WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Marauders #3 by Gerry Duggan, Michele Bandini, Elisabetta D'Amico and Federico Blee, on sale Wednesday, Dec. 4.
The Marvel Universe used to be a place where a person couldn't sneeze without running into a mutant. The X-Men ruled as the most popular Marvel Comics franchise, which was represented by multiple ongoing series and placement at the top of the sales charts. However, the publisher even recognized the mutant population had grown too large, leading to efforts to dwindle their numbers with events like Decimation and the massacre on Genosha.
Those dark days are now behind the X-Men, as writer Jonathan Hickman has ushered in a new era for the heroes in the aftermath of House of X and Powers of X. After all the death and loss of loved ones, mutants are returning like never before to the sovereign nation of Krakoa. This includes fan-favorite X-Men like Synch and Skin from Generation X, as well as villains like Pyro in Marauders.
The new Dawn of X title features another villain-turned-hero in Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Trading Company. The Hellfire Club appears to be back in full force with Sebastian Shaw retaking his claim as the club's Black King, even if Emma is throwing her new responsibilities and power in his face.
Sebastian gets the spotlight in a preview of Marauders #3, with our first looks at the Red Keep, Blackstone and White Palace, which incorporate Hellfire Bay. These locations have been spotted on maps of Krakoa in previous titles, and are the strongholds of the Hellfire Club. Sebastian speaks of walking through a Krakoan gateway in the Blackstone and exiting in the Hatchery, which is where mutants are reborn through the mutant resurrection protocols. Though it isn't made clear in the preview, the person being brought back to life on the cover of Marauders #3 is most likely Sebastian's son, Shinobi Shaw.
"On that day, I restored the Shaw bloodline," Sebastian says. Restoring the Shaw bloodline would have to involve correcting his son's death in Uncanny X-Men #20. Shinobi and the Nasty Boys are only a small number of characters to fall during Matthew Rosenberg's run on the title. After the X-Men were seemingly killed in a battle against Nate Grey and Legion, Cyclops and Wolverine reformed the X-Men with the heroes that remained. Of course, the X-Men that were thought to be dead were really teleported to another dimension in the Age of X-Man, and returned once that world crumbled.
Shinobi Shaw was once the leader of the Upstarts and tried to dethrone his own father on more than one occasion, even successfully killing Sebastian. Now, the father appears to have put that behind him and is looking for a fresh start with his son. It remains to be seen if Shinobi will reciprocate those feelings.