LEONINE

Real Name: Peter Scholl

Identity/Class: Human mutant (presumably; see Comments)

Occupation: Unrevealed; presumably businessman (see comments)

Group Membership: Hellfire Club Inner Circle

Affiliations: Castlemere, Tithe (Sandra Morgan)

Enemies: Sebastian Shaw, Wolverine (Logan / James Howlett)

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: X-Men Legacy I#217 (December 2008)  

Powers/Abilities: Leonine can transform from a normal-looking human into a humanoid lion with sharp claws, fangs and presumably enhanced or superhuman strength and agility. He apparently has no control of his growth once transformed, and risks losing control when in this form.

History:  (X-Men Legacy I#217 fb - BTS) - Leonine became a member of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (see Comments).

(X-Men Legacy I#217) - In the Hellfire Club's Manhattan mansion Leonine, in human form, met with Castlemere and Tithe to discuss how their feud with fellow Inner Circle member Sebastian Shaw was going, unaware their discussion was being eavesdropped on by Wolverine, who had been tricked by Shaw into believing the Hellfire Club had kidnapped his son, Daken, and had snuck into the building looking for him. In the meeting room Leonine noted that they had accumulated enough weapons to conquer a small country, but Castlemere insisted this was not enough, as their task, outmaneuvering Shaw, was more difficult. Castlemere noted that Roberto Da Costa's recent resignation from the Club had thrown everything into question, and that Selene, who might have held the Circle together, was nowhere to be found; with no one to stop him, Shaw had already begun his bid for power, and had slain ten people loyal to Castlemere in the past three days. Unimpressed, Tithe countered that while Shaw previously led the Club effectively for many years, he was now a spent force, and Leonine agreed, stating that Shaw had no power base to build from, while the three of them held all the financial and logistic aces. Castlemere disagreed, noting that they only held all the aces they knew of, and that he wouldn't put it past Shaw to have entire decks up his sleeve. Castlemere insisted they should find Shaw and take the fight to him, but one of the others (unseen, so it is impossible to say which) countered that the mansion was impregnable, and it would be better to let Shaw come to them. Outside the room the eavesdropping Wolverine was spotted and loudly challenged by a guard; Wolverine quickly knocked him unconscious, but the noise had alerted the three Inner Circle members. Leonine transformed and he and his fellows confronted the intruder, believing him to be an assassin sent by Shaw.

(Wolverine: Origins#29) - Tithe, Leonine and Castlemere battled Wolverine, but their fast-moving foe stunned all three with a succession of rapid blows, keeping them from co-ordinating their attacks long enough for a bomb he had rigged on the mansion's psi-field generators to blow. With the trio distracted and no longer shielded, from a safe spot outside the mansion, Wolverine's telepathic ally, Professor X, probed them and learned that they knew nothing about Daken's abduction. Slashing Leonine across the chest, Wolverine realized that Shaw had tricked him. Announcing that the interrogation had just become an execution, Logan drove his claws up through Leonine's chin and out through the top of Leonine's skull, apparently slaying him.    

Comments: Created by Mike Carey, Scott Eaton and Andrew Hennessey.

We got to know very little about Leonine beyond his membership of the Inner Circle, and his rank within the Inner Circle is unrevealed. Since most Inner Circle members are mutants and Leonine has superhuman powers, he is probably a mutant, but that's not a certainty; there were other exceptions to the mutant rule in the Inner Circle. The script for X-Men Legacy #217 briefly describes Scholl's powers, and notes that his transformation turns him into a "Mr. Hyde-like monster" who has no control over his own growth and who might endanger his own allies if he loses control. The details of his powers are not given, so it is possible that alongside the obvious traits, he might have a healing factor similar to those possessed by many of the other feral characters; if so, then Wolverine's attack on him might not have been fatal; though Wolverine penetrated Leonine's skull, the claws exit below the eyes, suggesting Leonine's jaw and snout were hit but not his brain - very painful, but not necessarily lethal.

He was probably an influential businessman of some type, since that seems to be one of the main requirements for being offered membership, and since he mentions holding "financial aces" over rich industrialist Sebastian Shaw. It is unclear exactly when he joined the Inner Circle; he wasn't present at the group's meeting in X-Men Legacy #215, so it is feasible that despite the small time frame between that issue and his debut that he was only just promoted to the group; however, it seems more likely however that he was simply absent from that earlier meeting. If he did survive the battle in Wolverine: Origins #29 then he would have presumably been ousted or killed prior to X-Men: Schism #2, when a group of elderly men where running the group and informed Kade Kilgore that they had purged the Inner Circle of mutants; even if Leonine wasn't a mutant, the new Inner Circle despised their predecessors, and so he would have been for the chop. Fittingly, the old men got purged that same issue, by Kade Kilgore and his new Inner Circle.

A few online sites have conflated Turner, who appeared for the first and last time in X-Men Legacy I#215, with Scholl, who debuted in X-Men Legacy I#217 and was only referred to by that surname in the issue, creating the ersatz hybrid character "Turner Scholl." Trouble is, they are clearly not the same person:

  1. Turner died in X-Men Legacy I#215 (see his entry for details).
  2. Scholl is an ally of Castlemere; Turner wasn't. In fact, it was Castlemere who killed him after Turner tried to assassinate Castlemere, so allies they definitely were not.
  3. Here's a picture of Turner (right, thin-faced with long brown hair tied back into a ponytail) next to Scholl (left, pudgy-faced and bald as you can get); even allowing for different artists, I'm not sure how anyone could think they were intended to be the same man.
  4. And for anyone who is still unconvinced, the script of X-Men Legacy I#217 provided Scholl's first name and codename, identifying him as Peter Scholl, a.k.a. Leonine.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Leonine has no known connections to

images:
X-Men Legacy I#217, p22 (main image)
X-Men Legacy I#217, p18, panel 4 (human headshot)
Wolverine: Origins#29, p5, panel 4 (Leonine gets skewered)
X-Men Legacy I#215, p10, pan4 / X-Men Legacy I#217, p18, panel 4 (Turner and Scholl comparison)

X-Men Legacy I#217 (December 2008) - Mike Carey (writer), Scott Eaton (pencils), Andrew Hennessey (inks)
Wolverine: Origins#29 (December 2008) - Daniel Way (writer), Mike Deodato (art)

Last updated: 04/14/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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