Sebastian Hiram Shaw is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has been frequently depicted as an adversary of the X-Men.
A mutant, Shaw possesses the ability to absorb energy and transform it into his own raw strength. He is the leader of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, an exclusive secret society composed of mutants bent on world domination, although to the public, he is a legitimate businessman and ordinary human. He once funded the mutant-hunting Sentinel program to keep it under his thumb.
Kevin Bacon portrays Shaw in the 2011 film X-Men: First Class.
Publication history Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, Sebastian Shaw first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980), during the "Dark Phoenix Saga" storyline. John Byrne based the appearance of Sebastian Shaw on British actor Robert Shaw, who had died in 1978.
Fictional character biography Sebastian Shaw was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mutant abilities first manifested shortly after he was accepted to engineering school and his father Jacob Shaw died after he contracted an incurable disease due to genetic manipulation by Mister Sinister. Sebastian devoted himself to his studies and created Shaw Industries, becoming a millionaire by age 30 and a billionaire by age 40.
Joining the Hellfire Club Shaw becomes engaged to Lourdes Chantel, also a mutant. He is soon initiated into the Hellfire Club thanks to his vast fortune, having caught the attention of Ned Buckman, then White King of Hellfire Club's New York branch. Shaw becomes part of the Council of the Chosen, earning the rank of Black Bishop. Chantel does not trust Buckman, and feared that Shaw's ambition and the nature of the Hellfire Club would corrupt him.X-Men: Hellfire Club #4 (April 2000)
Taking over Chantel is seemingly killed by Sentinels in a battle. Upon discovering that Ned Buckman is supporting Steven Lang's Project: Armageddon, Shaw executes a coup, using Emma Frost's telepathy to make Buckman kill all the Council of the Chosen and then himself. Shaw proclaims himself Black King, remakes the Council of the Chosen into his Inner Circle, and gathers Frost, Harry Leland and Donald Pierce as the Lords Cardinal of Hellfire Club.Classic X-Men #7 (March 1987)
As the leader of the Hellfire Club, Shaw starts plans to dominate the world through force, money and power. His connections to top officials of corporations and government, acquired via the club and through his position as CEO of Shaw Industries, make him a powerful enemy. Shaw becomes a major supporter and builder of Sentinels. This activity brings him into frequent contact with Robert Kelly and Henry Peter Gyrich, to whom he appears to be an anti-mutant bigot.X-Men #135 (July 1980)X-Men #142 (February 1981)
Meeting the X-Men Shaw sets his eyes on the X-Men, scheming to capture and study them for use in breeding an army of powerful mutants for the Hellfire Club. He employs the superpowered assassin Warhawk to plant a bug in Cerebro, ensuring the Hellfire Club would be aware of newly manifested mutants at the same moment as the X-Men themselves, as well as giving them access to secret details of their powers and fighting techniques.X-Men #110 (April 1978) However, the club's operatives prove ineffective at defeating the X-Men in the field, and the first two mutants they locate in this manner are lost.The Uncanny X-Men #129-131 (January - March 1980)
Now aware of the Hellfire Club's existence, the X-Men infiltrate their headquarters, but are defeated and captured. However, the X-Men escape before Shaw can put them to use.The Uncanny X-Men #132-134 Shaw's control of the Hellfire Club grows more tenuous as Pierce proves to be a mutant-hating traitor,Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants (November 1982) and a new recruit to the Inner Circle, Selene, sets her sights on replacing Shaw as the chairman.The New Mutants #23 (January 1985) The Hellfire Club is forced to battle alongside the X-Men against Nimrod. Though the group emerges victorious, Hellfire Club members Harry Leland and Friedrich von Roehm die in the fight.Uncanny X-Men #208-209 (August - September 1986) After the battle, the Hellfire Club and the X-Men become allies of sorts, with Magneto and Storm filling the position of White King.The New Mutants #51 (May 1987) Shaw is ousted from the Hellfire Club by Magneto, Selene, and Frost, who view his support of the Sentinels as endangering the group.The New Mutants #75 (May 1989)
Keeping in power Months later, Shaw is attacked by his son, Shinobi Shaw, and apparently killed.X-Factor #67 (June 1991) Shinobi becomes the new Black King of Hellfire Club. However, Shaw survives and joins a new Inner Circle alongside Selene, Madelyne Pryor, and Trevor Fitzroy.X-Force #48-50 (November 1995 - January 1996)
Shaw contacts the mutant Holocaust, who had crossed over from the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline. In exchange for a new armored containment suit, Holocaust agreed to help Shaw capture X-Force, which he does with ease. Shaw has telepathically brainwash X-Force to hunt down Cable, but Cable uses his telepathy to break the conditioning and free his team. Shaw's relationship with Holocaust declines soon after.
After Professor X is "outed" as a mutant, Shaw apparently returns to his capitalist roots and converts the NY branch of the Hellfire Club into a strip club, which is actually a safe haven for mutants.New X-Men #142 (August 2003) After a few months, Shaw aims to become the new Lord Imperial of the entire club worldwide, and invites Sage to help him. Shaw also invites Courtney Ross and Sunspot to join him as the White Queen and Black King. All three accept, but Sage betrays Shaw. Shaw is wounded by Pierce, but manages to knock Pierce's head off. However, Shaw is too hurt to maintain his club position and is replaced by Sunspot, who becomes Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club.Uncanny X-Men #449-454 (November 2004 - March 2005)
Mister Sinister and the Cronus Machine Shaw attends a Hellfire Club dinner hosted by Sunspot and is alerted to a device left to him by his father exploding elsewhere in the compound resulting in the insanity of two club menials and Shaw asking his manservant for a file labelled "Kronos". After being upbraided over the explosion and deaths by Sunspot, he is ordered to investigate. The explosion in the Hellfire Club was caused by the activation of a machine developed beneath the Alamogordo genetics plant in Las Cruces, New Mexico by Mister Sinister. In the past, Sinister worked at Alamogordo alongside Brian Xavier (Professor X's father), Kurt Marko (Juggernaut's father), and Irene Adler who had been gathered for him by Jacob Shaw, Sebastian's father, as they all had the X-gene and Sinister predicted their children would be mutants. Sinister then experimented of these children (including Marko, Xavier, and Sebastian himself), imprinting himself on their DNA. Sinister's machine, dubbed the Cronus device, was designed to activate soon after his death and would activate these hidden copies until Sinister could be reborn in one of them. Jacob, wanting to protect his son, created the device in the Hellfire Club from Sinister's notes to alert and protect Sebastian from the Cronus device. Shaw travels to New Mexico to visit another of the children to confirm his theory, running into Xavier and Gambit who were investigating a hit list with the children's names on it. However, Xavier is captured by Amanda Mueller, a former associate of Sinister. Mueller wants to house the powers (though not the personality) of Sinister herself and so is assassinating the children, having undergone the procedure herself. She shoots Xavier, who is already struggling to stop Sinister from taking over his body, which allows him to take over. Sinister in Xavier's body stops Mueller, but is in turn confronted by Shaw and Gambit, who destroy the Cronus device while Xavier casts Sinister out of his mind. With the threat gone, Shaw leaves.X-Men: Legacy #210-214 (June - September 2008)
Dark Reign During Frost's early days as the White Queen, Sebastian Shaw sends her to convince Namor to join the Hellfire Club. Instead, Namor takes Frost to his kingdom and they begin a relationship. Believing Frost to have betrayed him for Namor, Shaw sends a reprogrammed Sentinel to Atlantis, attacking the two and destroying the kingdom. As Namor confronts Shaw for his treachery, Selene takes telepathic hold of Frost, erasing her memories of Namor, who vows revenge on Shaw. In the present, Frost reveals that her initial battle with Phoenix unlocked her memories of Namor. She makes a pact with him, seducing Shaw and using her telepathy to make Namor believe she has executed him, while secretly telepathically incapacitating Shaw. Per their deal, Namor vows to protect mutant-kind as his own people, while Frost, more determined to fill her role as a leader of mutant-kind, contacts Cyclops to have Shaw captured by the X-Men for "crimes against mutant-kind."The Uncanny X-Men vol. 2 Annual #2 Approaching him later in his cell, Frost reveals that she has captured Shaw for Namor and on the basis that the Sentinels he commissioned were ones later used by Cassandra Nova to destroy Genosha. She sentences him to remember nothing but the faces of the Genoshan victims using her telepathy.Uncanny X-Men #507 (May 2009)
Utopia Due to Namor's presence on Utopia, Emma Frost realizes that Shaw's continued existence poses a threat to her agreement with Namor. She decides to finally kill him, but her plans are exposed when Shadowcat accidentally picks up her thoughts during a psi-conversation between her and Colossus. While disgusted at Frost's intended actions, Shadowcat offers her a compromise. As she currently exists as a ghost, she is the perfect tool for making Shaw disappear.
Fantomex, Shadowcat and Frost take Shaw aboard E.V.A., whilst they work out how to dispose of him. Frost wakes Shaw up and asks him to recount the early days of the Hellfire Club. Frost and two other dancers were once close friends, when one night, Shaw offered Frost the position of Queen. The only stipulation was that one of the two girls had to die. She stated she did not care which one was killed and watched as Shaw proceeded to kill both. In the present day, Frost starts to question Shaw further when Fantomex, bored with Frost's recounts of her history, drops the floor from under Shaw. Frost goes into a rage at Fantomex, as Fantomex was unaware that Shaw could absorb energy, such as that from hitting the ground from such heights.Uncanny X-Men #531 (February 2011)
Shaw proceeds to engage Frost's group, stating that he would rather die than see Frost go on breathing a moment longer. Helped by a maimed Fantomex, the former White Queen tricks Shaw into allowing her into his mind, and wipes his memory.Uncanny X-Men #534 (May 2011)
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