Readthrough: Classic X-Men 7
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x_men_classicToday we leave our heroes (in dire peril, of course) for a villainous interlude at the Hellfire Club.
The story opens with Sebastian Shaw and Lourdes Chantel dancing at a New Year's party hosted by Edward Buckman, the Hellfire Club's White King. If you don't recognize those names, well... there's a reason.
Ned Buckman, as it turns out, is Shaw's friend and patron in the club. Lourdes distrusts him, and she is not shy about saying so. According to her, Buckman hates them for their mutations, and his patronage can only be a trap. (The panel framing makes it look as if she's saying so within his earshot... but then, it's probably a very noisy room.)
Lourdes resumes her argument as they leave the dance. Notably, she's aware of the Hellfire Club's plan to target the X-Men and strongly disapproves, although not on moral grounds: she wants mutantkind's defenders to continue defending them, thank you very much.
Tessa is noncommittal, so Shaw seeks a third opinion.
Turns out, Shaw has been listening to "his women" at least a little—he's had the grievously injured Michael Rossi brought to one of his houses, in hopes of learning more about Steven Lang. (Apparently, Lang's attempt to murder his government oversight did not go unnoticed.) Emma Frost and Harry Leland are there with him.
Emma reveals what the reader already knows: Lang and Buckman are conspiring to commit genocide against mutants. Shaw is furious... both at Buckman and at himself for trusting him. He strikes stone in rage, and the force charges his super-strength: the first blow just makes noise, while the second shatters rock. It's a nice, subtle illustration of how his powers work. (Of course, in another two pages he'll explain that in detail, but you can't have everything.)
He's distracted from his rage by a distress call from Emma: a Sentinel is attacking her, and unlike Charles Xavier, she cannot telepathically attack giant robots. (It is her misfortune that this issue is written later, and people's powers are more firmly defined.)
Shaw decides to charge to the rescue of the two of his allies least suited to melee combat... whether or not Lourdes, the group teleporter, thinks she's up to it.
They arrive to find Leland, who tells them that Emma is in the next room, but he doesn't know what's happened to her—he's too afraid to enter the room with the murder robot in it, although he hasn't actually run away either. Shaw, either braver or more secure in his powerset (and certainly rather contemptuous of Leland's "unmanly" behavior), charges forward, and briefly gains the upper hand. However, while he's very good at punching Sentinels, it manages to ensnare him with a metal tentacle—and Shaw is not invulnerable.
Despite his treatment of her, Lourdes loves him, and despite Tessa's warnings, she uses the last of her strength to teleport him out of the Sentinel's clutches. Because of her exhaustion, though, she can't go far, and fails to dodge the Sentinel's finger harpoon. (I'm sorry, I know that description is ridiculous and jarring, but I can't think of anything else to call it.)
Leland blames himself for Lourdes's death, thinking that if he had acted sooner, been less of a coward, she wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself. His recrimination spurs him to disregard his own limits and join the attack. He manages to incapacitate the Sentinel enough for Shaw to destroy it... but it's clearly a severe physical strain. (This scene foreshadows his death—of a heart attack after straining his powers against the sentinel Nimrod—very closely.)
While Shaw finishes off the robot, Emma Frost goes to make sure Leland is all right, and comforts the dying Lourdes by blocking her perception of pain.
Shaw returns to his lover's side long enough to hear her last words.
And so Shaw and Frost—the two who will end up being the new leaders of the Hellfire Club—go to do so.
At midnight, the Council of the Chosen is listening to Buckman's slightly premature gloating. (No wonder he got on with Steven Lang!) In the midst of his speech, he calmly takes a gun from one of the guards and turns it first on them, and then on the council themselves.
(But he does go right ahead with his and Buckman's plan to experiment on the X-Men for financial gain. Why waste an evil plot, after all?)
This story serves to introduce the Hellfire Club, or at least the members we'll be seeing again. The first time I read it, Lourdes's death rubbed me the wrong way, and honestly it still does--she's retconned in just to be fridged. But this story does still provide some characterization for the survivors--mostly Shaw, but also Emma and Leland.
It does use the trick of creating an even more odious villain for Shaw and company to destroy, thus proving their villainous ruthlessness against a character who frankly has it coming. But the vengeance is works for me, and so does this explanation of how the Inner Circle we see later on developed from the early hints about the Hellfire Club.
And Shaw's inner circle (ha) do seem to care about each other, even aside from Shaw and his retconned-in girlfriend. Emma Frost and Harry Leland worry about each other during the fight; he's upset by Lourdes Chantel's death, and Emma comforts the dying woman her automatically. They're not good people, or even good to each other, but they do care. Those personal relationships worked well enough to make me care about the story. (And they did make the resolution more satisfying.)
(Oh, and for the record, while Michael Rossi remains thoroughly incapacitated for the duration of this story, he manages to survive a Sentinel barging into his sickroom and will be back in the future.)
Two members of the later Hellfire Club are conspicuous by their absence in this story. Jason Wyngarde presumably hasn't joined yet, but what about the other one?
And any other thoughts on this story?
Next Thursday: A very different sacrifice.
Next Sunday: An attempt to reconcile a retcon with what came before.
The story opens with Sebastian Shaw and Lourdes Chantel dancing at a New Year's party hosted by Edward Buckman, the Hellfire Club's White King. If you don't recognize those names, well... there's a reason.
Ned Buckman, as it turns out, is Shaw's friend and patron in the club. Lourdes distrusts him, and she is not shy about saying so. According to her, Buckman hates them for their mutations, and his patronage can only be a trap. (The panel framing makes it look as if she's saying so within his earshot... but then, it's probably a very noisy room.)
Lourdes resumes her argument as they leave the dance. Notably, she's aware of the Hellfire Club's plan to target the X-Men and strongly disapproves, although not on moral grounds: she wants mutantkind's defenders to continue defending them, thank you very much.
Tessa is noncommittal, so Shaw seeks a third opinion.
Turns out, Shaw has been listening to "his women" at least a little—he's had the grievously injured Michael Rossi brought to one of his houses, in hopes of learning more about Steven Lang. (Apparently, Lang's attempt to murder his government oversight did not go unnoticed.) Emma Frost and Harry Leland are there with him.
Emma reveals what the reader already knows: Lang and Buckman are conspiring to commit genocide against mutants. Shaw is furious... both at Buckman and at himself for trusting him. He strikes stone in rage, and the force charges his super-strength: the first blow just makes noise, while the second shatters rock. It's a nice, subtle illustration of how his powers work. (Of course, in another two pages he'll explain that in detail, but you can't have everything.)
He's distracted from his rage by a distress call from Emma: a Sentinel is attacking her, and unlike Charles Xavier, she cannot telepathically attack giant robots. (It is her misfortune that this issue is written later, and people's powers are more firmly defined.)
Shaw decides to charge to the rescue of the two of his allies least suited to melee combat... whether or not Lourdes, the group teleporter, thinks she's up to it.
They arrive to find Leland, who tells them that Emma is in the next room, but he doesn't know what's happened to her—he's too afraid to enter the room with the murder robot in it, although he hasn't actually run away either. Shaw, either braver or more secure in his powerset (and certainly rather contemptuous of Leland's "unmanly" behavior), charges forward, and briefly gains the upper hand. However, while he's very good at punching Sentinels, it manages to ensnare him with a metal tentacle—and Shaw is not invulnerable.
Despite his treatment of her, Lourdes loves him, and despite Tessa's warnings, she uses the last of her strength to teleport him out of the Sentinel's clutches. Because of her exhaustion, though, she can't go far, and fails to dodge the Sentinel's finger harpoon. (I'm sorry, I know that description is ridiculous and jarring, but I can't think of anything else to call it.)
Leland blames himself for Lourdes's death, thinking that if he had acted sooner, been less of a coward, she wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself. His recrimination spurs him to disregard his own limits and join the attack. He manages to incapacitate the Sentinel enough for Shaw to destroy it... but it's clearly a severe physical strain. (This scene foreshadows his death—of a heart attack after straining his powers against the sentinel Nimrod—very closely.)
While Shaw finishes off the robot, Emma Frost goes to make sure Leland is all right, and comforts the dying Lourdes by blocking her perception of pain.
Shaw returns to his lover's side long enough to hear her last words.
Lourdes: I wish--I could see the sun again--stroll Las Ramblas, at home in Barcelona--pray a last time at the Sagrada Familia...
...Oh, Sebastian...
...why does Buckman hate us...
Sebastian: Fear.
Of what we are, and what we represent.
Now, I'll give him cause.
And so Shaw and Frost—the two who will end up being the new leaders of the Hellfire Club—go to do so.
At midnight, the Council of the Chosen is listening to Buckman's slightly premature gloating. (No wonder he got on with Steven Lang!) In the midst of his speech, he calmly takes a gun from one of the guards and turns it first on them, and then on the council themselves.
Shaw: The king is dead.
And his council with him.
Lourdes was worth the lot of them, and more!
In their place--and her memory-- shall rise the Lords Cardinal! No longer will mutants be victims, but rulers! First of the Hellfire Club-- and then, the strongworld!
(But he does go right ahead with his and Buckman's plan to experiment on the X-Men for financial gain. Why waste an evil plot, after all?)
This story serves to introduce the Hellfire Club, or at least the members we'll be seeing again. The first time I read it, Lourdes's death rubbed me the wrong way, and honestly it still does--she's retconned in just to be fridged. But this story does still provide some characterization for the survivors--mostly Shaw, but also Emma and Leland.
It does use the trick of creating an even more odious villain for Shaw and company to destroy, thus proving their villainous ruthlessness against a character who frankly has it coming. But the vengeance is works for me, and so does this explanation of how the Inner Circle we see later on developed from the early hints about the Hellfire Club.
And Shaw's inner circle (ha) do seem to care about each other, even aside from Shaw and his retconned-in girlfriend. Emma Frost and Harry Leland worry about each other during the fight; he's upset by Lourdes Chantel's death, and Emma comforts the dying woman her automatically. They're not good people, or even good to each other, but they do care. Those personal relationships worked well enough to make me care about the story. (And they did make the resolution more satisfying.)
(Oh, and for the record, while Michael Rossi remains thoroughly incapacitated for the duration of this story, he manages to survive a Sentinel barging into his sickroom and will be back in the future.)
Two members of the later Hellfire Club are conspicuous by their absence in this story. Jason Wyngarde presumably hasn't joined yet, but what about the other one?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10
Donald Pierce is absent from this story because...
View Answers
... he has yet to be recruited into the Hellfire Club.
2 (20.0%)
... he is a member, but Buckman dislikes cyborgs and Pierce hates mutants, so he's not part of either group and thus survives the conflict.
3 (30.0%)
... both factions dislike him on purely personal grounds, so ditto.
1 (10.0%)
... he was forbidden from wearing a pink frock coat to Buckman's party, stayed home to sulk, and consequently missed everything.
4 (40.0%)
And any other thoughts on this story?
Next Thursday: A very different sacrifice.
Next Sunday: An attempt to reconcile a retcon with what came before.
