet St. Croix finally gets a code-name?
The Hellfire Club mystery and Someday Corporation endgame was revealed in Uncanny X-Men #12 but what does this unholy alliance mean as the mutants march to war with the Inhumans?
Writer Cullen Bunn and artist Greg Land give us critical flashbacks and deliver on multiple story arcs building since the first issue.
Picking up after the last chapter’s cliffhanger, Psylocke and Sabretooth comes face to familiar face with the new version of classic X-villains.
Before we break down the new Hellfire Club here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not read Uncanny X-Men #12 stop reading now.
Seriously.
OK.
Here it comes.
Magneto recruited Psylocke, Sabretooth, Monet and a drone Archangel for his own squad fighting enemies in the new environment where the Terrigen Mists were killing mutants. Magneto secretly had Mystique and Fantomex working for him to investigate the Someday Corporation, a company offering refuge to mutants from exposure the deadly Terrigen.
Elizabeth and Creed’s investigation of Magneto’s other covert plans led them to the Hellfire Club where Magneto and Monet were waiting with some other familiar faces.
Elizabeth and Creed’s investigation of Magneto’s other covert plans led them to the Hellfire Club where Magneto and Monet were waiting with some other familiar faces.
Magneto has reclaimed his role of the White King. Sebastian Shaw is back as the Black King. Black Tom Cassidy is the White Bishop. Monet St. Croix is the new White Queen. Briar Raleigh (the only non-mutant) is the White Bishop.
Here’s a who’s who:
Shaw was Black King back when the Hellfire Club was introduced back in the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Cassidy is the cousin of the late X-Man Banshee and uncle of X-Factor member Siryn and longtime partner in crime with Cain Marko/Juggernaut.
Raleigh was co-created by Bunn during his Magneto solo book run. The human was injured during the Master of Magnetism’s attacks and became obsessed with him, later forming an alliance and romantic relationship before the events of Secret Wars.
The Club reveals they considered offering Betsy the title of Black Queen on their Council. The Braddock family were members of the secret society.
Elizabeth is given a morbid task. Raleigh gives her a jar containing a piece of a mutant’s brain matter. We don’t learn the identity of mutant but it does lead the team to a Someday research station where we encounter the mysterious mutants from the previous issue. Someday isn’t saving mutants in their hibernation chambers. They are weaponizing them.
Bunn begins and ends the issue with flashbacks reveal part of what happened during the eight month gap after the Secret Wars finale. We see how Magneto recruited Betsy, how Raleigh and Monet connected him with the Hellfire Club and hinted that Betsy and his other recent allies may be “cannon fodder” and that “X-Men die a lot.”
Here are our big burning questions:
Can power-mad egomaniacs like Magnus and Shaw hold the alliance or will history repeat itself? The two held those titles before until a huge battle in New Mutants #75. Magneto even references the classic clash in this issue.
Whose brain was in the jar?
The X-Men are just one piece of Magneto’s puzzle but what is his endgame and what other alliances has he formed?
Where’s Emma Frost, Shaw’s first White Queen turned X-Men co-leader? We’ll learn more of her fate along with Cyclops’s in Death of X but is she still alive at this point. If so, what will she think of her former Generation X student assuming her old title?
If Black Tom is back, could Juggernaut (last seen plummeting to his doom (?) in Amazing X-Men) reunite his old partner in crime?
What is Magneto’s endgame? Is he serving Psylocke and his teammates as lambs to slaughter for a greater covert goal to protect the mutant race?
By Editor