Hellfire Gala 2023 Recap – How Charles Xavier lost 250,000 mutants
Let’s look at another major plot point from the ongoing Fall of X crossover at the X-books from the pages of Hellfire Gala # 1 by Gerry Duggan with various artists.
So while the forces of Orchis battle the X-Men and other mutants living in Krakoa, other Orchis members like Omega Sentinel and Doctor Stasis make an appearance to taunt Xavier.
They also call in MODOK who joined Orchis early on when the X-Men was restarted by Cyclops and Jean Grey. MODOK was working to do something awful to the humans
Stasis and MODOK reveals that they have hijacked the mutant medicine that they supply to humans that they can activate at anytime to make people crazy. They then prove that they can do that so Xavier relents.
During the battle and after the death of Jean Grey, the mutants are ready to tear up the villains but Moira MacTaggert and the rest of Orchis orders Xavier to make the mutants surrender.
And not only does he make the X-Men stand down, he even orders the mutants to go into the Krakoan gates that have also been hijacked to send the mutants somewhere off-world. Orchis convinced Xavier to take over the minds of the mutants with the idea that they’ll just go to Arakko but in reality, they got sent somewhere else.
The good thing here is that he did train a number of mutants to resist his psychic takeover which they call the “Red Triangle”. Many mutants including Wolverine and Emma Frost resist and stayed on Earth while other big names like Cyclops have been critically injured in New York and getting picked up by Stasis’ / Orchis’ men to be tortured more.
So where did the mutants go?
It’s revealed in Immortal X-Men # 14 that the mutants were sent to a desert plane where they initially wandered aimlessly until Exodus took over control as the leader and plans to lead them to the “promised land”.
What happens to Charles after Hellfire Gala?
After this, Xavier is rescued by Rogue who also dismantles Moira MacTaggert. Charles asks Rogue to bring him back and shows guilt for what he has done only learning of the treachery that he has experienced some time ago. Weeks after, we find him still in the Krakoan Pacific Side and still punishing himself for what happened during the Hellfire Gala. He does protect the island from would-be invaders by projecting illusions of monsters.
