Fat man has his faults … but he made his exit in style – Wolverine
Dearly Beloved,
We are gathered here to celebrate the life and deaths – yes, deaths, plural, three deaths, because you’re not anyone in the world of the X-Men unless you’ve died more than once – of Hellfire Club Black Bishop Harry Leland. Harry was a mass manipulator, and could increase an object or person’s mass. His power was limited to only affecting objects or people who were within 350 feet of him, and, the more a person struggled, the harder time Harry had affecting his or her mass.
So Harry did what Harry did – occasionally – best: he used his fists to get what he wanted, and it was after beating a man to death years before his first encounter with the X-Men, that he attracted unwanted attention from the NYPD, including officer Sean Cassidy (the X-Men’s Banshee). But Harry wasn’t the only mutant getting unwanted attention at the time – after meeting Emma (then homeless and poor), Harry pursued something more with her, but Emma shut it down. And, as befitting a telepath, she even mindwipes Harry and Sean (who also meets her during this same time) into forgetting her.
Art by Chris Bachalo, Al Vey, and Marie Javins
Sebastian Shaw, years later, making a power grab for control of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, appointed Harry Black Bishop, despite Harry being a coward, overweight, and a poor hand-to-hand combatant. He also had a weak heart, a condition which the use of his power exacerbated, but Harry didn’t share his condition with anyone.
(Harry’s early years with Emma and Sean were chronicled in Generation X -1, which came out years after his formerly official introducing into X-Men cannon during the Dark Phoenix saga, and his early years with Sebastian Shaw and the other Hellfire Club members were chronicled in the Hellfire miniseries).
Power-hungry, the Hellfire Club set its sights on the X-Men. While Mastermind seduced Jean Grey/Phoenix away from the X-Men, Emma Frost targeted members of the team (Storm, Colossus, etc.) while they were on a recruitment drive (for Kitty Pryde and Alison Blaire). Emma’s efforts were ultimately foiled by Phoenix, and the X-Men decided to take the battle to the remaining members of the Hellfire Club – who ultimately prevailed – as did Mastermind, who seduced Jean Grey/Phoenix into becoming the Black Queen, setting her down the path that ended with her “suicide” on the blue area of the moon during a confrontation with the Imperial Guard of the Shi’ar.
But that’s still a couple of issues away.
To capture the X-Men, Harry and Donald Pierce intercepted Nightcrawler and Wolverine – who were sneaking into the Hellfire Club’s Manhattan headquarters via the sewers – and while Nightcrawler was caught, Wolverine (whose mass Harry increases) became so heavy that he sunk deep into the water and was presumed dead. Sebastian caught the other members of the X-Men, thanks in no small part to the Black Queen’s help.
Art by John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Bob Sharen
Except Wolverine wasn’t dead, and when he came after the Hellfire Club to free his captured friends, Harry made a rookie mistake – he increased Wolverine’s mass just as he was lunging toward him, and was severely injured.
Art by John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Bob Sharen
Of course, the X-Men had more serious battles ahead of them (see Dark Phoenix saga and that suicide on the blue area of the moon), but it wasn’t long before the Hellfire Club again (Uncanny X-Men 151-152) came for the team, this time at their school and with Sentinels in tow. Harry was particularly jubilant, especially over Wolverine’s capture, but the X-Men escaped and paid back the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle in kind. Sebastian Shaw, particularly, sustained life threatening injuries, and the X-Men and Inner Circle brokered an uneasy truce – which remained intact until the time displaced Rachel Summers (the daughter of an alternate universe’s Cyclops and Jean Grey) decided – against the X-Men’s wishes – to take out the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, starting with Selene Gallio, the Inner Circle’s new Black Queen (Uncanny X-Men 208-209).
Wolverine stopped Rachel, and saved Selene’s life – except Selene decided it was time for the Hellfire Club to end its truce with the X-Men and pay back the team for Rachel’s transgressions. Harry, always looking out for himself, wasn’t keen on going after the X-Men (particularly Wolverine), but Selene convinced him and Sebastian Shaw to go after the X-Men.
The two teams met in Central Park in New York City, and Harry, perhaps having learned his lessons during the teams’ previous encounters, used his powers to take out Rogue and Colossus, but before the Hellfire Club could claim victory, Nimrod – a mutant-hunting robot from the future – arrived, because when else but at moments of victory do mutant-hunting robots from the future arrive.
The Hellfire Club and the X-Men set aside their grievances and teamed up to take out Nimrod, but the robot quickly gained the upper hand. He knocked Sebastian into orbit, and Harry, following X-Men team leader Storm’s instructions, used his abilities to anchor Nimrod into place. But the strain proved too much for Harry, who suffered a heart attack. Though dying, he continued to hold Nimrod in place, and Storm, recognizing that Harry was dead regardless of what they did, asked him to use his powers one last time and bring Sebastian back to earth and crash him into Nimrod.
Art by John Romita Jr, Dan Green, and Glynis Oliver
(Here’s Chris Claremont’s math gets a little fuzzy, because I think Sebastian was a bit farther than 350 feet away from Harry, though – No Prize alert! – maybe due to the circumstances, he was able to extend his reach even farther).
Harry increased Sebastian’s mass and brought him crashing into Nimrod, who both teams presumed destroyed. And Harry Leland, finally a hero, died.
Harry was resurrected five years after his death during a two-issue arc in Sensational She-Hulk (issues 34 and 35, December 1991-January 1992). In this arc (written by Harry co-creator John Byrne with art by Byrne, Keith Williams, and Glynis Oliver), Harry is one of four mutants brought back to life by D-lister Black Talon, who wanted to take down She-Hulk.
Art by John Byrne
Black Talon named his resurrected team of mutants — Harry, the Morlock Scaleface, Living Diamond, and Changeling – the Unliving X-Humed, and they worked in concert to bring down She-Hulk.
Except not everyone was willing to toe the Black Talon’s line. Changeling, who masqueraded as Professor X early in the book’s run to save him from an alien attack), tried to break free of Black Talon’s control. Harry, the Morlock Scaleface, and Living Diamond had no problem working for Black Talon, especially if it meant returning from the dead. But Changeling’s efforts won She-Hulk the time she needed to overcome the zombie team.
John Byrne, Keith Williams, and Glynis Oliver
The four resurrected mutants were once again dead, and to stop anyone else from resurrecting them, were buried, but not before their mouths were filled with salt and sewn shut.
But that wasn’t going to stop Black Queen Selene Gallio from bringing back Harry – along with millions of other mutants, many of whom were depowered after the Scarlet Witch whispered those famous three words: No More Mutants!
Selene brought Harry back to life via a modified version of the Transmode virus. Harry was simply cannon fodder for Selene, who didn’t invite him to join her newly reformed Inner Circle (made up of Blink, Senyaka, Mortis, Wither, and Eli Bard), and instead sent him and Shinobi Shaw (Sebastian Shaw’s son, also revived via this modified version of the Transmode virus) to Utopia, where the X-Men lived, to kill the former members of the Hellfire Club Inner Circle (Sebastian Shaw, Donald Pierce, and Emma Frost), Magma (who had long been a thorn in Selene’s black-clad side), and the other X-Men.
Art by Clayton Crain
Harry and Shinobi failed – as did Selene, but that’s a eulogy for another day – and Harry again shuffled off the mortal coil, still overweight, still a poor hand-to-hand combatant, and still available for a writer one day to resurrect and use again.
Someone once said that man, at the end of every day, as he rests, asks himself if he made his loved ones proud and the world a little better. Harry was not one to dance on the side of angels – in fact, only while battling Nimrod did Harry do something else the slightest bit selfless – but in his more than 35-year history (setting aside his retconned insertion into Emma Frost’s past), Harry answered the call, regardless of who made it, and fought valiantly, three times to his death.
Harry isn’t missed, in fact, no one has mentioned him since his brief use during Necrosha. He neither helped nor inspired, and now as he rests from his life’s long labor, only one question remains – when will he rise again.
Will Henderson is a freelance writer and father. His memoir, Second Person, Possessive, is out now and you can order here. Follow Will on twitter @Avesdad.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
