HAVE YOU SEEN THESE
CHILDREN?
An Analysis of the fall
of the Circle of the Black Thorn
By Salvatore Cucinotta
The first
few years of the new millennium saw many great changes. It is fitting, then,
that in a world where genetic predisposition is so common, a group of young
heroes rises against their heritage and defy destiny.
Any
good story needs to start at the beginning: The Circle of the Black Thorn was
the instrument of a group of former servitors of the Old Ones known as the
Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. Their exact nature has not yet been revealed, but
it is known that they left this dimension in order to avoid their enemies and
avoid detection. As such, the Circle of the Black Thorn acted n their stead and
their front was the law firm of Wolfram and Hart (itself connected to the Red Lectroid’s front business of Yoyodyne,
Weiland-Yutani and Fox Newscorp).
Through this organization, they kept the most of the world, underworld and
under-underworld in check, especially on the west cost, limiting the number of
vigilantes that would operate, and keeping tabs of all the other cabals,
societies and criminal organizations that might be a threat to their goals.
The
goals of the Circle of Black Thorn are truly hard to distinguish, as their
power and influence are hard to pinpoint. Of all the secret cabals and
organizations present in the Wold Newton Universe, this group has the
unfortunate distinction of being completely unrecorded until after their
destruction; their ability to cover their tracks was so well developed. The
records database of Wolfram and Hart is claimed to have almost every bit of
information on record, and their influence is claimed to reach even the
President of the
Their
exact goal, as far as it can be deciphered, was to lull humanity into
complacency, to keep everyone going through their lives and largely preventing
them from making great accomplishments. With the Wold Newton event and similar
happenings, they certainly had their work cut out for them. Why is uncertain as
no records remain to detail their plans.
Thought
their front suffered a heavy blow towards the end of 2002 and at the start of
2003 from the entity known as “Jasmine”, the Circle endured the attack that
decimated their front organization and rebuilt it stronger than ever. The
Circle itself consisted of the following members:
-
Archduke Sebassis
– An ancient “purebred” demon who commanded a powerful army of demonic
creatures that the circle could use as minions for various tasks. Like many
demon species, his kind was created by the Old Ones for their own purposes, and
he continued that legacy (though the legions served him directly and not any
Old One in particular). He brought his legions and influence in the demonic
underworld to the Circle.
-
“Ed” – a representative of alien
colonists commonly known as “The Grays”. This species kept the flow of Black Oil, the spawn of one o the early
Old Ones, under control, as well as keeping tabs on the progress of the
Consortium and their adversaries—ready to inform the Senior Partners on when
and if they had to step in, as well as his knowledge of Interstellar Politics.
-
“Senator Helen Brucker”
– A member of the Mi-Go whom the Black Thorn was grooming for a presidential
election in 2008. Through the
combined efforts of the Mi-Go and Black Thorn, “she” represented their
political power of Circle. “She” took to surrounding herself with Vampires as
her assistants and bodyguards.
-
Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder – These
members can claim some Wold Newton Heritage for the group. Geoffrey’s
grandmother (whose name has been lost to history) worked as a prostitute for a
large portion of her early adult life. During this time, she had relations with
one James Clark Wildman Sr. during his younger days in
-
Dale and Stacey Yorkes
– This truly odd pair of time travelers represent the two extremes of the
medium. Dale Yorkes was an intelligent, but petty
thief from the 19th century who worked along side the more
bloodthirsty John Leslie Stevenson when he stole H.G. Wells Time Machine. Not
liking the way his relationship with Stevens was heading, he held in the
background, but was intrigued by the possibilities of time travel. Eventually,
though luck, perseverance, a predestination paradox and a few thefts from Well’s
office, he managed to build a working Time Machine of his own. However, he was
never that ambitious and used the time machine for more petty theft without
really considering the greater ramifications or uses for time thefts. That is,
he did not until he met “Stacey.” Stacey was a renegade Time Lord who bumped
into the Yorkes family several times through her
regenerations. One of her earlier Regenerations had actually conceived and gave
birth to the Dale and she now felt a new attraction for him in her last
regeneration. She, having lost her own method of travel, joined him on his
thefts and expanded his thoughts into a different method of thievery: the
selling of antiques at auction. They eventually wed, which may sound revolting
to our human ears but keep in mind how drastically the genetic material of a
time lord changes when they regenerate. For Stacey, it was perfectly natural,
but Dale did take some time to adjust to this idea of near Oedipal
desires. Together, they prevented other time travelers from interfering in the
plans of the Circle. (1)
-
Gene and Alice Hayes – Unlike the
previous couples, this pair of natural telepaths have little in their ancestry
or history beyond their abilities that distinguishes them greatly, and that was
one of their assets. This par monitored other psychic networks, monitored precognitives and kept tabs on any other natural mutations
that developed. (2)
-
Victor and Janet Stein – Victor Stein can
count on his distance heritage Victor Frankenstein III, when he went under the
name of Dr. Stein between 1860 and 1863 in Karlsbruck—during
that time, he managed to impregnate (and wed—in that order) a local girl during
a lieu in his experiments. The child was, however, born after Victor was
exposed. However, it was almost one hundred years later that his descendants
are mentioned in any capacity, with Victor taking after his namesake with an
Interest in the sciences. He was quite the Renaissance man, working in both
technological and biological sciences. His wife shared both his interests and
his skills, so they wed out of self-conceit. They brought their technical
expertise to the Circle.(3)
-
Robert and Tina Minoru – These two dark
sorcerers were once in the serves of Dr. Fu Manchu, aiding him in his own dark
machinations. They lived in fear of his wrath; especially since they were
closeted Christians and he had a nasty habit of executing those of the
Christian faith on a whim. So, when he appeared to die at the hands of
Shan-Chi, they took their chance and fled to
-
Frank and Leslie Dean – This couple were
fugitive aliens using Earth as a neutral zone to sell arms to other species.
Their names were taken from a statue of James Dean they saw when they first
landed on earth (near the Griffith Observatory in
-
Izzireal – Another paranormal creature, focusing on the
business aspect of the supernatural. Monitoring bargains and deals between
various sentient entities.
-
Marcus Hamilton – The Liaison to the Wolf
Ram and Hart, reporting back to them and informing the circle of their wants
and needs. He was constructed by them to serve as their eyes and ears on earth.
The couples amongst the Circle
entered into a pact around 1984 (4) to have their children succeed them in the Circle,
revealing the circle to them and beginning to groom them for their place in it
when they each turned 18. Alex Wilder, however, found out about the plans of
the Circle three years early. Alex was a prodigy, the genes of Clark Wildman
Sr. shown through in spades, and he began to wonder why his parents, for all he
knew “good” people, would be apart of such an organization. Through his studies
of various (stolen) texts his parents had gathered as part of the Circle, he
learned about their function and of something worse: a plot by the various
non-human members of the Circle to turn on their human members in a bid for
more power, using their allies and progeny to restock the ‘empty’ slots.
Alex
knew he had to save his parents, but he also wanted the non-humans gone and the
power they held. But he could not do it on his own—he was just a smart kid. He
needed a team, so he took the budding team that the Circle was preparing—their
children.
At
the next yearly gathering for various blood rights, where the children were
left alone with only each other for companionship, he lead them to witness the
human sacrifice conducted in the presence of “demons” by their parents, and
began to reveal their various powers, though some caught him by surprise:
-
Nico Minoru stole/absorbed her mother’s magical staff:
“The Staff of One”, a powerful magical artifact that allowed the conjuration of
various spells, but her unskilled use of it lead her to be only able to cast a
specific spell once. Being raised a Christian; it was a troubling for her to
inherit dark magic.
-
Karolina Dean had her alien heritage revealed to her, though
Alex had to guide her on how to best use her alien physiology.
-
Chase Stein gained none of his parents’
technical intellect, but the athletic boy settled for stealing several
inventions including multi-purpose goggles and mechanical gloves capable of
flame projection and manipulation.
-
Gertrude Yorkes
found an emergency gift her parents had made her: a trained Juvenile, Female Venatosaurus impavidus (5) engineered to
respond to the mental abilities she inherited from her Time Lord mother, and
half-Time Lord father. She later gave it a nose ring for style purposes.
-
Molly Hayes was Alex’s surprise. He
initially thought of the small 11 year old as useless
to his plans. The others insisted they take her with them for her own protection,
but he was unaware (as were her parents) that she not only inherited a small
portion of her parents’ mental abilities, she had been called as a Vampire
Slayer (6). Alex could not afford to pass up
this opportunity, and recruited her.
Together,
the six children ran away from home and hid in a spot Chase had scoped out: a
cave in
What Alex
did not fully plan on was how much of their attention would be diverted because
of the children’s stunt. That, combined with the “Jasmine” incident the year
before, allowed the vampire Angel to infiltrate the organizations after being
given the reigns to Wolfram and Hart.
The
introduction of the vampire forced Alex to accelerate his plans and combine
them with Angel’s – which were taking advantage of the chaos brought about by
the appearance of the cyborg Mecha-King
Ghidorah under the control of a self-styled Khan (7). The plan involved taking on portions of the circle
separately: the children would lure their parents into a trap with Wesley Windham
Pryce; Spike would take on Ed and his minions; Charles Gunn would be assigned
to Senator Brucker and her Vampires; Illyria would take on Izzireal
and his minions; Angel would take on Archduke Sebassis;
and Krevlornswath of the Deathwok
Clan and Lindsey McDonald would be sent after the other leaders of the
Archduke’s minions. The reason
Both Alex
and Angel kept the other children under the idea that their parents would not
be killed, but simply arrested, for their own, separate purposes. On the night,
the secret plans the two groups formed revealed themselves: Lorne shot Lindsey
in his true mission; Angel poisoned Arch Duke Sebassis
hours before heading out so he could take on Marcus Hamilton (with the aid of
Angel’s son, Connor); and with the children…
Alex
orchestrated the fight so that all but he and his own parents were conscious at
the end of it, killing Wesley in the process. Reviving Nico
and her parents, he confessed his feelings for her and offered her a spot in
the Circle. Nico decided to give her answer in the
form of a punched him in the jaw. Alex had prepared for this (though he hoped
that she would), but did not count on Illyria
arriving to check on Wesley, after succeeding in her mission. She held Wesley
in her arms as he died. Nico used her distraction to
revived her comrades and take back the weapons he had taken from them. After
Wesley passed, Illyria turned a hand towards Alex,
and in a flash of brilliant blue energy, vaporized the boy in front of the
others. With that, she left to face the coming onslaught from the Senior
Partners—as did the surviving members of the Runaways parents, who knew that
they and their children would be executed by the Senior Partners for their
failure and the loyalty they had for their progeny.
The
remaining children used their parents sacrifice and fled. Only to be picked up
later by the CIALD (8), put into foster care and split up. Molly was
taken in by the newly reformed Watchers Council, Gert’s
Venatosaurus was taken by the government, and all but
Chase were placed in Foster care. Chase used his street contacts escape
protective custody. He then spent the next three months searching for Old Lace
so he could free her for Gert (whom he had begun a
relationship with). Once the group was fully reunited, they once again ran off.
This time in a vehicle Chase’s parents had built
dubbed “The Leap Frog.”
Little is
currently known about what happened after they have run off for a second time,
but what is known is that Karolina left earth in
order to prevent a war between her people and the Founders; and they added a
new member to the team: an artificially created cybernetic organism, Victor Mancha, created to infiltrate the CIALD and destroy all the
costumed vigilantes on earth. This cyborg’s mother,
who lent her DNA to the process, was descended from the peasant folk of La Mancha, Spain. The father was one of the greatest evils the
world had ever known—El Diablo Robotico—the Robot
Devil. (9)
Reports
generally have them fighting crime in the
Their
current whereabouts are unknown.
(1) See: “Travels in
Time” by Loki Carbis.
(2) Rumors abound that this couple were
actually “Oddian” mutations in nature, though they
certainly were followers of “Odd” John Wainright’s
views of mutant superiority, this classification cannot hold due to the
specialization developed by their progeny, it is unlikely that they were the
exact same type of mutant. They were indeed mutants, but their mutations were
not as extreme as those of a true “Oddian.”
(3) See the MONSTAAAH Timeline for
more information.
(4) The comics of the Runaways were
first published in 2002, whilst the last episode of Angel aired in 2004. The
events of Runways vol. 1 occur over nearly 2 weeks, then picking up 3 months
later, but published over 18 issues—over two years. The Angel timeline is taken
as the more accurate date due to the existence of an item called “The
Abstract”, a book that could foretell the possible future of the Circle and
their enemies. This may have fallen into Brian K. Vaughan’s hands, giving him
the spark to share this tale with the world. Whether or not Alex Wilder was
behind this discovery remains unknown. Another reason to consider this later
date is the inclusion of a video game that is clearly an analogue to City of
(5) This is a subspecies of the Venatosaurus saevidicus that appear in the 2005 film of King Kong directed by Peter Jackson. We can accept this species as
having existed on the island due to the immense detail that
(6) See: Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Chosen” by Joss Whedon
for more information.
(7) See: Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters for more information.
(8) See: “Marvelous Fantastic
Tales of the Wold Newton Universe: The Batman” By
Dennis E. Power for more information.
(9) El Diablo Robotico
is known by many names: including Ultron, Amazo and Beelzebot. Before the
year 2275 (when the Fairness of Hell act was passed), he sets up his own “Robot
Hell” under Coney Island for the simple pleasure of torturing other sentient
automata. See Futurama
“Hell is Other Robots”.
General Sources:
Runaways
Vol.1 and Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Colour out of Space
by H. P. Lovecraft
Star Trek “Errand of Mercy” written by Gene L. Coon
Angel created by Joss Whedon
The X-Files created by Chris Carter
Timeline
1791 -- Los Angeles Branch of Wolfram and Hart is founded with the ritual Sacrifice of Matthias Pavayne. (Angel “Hellbound”)
Late 1890s – Dale Yorkes
begins his travels through time
Early 1950s – El Diablo Robotico
is constructed
1984 – The Hayes, Minoru, Stein, Wilder, Dean and Yorkes families are inducted into the Circle of
Blackthorn.
1987 – Chase Stein is born
1988 – Nico Minoru, Alex
Wilder and Carolina Dean are born
1989 – Gertrude Yorkes is
born.
1993 – Molly Hayes is born
2001 – Victor Mancha is “constructed”
2002-2003 – The “Reign of Fire” and Jasmine’s Rise and
fall in LA. Memories of those effected altered by the Circle of the Black Thorn
to be remember as a violent earthquake and fanatical, short-lived cult.
April 2003 – The Minoru’s make fist contact with
Angel, using Connor to destroy an old enemy of the family: the Demon Sahjhan (Angel
“Origin”)
Mid May 2004 – Angel meets with the Runaways for the
first time.
May 19th-22nd 2004 – The fall of
the Circle of Blackthorn/Events of Runaways
vol. 1 #13-17/Angel “Power Play”,
“Not Fade Away”
September 2004 – The events of Runaways Vol. 1 #18
October – The Events of Runways Vol. 2 #1-6. Victor Mancha joins the crew after the death of his mother and
apparent destruction of El Diablo Robotico.
November 2004 – Karolina
Dean leaves for her home world. (Runaways
Vol. 2 #7-8)
December 2004 – The Runaways are spotted in