Cerebra's Files
Hellfire Club - Inner Circle
Aliases: The Council of the Chosen
This elite club, originally from London, includes politicians, businessmen, and
other powerful figures from around the world, and is renowned for throwing great
parties. In years past, it also was known for providing its members with all sorts
of pleasures, both legal and illegal, and usually in violation of the moral standards
of the time. More importantly, the club is a front for its Inner Circle, a select
group of men and mutants who strive for world domination. Actually, before the
current Inner Circle took power, the ruling body of the club was known as the
Council of the Chosen, and its leader, the White King, threw his support behind
Steven Lang and his Sentinels.
When that plan failed, Sebastian Shaw, the Black Bishop,
and Emma Frost, the White Queen, deposed the White
King and Shaw became the Black King, renaming the cabal the Inner Circle. The
Inner Circle (and formerly, its affiliate, the Massachussetts
Academy, once the home of the Hellions), has long
been a thorn in the side of the X-Men. The London
branch, much less powerful than the New York Club since HCNY's founding in the
late eighteenth century, recently reorganized itself, and along with Black
Air, planned to release a demon into London and use the ensuing chaos to take
control of the government. The plan ultimately failed, thanks to the efforts of
Excalibur, and the Inner Circle was all but destroyed.
Recently, Selene somehow usurped control of the Inner
Circle and brought in Mephisto's son Blackheart to be the Black King. Her plans
to consume all the souls of the Club' members was thwarted by the Fantastic
Four, Margali Szardos, and the new hero Mechamage,
with some assistance from Daimon Hellstrom, the "Son of Satan." Hellstrom decided
that he needed to become the next White King in order to try and balance Selene's
evil. He was able to imprison Balckheart in the cellar of the Club, but that didn't
stop the demon and Selene from convincing Sunspot
to join them. They held out the life of Juliana Sandoval, his dead girlfriend
(who had died protecting him), as a bargaining chip. If Sunspot joined the Club,
Juliana (whose death was a mistake, they said) would get a second chance. Bobby
had no choice but to become the third Black Rook. Hellstrom also left to find
a White Queen to support him, and so has had no further impact on the Club as
yet.
It is important to note that Black Queen I was a member of the Inner Circle
for just over two issues, that she was not really Jean Grey, but the Phoenix-entity
clone, and that she was under the mental control of Mastermind
at the time.
* While the Club is ancient and there have been many Kings and Queens, the numbering of the members begins from the modern era, with Shaw's assumption of the title of Black King.
** Members of the X-Men who belong to the club
are not part of the Inner Circle, and hold membership simply by
right of birth, not by choice. The sole exception is Brian Braddock, who claimed his position as Black Bishop in the London branch as a means of infiltrating the club to discover their plans.
Inner Circle - New York
Former Members
Inner Circle - London
X-Men with Club membership
