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One of Marvel’s most terrible mutants spied on Mister Sinister on behalf of an X-Men leader who they’re still loyal to after spending decades apart.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hellions #15, available now from Marvel.
The X-Men have never had a shortage of notable leaders in their ranks. That’s especially true now that mutantkind is based out of Krakoa, where X-Men field leaders like Cyclops and Storm are working alongside old enemies like Magneto and Exodus as part of a mutant society. However, another mutant leader has reemerged in the form of Emma Frost, who has proven that she can win both the hearts and minds of the mutants under her direction, even from some of the most disloyal mutants in the Marvel Universe.
In Hellions #15, by Zeb Wells, Roge Antonio, Rain Beredo, and VC’s Ariana Maher, the manipulative mutant Empath revealed that he had been spying on Mister Sinister through Hellions on behalf of his old teacher.
Although Empath seemed to be a remorseless, irredeemable mutant, he was able to keep Emma Frost informed on what Sinister had been working on behind the Quiet Council’s back; a hybrid of Sinister and Omega Level mutant Tarn the Uncaring called Chimera. Sinister used his leverage over Psylocke, the only copy of her dead daughter’s DNA, to keep Greycrow and Havok from destroying Chimera. Not willing to allow Sinister to have the kind of power that led to the destruction of Krakoa in one timeline, Frost directed Empath to take control of Havok and destroy Chimera, even if it meant the loss of Psylocke’s daughter.
Empath might seem like an odd choice for a double agent, since his ability to emotionally manipulate people turned him into a sociopath. He has been openly cruel to his teammates, especially Greycrow, and he generally stands as the least redeemable member of a team of Kraokoa’s most problematic mutants.
Through his time on the team, Empath has been presented as a character who is only loyal to his own interests. With that in mind, it would be easy to assume that Frost has some kind of leverage or control over Empath. While that’s possible, it’s more likely that Frost is the only person that could earn Empath’s loyalty, due to their time in the original Hellions.
Back when Frost was the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Empath was one of her students at the club’s private school, the Massachusetts Academy. A group of Frost’s students, who were also apprentices to the members of the Hellfire Club, were a team called the Hellions. They were introduced in New Mutants #16, by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema, as the opposite number to the New Mutants of Xavier’s School.
Multiples members of the New Mutants transferred to the academy after a traumatic battle with the Beyonder during Secret Wars II and briefly joined the Hellions. A pair of Frost’s students, Warpath and Firestar, would go on to join the X-Men after leaving the academy. The rest of the Hellions were a tight-knit group that didn’t circulate among X-Teams the way most mutants seem to, largely due to a traumatic event that changed Emma Frost’s life.
The time-traveling villain Trevor Fitzroy attacked the academy in an attempt to become the leader of an evil mutant group called the Upstarts. Two Hellions were killed in Fitzroy’s initial attack in Uncanny X-Men #281 by John Byrne, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio. The rest died when Fitzroy drained their life force to give him the strength to bring his criminal allies from the future into the present day (along with a persuing Bishop.) Empath was only spared from that fate because he had left the team to travel with former New Mutant Magma.
Frost survived the attack. After recovering from the coma it left her in, she reformed and allied with the X-Men. Partnered with former X-Man Banshee, she re-opened the academy and helped train the next generation of X-Men, Generation X. It was the beginning of a path that led to her joining the X-Men and becoming an integral part of the team.
While Frost had survivor’s guilt over failing her students, she clearly has the loyalty of at least one of them, perhaps as a lingering sentiment from the closeness of the original Hellions team. This shows how effective Frost is as a mentor and leader, earning the trust and lasting loyalty of a master manipulator. While Emma Frost may only be one of several leaders active on Krakoa right now, moments like this serve as a reminder of why she’s fostered the talents of multiple generations of young mutants.
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