The identity of the new Hellfire Club is a big mystery in Uncanny X-Men by Cullen Bunn since the All-New, All-Different Marvel Now began.
Mystique and Fantomex appear to be working for the cabal of rich villains and we’ve even seen the Hellfire Club soldiers in the classic uniform from the Chris Claremont/John Byrne era. Magneto appears to be joining the Club in a future issue. Is the new Hellfire Club exploiting the current mutant crisis or trying to solve it?
Who is in the new Hellfire Club?
We may have been a big clue to the X-Men mystery this week in the pages of….The Mighty Thor?
Jason Aaron created an all-new Hellfire Club of sadistic, bratty teen billionaires to plague Logan and his students during his Wolverine and the X-Men run.
In The Mighty Thor by Aaron, Jane Foster is fighting a cabal of supernatural and super rich foes. Dario Agger is the C.E.O. of Roxxon who made a pact with Malekith. In this week’s issue Aaron revealed Agger’s connections to some big Marvel Universe power players including one that made us think…hmmmm!
Before we continue here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not read The Mighty Thor #7 yet stop reading now.
Seriously.
OK.
Here it comes.
In the Lords of Midgard, Agger attends a meeting at the Universal Bank in Switzerland where “one percent of the one percent” meet and secretly govern the world.
The famous names and companies around this table are a villainous who’s who of evil billionaires and corporations from across Marvel history including the head of Alchemax, Iron Man villains Darren Cross and Ezekiel Stane, Wilson Fisk and two notable names from the X-Men rogues gallery: Shingen Harada (aka Silver Samurai Junior) of the Yashida Corporation and Sebastian Shaw of Shaw Industries.
Shaw is seen in his old world attire as seen in Hellfire Club functions.
Does this mean Shaw is back as the Black King of the infamous cabal?
The Hellfire Club was created in the Claremont/Byrne era as new villains of the X-Men. The Club was an infamous “gentleman’s club” with branches in London and New York where the super rich schemed and indulged in decadent parties.
A secret Inner Circle of the club was comprised of mutants who often used their powers for financial gain. Shaw’s company manufactured Sentinels and he often made deals with mutant hating politicians who didn’t know he was one. Shaw and Emma Frost were partners in love and war ruling the Club as Black King and White Queen. After she reformed and joined the X-Men, Emma later confronted Shaw and mind wiped him.
Emma has been MIA since the All-New, All-Different Marvel Now began.
Could Shaw have staged a comeback, regained his company and seized control of the Hellfire Club again? Does this mean we may finally see Emma in the pages of a X-Men book again or did Shaw exert a deadly revenge on her?
The Hellfire Club mystery will be playing out in Uncanny X-Men but this week’s The Mighty Thor was an intriguing new twist in Aaron’s long game with the Asgardian hero that could tie into the X-books.
By Editor