A Major X-Men Villain Gets His Own Iron Man Armor
An X-Men villain has been keeping his own Iron Man-style armor suit stashed away for 'Fall of X' war.
Marvel has been slowly but surely creating new connective threads between the X-Men and The Avengers Universes – as the era of X-Men's Krakoa Nation comes to an end. Those connective threads now include one of the more villainous X-Men Universe characters getting a set of Iron Man armor!
(SPOILERS) Previews for the release of Immortal X-Men #16 reveal that Sebastian Shaw has used his ownership of Shaw Industries to commission the making of his own "Hellfire Armor." The design is clearly derived from Tony Stark's Iron Man armor design – with a Medieval aristocratic style bend in honor of Shaw's family roots in the Hellfire Club.
The Hellfire Armor is something that Sebastian Shaw is showing to fellow X-Men villain Selene as an example of a weapon (or "treasure") he keeps on hand but hopes to never need – which is a definite Marvel Comics foreshadowing that we'll definitely soon see it on the battlefield. Selene points out that it's ironic that Shaw has Hellfire Armor at a time when he's lost his official status as Black King of the Hellfire Club – it'll be interesting to see if his new armor helps him reclaim his crown.
Since the "Fall of X" storyline event first started, the X-Men's world has been in freefall. Humanity's anti-mutant organization Orchis has used prejudice, fear, and lies to position itself as the new SHIELD-type organization protecting the world against the mutant threat. In reality, Orchis and Future Sentinel Nimrod ambushed the mutants at Krakoa's latest "Hellfire Gala" party, slaughtered the new X-Men team, and coerced Professor X to psychically banish the majority of mutants from Earth, using Krakoa's portal system.
While most of the remaining mutants on Earth are on the run or deep underground (literally) in hiding, Sebastian Shaw seems to be doing what he always does best: tapping resources and making deals. The Hellfire Armor is just one more gun that will be needed if and when mutants take the war back to Orchis. In the spirit of fair trade, Tony Stark got to make some new Iron Man armor from the new Marvel metal Mysterium, which mutants united to harvest from a realm outside the known universe.
Immortal X-Men #16
Written by: Kieron Gillen
Art by: Lucas Werneck, David Curiel
Cover by: Mark Brooks
Page Count: 28 Pages
Release Date: October 4, 2023