Emma Frost just revealed that one long-hidden secret of the Hellfire Club quietly made it one of Marvel’s most powerful mutant groups.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marauders #22 by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, Klaus Janson, Rain Beredo & VC’s Cory Petit, on sale now
In the aftermath of the Hellfire Gala, the Quiet Council is preparing to deal with the collateral fallout of Scarlet Witch’s apparent murder. But beforehand, Emma and Xavier decide it’s time to inform Sebastian Shaw about a secret held from him for years.
In Marauders #22, by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, Klaus Janson, Rain Beredo & VC’s Cory Petit, former Hellfire Club member Lourdes Chantel is revealed to be alive, even though the lie of her demise gave the Hellfire Club a new mission and helped shape the future of the X-Men and mutants as a whole.
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Lourdes Chantel was introduced in Classic X-Men #7 by Chris Claremont and John Bolton. In addition to being an effective teleporter, Lourdes was in an abusive relationship with Sebastian Shaw. She grew wary of his increasing clout within the Hellfire Club, and its corrupting effect on Shaw. However, the human leader of the Hellfire Club at the time, Ned Buckman, responded by sending a horde of Sentinels after the Shaw and his mutantHellfire Club allies — Emma Frost, Lourde, and Harry Leland. Lourdes seemingly sacrificed her life to protect Shaw during the attack. Enraged by her loss, Shaw led his mutant allies to confront Buckman — resulting in the wholesale slaughter of the human leaders of the organization, and allowing Shaw and his allies to take over the Club.
But as Emma reveals in Marauders #22, Lourdes never actually perished. Sitting with Shaw on the edge of a beach, Emma recalls how years earlier, Lourdes came to Emma in private. Sporting a black eye from the openly abusive Shaw, she asked for Emma’s help in escaping the organization. When the Sentinel attacked the group, Emma saw an opening to help Lourdes. Using her telepathy, Emma was able to convince Shaw and Leland that Lourdes had been killed in the fight. In reality, Emma hid Lourdes while Shaw returned to the club for vengeance.
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After taking part in the massacre, Emma took Lourdes into hiding, recruiting Kingpin to help give the young woman a new identity and life — in exchange for the White Queen’s continued psychic assistance. These truths shock Shaw, who reveals to Emma that Lourdes’ apparent death was the incident that pushed him to fully embrace his mutant heritage instead of trying to just “make money playing both sides.”
By taking control of the Hellfire Club, Shaw set in motion a number of events, which all eventually led to the creation of the Hellfire Trading Corporation and its ability to service Krakoa. Emma reveals that she had doubts mutantkind could have made so much progress on Earth in so little time if it hadn’t been for his actions in response to Lourdes’ “death.”
Lourdes’ survival is a major change to the history of the Marvel Universe, revealing a person with plenty of knowledge of the Hellfire Club but who has remained in secret for years. Her “demise” being a major moment in the history of the evolution of mutants in the world is a surprising one, but a clever touch that reintroduces the largely forgotten mutant teleporter and gives her a minor importance in the grand scheme of things. The Hellfire Club’s connection to major events across the history of the Marvel Universe like “The Dark Phoenix Saga” make them vital to the way mutants have evolved. While Krakoa’s political and cultural arms can effectively be seen as extensions of the X-Men, its economy is still the providence of the Hellfire Trading Corporation that the club evolved into. And as this issue reveals, all of that was built on a secret Emma Frost has been keeping for years. And even though present-day Lourdes doesn’t appear in this issue, she seems set to return to prominence in the current era of Krakoa.
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