Thursday, March 26, 2020 by Paul in Annotations Posted onby Paul in

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

HELLIONS. The original Hellions were Emma Frost’s trainees when she was the White Queen of the Hellfire Club – the New Mutants’ opposite numbers, basically. Most of them were killed in 1991, though they’ve presumably been revived now. The name has been reused several times before. Emplate had a team in Generation X who were called Hellions in solicitations; a version led by King Bedlam showed up in late 90s X-Force; a squad at the X-Men’s school took the name in New X-Men in 2004; and Kade Kilgore’s version of the Hellfire Club had its own Hellions in Wolverine and the X-Men. This team… has no particular connection with any of the above.

This is the first Hellions series, though the New X-Men version had their own miniseries in 2005 (called New X-Men: Hellions).

COVER / PAGE 1. The team.

PAGE 2. Epigraph, attributed to Nightcrawler. Essentially he’s saying that an attempted utopia (like Krakoa) has to find something to do with the bad guys.

PAGES 3-7. The X-Men take down the Hellfire Cult, and Havok maims some of them.

Havok seems to be briefly possessed when he attacks the Cult members, and has no memory of it afterwards.

The X-Men on the mission (as you almost certainly know) are Siryn, Wolverine, Rockslide, Havok and Nightcrawler.

The Hellfire Cult. Anti-mutant thugs from the Fraction/Brubaker run, circa Uncanny X-Men #500. It’s not flagged here, but in the original story they were managed (i.e., manipulated) by Empath. Presumably they were used here because of that link, because otherwise they’re extremely obscure. On the other hand, that story portrays Empath as a self-loathing submissive to the Red Queen, which is quite different from his depiction in this story.

The mutant massacre is the slaughter of the Morlocks by Mr Sinister’s Marauders in the 1980s crossover of the same name. It’s worth mentioning here because Sinister and Scalphunter (of the Marauders) both figure into the story.

PAGES 8-9. Recap page and credits. The story is “Let Them be Snakes” by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia and David Curiel. The small print reads “Bad news – Hellions – Best of the worst.”

PAGES 10-11. The Quiet Council begin their discussion of what to do with Havok, Wild Child, Nanny, Orphan-Maker, Scalphunter and Empath.

We’ve repeatedly been told that all mutants are welcome on Krakoa, even the lunatic villains. Apocalypse and Sinister are on the Quiet Council, and plenty of regular terrorists or pro-mutant extremists have been shown living happily enough on Krakoa. These characters have apparently been selected as too unstable to integrate into Krakoan society, and/or in need of punishment. It’s kind of a Krakoan Suicide Squad.

We’ll introduce the various characters as we get to them.

PAGES 12-13. Empath makes the other Hellions fight each other for his amusement.

Empath was always presented as by far the most sociopathic of the original Hellions, with his creepy emotion-manipulating powers. Several of the original Hellions have reasonably obvious counterparts on the New Mutants; Empath is Karma. He did have something of a redemption arc later on, where he falls in love with Magma. That storyline involved the retcon that tried to get rid of Nova Roma, however, and when the retcon was reversed, the story blamed Empath for the whole mess – implying that he was faking all the time. The other original Hellions seen here are:

Jetstream , the Hellions’ version of Cannonball. His very American dialogue here is a bit out of character (he’s meant to be Moroccan). It’s the first time we’ve seen him since he was resurrected on Krakoa. His (underexplored) back story involved his powers tearing his body apart, and the Hellfire Club turning him into a cyborg in order to fix the problem, earning his loyalty. Presumably he isn’t a cyborg any more.

, the Hellions’ version of Cannonball. His very American dialogue here is a bit out of character (he’s meant to be Moroccan). It’s the first time we’ve seen him since he was resurrected on Krakoa. His (underexplored) back story involved his powers tearing his body apart, and the Hellfire Club turning him into a cyborg in order to fix the problem, earning his loyalty. Presumably he isn’t a cyborg any more. Catseye , the cat girl, is the Hellions’ version of Wolfsbane. She’s traditionally the nice one.

, the cat girl, is the Hellions’ version of Wolfsbane. She’s traditionally the nice one. Tarot , the redhead, is the Hellions’ version of Mirage, though she conjures up specifically images from tarot cards.

, the redhead, is the Hellions’ version of Mirage, though she conjures up specifically images from tarot cards. Roulette, the blonde, has luck powers; she’s less obviously tied to any of the New Mutants.

The two characters who arrive to break up the fight, if you don’t know, are Glob Herman and Armor.

PAGE 14. Data page on Empath. It’s not clear who’s writing this, though it doesn’t read like Sinister. The basic argument is that because Empath has had the power to control emotions from a very young age, he has never experienced any negative emotional feedback, and so his powers have prevented him from developing normal. In other words, the experience of having these powers has corrupted him and made him a psychopath.

The obvious objection to this reasoning is that the same could also surely apply to any character with psychic powers, and very few of them are like Empath. That’s presumably why we’re told that Empath’s powers emerged at an unusually young age. Note, also, that Empath had no effective control over Emma Frost, who kept him in check to some degree when working with the other original Hellions; Empath certainly wasn’t above interfering with his own teammates, but he didn’t do it incessantly. So you can certainly debate whether this analysis is correct.

PAGES 15-17. Orphan-Maker flies into a rage after being separated from Nanny.

These two weirdos were recurring villains in 1980s X-Factor. Nanny is a mutant scientist who discovered that she was actually working on cyborg technology for the Right. She tried to stop them, got caught, and was turned into the little egg-like cyborg you see here.

This experience drove Nanny completely insane, and she embarked on a scheme to abduct mutant children, kill their parents, and raise them herself. The Orphan-Maker is her prize child, Peter, who she apparently rescued from Mr Sinister. It’s always been unclear whether Peter is an adult with the mind of a child, or a child inside adult-sized armour. There was an implication that his mutant powers were very dangerous indeed and that the armour was designed to arrest his physical development and stop his powers from manifesting.

Nanny’s mutant power seems to be a low-level psychic power to infantilise people; Peter’s powers remain a mystery, if he even has any yet. They’ve rarely been used in recent years, but they were last seen quite recently, in War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men #1.

PAGES 18-19. Wild Child turns out to be off his medication.

Wild Child was originally an Alpha Flight villain, and he’s been written in wildly inconsistent ways over the years. Mostly he was a sort of mini Sabretooth. His back story involves him being experimented on by the Secret Empire, which is meant to be the reason for his lack of self control. There are also phases where he was more stable and calling himself Wildheart. He was last seen in Deadpool v Gambit #2 in 2016.

PAGES 20-21. The Morlocks attack Scalphunter.

Scalphunter was a member of the Marauders who wiped out most of the Morlocks in the mutant massacre. Unlike most of the Marauders, Scalphunter has a back story, albeit a sketchy one, which involves him having fought in World War II and survived to the present day through his healing powers. He also has some sort of intuitive power to assemble weapons. There have been occasional attempts to hint at him as more redeemable than the other Marauders.

The Morlocks who confront him are (left to right):

Erg , the guy with an eyepatch, who was first introduced in Power Pack. He’s one of those long-running recognisable characters who’s never really done very much.

, the guy with an eyepatch, who was first introduced in Power Pack. He’s one of those long-running recognisable characters who’s never really done very much. Callisto , leader of the Morlocks and a cast member of Marauders.

, leader of the Morlocks and a cast member of Marauders. Cybelle , a one-off character who was among the first Morlocks to die in the Mutant Massacre crossover. (She’s the first one to appear, and she’s recognisable by her jewellery.) Evidently she’s been resurrected.

, a one-off character who was among the first Morlocks to die in the Mutant Massacre crossover. (She’s the first one to appear, and she’s recognisable by her jewellery.) Evidently she’s been resurrected. Tommy , another one-off character killed in the Mutant Massacre. She’s the multi-coloured one. She too has been resurrected.

, another one-off character killed in the Mutant Massacre. She’s the multi-coloured one. She too has been resurrected. Piper , the guy in the hat. He can control alligators by playing his pipe, and he died in the Massacre too.

, the guy in the hat. He can control alligators by playing his pipe, and he died in the Massacre too. Masque, in the shapeless gown. This isn’t what Masque was wearing in Marauders but it’s what he wore at the time of the Massacre.

As we’ll see in the next scene, Scalphunter gets the blame for this attack, but he’s actually just defending himself. He doesn’t attempt to protest his innocence either, though, and there’s a sense that he thinks he deserves it.

PAGES 22-25. Sinister pitches his team.

“The Pit.” Presumably the fate suffered by Sabretooth in House of X #6 – supposedly suspended animation. Cyclops makes clear that he wouldn’t accept this for Havok, which is the closest we’ve ever seen him come to rejecting a decision of the Krakoan authorities.

Sinister’s pitch appeals to the Council’s mutant nationalism. These people are dangerous lunatics, yes, but they’re dangerous because of their mutant powers. And since mutant powers are wonderful and to be celebrated, it must follow that the solution is simply to find the right outlet for these people to be who they are. “If that is how they best express their gifts, who are we to stop them?”

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that this is nonsense. It’s arguably true of Empath. But Wild Child’s mental state is tied up with experimentation by the Secret Empire. Scalphunter’s powers are fairly innocuous as far as they go. Havok is too powerful to blast other humans directly without causing them serious injury, but he’s always worked around that by attacking people indirectly instead. Nanny’s powers are minor and her mental state is the result of torture. And Orphan-Maker’s mutant powers have never even emerged.

PAGE 26. Data page. Somebody provides their second opinion on the Hellions issue. We’re not told who it is, but it might be Moira. Whoever it is, they endorse the plan for somewhat different reasons: if the team is kept to missions where they can’t harm anyone else, maybe putting all the madmen together with help them collectively recover. It’s, er, a theory.

PAGES 27-32. Sinister despatches the Hellions, led by Kwannon, to destroy his old clone farm and deal with the rest of the original Marauders.

Kwannon comes to us from Fallen Angels, where she was already working with Mr Sinister.

The Essex State Home for Foundlings is the orphanage where Cyclops and (for a much shorter time) Havok lived as children. Sinister eventually turned out to be secretly running the orphanage, linked to his former obsession with their family bloodline.

“If this is all about getting your hands on my Peter…” As noted, Peter’s back story does involve Sinister expressing an interest him in the past – though he’s shown no real interest in him since.

The original Marauders are the six people seen in the green screens on page 32. In the left column are Riptide, Prism and Arclight; on the right, Scrambler, Harpoon and Blockbuster. Sinister used to keep cloning replacements for these guys, in a forerunner of the current Krakoan resurrections.

PAGES 33-35. The Goblin Queen torments the Marauders.

The Goblin Queen is Madelyne Pryor – Sinister’s clone of Jean Grey – as she appeared after making her deal with the demon N’Astirh during the 80s Inferno crossover. Note that this isn’t the Goblin Queen from another dimension who appeared in X-Men: Blue (she had horns). This appears to be the original Madelyne Pryor, or at least the version of her that appeared in the 90s (who may have been a copy created by Nate Grey). She was last seen in the Brian Wood X-Men run. We’ve had several references to Inferno in other Hickman-era stories.

PAGES 36-37. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: GOBLIN QUEEN.