Merge:Hellfire Club

The Hellfire Club is a Marvel Comics supervillain team that frequently battle the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980).

Although the club appears to merely be an international social club for wealthy elites, its Inner Circle consists of mutants who try to influence world events for the accumulation of power. They dress in 18th century garb and rank themselves in a system of chess pieces (Black Rook, White Queen, etc.).

The group first battled the X-Men in the classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" and the club, or branches of it, have since appeared periodically in various X-Men series.

The club is based on the actual Hellfire Club, a secret society of 18th century England, which inspired the modern-day version appearing in the television series The Avengers.

Brief history
The Hellfire Club counts among its members many famous and influential members of society. Membership is passed on to descendants, and can be earned through wealth or influence. The club has branches in New York City, Paris, Hong Kong and London. The various branches are overseen by the Lord Imperial.

Many of the wealthiest and most powerful businessmen of the Marvel Universe, including Tony Stark and Norman Osborn have inherited or gained membership to the Hellfire Club. And while many accept the invitation merely for the pleasures that the Club offers, many others seek out to obtain wealth and influence. In fact, the purpose of the Hellfire Club is to obtain and exert power through politics and economic influence instead of outward conquest and domination. Since its foundation, Hellfire Club has been involved in wars and assassinations as long as these helped further the agendas of the Club's most prominent members.

Unbeknownst to most members of the club, the organization is ruled by a Council of the Chosen. This secret group later renamed itself the Inner Circle and assumed the titles of chess pieces. Originally the Inner Circle was composed of normal humans, but was slowly infiltrated and dominated by super-powered mutants of various abilities. Though not always the most powerful of mutantkind, the Inner Circle allowed within its rank only those of exceptional ability. A common theme, though with exceptions, was for the White and Black queens of the organization to possess a psychic ability of some nature; no doubt aiding the organization to further their conspiracies.

The Hellfire Club first came to the attention of the X-Men when agents of the Hellfire Club kidnapped several X-Men and took over the mind of Phoenix. Though the X-Men unravelled the Hellfire Club's scheme, the meddling with Phoenix's mind led her to become Dark Phoenix.

They were eventually defeated and Phoenix returned to her Jean Grey persona. Wolverine inflicted nearly lethal injuries on several of its mercenaries during this time. However, the influential organization continued its activities even after being thwarted by the X-Men. Although the hierarchy of the Inner Circle goes through constant upheaval due to the competing egos and political motives of its members, it continues to exist in the same basic structure today.

Inner Circle Lineups
The constant intrigue, backstabbing, blackmailing and politicking that plague the Hellfire Club have resulted in many changes of the Inner Circle, as new players seek out membership in order to obtain influence, power and wealth. The following lists the membership of each incarnation of the inner circle and the title they held. Up until his death, Sir Gordon Phillips bore the title of Lord Imperial, and as such he oversaw all branches of the Hellfire Club; he was not a member of any particular Inner Circle, he was above all of them.

Council of the Chosen
The original Inner Circle prior to Shaw and Frost's takeover of the New York Branch Hellfire Club.
 * Ned Buckman: White King
 * Paris Seville: White Queen
 * Sebastian Shaw: Black Bishop

The rest of the membership is never named. Like Paris, they are gunned down by Buckman under Emma Frost's mind control. Ned Buckman was responsible for a Sentinel attack on Shaw's beach house, which resulted on the death of Shaw's lover, Lourdes Chantel.

The Lords Cardinal
Shaw renamed the Council of the Chosen as The Lords Cardinal following his takeover of the NY Branch.


 * Sebastian Shaw: Black King
 * Emma Frost: White Queen
 * Donald Pierce: White Bishop
 * Phoenix (posing as Jean Grey): Black Queen
 * Harry Leland: Black Bishop
 * Jason Wyngarde: Probational member - presumably intended for one of the two Rooks.
 * Tessa: Shaw's personal aide.


 * Warhawk: Associate

Following the Dark Phoenix Saga, the title of Black Queen is empty once again. Donald Pierce reaches the rank of White King and is expelled. New members are:


 * Selene: Black Queen
 * Emmanuel DaCosta: White Rook
 * Friedrich Von Roehm: Black Rook
 * Magneto: White King, alongside Storm. Later Grey King
 * Storm: White Queen, alongside Magneto.

Shinobi Shaw's Inner Circle
Originally, Selene planned on creating a new Inner Circle from amongst the Upstarts, yet they turn on her. Believing his father to be dead, Shinobi Shaw briefly takes over the NY Branch of the Club, seeminlgy with support from the External Candra. He offers membership in his Inner Circle to Archangel and later to Storm but both decline.


 * Shinobi Shaw: Black King
 * Benedict Kine: White King
 * Benazir Kaur: Black Queen?
 * Reeva Payge: White Queen?


 * Candra: Associate
 * Cordelia Frost: Probational member

The titles of Payge and Kaur are not established. When Cordelia Frost applies for membership to the Inner Circle, Shinobi states that the title of White Queen is already taken.

This Inner Circle quickly fades into oblivion and is replaced by Shaw's second Inner Circle.

The London Branch
The Inner Circle of the Club's London branch briefly operates in parallel to Shinobi's Inner Circle. Instead of Black and White, the titles of the London Branch can be Red and Black.


 * Ms. Steed (AoA's Damask): Black Queen
 * Margali Szardos: Red Queen
 * Scribe (possessed by Mountjoy): Red Rook
 * Black King (Name unknown)
 * Red King (Name unknown)
 * Brian Braddock: Black Bishop
 * Red Bishop (Name unknown)

Brian Braddock's membership is hereditary. He joined the London Inner Circle at Shinobi Shaw's behest, as Shaw wanted information on the London branch's activities.

Shaw's Second Stint
Sebastian Shaw retakes control of the Hellfire Club and tries to rebuild the Inner Circle to its former power and glory.


 * Sebastian Shaw: Black King
 * Selene: Black Queen
 * Madelyne Pryor or Queen Jean: Black Rook
 * Trevor Fitzroy: White Rook
 * Donald Pierce: Applicant for White Bishop
 * Tessa: Shaw's personal aide.
 * Ella: Selene's personal servant
 * Holocaust: Associate
 * Ms. Hoo: Associate

Selene's Hellfire
With Pierce expelled, Madelyne gone and both Shaw and Fitzroy retired, Selene reforms the Inner Circle into a reflection of her own evil nature, thus consorting with demons, though her reign is short-lived:


 * Selene: Black Queen
 * Blackheart: Black King
 * Daimon Hellstrom: White King
 * Sunspot: Black Rook

At the time, Adrienne Frost shows up in Generation X, claiming the White Queen title for herself. However, she was merely using the White Queen moniker. Besides, the nature of her powers did not fit with Selene's new demons, fire and brimstone theme.

Following Selene's defeat, Hellstrom remains as White King. Though he hasn't appeared again as a member, there has been no White King since him.

Sunspot joined the Inner Circle after Selene and Blackheart's defeat. She had always shown an interest in the young DaCosta and blackmails him into taking up his hereditary membership.

In Grant Morrison's New X-Men, it is revealed that Shaw is back in power, though the NY Branch has apparently been turned into a strip club. Deadly Genesis reveals that the strip club was part of the Hellfire Club's properties at least since the days of Emma Frost's youth.

The Fifth Inner Circle
With Sir Gordon Phillips dead thanks to the Legacy Virus, Shaw positions himself as the new Lord Imperial and, as such, he oversees the entire Hellfire Club. While he claims that he's trying to reform the Club, his motive, as always, is not what it seems.


 * Sebastian Shaw: Lord Imperial
 * Sunspot: Black King, later Lord Imperial.
 * Courtney Ross (actually Sat-yr-9): White Queen
 * Viper: Warrior White Princess
 * Tessa/Sage: Shaw's personal aide, Sunspot's personal advisor
 * Selene: Black Queen
 * Red Lotus: Associate

During a confrontation between Sat-yr-9 and Emma Frost, it is revealed that the latter maintained her membership all the time, as well as the White Queen title, though she loses the second.

Selene remains trapped beneath the Hellfire Club's HQ and is not actually part of the New Inner Circle, though her title of Black Queen remains untaken. How she managed to present herself before Sunspot remains unexplained and its possibly an error by the writers.

A confrontation with Donald Pierce leaves Shaw gravely injured. Sunspot takes over as Lord Imperial, which was Sage's plan all along. Despite their good intentions, Sat-yr-9 and Viper have their own less than noble agenda.

The Sixth Inner Circle


Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men reveals that Shaw is healthy once again and that he has joined forces with new allies at the behest of the mysterious Perfection. The titles of the new members have not been revealed yet, but with Sunspot as Lord Imperial, Shaw is possibly back into his classic Black King.


 * Perfection/The White Queen
 * Sebastian Shaw
 * Cassandra Nova
 * Negasonic Teenage Warhead
 * Emma Frost

Sunspot's Inner Circle has not appeared again. With Sage as part of New Excalibur, it is possible the previous Inner Circle has disbanded.

Lords Imperial
The Lord Imperial is not a member of the Inner Circle of any particular branch of Hellfire Club, instead, a few individuals have held the title. The Lord Imperial is the true leader of the Hellfire Club and oversees all branches of it.


 * Sir Gordon Phillips
 * Elias Bogan
 * Sebastian Shaw
 * Sunspot

Members outside the Inner Circle
The following characters are members of the Hellfire Club but were not part of the any of the Inner Circle lineups mentioned above. Their membership was inherited from their ancestors or parents, or was obtained through from personal invitation from the Branch's King, such as the one Sebastian Shaw offered to Irene Merryweather, which she refused.


 * Lourdes Chantel - affiliated thanks to Shaw's membership
 * Warren Worthington III - inherited membership from his father
 * Warren Worthington Jr. - invited by Ned Buckman
 * Howard Stark - invited by Ned Buckman
 * Anthony Stark - inherited membership from his father
 * Norman Osborn
 * Sir James Braddock Senior - invited by Ned Buckman, former Black Bishop of the London Branch, left the Inner Circle when his inventions where used for anti-mutant purposes.
 * James Braddock Jr - inherited membership.
 * Elisabeth Braddock - inherited membership.
 * Bianca LeNeige
 * Dwayne Taylor
 * Vance Astrovik
 * Candace Southern, Warren Worthington III's former girlfriend - now deceased
 * Ronald Parvenue
 * Berhard Van Ostamgen
 * Oliver Ryland, Elias Bogan's protege
 * The Kingmaker
 * Lady Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton - inherited membership.

Past members

 * Philadelphia, 1780/81: Sir Patrick Clemens (King title), Lady Diana Knight (Queen title), Lady Grey (Queen title), Elizabeth Shaw-Worthington, Major General Wallace Worthington, Commander Clinton


 * London, 1859: Lord Braddock, Mr. Shaw (Sebastian Shaw's great-grandfather and Cornelius Shaw's father)


 * Boston, 1872/74: Anton Pierce (Member of the Inner Circle)


 * London, 1915: Brigadier-General Cornelius Shaw, Sir Harry Manners, Waltham Pierce

Guards and staff

 * Guards: Wade Cole, Angelo Macon, Murray Reese, Randall Chase, Richard Salmons, Chet Andrews, Cannonball
 * Benedict Kine's Ivory Knights
 * Shinobi Shaw's Ebon Knights
 * Servants: Sharon Kelly, Rutledge (London Branch).

Upheaval in the secret hierarchy
Although the Inner Circle is fairly secretive, there are a number of characters that have access to or are part of the circle despite lacking an official title. Mastermind was a probationary member of the club for a long time and often worked closely with the Inner Circle. Tessa, later known as the X-Man Sage, served as an advisor to Shaw and then Sunspot. Angel and Iron Man are hereditary members of the club, although they have rarely visited, and are not aware of the plans of the Inner Circle.

Magneto briefly took the title of Grey King after Sebastian Shaw was voted out of the Inner Circle. It is unclear why Magneto later neglected this position. Possibly his agenda did not mesh with the precepts of the group or he may simply not have valued the organization and its influence enough to continue managing it, as he is vastly powerful and resourceful in his own right.

The club since then was subject to an upstart rising instrumented by Shinobi Shaw and Selene. It appeared that Sebastian Shaw was killed. The new group, named the Upstarts, held a competition to see who could kill the most mutants. Points for each kill were awarded by the Gamesmaster and the group quickly turned against Selene as well.

During this time the Inner Circle of the London branch was working behind the American branch's back and was influencing Parliament and the secret government agency Black Air. Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) held a position for a short term on Shinobi Shaw's advisement to investigate its activities as they had mutual objectives. Excalibur collected evidence of their crimes and the Inner Circle was either arrested or went into hiding.

The Upstart's uprising was quashed by Sebastian Shaw. He reinstated some of the old Inner Circle until he disbanded it due to his own invested interest in business pursuits. The Club still continued loosely partly due to Selene's influence, although it never had the same prestige as the original.

During Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, the New York premises of the Hellfire Club were turned into a high-class strip club and a neutral place in which everyone was welcome, even Sabretooth.

Sebastian Shaw again reformed a variation of the original Inner Circle with a more noble outlook posing as a force for good, which may have been a deception on his part. Tessa/Sage rejoined the Inner Circle to observe this and to assist Roberto Dacosta's usurping the position of Lord Imperial which Shaw had recently claimed.

The Hellfire Club is now currently under the leadership of Roberto DaCosta as the Lord Imperial aided by Sage. Sat-yr-9 (under the guise of Courtney Ross) is the new White Queen although it is unclear if she will fall in line with the Inner Circle's new position for good under DaCosta's influence. She is aided by her assassin Viper, her "Warrior White Princess". As with many members in the past, both Sat-yr-9 and Viper have their own personal agendas.

A New Inner Circle appeared at the end of Astonishing X-Men #12, written by Joss Whedon and drawn by artist John Cassady. This group was presented as secret cohorts of former White Queen and current X-Man Emma Frost, and consisted of Cassandra Nova, Sebastian Shaw, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (a presumed dead student of Emma's on Genosha), and "Perfection", a cloaked female figure, whom is apparently their leader. Following House of M and Decimation, Sunspot's Inner Circle hasn't made an appearance, though Tessa is now a member of New Excalibur.

Homages
As mentioned above, the Hellfire Club was based on the version that appears in the Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone". It is for this reason that the White Queen is named Emma (a reference to Emma Peel, who finds herself more in the Phoenix role of unwilling Queen), and that Mastermind is given the name Jason Wyngarde (the leader of the Club in the Avengers episode was played by Peter Wyngarde, who also played Jason King). Other members of the Inner Circle were also modelled on famous actors:


 * Sebastian Shaw - Robert Shaw
 * Harry Leland - Orson Welles (the first name refers to Harry Lime in The Third Man; the surname to Jed Leland in Citizen Kane)
 * Donald Pierce - Donald Sutherland (the surname refers to Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H)

An even more direct reference to The Avengers is the name of the Black Queen of the British branch - Ms. Steed.

Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse the Hellfire Club is not active and is possibly destroyed. Sebastian Shaw is part of Apocalypse's court and one of the Dark Lord's informants. Emma Frost is part of the Human High Council, having been stripped of her powers through a lobotomy. Jason Wyngarde was a victim of the Sugar Man and then became one of Forge's Outcasts. Donald Pierce also became a servant of Apocalypse and the leader of the tecno-organic infected Reavers.

Days of Future Past
In the Days of Future Past timeline, Shinobi Shaw and Psylocke took over the Hellfire Club London Branch and became the Black King and the Red Queen.

Bishop's Future
In Bishop's future, the Hellfire Club remains as one of the major powers on the world. It is ruled by Anthony Shaw, a descendant of Shinobi Shaw. Trevor Fitzroy is Anthony Shaw's illegitimate son, which makes him a descendant of the Shaw family. Malcolm, a member of the Xavier Security Enforcers (X.S.E.) was also a member of the Club.

Chronomancer Timeline
In a future dominated by Fitzroy, who now calls himself The Chronomancer, one of the forces opposing his rule is Clan Hellfire, led by Samara Shaw.

Ultimate Hellfire
The Hellfire Club of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, led by Sebastian Shaw, is an inner circle of very rich businessmen who believe in a pagan "Phoenix God". They believed it was reborn in the body of X-Man Jean Grey and secretly funded Charles Xavier to nurture her until the right time came. As a side note, the Hellfire Club's membership includes Alan Greenspan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

However, Jean apparently went mad, stole their bank access codes, and wiped their minds. She was subsequently rehabilitated by Professor Xavier. If the Hellfire Club continues, it does so without its Inner Circle.

In recent issues of Ultimate X-Men, a group called the Church of Shi'ar Enlightement has approached the Xavier Institute, claiming that the Hellfire Club was a breakaway sect, and asking to examine whether or not Jean really is the Phoenix God.

In other media
The Hellfire Club appeared on the Dark Phoenix Saga storyline on the X-Men Animated Series, though it was renamed Inner Circle Club, to prevent controversy regarding the use of the word Hellfire, which could have prompted accusation of satanism. The episodes show the original members of the Inner Circle: Sebastian Shaw, Jason Wyngarde, Emma Frost, Donald Pierce and Harry Leland. The Inner Circle's leaders aim to control Jean Grey and brainwash her into believing herself to be the Queen of the Inner Circle, though they only manage to unleash Dark Phoenix.