New Mutants-Vember: For the Love of Hellions

In my mind, the Hellions are an integral part of the New Mutants’ history as a team.  They were positioned as their evil counterparts, but thanks to smart development, it was made clear that only a handful were truly “evil” – and one of those, I have my doubts.  They were friends & allies as much as dark mirrors to the heroes, and it was a shame that such an interesting & different relationship wasn’t explored as much (after Claremont left, they basically vanished from comics until it was time to kill them off).  In fact, I would say the biggest strength of the DeFilippis/Weir title is that they really showed how their team of Hellions related with their team of New Mutants and made them even more fleshed-out & interesting than most of the heroes.  Seriously, the Hellions mini was the best thing in their run, since it focused on the characters that were actually compelling (and also Wither).

ORIGINAL HELLIONS: If I had to give an honest answer as to a favorite of the original team (outside of those that have stuck around like James & Firestar), I would actually say Catseye.  Yes, she seems like a gag character, since she’s a girl who thinks she’s a housecat that can transform into a human.  But she was actually considered the most intelligent person on her team, she didn’t seem to have a negative impulses other than being a slacker (as housecats are wont to do), and she just looked neat, with her lavender hair matching her uniform quite nicely.  Second to her would be Tarot, but she seems to be a fan favorite just for her interesting power set & motif (although if I was writing her, I’d bring the minor arcana into play, since some of the worst cards in the tarot are there) who keeps coming back without explanation only to die again.  It’s all rather confusing.  I’d like to see how Roulette would be written if she were removed from her traditional role as Empath’s little helper and explore if she actually is as nasty as we saw her in tandem with him (I kind of lean towards “no”).  Jetstream could’ve been fleshed out more, but I always did like his interactions with Cannonball as a friendly rival; I’d love to have seen him more.  And I’ll be honest, I missed the New Warriors story where we got to see Beef & Bevatron, so aside from the former’s obvious codename-based traits, I have no clue what they’re like.

NEW X-MEN HELLIONS: Out of this team, it’s funny that the one who I liked the most and felt had the most potential for exploration is, yet again, the dead guy – Tag.  The mini alone did a ton to flesh out his motivations (loneliness & fear of solitude) & attitude and made him appealing despite his oddly specific power set.  It’s hard not to like the two girls, Dust & Mercury, either, since they’re each tragic but resilient; I would say Sooraya is the stronger one – her stories aren’t as wangsty as Mercury’s could get (thanks to an absence of bad love triangles), her background is harrowing, and she had to room with the racist druggie Surge & had the strength not to kill her.  Hellion is a good example of a “jerk with a hidden heart of gold”, but stories where is good heart is shown are surprisingly scarce, which is disappointing.  And Santo is just a fun “big burly dude” character (an archetype I tend to like), and I like the recent trend of his best friend being Victor, the kid he used to pick on but grew to like & respect.

I was excited by the return of the “zombie” Hellions in Necrosha, but they turned out to be glorified mooks.  So in light of my enjoyment of Bendis’ All-New X-Men, let me share my fannish concept for All-New Hellions:

Through some bizarre fluke, six of the original Hellions – Jetstream, Tarot, Roulette, Catseye, Beef, & Bevatron – find themselves in the modern day.  They have to adjust to a world where their deaths helped change their teacher’s destiny, where Tarot has died & come back more than once for no discernible reason, and where they were/are zombie mooks.  It would give me an excuse to explore their characters more, since that group had a LOT of untapped potential.

Naturally, things wouldn’t go smoothly – they’d run into Empath (who’d be their main villain), maybe some of the “straggler” Hellion teams that tried & failed to take in Generation X & X-Force, and finally, discover that Selene & her zombie mooks weren’t as dead as everyone thought.  And the remaining four next-gen Hellions at the Jean Grey School would happily come to the aid of their predecessors, thus giving even more of an opportunity to expand & grow all of their characters.  Lastly, there would have to be at least a cameo from their erstwhile classmates James Proudstar & Firestar, just for history’s sake.

 
This, like so many pseudo-brilliant ideas I get that qualify as X-Nonsense, is a concept that only I would buy (see also: Pixie + Magik, Maho Mutant Shoujo).  And it’s probably another great fanfic idea that I’ll never have the time or talent to write to my own satisfaction.  But the Hellions are characters I love and that I’d like to see given their due time in the spotlight.