Hellions (Marvel Comics)

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Several fictional groups of mutants have used the name the Hellions in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Hellions have always been portrayed as rivals of various teams of younger mutant heroes in the X-Men franchise, initially as actual villains and later on a team that was more of a school rival than actual enemies of the X-Men.

The first and most notable incarnation of the Hellions were students of Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club's Massachusetts Academy, and were rivals of the New Mutants. The original Hellions first appeared in New Mutants #16 (June 1984), created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Sal Buscema.^[1] This version of the Hellions ended after an attack by Trevor Fitzroy and a squadron of Sentinels that killed several Hellions.

Two later groups known as the Hellions or New Hellions both fought against various X groups such as Generation X and X-Force. In New X-Men: Academy X (2004), a new group of Hellions were introduced. This time they were a part of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning – the Hellions were one of several factions that the students were divided into including the New Mutants, with whom they had a rivalry. The Hellions were also the focus of a miniseries titled New X-Men: Hellions (2005). After the majority of mutants lost their powers in the Decimation storyline, the students were combined into one squad as the number of mutants was greatly reduced.

During the Krakoan Age, as part of the Dawn of X publishing initiative, a new ongoing series titled Hellions launched in March 2020 which focused on the most dangerous mutant outcasts. It ended with issue #18 in December 2021 during the Reign of X publishing initiative.