In the history of the X-Men, one consistent thorn in their side has been the Hellfire Club, either directly or in the evil legacy of greed that spawned copycat groups and dark legacies. Even now, on Krakoa, Sebastian Shaw carries on the despicable legacy of the Hellfire Club.

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What follows are the ten worst things that the Hellfire Club has ever done. Sebastian Shaw's recent murder of Kate Pryde is not included. This is because the Hellfire Trading Company is not the same thing as the Hellfire Club. Of course, this does not reflect on the historic Hellfire Club.

10 Used Telepaths to Steal Secrets

The Hellfire Club made a practice of using telepaths to steal secrets. Emma Frost made use of it often enough, but it didn't end with her. Sebastian Shaw made use of telepathic dancers to steal secrets at the Hellfire nightclub that he opened.

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Ultimately, this was a tactic that was a means to an end. It sums up to corporate espionage. It also is one of the things that government and business leaders were terrified of happening with mutants. The Hellfire Club was too happy to feed that fear if it advanced their goals of wealth and power.

9 Worked With Miss Sinister to Distribute Mothervine

Mothervine was a virus that made its way from the Ultimate Universe. Miss Sinister manipulated it into a drug that could trigger new mutations. Unfortunately, it could also have a fatal effect. Initially unaware of this, the Hellfire Club lent its organizational and financial resources.

When it was discovered that there could be fatal side effects, Magneto, the White King, and Emma Frost, the White Queen acted to stop Miss Sinister. Sebastian Shaw, however, reveled in Mothervine, paying the price in debilitating side effects.

8 Formed the Hellfire Academy

The Hellfire Club set up the Hellfire Academy to train the organization's next generation of mutants to serve the Hellfire Club. Led by Kade Kilgore, the Inner Circle of the club made itself known by launching an attack on the Mutant Isle of Utopia, resulting in a split amongst the mutants of the X-Men.

The Academy lured students away from the Jean Grey School that Wolverine had established. Kilgore failed to account for Krakoa's presence at the Jean Grey School which helped to destroy the Hellfire Academy. His Inner Circle has resurfaced to bedevil the Hellfire Trading Company.

7 Used Warhawk to Test the X-Men

Before the Hellfire Club showed up in the pages of X-Men, Warhawk infiltrated their mansion and turned their Danger Room against them. In that first encounter, he referred to a master, one that could inflict great mental pain on him.

During that encounter, Warhawk bugged the mansion and tested the X-Men's abilities. This information was useful to the Hellfire Club in preparing for an encounter with the X-Men. While Warhawk had seemingly failed, he did succeed in doing what the Hellfire Club sent him to do.

6 Hunted Rachel Summers To Kill Her

Rachel Summers tried to kill Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. The only reason that she didn't succeed was that Wolverine nearly killed Rachel to stop her. Of course, Selene didn't care for this much and wanted revenge.

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She convinced the other Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club to hunt Rachel down. This hunt brought them into conflict with the X-Men, also seeking Rachel to help her survive Wolverine's attack. The battle was stopped by the mutant-hunting robot Nimrod who killed two of the Club's Inner Circle.

5 Attacked Atlantis

sentinels-attack-namor

After taking control of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw thought that he had found the perfect candidate for the Hellfire Club's White King. Unfortunately for him, Namor the Sub-Mariner had no intention of joining the Hellfire Club. Shaw sent Emma Frost to convince him and when she didn't return for two weeks, he sent Sentinels to attack Atlantis.

Namor fought off the Sentinels and Emma Frost was horrified that Shaw would use the mutant-hunting robots. Selene telepathically brought her back to Shaw's side. Shaw sent Namor away with the warning that Namor could never touch him. Of course, in the time that this story is set, Selene was not yet a member of the Hellfire Club.

4 Supported Project Armageddon

Under the command of White King Ned Buckman, the Hellfire Club gave support to Stephen Lang's Sentinel program named Project Armageddon. It was flawed due to Lang's fervent hatred of mutants. Unknown to Buckman, he had several mutants within the club itself.

When one of Lang's Sentinels killed Sebastian Shaw's lover, he took revenge and took over the Hellfire Club. Buckman was killed by Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost. The pair took over as the Black King and White Queen.

3 Hunted Mutants For Sport

When Shinobi Shaw took over the Hellfire Club, he started a morbid contest with other members of the Upstarts. Selene, the Black Queen, helped form the contest to see which of the new villains were worthy to lead mutantkind. To do so, they had a contest to hunt down mutants.

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Before it was over, the Upstarts would claim as their victims Donald Pierce and his Reavers, the White Queen's Hellions, and mistakenly Magneto and Sebastian Shaw. In the end, the Upstarts went their separate ways after the Gamesmaster canceled the contest.

2 Built Sentinels

Shortly after seizing control of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw seized on the opportunity to use the mutant-hunting Sentinels for his purposes. While Donald Pierce initially controlled them, Shaw took over the project and provided Sentinels to the government.

Shaw's motives were to stoke the tensions between humans and mutants. In the process, he made millions with government contracts. This also provided the Hellfire Club with powerful weapons to use against the X-Men after the mutant super-heroes had thwarted the Hellfire Club's plans.

1 Corrupted Phoenix

The Hellfire Club played a long game in capturing the X-Men. They had planned to collect genetic material to create a mutant army to serve their purposes. Part of this plan was corrupting Phoenix with the use of Mastermind's powers boosted by Emma Frost's technology. It almost worked.

Mastermind pushed too hard and as Wolverine launched a one-man rescue mission, Phoenix freed the X-Men and exacted her revenge. Shortly afterward, she would build on this corruption and become Dark Phoenix. Billions of lives were lost due to the Hellfire Club's scheme.

NEXT: X-Men: 10 Mutants Who Still Haven't Shown Up On Krakoa