THE GIFTED just delivered a sinister connection to X-MEN history. Not Mr. Sinister but other classic villains.
Lauren and Andy discovered their past and tested their powers in dangerous new ways.
What does the latest twin revelation signal for the future of the series?
Before we continue here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not seen the most recent two episodes of THE GIFTED stop reading now.
Seriously.
OK.
Here it comes:
Reed’s father is descended from Andrea and Andreas Von Strucker aka Fenris. The twin mutants were terrorists in the 1950’s Reed’s father was among scientists working for Trask Industries to eliminate the x-gene. He did it to Reed but the mutant gene will not be denied.
Lauren and Andy inherited their family’s mutant legacy including a destructive power surge when they join hands like their great-grandparents.
As the twins look at files on the Fenris it’s revealed they were part of The Hellfire Club.
This is huge for X-Fans.
The Hellfire Club was an actual “gentlemen’s club” in England and America where the rich and powerful enjoyed decadent parties and plotted to seize greater riches and power.
In X-Men comics, The Hellfire Club has a secret club within a club – an Inner Circle (often called the Lords Cardinal) of rich and powerful….mutants. The major players take titles inspired by chess pieces. Magneto staged a coup twice and became their White King.
Black King Sebastian Shaw and White Queen Emma Frost are the most infamous of this group who appeared as the villains of X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Introduced in THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA in comics, Frost and Jason Wyngarde aka Mastermind tried to seduce Jean Grey and unleashed the Dark Phoenix.
The Hellfire Club members were hunted and killed by The Upstarts, rich mutants who played a game where killing X-Men and Hellfire Club members earned them points. The Fenris Twins were players in the game.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS introduced The Hellfire Club, Shaw and Frost in The Cold War era. The Fenris twins of The GIFTED were on the run in the 1950’s.
Could Lauren and Andy become the new Fenris – will they remain heroes on the run or will circumstances and power turn them to villainy?
Could it mean we’ll see other Upstarts? Shinobi Shaw is the son of Sebastian Shaw who killed his father and took his throne in a new Inner Circle. Sienna Blaze possessed magnetic powers but when she used it – the cost was damage to the Earth’s electromagnet field. Trevor Fitzroy was from the future with the power to absorb life-force from humans and manipulate time/space teleportation.
Selene? Could Fenris lead to Selene? This ancient mutant with vampiric powers inspired a cult in ancient Rome, became a ruling member of the Hellfire Club and secretly sponsored the Upstarts’ games.
Back to the action – Andy and Lauren joined The Mutant Underground in a raid to save mutants turned Hounds in the Trask labs. The mission goes wrong The twins are captured by Sentinel Services. The kids will become test subjects of Dr. Campbell (the once and future Ahab?) who’s been eager to get these twins after his research on Fenris.
THE GIFTED has tantalizing ties to X-Men comics and movies but continues forging its own astonishing path.
THE GIFTED airs Mondays at 9pm on Fox.
By Editor