TURNER

Real Name: Turner (full name unrevealed, as is whether Turner is his first name or surname) 

Identity/Class: Unrevealed; probably mutant (see comments) 

Occupation: Unrevealed; presumably businessman (see comments)

Group Membership: Hellfire Club Inner Circle

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Castlemere

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: X-Men Legacy I#215 (October 2008)  

Powers/Abilities:  Unrevealed.

History:  (X-Men Legacy I#215 fb - BTS) - Turner became a member of the American Hellfire Club's Inner Circle (see comments). He learned that rival Inner Circle member Castlemere had undergone cybernetic enhancement, much like the former White King and Club turncoat Donald Pierce, and suspected this was part of a plan on Castlemere's part to take over the Inner Circle. He secretly arranged for poison to be placed in Castlemere's wine at the next Inner Circle meeting.

(X-Men Legacy I#215) - Turner attended an Inner Circle gathering in the Club's Manhattan mansion, where Sebastian Shaw insisted that former Lord Imperial Roberto Da Costa's recent defection back to the X-Men should not distract the members from the real issue (presumably accumulating power for the Inner Circle members). Before Shaw could expand on his statement, he was interrupted by a cloaked Castlemere, who claimed Shaw was really concerned only with building up his own power base. As he picked up the wine Turner had secretly poisoned, Castlemere added that he knew Shaw had brought back a weapon from a recent trip to New Mexico that he was keeping from the rest of them. Mention of hiding weapons prompted an irate Turner to verbally challenge Castlemere in turn, bringing up Castlemere's own recent cybernetic enhancements and accusing him of plotting a coup. Ripping his cloak off to reveal the full extent of his cybernetics, Castlemere rounded on Turner, pointing out that the Club needed soldiers, that the mutants once seen as these potential soldiers had proved to be a finite resource, and insisting that Donald Pierce had been a man of true vision. Turner countered that Pierce had also been of questionable sanity, but Castlemere interrupted him, adding that his body now had a high tolerance to organic toxins. Realizing his plan had failed and that Castlemere was aware of his murder attempt, Turner replied that it was worth a try, and noted that the Club's rules allowed for such undeclared challenges. Downing the remaining wine, Castlemere agreed, briefly appearing to have let the failed assassination slide, but then tendrils of energy spiked out of his body, slicing through Turner's torso and skull, slaying him almost instantaneously. As other Club members reacted, powering up for battle, an unflustered Shaw called for calm, pragmatically noting that they now had two vacant places at the Circle to fill.

Comments: Created by Mike Carey and Marko Checchetto.

We got to know very little about Turner beyond his membership of the Inner Circle, as he only appeared in six panels. His Inner Circle membership suggests he was probably an influential businessman of some type, since that seems to be one of the main requirements for being offered membership; he demonstrated the other requisite, ruthless ambition, in his attempt to murder Castlemere. He may have been a mutant, since many Inner Circle members were during this era, but that's by no means certain. It is also not clear exactly when Turner (and Castlemere, etc.) joined the Inner Circle. On the one hand, it would make sense that it wasn't too long before he made his appearance, or else it we'd have seen him during the group's past appearances, plus the old Inner Circle were largely purged during the days of the Upstarts and Shinobi Shaw running the Club, but on the other hand he seemed aware of the Inner Circle's past bad experiences of cyborg members; presumably Turner had been a normal, Outer Circle Hellfire Club member for some time before being offered membership of the Inner Circle, and maybe he'd been aware of the Inner Circle's criminal activities and had waited impatiently for his invite.   

A few online sites have conflated Turner, who appeared for the first and last time in X-Men Legacy I#215, with Scholl, another Inner Circle member who debuted in X-Men Legacy I#217, creating the ersatz hybrid character "Turner Scholl." Trouble is, they are clearly not the same person:

  1. As you can see from the above panel, Turner looks pretty clearly dead, with a spike through his head. (Well, as clearly dead as anyone in comics ever is).
  2. Shaw confirms as much with his statement that the Inner Circle is now looking for two new members. Given that they'd just been discussing Roberto Da Costa's departure, and no other known Club members had quit in recent issues, it's hard to read Shaw's statement as referring to anything other than Turner just leaving the Circle via dying.
  3. Scholl is an ally of Castlemere; Turner wasn't. Even had Turner survived the above it's hard to imagine he'd be so forgiving so soon after being skewered multiple times.
  4. 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.
  5. And for anyone who is still unconvinced, the script of X-Men Legacy I#217 provided Scholl's full name, identifying him as Peter Scholl, a.k.a. Leonine.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Turner has no known connections to

images: (without ads)
X-Men Legacy I#215, p10, pan5 (main image)
X-Men Legacy I#215, p11, pan3-4 (Turner's demise)
X-Men Legacy I#215, p10, pan4 / X-Men Legacy I#217, p18, panel 4 (Turner and Scholl comparison)

X-Men Legacy I#215 (October 2008) - Mike Carey (writer), Marko Checchetto (pencils and inks, Hellfire Club scene)
X-Men Legacy I#217 (December 2008) - Mike Carey (writer), Scott Eaton (pencils), Andrew Hennessey (inker)

Last updated: 04/14/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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