Hiram Shaw

First Appearance: X-Men: The Hellfire Club #1 (January 2000).
Appearances: X-Men: The Hellfire Club #1.
Years Active: 1680s?-1692.

The Reverend Hiram Shaw was active in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Witch Trials there. Before he'd come to America, "in his native England, the Reverend Shaw dutifully served as a minor clergyman and exorcist of little acclaim." But once in America, during the Witch Trials, he became a leader of Salem. He was also a sorcerer, who during the Witch Trials was confronted by Dormammu and fought with him. Although a hard, unsympathetic man, a religious zealot and someone with a lust for power, Shaw must nonetheless be counted as a hero; an exorcist and opponent of Dormammu is almost by definition one of the good guys.

Notes: X-Men: The Hellfire Club #1 has a number of problems with it, not least its designation of Hiram Shaw as the "Sorcerer Supreme," something that flies in the face of past continuity. The Ancient One was the Sorcerer Supreme at this point in time. I'm choosing to believe that Dormammu was being ironic in calling Shaw this.