M243--Sebastian Shaw

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980)

The Hellfire Club was a secret association for the wealthy and famous to indulge in their most hedonistic impulses.  From sex to drugs, whatever the patrons desired was theirs.  Officially little more than an exclusive gentlemen's club, it was no secret that the club was a valuable networking opportunity for the elite, with more than a few politicians and businessmen buying their way to success through their Hellfire connections.  But few members knew the true aspirations of the club's leaders, the inner circle.  Primarily composed of mutants, their method of referring to their ranks in chess terminology shined a light on their true motivations of power and gamesmanship in the realm of high stakes world powers.  And none believed in power more than their Black King, Sebastian Shaw.

A wealthy mutant born with the power to transfer all kinetic energy directed against him into raw strength, this ability made Shaw effectively invincible.  And with his spot as the Black King he was basically untouchable by authorities.  But he knew that the world sat on a knife's edge.  Other would be capitalistic superpowers like the Serpent Society had been attempting to prepare for it, but Shaw knew that the Hellfire Club sat in a unique position to turn the tables.  The future had room for humans or mutants, but not both.  Following the rise and fall of En Sabah Nur, Shaw saw the opportunity to tip the balance in their favor.  With the remains of the first one secured by his inner circle, only the phoenix remained.  If mutant supremacy was coming, then the Hellfire Club would use their power to make sure they were the ones in control.

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Keeping tabs on the X-Men and the Brotherhood was the reason Shaw had the Hellfire Club publicly "shut down" in order to maintain their anonymity, and why he had Emma Frost, his White Queen, infiltrate the X-Men.

So yeah, the Hellfire Club still has a role to play here.  I think the only time I've mentioned them thus far was in Emma Frost's entry.  Basically, Frost has a similar role to her appearance in Wolverine & the X-Men, where she is actually a spy for the Inner Circle.  Shaw himself here is pretty much the same guy as you'd expect from the comics--power hungry capitalist mutant who is in charge of the Hellfire Club.  In the comics the Hellfire Club is supposed to be the same as the actual historical Hellfire Club, though I think in my universe they are distinct, just taking the name from the historical club.  Beyond that, this entry puts in some seeds for a more straightforward Dark Phoenix saga than I've established thus far, albeit one where Apocalypse apparently has a role?

Anyway, Shaw has a pretty distinct look, with the colonial attire and the mutton chops.  The colonial attire didn't really work for me, I wanted to make the Hellfire Club look more like genuinely rich hedonists instead of a bunch of weirdos playing colonial dress up.  So I wanted to give him a snappy looking sense of fashion, albeit still a little old-fashioned.  It's almost kind of Victorian era looking, though I think it is his old fashioned sideburns that really push that.  Emphasized red on black for his look, both to sell him as the Black King while also making him look a *little* demonic, in reference to, you know, hellfire.  I tried basing parts of his face on the actor Robert Shaw, which is who Sebastian Shaw was based on (all of the Hellfire Club members were based on actors of the day), though it kinda ended up making him kinda look like Ra's Al Ghul from Batman, haha.