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HARRY MORREL

Real Name: Harry Morrel

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Pub owner

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Doop, Fat Cobra, Melita Garner, Gorilla Man (Ken Hale), Master Po, Molly (waitress), Meggan, Mystique (Raven Darkholme, as waitress Debra), New Mutants (Cannonball/Sam Guthrie, Karma/Xi'an Coy Manh, Mirage/Danielle Moonstar, Sunspot/Roberto Da Costa), Susan (waitress), X-Men (Angel/Warren Worthington III, Beast/Hank McCoy, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Firestar/Angelica Jones, Emma Frost, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Havok/Alex Summers, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Jean Grey, Rachel Grey, Jubilee/Jubilation Lee, M/Monet St. Croix, Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Northstar/Jean Paul Beaubier, Professor X/Charles Xavier, Psylocke/Betsy Braddock, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Thunderbird/John Proudstar, Warbird/Ava'Dara Naganandini, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett), Yuen Yee

Enemies: None (though he probably wasn't fond of Caliban who wrecked his bar)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Harry's Hideaway, Salem Center, New York

First Appearance: New Mutants I#23 (January, 1985)

Powers/Abilities: Harry Morrel possesses no known superhuman abilities. A dedicated and successful pub owner with a generous personality, Morrel is welcoming to all and has a friendly word for all his customers, no matter how outlandish their appearance. Morrel is a moderately talented chess player who speaks English, Russian and Yiddish.

Height: 5'9" (by approximation)
Weight: 240 bs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Auburn (greying and balding)

History:
(Classic X-Men#4/2 (fb) - BTS) - At an unrevealed point in time, Harry Morrel met Charles Xavier and struck up a friendship with him. They remained close over the years.

(New Mutants I#23 (fb) - BTS) - 12 years prior to Charles Xavier admitting the New Mutants to his school, Harry Morrel moved to Salem Center where he bought a historic, but sleazy tavern right outside the town, where Greymalkin Lane meets Route 126. Over the course of a winter, Morrel single-handedly turned the place into Harry's Hideaway, a respectable and well liked saloon that became a favorite hangout of highschool and college kids.

(Uncanny X-Men I#297 (fb) - BTS) - Charles Xavier's original students made Harry's Hideaway their home away from home. Over the years, they used it as a place to relax after school, even celebrating Jean Grey's surprise 16th birthday party there, as well as a celebratory bash when Hank McCoy took a job at the Brand Corporation.

(Classic X-Men#4/2 (fb) - BTS) - Harry's Hideaway also became the new X-Men's favorite hangout, with Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus and the others quickly becoming regulars. Because of his connection with Xavier, some of the X-Men wondered if he knew they were mutants.

(Classic X-Men#4/2) - Harry didn't bat an eye when Kurt Wagner shut off his image inducer in the pub to reveal his blue furred self. Emboldened by Morrel's nonchalant response, Kurt decided to take Wolverine up on his dare to walk the streets of Salem Center without hiding who he was. Harry's waitress Susan was dumbstruck when she saw the two of them leave, going up to Harry, stunned because one of their customers had a tail. Amused, all Harry could say was "Aye, and a handsome one it is too"

Harry playing chess against Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) (New Mutants I#23) - One night around closing time, Harry was playing chess with Piotr Rasputin, teasing the young Russian and hoping to throw him off his game by revealing he also spoke Russian. That strategy didn't work, and Piotr beat Morrel. Before he could demand a rematch, Harry's waitress Molly alerted them to Bobby Da Costa who had come in hours earlier only to sit by himself sat at the bar, completely unresponsive. At first, Harry was worried Da Costa might be drunk, which could cost him his liquor license but Molly assured him he hadn't had a drink. Just then, Bobby turned into Sunspot and attacked.  To protect Harry and Molly, Piotr turned into Colossus but was actually thrown at Morrel and his waitress, who were knocked out on impact.

(New Mutants I#23 - BTS) - Charles Xavier was mentally aware of the situation and sent Cannonball and Mirage to deal with the situation. After checking to make sure Morrel and Molly were fine, Xavier turned his attention to Sunspot, though he did mention he trusted on Harry's discretion and that he would pay for the damage to his pub.

(Uncanny X-Men I#294 - BTS) - Jean and Scott were having lunch at Harry's Hideaway when Caliban, as Apocalypse's Horseman Death,  attacked them. The ensuing fight completely leveled the pub.

(Uncanny X-Men I#297 - BTS) - Feeling responsible for the damage done to Harry's saloon, Beast and Angel returned to the condemned building two days after the incident with Death. Using advanced construction tools created by Forge, the two X-Men rebuilt the place within mere hours, while reminiscing about the good times they had at the Hideaway, figuring they owed its continued existence to X-Men past, present and future.

Harry talking with Wolverine (X-Men II#74) - Wolverine visited Harry's Hideaway for an early breakfast, ordering rare steak while reading a newspaper for the latest on a recent wave of mutilations and murders plaguing the Salem Center area. Harry, eating an apple and wondering how Logan could be having steak while reading about those bloody crimes, mentioned that the public figured a pack of blood drinking, organ eating mutants were responsible for the atrocities. In jest, Wolverine replied that the reason he could stomach the meat was because he was one of those alleged blood drinking mutants. The old friends shared a laugh before a concerned Harry asked Logan if the authorities were ever going to catch whatever was committing these crimes. Logan assured him the case would be solved, after all there was someone on the case who was the best there is at what he does.

(Wolverine IV#19 (fb) - BTS) - Business at Harry's Hideaway started to slowly dwindle, until Harry was forced to close down the bar.

(Wolverine IV#19) - Seconds after Morrel hammered on the "closed for good" sign to the pub's front door, Wolverine appeared seemingly out of nowhere following a fight against the Jade Claw. Calmly asking Harry if his regular table was available, Morrel instantly realized the return of Logan would mean a boost in business. As if on cue, Wolverine introduced him to the allies that had helped in their war against the Jade Claw: the Immortal Weapon Fat Cobra, the Gorilla Man (Ken Hale), Master Po, Yuen Yee and the slaves they had freed from the Jade Claw's underground prisons. With Wolverine covering everyone's bar bill, Harry and his people happily supplied them with all the food and drink they could want, secure in the knowledge the Hideaway's financial woes were over for the moment. During the festivities, Morrel also briefly met Logan's lover Melita Garner.

(Wolverine and the X-Men I#24) - Figuring Wolverine would be heading to Harry's Hideaway as soon as he returned from his latest solo mission, Rachel Grey left a psychic message bubble behind at the bar that would activate as soon as he entered. When Logan indeed came into the pub, declaring he needed beer and lets of it while an arrow was still lodged in his back from the fight he was in, Harry denied him service. When he asked why, Rachel's telepathic message was activated, demanding he returned to the school immediately.

(Amazing X-Men II#6 (fb) - BTS) - At an undisclosed moment in time, Harry hired a new waitress called Debra, unaware she was actually Mystique in disguise.

(Amazing X-Men II#6) - When Nightcrawler returned from the afterlife, all his friends gathered at Harry's Hideaway to throw him a welcome home party. Over the course of the evening, Nightcrawler became aware of the fact their waitress was actually his mother and forced her into a nearby supply closet to have it out. By the end of the evening, with most of the party goers figuring Kurt was making out with her, "Debra" had vanished, leaving Kurt and Logan to close down the place. As the sun came up, the ever patient Harry urged his favorite patrons to call it a night, after all "some of gotta work in the morning and I still got no idea what you guys did to my waitress." Wolverine smiled and simply told Harry to put it all on his tab while he and Kurt got up and left for home.

(Wolverine and the X-Men II#10) - After hearing of Wolverine's death, Harry decided to honor one of his most beloved patrons with a memorial. The proceedings were attended by several of Logan's closest friends and drinking buddies, including Nightcrawler whose Bamfs also brought Melita Garner who was writing a book on Wolverine. She witnessed Kurt, relying on his religious background, to deliver an impassioned sermon declaring Harry's Hideaway the "first church of Logan". They then all raised a glass of whiskey in Logan's honor, with Harry in the back smiling at the proceedings.

X-Men Gold II#30) - Harry hosted the rehearsal dinner for the wedding between his old customers Colossus and Kitty Pryde. He smiled and look on as many of his old, loyal customers mingled and celebrate the upcoming, but ultimately called off, nuptials.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (pencils & inks).

30 plus years on, the mystery of Harry Morrel continues. Who was he before he came to Salem Center, what's his background and how does he know Xavier? It's possible they met when Xavier was bumming around the Mediterranean and the Middle East following his traumatic experiences in the army. If anything, Morrel's Jewish background would support that.

Though often overlooked, Scott Lobdell did establish a very important point: even the original X-Men were already regulars at Harry's Hideaway. That bit of retroactive continuity makes Harry Morrel an X-Men ally since well before the earliest days of the team.

Morrel's history with Harry's Hideaway is a bit hard to follow. In his first appearance in New Mutants I#23, it was established Morrel had opened the bar 12 years ago. However, Wolverine IV#19 has him claim he'd had the bar for 40 years.

Harry's gone through quite a few transformations over the years, starting out as a portly, obviously Jewish man in his first two appearances before literally dropping a ton of weight when he next appeared in X-Men II#74. Most recently, he looks like a rough 'n tumble biker with a Santa Clause beard along with a handlebar moustache... If you're able to go through that many transformations, I guess serving drinks to fuzzy blue mutants and claw knuckle assassins is old hat.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Harry Morrel should not be confused with

Susan

Susan

Susan was a waitress at Harry's Hideaway who was ill prepared to witness Kurt Wagner shutting down his Image Inducer to reveal his true blue self.  She was dumbstruck when Kurt and his friend Logan left the pub, turning to her boss Harry Morrel to discuss the fuzzy customer with a tail, all he had to comment on was the fact it was a very handsome tail indeed.

--Classic X-Men I#4/2
















Molly

Molly

Molly was a waitress at Harry's Hideaway, working to help serve her customers' needs. One night, Roberto Da Costa came into the pub. Recognizing him as one of the elite students at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters down the road in Salem Center, she noticed he was acting weird and unresponsive. When he didn't even touch the hamburger she brought him, Molly figured he might be on drugs and told her boss Harry Morrel who was playing chess with Piotr Rasputin, another one of Xavier's students. Hoping Piotr might be able to reason with him, Molly and Harry went to see what he could do. Morrel initially figured Da Costa had gotten drunk, fearing that serving alcohol to a minor could cost him his liquor licence. However, Da Costa turned into Sunspot and attacked them all. In the process, Molly was knocked out, but did not suffer serious injuries.

--New Mutants I#23









images: (without ads)
Classic X-Men#4, p30, pan2 (main image)
New Mutants I#23, p3, pan5 (playing chess with Colossus)
X-Men II#74, p3, pan5 (and the blood drinking mutant menace)
Wolverine and the X-Men II#10, p30, pans2&3 (gives Logan a proper send off)
Classic X-Men#4, p30, pan6 (Susan)
New Mutants I#23, p4, pan7 (Molly)

Appearances:
New Mutants I#23 (January, 1985) - Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (pencils & inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Classic X-Men#4 (December, 1985) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Bolton (pencils & inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#294 (November, 1992) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Brandon Peterson (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#297 (February, 1993) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Brandon Peterson (pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men II#74 (April, 1998) - Joe Kelly (writer), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Art Thibert (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Wolverine IV#19 (January, 2012) - Jason Aaron (writer), Ron Garney (pencils & inks), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
Wolverine and the X-Men I#24 (March, 2013) - Jason Aaron (writer), David Lopez (pencils), Alvaro Lopez (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Amazing X-Men II#6 (June, 2014) - Jason Aaron (writer), Cameron Stewart (pencils & inks), Nick Lowe & Mike Marts (editors)
Wolverine and the X-Men II#10 (December, 2014) - Jason Aaron (writer), Robbi Rodriguez, Ian Bertram, Ronald Wimberly, Kris Anka, Ariela Kristantina, Declan Shalvey, James Harren (pencils & inks), Katie Kubert (editor)
X-Men Gold II#30 (August, 2018) - Marc Guggenheim (writer), David Marquez (pencils, inks), Darren Shan, Chris Robinson, Jordan D. White (editor)

Last updated: 08/05/15

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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