New Characters!
Emma Frost, The White Queen
Background:
Emma Frost is, as ever, the ice cold queen female dog with a capital B. Her background is exquisite. She is from old money, her father was the White King until his death, which was how she got the job. She's the youngest member of the Hellfire Club and she defends her title with ruthlessness and aggression. She is very much the head cheerleader in a social club that shouldn't respond to that type of social power, but they do, because Frost can back it up with her powers and with her scathing wit.
Development:
Emma Frost is a tragedy, and we get to see that as she connects with the X-Men as an enemy and then uneasy ally. Unfortunately, she's not ready for her heel-face turn when we meet her. She gets a chance and redemption and blows it because of her pride and self centeredness. We do get to see the hints of her heart of gold, her love for teaching and her willingness to build a better world, but she simply needs better colleagues, and she wont find that while she's so concerned with good breeding.
For now, she plays the Queen Bee role well, as an unscrupulous telepath, shredding everyone by exposing their secrets and invading their most private thoughts and moments before lording it over them.
Powers:
Emma is a telepath, using all the same telepathic techniques, including light particle effects and dressed down filtered 'mindscapes' to achieve those ends. Her diamond powers don't show up yet, but they will.
Relationships:
Emma Frost, in true foreshadowing nature, does hit it off with Cyclops, but they're completely wrong for each other, at least at this point, and he's more consumed with Jean at the moment. She has moments with Xavier, which are fraught with tension as she would technically be his consort if he's inducted into the HFC, and she's the one who discovers his secret love for Jean Grey.
Summary:
Emma is a complex multi-faceted character. She is magnificent and she is a true witch of the highest order, and she loves it. She gets to play the same role here as she would if she were on a reality TV show. She is the #1 ish-starter and she knows it and she loves it.
Sebastian Shaw, The Black King
Background:
Sebastian Shaw is an inimitable man. He is refined in his taste and gracious in his discourse. He is a true gentleman, and has taken the Hellfire Club out of the puffy 1800s wear - now only for special occasions - and put them in contemporary settings. His is wealth and control and old money and tradition incarnate. If there's some rich banker running the world, it's this guy. And even though you know he has to be corrupt, he is the poster man for corruption, he's just so dang genial he makes it hard to really dislike him. He doesn't get his hands dirty. In fact, even the fact that he's a mutant is a closely guarded secret, a trump card he plays only at length.
Development:
We meet Sebastian as a host, and we are introduced to his evils slowly, like boiling a frog in water. The goal is to bring the viewer along Xavier's journey of slow compromise until Xavier is ready to do the unthinkable. In this way, Shaw serves as a straw man for the slippery slope of control. We are to think we get to see bits of his human side with his son, but he proves very quickly that he is indeed evil incarnate, a true villain to his very core.
Powers:
Sebastian Shaw's powers are to absorb energies forced upon him. To this end, his power is an anti-power of sorts, a sound effect that occurs when other characters' powers misfire or give out. His power is, simply, to be unaffected. He doesn't boast the crazy energy manipulation powers
Relationships:
Shaw forms a sort of aggressive big brother bond with Xavier. This contrasts with Xavier's relationship with Magneto as Magneto is more protective and prescriptive, while Shaw is almost pushing Xavier to see what he will do.
Summary:
Shaw is the devil. He doesn't say it, but you know it when you see him. He avoids being cartoony by virtue of the actor's subdued performance of someone who genuinely wants to spread misery for its own sake.
Nathaniel Essex, Mr. Sinister
Background:
A huge character from the comics, Mister Sinister is responsible for all sorts of pain and dismemberment. He is virtually immortal, and displays mutant powers though he doesn't register as a mutant on any given scanner. A monster in his own right, but unlike Shaw, he bows to a puppetmaster, though no one has any clue who his real puppeteer is yet. He appears to be a normal human, but in reality is anything but.
Development:
Nathaniel Essex is a sloooow burn, not even revealing his inhuman form until near the end of the season. He appears as a dark scientist, and we get suitable creepiness form him as we realize his shop of horrors goes deep into the catacombs. We intentionally avoid putting Essex and the Summers family together in the same room, though we do see him first being smitten with Jean's powers and taking her DNA. He's intended to be slimy and make us want to avoid knowing more about him, and comes off as more of a misleading red herring cameo here.
Powers:
Mr. Sinister is a shapeshifter, among other things that involve masterful body control. We don't get to see much from him, but we get hints.
Relationships:
Currently, none of significance beyond bowing to Shaw and then to Phoenix. Naturally, it will be revealed that he was Scott Summers' case worker, but that's a story for another season. Additionally, he is the herald and emissary for he who shall not be named, but that too is a story for another day.
Summary:
He seems like a simple peon in the club, but fans will know better, and their patience will be rewarded when he goes full sinister.
Jason Wyngarde, Mastermind
Background:
If Emma is the head cheerleader giving the X-Men the high school drama they missed, then Jason is the pretty boy, taking Warren's place as the long haired blonde that woos Jean. He actually got a nice secret in the form of an ugly scar on his face and a missing right arm from a car accident, giving him a nice reveal. Overall though, he makes things look perfect, he always has the right cash on him, the right papers, the right look and the right gear. Most importantly, he always has a plan.
His day job is that of a world famous actor, so some of the X-Men are fans and fawn over him a bit.
Development:
We meet Jason Wyngarde as a schmoozing bad guy, too slick, to well presented. As the season goes on we see this background player is in all the right places at the right times. His opportunity to engage with Jean and to mesmerize her with his vision, comes from him playing a long game. As she ascends through godhood, Jason is the one who can guide her, who can test her, who can hold her accountable. Him leading her to be all that she can be is, of course, a play by himself to get his body fixed and to take over the Hellfire Club, and he simply doesn't anticipate Jean outgrowing him before she outgrows the whole planet. His initial elevation to Red King in the club is based on him hiding something very well from everyone, even from the telepaths.
Powers:
Jason's power is illusion, and as such, his power involves a typical day of shooting for whatever his illusion is with a nice fading transition to show that it never really happened or never was there.
Relationships:
Jason is in love with power, and so, he is truly in love with what Jean is becoming. The rest of the club regards him largely as a nuisance who is occasionally useful for making things appear as they would like, handling the decorations and such. This is why his turn for power is so alarming to them, because he was underestimated by everyone... except possibly Shaw who is only disappointed that Jason fell in love... he could have been next in line.
Summary:
The Mastermind works as a scapegoat for Jean's villainy at first, during its worst parts, during her chrysalis stage. By the time he is out of the picture she's an enlightened villain with a simple plan, the destruction of humanity.
New Supporting Characters:
Harry Leland, The White Bishop
Background and Powers
The White Bishop of the Hellfire Club, jealous of Xavier because he wanted to be next in line. A very influential Cardinal in his day job. Has the power to change the weight of other objects, which amounts to people acting as though they are heavy and then falling down, or being lifted off the ground because they are so light.
Character Notes
The idea of the Hellfire club played straight. He's normal, he's
Roberto DaCosta, Sunspot, The White Rook
Background and Powers
Roberto is another prospective member of the Hellfire Club, since his father recently died. If inducted, he would be the new youngest, as a contemporary of Shadowcat. He's a generic spoiled rich kid with fire powers that he doesn't know what to do with.
His power is that of a warm black shell of heat, which is a CGI nightmare, so for now, he can only turn into this CGI form briefly for short bursts, and also, he burns things way too easily, hearkening back to the super-dangerous powers of first season.
Character Notes
Robby Dacosta here is largely played for comedy and snark on the youngest generation and what it does with too much money. Think of a Justin Bieber with super powers (from South America). He's that kid.
Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man & The Black Pawn
Background and Powers
Madrox shows up in two places at once. He's the face behind the maskless goons the Hellfire Club employs thanks to a sort of brainwashed offshoot of Madrox Prime. He's also a part of X-Factor with Havok, Polaris, Iceman, Strong Guy, Mystique and Forge. He's a bit manic on that team, with a few different voices depending on the duplicate. We're not sure where to place him, which is why the reveal that he's also the HFC goons goes over so easy.
Character Notes
A longtime fan favorite, Jamie here is still in plot device mode. He's got jokes and a wry sense of humor that plays off of Bobby's more high intensity humor when we see them together. The goal is to make his brief appearances cool so that he can be memorable and pay respect to his many fans, even if they don't see him often.
Warren Worthington II, Black Rook
Background and Powers
For those noting, the Rook position in the HFC designates the money person. Warren II is that, and is alarmed at how quickly mutancy has 'taken over' the HFC, just inside of a generation, but he keeps it to himself, but Emma uses this against him at times. He's grieving his son as well, in his own way and so he has a great deal of ire for Charles who got his son killed. We do get to see him meet his great grandson though, so that's a nice thing.
Character Notes
Warren II doesn't have much to do or say here, but he's needed for continuity and to keep those deaths that the X-Men have suffered in mind. With Sinister's master coming, it's important that our Warren, Angel isn't forgotten about for all of Season 3.
Selene Gallio, The Black Bishop
Background and Powers
Selene is the first female non-Queen HFC member in a long time. It's not easy to forget that she's immortal because pictures of her with previous HFCs are portraits on the wall. She's a high level witch, with a capital W, but that doesn't come across. We do see a hint of her life-sucking abilities to explain her longevity, which are much like Rogue's powers, but with a different effect, indicating that Rogue could travel this road if she so chose.
Character Notes
Selene is a season worthy big bad in her own right, and like Tessa, this may just be our introduction to her before she returns in a bigger capacity later.Here, she's just a scary lady, though her mother-like ways and jealousy of Jean Grey's meteoric rise do register.
Shin "Shinobi" Shaw
Background and Powers
Shinobi is Sebastian's son. As the son of he and his consort, Tessa, he is half-Asian, and definitely not a member of the Hellfire Club, but a snotty nosed rich teen, with a lot of angst that DaCosta wouldn't have. Shinobi is a tragedy, even with his snazzy mutant powers, and his death, preventable by Sebastian just makes it worse.
Character Notes
This is really Sebastian's kick the dog moment where we see that he's *not* human in the way that we are, that his child's suffering doesn't move him. His child fails, he simply says they should start over. This does set up the cloning initiative that gives birth to the Stepford Couckoos, however when Emma Frost attempts to hijack it to her own ends.
Callisto
Background and Powers
Callisto is a warrior born, she's fierce, courageous and a fully realized and driven leader. She talks big and backs it up, and she knows its just her and her people against the world. She's what Cyclops and Storm know they should be, but aren't. Her powers are simply heightened senses, but it makes her a beast, combat wise, and is visualized with sound effects and camera focuses on her eyes or eyes and then cutting to the thing she's perceiving, however small or distant.
Character Notes
The Morlocks make their debut here, and make a grand counterpoint to the Hellfire Club's mutancy. Here are the true outcasts, and they put the pretty X-Men to shame and question their relevance.
Caliban
Background and Powers
Callisto's bodyguard and right hand man. A big mute inhuman white creature with only the stregth appropriate to a big strong man. He does have the power to sense mutants from a distance and their 'power levels' which doesn't have an effect beyond his gestures of size to Callisto and the target's dialogue that they 'feel funny.'
Character Notes
A gentle giant type.He perhaps has been mute his whole life, as he communicates in sign language.
Skids
Background and Powers
Sally Blevins is another contemporary of Kitty and Robby DaCosta, and she, unlike the rest of the Morlocks, doesn't actually look inhuman, she's just a normal runaway. Her powers, involve an incredible forcefield, which makes her the tank for the Morlocks, one way or another. Her ability to skate or slide on her forcefield is regarded as a toy, essentially.
Character Notes
Sally is our cute kid here, and she's meant to turn our vision of Morlock society on its head seeing the important role she plays and the childlike freedom she still enjoys, trying to drive home the point that the Morlocks are doing it right and the X-Men are actually closer to Magneto's vision than anyone.
Artie & Leech
Background and Powers
Two more youngsters with complementary powers. Artie is deaf and so he signs with Caliban often, Leech is just soft spoken with English as his Second Language. They are inseparable though they are usually seen with Skids when she's nearby. Artie's power is based on the grafitti he makes, which he can rearrange after the fact, thanks to some nice photoshop work. While Leech's power is another one of those non-effects based, though there might be a sound effect when his power is active, a kind of silence.
Character Notes
These two are there for fun for now... and later, for heartbreak.
Marrow
Background and Powers
As old as the younger X-Men, but without the devastating experiences, Marrow has a lot of attitude and limited places to point it. Her powers, to pull bones from her skin involve a lot of prosthetics work, so it'll probably be limited to some daggers and not the whole bone control we've seen her do at times.
Character Notes
This is further evidence of how violent the X-Men are... the most violent Morlock is powerless before their years of field combat experience, even though she's their same age of being a late teen.
Brian Braddock, Captain Britain
Background and Powers
If you'll recall, the X-Men killed Brian's sister, Betsy. So, he's not the biggest fan, and now he's the premier superhero in Britain, a super soldier in his own right thanks to a controlled strain of IGH (ala Jessica Jones), though with Phoenix's help, perhaps he connects with his multiverse counterparts or something like that. Regardless, he is glad to have his sister back, even if she is a lot different, though his attempts to recruit X-folks to Excalibur are hard to work out.
Character Notes
Brian's whole character is a bit of fun with the Captain America concept, but with British accents.
Fabian Cortez
Background and Powers
The power booster, and one of Magneto's most famous Acolytes. He is an opportunist and a zealout, sort of a Magneto fanboy. His power too boils down to a sound effect and then doing more and better of other people's powers. His power is what helps Magneto break out, create Asteroid M and allow Benet du Paris to enthrall so many.
Character Notes
'What if Toad was super-useful.' He's that guy.
Joanna Carguill, Frenzy
Background and Powers
Another Acolyte, a Jamaican girl with a lot of attitude and super strength and durability. Sweet in her own way, but largely a loyal lieutenant, which is generally the whole of her characterization, except when her leaders cross the line and the good guys appeal to her conscience. She can't help them, but she will look the other way.
Character Notes
This character is meant to be fun. Someone who loves their power and isn't afraid to use it.