Shaw became engaged to a woman named Lourdes Chantel, also a mutant, and was soon initiated into the Hellfire Club thanks to his vast fortune along with Warren Worthington II (father of Warren Worthington III), Howard Stark (father of Tony Stark) and Sir James Braddock (father of Brian and Betsy Braddock), having caught the attention of Ned Buckman, then White King of Hellfire Club's New York Branch. Shaw became part of the Council of the Chosen, earning the rank of Black Bishop. Lourdes did not trust Buckman, and feared that Shaw's ambition and the nature of the Hellfire Club would corrupt him.