The New Mutants are a group of mutant superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, generally in association with the X-Men. Originally depicted as the teenaged junior class at the Xavier Institute, subsequent stories have depicted the characters as adult superheroes (in their eponymous series as well as in related titles such as X-Force and The Avengers) or as teachers and mentors to younger mutants.
The team first appeared in The New Mutants (September 1982) by Chris Claremont and artist Bob McLeod, part of the Marvel Graphic Novel line, followed by the ongoing series The New Mutants which ran from 1983 until 1991. Like the X-Men parent title, also written by Claremont, The New Mutants featured an ensemble cast, with stories often focused on interpersonal relationships and coming-of-age arcs, blending teen drama with action and adventure. The title was taken over by writer Louise Simonson, ultimately taking a more action-oriented focus under artist Rob Liefeld, who relaunched the characters as X-Force following the series' end.
Since their inception, several New Mutants series have been published, either focusing on the continuing adventures of the original lineup, new groups of young mutants, or some combination of both. Individual characters have appeared in various film, television, and other media adaptations of the X-Men franchise, while most of the original lineup of the New Mutants was featured in the 2020 20th Century Studios film of the same name.
Contents
Original run
By the early 1980s, The Uncanny X-Men (under the authorship of Chris Claremont) had become one of the comic book industry's most successful titles, prompting Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to launch The New Mutants, the first of several X-Men spin-offs. X-Men editor Louise Simonson recalled "Neither Chris [Claremont] or I really wanted to do it. We wanted X-Men to be special and by itself, but Shooter told us that if we didn't come up with a new 'mutant' book, someone else would." The name was a modification of Stan Lee's original name for the X-Men, "The Mutants".
The New Mutants were teenaged students of Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and wore matching uniforms, much like the original X-Men, who had since grown into adulthood. These students resembled the "all-new, all-different X-Men" of their era in terms of ethnic diversity.
The original team consisted of:
Cannonball (Samuel Guthrie), a mild-mannered 16-year-old coal miner's son from Kentucky, United States and eventual co-leader, with the ability to generate thermo-chemical energy and propel himself through the air, during which he is invulnerable.
Karma (Mạnh Cao Xuân), a 19-year-old girl from Vietnam and the team's original leader, who could mentally possess other people's minds.
Mirage (Danielle Moonstar, originally codenamed Psyche), a Cheyenne Native American girl and eventual co-leader after Karma's apparent death, who could create visual empathic three-dimensional illusions.
Sunspot (Roberto da Costa), a 14-year-old boy from Brazil who had superhuman strength fueled by sunlight and could store solar energy in his body to use his super strength.
Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), a 13-year-old Presbyterian girl from Scotland, United Kingdom who could transform into a werewolf-like creature.
The team was intended to debut in their own series. As the first issue was nearing completion, Shooter ordered it to be reworked into a graphic novel so that Marvel Graphic Novel could make its deadline for the next issue. Thus, the New Mutants debuted in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 (December 1982), which continued a plotline from The Uncanny X-Men. Despite this, the graphic novel missed its shipping slot by two weeks due to artist Bob McLeod's honeymoon.
Critical response
Literary scholar Ramzi Fawaz emphasizes the significance of the original run. He argues that in contrast to the original X-Men stories, New Mutants "radically reassesses the concept of the 'mutant superhero.'" For example, Fawaz writes that mutant powers are re-envisioned as traumatic experiences of shame. He argues that this is a response to the fragmentation of social liberation movements in the 1980s. He writes that "Like the social movements of the 1980s that destabilized instrumentalist understandings of politics, The New Mutants recast the figure of the superhero as a contingent political actor detached from an assumed role as a purveyor of liberal ideals."
New X-Men: Academy X
The second incarnation of the New Mutants debuted in 2003 with an ongoing series of the same name, written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. The series continued for 13 issues, until June 2004. Following the end of Grant Morrison's New X-Men, New Mutants was then relaunched as New X-Men: Academy X. The series featured a handful of the dozens of mutant teenagers attending the Xavier Institute, as well as their instructors, which included various X-Men as well as former members of the original New Mutants (Karma, Magma, Danielle Moonstar, and Wolfsbane).
The featured group of students never refer to themselves as "the New Mutants" before the series relaunch as New X-Men: Academy X in 2004, and the reorganization of the Xavier Institute student body into various training squads. The New Mutants, advised by Dani Moonstar, were:
Elixir (Josh Foley) – Elixir is an Omega-level mutant who can manipulate his or others' biologies to heal or harm. He was one of the 27 students at the Xavier Institute to retain his powers after "M-Day". He was seemingly killed by the Dark Riders before returning with vastly enhanced abilities.
Icarus (Joshua "Jay" Guthrie) – Jay possesses red wings that allow him to fly and give him an accelerated healing process. Furthermore, he possesses the ability to manipulate his own voice. He was one of the 27 students at the Xavier Institute to retain his powers after "M-Day". Jay's wings are amputated by William Stryker, who later kills him.
Prodigy (David Alleyne) – David was the team's co-leader who could temporarily gain the knowledge and skills of those near him. Although he was de-powered after "M-Day", he has retained all the knowledge he had acquired prior to the "Decimation".
Surge (Noriko Ashida) – Noriko is Japanese. She absorbs electricity from her environment which she can discharge as powerful electric blasts or utilize as superhuman speed. She requires mechanical gauntlets to prevent overcharge. Surge was one of the 27 students at the Xavier Institute to retain her powers after "M-Day".
Wallflower (Laurie Collins) – Laurie is a shy girl who generates highly potent pheromones that influence people's emotions. She was one of the 27 students at the Xavier Institute to retain her powers after "M-Day". Laurie was later killed by one of William Stryker's men.
Original team reunion
In May 2009, a third volume of New Mutants was launched. The team is a reunion of the cast from the first volume, consisting of Cannonball, Karma, Magik, Magma, Danielle Moonstar, and Sunspot.
The reunion is spun from events from the limited series X-Infernus. Magik shows up at the X-Men headquarters in San Francisco, claiming to be from the future and warning that Dani Moonstar and Karma are in danger. Once tests show that Illyanna is not an imposter, Cannonball leads a rescue mission with her. They are joined by Magma and Sunspot. They end up taking on Legion.
In a later issue, Warlock returns to Earth and Cypher reappears alive, under the control of Selene. After Warlock frees him from Selene's control, Cypher joins the team.
During "Siege", Hela empowers Dani (now going by her old codename Mirage) as a Valkyrie to bring the souls of the fallen Asgardians to her. During "X-Men: Second Coming", Karma loses her leg after being stabbed by Cameron Hodge.
Magik leads the team to Limbo as part of her plan for revenge against the Elder Gods. Cyclops has her imprisoned for her actions. When the X-Men split in the "Schism" storyline, the majority of the team sides with Cyclops and stays on Utopia, while Cannonball and Karma side with Wolverine and leave to join the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.
Cyclops tasks the remaining team with closing off some of the X-Men's 'unfinished business', and they ultimately recruit:
X-Man (Nate Grey), an alternate version of Cable from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, who joins the team after they rescue him from Sugar Man.
Blink (Clarice Ferguson), a pink-skinned mutant who can create portals.
Dead Souls
A six issue mini-series The New Mutants: Dead Souls was launched in March 2018, written by Matthew Rosenberg and pencilled by Adam Gorham. The new team is a corporate-sponsored squad employed by former New Mutant Karma, who has inherited the multinational Hatchi Corporation. The team consists of other former New Mutants Magik, Wolfsbane, Rictor, and Boom-Boom, alongside:
Strong Guy (Guido Carosella), a mutant with the ability to rechannel kinetic energy into physical strength, who was first introduced during Claremont's run of The New Mutants as a bodyguard to Lila Cheney.
The team investigated paranormal and magical threats, ultimately realizing Karma had sent them on a hunt for her brother Trân Cao Mạnh, whose soul had escaped her body and was seeking a way to restore his own. The series ended on a cliffhanger, where Karma, Magik, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy, along with Mirage, were infected by the Transmode Virus via Warlock. Rosenberg carried the unresolved plot threads across to his contemporaneous run on Uncanny X-Men, folding the remaining members of the New Mutants team into the X-Men, led by Cyclops.
Krakoan Age
New Mutants was relaunched in November 2019 as part of Dawn of X. There were initially two teams who appeared in rotating issues. The first was a reunion of the original New Mutants team, featuring Mirage, Karma, Magik, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, and Cypher, as well as:
Chamber (Jonathan Staresmore), a mutant originally from Generation X, whose body is a chamber for psionic energy.
Mondo, another mutant originally from Generation X, who has the ability to take on the properties of any organic or inorganic material he comes into contact with.
The second team featured Boom-Boom and, later, Magma, alongside:
Armor (Hisako Ichiki), a Japanese mutant who can generate an impenetrable psionic exoskeleton body armor.
Glob Herman (Robert Herman), a mutant with a transparent, wax-like body.
Manon and Maxime, two young twins from an alternate timeline who can manipulate memories and emotions respectively.
These two teams ultimately merged into one under writer Ed Brisson, in which they rescued a young mutant from the fictional European nation Carnella and took on the online hate group DOX.
When Vita Ayala took over as writer, a new team featuring older New Mutants Karma, Magik, Mirage, Warlock, Warpath, and Wolfsbane acted as teachers and mentors to a new group of younger students known as the Lost Club. This new group of students (which at first includes Anole, Scout, Rain Boy, Cosmar, and No-Girl) falls under the influence of and later into conflict with the Shadow King, culminating in an adventure through the astral plane.
In the concluding mini-series New Mutants Lethal Legion, a group of students from the Lost Club join the New Mutants in an adventure that pits them against Count Nefaria and the Lethal Legion. This includes:
New Mutants members
In 1982, the original New Mutants team debuted in Marvel Graphic Novel #4. Originally led by Professor X, and later by Magneto, the lineup gradually expanded to include additional recruits, with subsequent volumes and titles have features a variety of team members and associated characters.
Other versions
Rahne of Terra
The 1991 graphic novel Wolverine: Rahne of Terra, by Peter David, is set in a heroic fantasy universe in which Wolfsbane's counterpart is Princess Rain of Geshem. Other denizens of Terra include Rain's lady-in-waiting Tabby (Boom-Boom), the knights Richard (Rictor), Robert (Sunspot), and Samuel (Cannonball), and the peasant boy Douglas (Cypher). The Terrans all duplicate the powers of their counterparts in one way or another.
The New Mutants: Truth or Death
In 1997, a three-issue reunion series written by Ben Raab and illustrated by Bernard Chang, The New Mutants: Truth or Death, featured the young New Mutants traveling forward in time to meet their older, jaded selves in X-Force.
Worst X-Man Ever
Here the New Mutants consist of X-Ceptional, who can explode permanently, Riches, who turns whatever he touches to gold, Minerva, who can manipulate reality, and Riches' sister Rags. Riches kills Professor X and takes over the world. Rags begins a relationship with Gambit, and Minerva goes to pure idea. X-Ceptional grabs Riches and explodes, killing them both.
Ultimate Marvel
In Ultimate X-Men, the Academy of Tomorrow (previously called New Mutants) is founded by Emma Frost. It is loosely linked to the X-Men via Emma Frost's professional relationship with her former lover and teacher Charles Xavier. This Academy accepts any talented students, regardless of their genetic status. The team is headed by Frost and field leader Havok. During Ultimatum, the Academy of Tomorrow is destroyed in a terrorist attack by Multiple Man. Former members include Angel, Beast, Cannonball, Dazzler, Karma, Northstar, Polaris, Sunspot, and Cypher.
In other media
Television
The New Mutants, based on the first comics incarnation, appear in X-Men: Evolution, consisting of Boom-Boom, Cannonball, Magma, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Berzerker, Iceman, Jubilee, and Multiple.
Film
A self-titled film adaptation of the New Mutants was released on August 28, 2020. The film was directed by Josh Boone, with a script written by Boone and Knate Gwaltney, and stars Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin / Magik, Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie / Cannonball, Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar / Mirage, and Henry Zaga as Bobby da Costa / Sunspot.