The Hellfire Club of Manhattan

Thanks to Jamie Jones of New Day for finding this amazing sync. Jamie has recently lost all of his work on his blog due to an accident, so send him some love.

The Uncanny X-men #189, Jan 1985.





It starts off with the superheroine's Rachel Summers and Magma standing in the crown of the Statue of Liberty looking towards the World Trade Center. The captions read as follows.

Caption one "Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla is a child of Nova Roma, a city founded nearly 2000 years ago by a party of expatriate Romans, in the Andean highlands that spawn the headwaters of the Amazon."

Caption two "In a sense, her companion Rachel Summers hasn't even been born yet. The New York she remembers is that of the 21rst century."

Caption three "And the memories aren't pleasant."

Caption four "In her mind's eye, she sees lower Manhattan burning."

Caption five "The twin towers of the World Trade Center lie in ruins. Thousands are dead, many more injured."

Caption six "Rachel's a telapath."

The next page shows us a plane flying by the World Trade Center.



Throughout the rest of the comic there are no more references to the World Trade Center, however there are some interesting syncs. Rachel reflects on her past (future?) as a mind controlled assassin. She is shown wearing a black leather studded outfit, complete with leather mask and dog collar. She kills a family of "mutants" trying to escape, and she is programmed to feel no remorse. She is then shown crying in the present day because of her crimes.

The girls then take a stroll through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pausing at an exhibit of ancient Rome. Rachel "senses" the presence of a witch named Selene, whom both women have a past with. They trail Selene to "the Hellfire Club." Not wanting to be discovered, they disguise themselves as maids, complete with French maid costumes. Rachel cries when looking at the costume, because it reminds her of her time as a mind controlled slave.

They are quickly discovered by Selene, who soon takes over the minds of the women, and offers them to Sebastian Shaw, leader of the Hellfire Club as a gift. After a brief story filling psi op battle, the girls gain control of their minds just as the x-men break the door down to save the day. Shaw tells the X-men to leave, that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping, and they do. No arrests are made, and they all live to fight another day.

There are other subplots throughout the comic, Storm leaving the X-men for Africa, A janitor hiding an amulet he knows is evil, etc.

I found that the town of Nova Roma is fictional, but it shares a name with a group that lives under Roman laws and mythology.

Nova Roma is an international Roman revivalist movement created in 1998 (or MMDCCLI a.u.c. by the Roman calendar) by Flavius Vedius Germanicus and Marcus Cassius Julianus, later incorporated in Maine as a non-profit organisation with an educational and religious mission.[1] Nova Roma is "dedicated to the restoration of classical Roman religion, culture and virtues".

The girl from Nova Roma has the codename "Magma", so I found this paragraph from the Nova Roma Wiki site very interesting.

In 2002, Nova Roma dedicated themselves to help financially facilitate the archaeological dig and preservation of the Temple of the Roman goddess Magna Mater, also known as Cybele located on the Palatine Hill in Rome.[2] This joint effort between Nova Roma and the University of Rome is part of a larger project presented to UNESCO to preserve the entire South-Western section of the Palatine Hill in light of its religious importance in antiquity. [3][4] As of November 2007, Nova Roma and its citizens are the largest investors in the ongoing restoration of the temple.[5] It should be noted however that there is no actual religious worship at the excavation due to the extensive work still needed at and around the Temple.

The comic was written in 1985, and Nova Roma was founded in 1998. What's even more interesting is that they are restoring a temple dedicated to a goddess whose name resembles the character from the comic!

So who is Magma Mater?

Originally a Hittite and Phrygian goddess, Cybele (Greek: Κυβέλη) was a deification of the Earth Mother and was worshipped in Anatolia since Neolithic times. As with Gaia (the "Earth") or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals (especially lions and bees).

She is the equivalent of Gaea, the Earth goddess.



The telepath Rachel Summers is the daughter of X-men characters Cyclops and Phoenix. Cyclops is a resonator of the Eye of Horus, Illuminati symbol. Phoenix outside of the comics is a legendary Greek bird that rises from it's own ashes to live for 1000 years. The following quote is from her Wiki page.

Rachel Summers comes from an alternate future earth known as Earth 811 as seen in the "Days of Future Past" storyline from The Uncanny X-Men issues #141 and #142. In this reality the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly provoked the ratification of the Mutant Registration Act, leading to a dystopian future where the mutant-hunting Sentinel robots rule the world. Rachel was abducted by operatives working for Ahab, who used drugs and hypnotherapy to turn Rachel into a "Hound," a mutant who tracks down other mutants. She fulfilled her duties, but her psychic powers linked her to her victims, fueling her grief and despair, until she attacked Ahab and scarred him. In return, he sent her to the mutant concentration camps. There, she befriended the surviving mutant rebels, including Wolverine, Magneto, Colossus, Storm, Kitty Pryde and her lover, the adult Franklin Richards.

Multiple personality disorder anyone?

I found it interesting that her soul mate is the adult Franklin Richards, more on that later.

Selene is named after the Greek goddess of the moon.

In Greek mythology, Selene (Σελήνη, "moon"; English IPA: /sɛˈliːniː/) was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the titans Hyperion and Theia.[1] In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon".

Like most moon deities, Selene plays a fairly large role in her pantheon. However, Selene was eventually largely supplanted by Artemis, and Luna by Diana. In the collection known as the Homeric hymns, there is a Hymn to Selene (xxxii), paired with the hymn to Helios; in it, Selene is addressed as "far-winged", an epithet ordinarily applied to birds. Selene is mentioned in Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.581; Pausanias 5.1.4; and Strabo 14.1.6,

So in perspective, we have a struggle between the Earth goddess, the child of the Illuminati and the Phoenix, The X-men who represent the next step in human evolution, and the goddess of the moon.

Before reading this comic all I knew about the real Hellfire Club was that it was active in the 18th century, they had bizarre rituals and orgies, and Ben Franklin was reported to be a member.

A mason, Benjamin Franklin's links to occult secret societies have long been known. In the clip below, the History Channel talks about his involvement in the Hellfire Club, a secret society that conducted black masses and orgies. These bizarre, occult practices are still going on today in secret societies like the Bohemian club.

In 1998, the same hear Nova Roma was founded, renovations on Franklin's home uncovered 10 bodies, reportedly from the time period that Franklin was living there.

Initial estimates are that the bones are about 200 years old and were buried at the time Franklin was living in the house, which was his home from 1757 to 1762, and from 1764 to 1775. Most of the bones show signs of having been dissected, sawn or cut. One skull has been drilled with several holes. Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said yesterday: "I cannot totally discount the possibility of a crime. There is still a possibility that I may have to hold an inquest."

I'm not ready to condemn Franklin as a serial killer, but the evidence strongly suggests he was an occultist. In the film "the Waterboy" Mrs. Boucher says "Ben Franklin is the Devil!"

So Rachel Summers in infiltrating the Hellfire club, once visited by Ben Franklin, and her boyfriend is Franklin Richards!

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed your stay at Mercury's Garden.