Thoughts

I love new teams. I leave those first glimpses you get of the different team members. The new looks. The potential new power. All the unknowns about the person who wields those powers.

And I’ve realised that its probably Claremont and the X-men that made me like this. What he did with the All-New X-men has made me think everytime I see an All-New team, I want to know more. I’m immediately excited as to what these characters stories are. Where they might go.

And that’s definitely the case with the Hellions. Seeing them in action, these counterparts to the New Mutants, taking them down and capturing the team, feels like another set of characters I want to know. The strange cat-like one, the Thunderbird (what’s his deal?), Luck powers, Tarot summoning cards. I want to know so much more!

Even when there wasn’t the time or the imagination to create a new powerset, and so one of them is basically Cannonball 2 – I’m intrigued enough by the name and Claremont’s internationalist outlook to want to know what the character’s story is.

We’ve had a couple of great teams introduced in this run already – the Starjammers and Alpha Flight. Both do go on to have interesting runs as teams in books and as guest characters. But the Hellions never quite reach their potential. They’re just too far removed from the New Mutants to get the storytime they deserve. A couple get picked out for storylines going forward, but I would have loved a run of them as a team book.

The more I think about it, the more I think one of the problems with this title’s search for an identity is the fact that the characters are at Xavier’s school. Alongside the X-men. The set-ups are too similar and too close. Maybe the spin-off title should have been set in Emma Frost’s academy from the outset. Good mutants (mostly) realising they are actually being trained by a bad organisation. Future rivals to the X-men who will one day become heroes.

None of this is to be though. But the beauty of these introductions to a new team is all the fun of that potential is there. Even if its never realised. It makes for a fun read.

Fun Panel

What happens when an unstoppable Cannonball meets an unstoppable Cannonball rip-off?

Cool panel explosions.

None More Claremont

More body and soul corruption to the core? Have a lie down Chris, you’re over excited.