The New Mutants (comic book)

The New Mutants is the name of several comic book titles featuring the team the New Mutants and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original The New Mutants comic book series which debuted in 1983.

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 their first ongoing series 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 later 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.

Original run
By the early 1980s, 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 series was primarily written by Claremont and Simonson, with Rob Liefeld plotting the final three issues with writer Fabian Nicieza.

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 Uncanny X-Men. (Despite this, the graphic novel missed its shipping slot by two weeks due to artist Bob McLeod's honeymoon.)

Reflecting later on his run on the title, Claremont spoke about the appeal of stories focused on this younger cast: "The X-Men are fun but they're grown-ups. They're already set. The kids are the fungible ones. They're making mistakes and they don't know quite what they're doing. This adventure might lead them to Asgard, the next one might lead them to someone committing suicide. It's like seeing the evolution of Prince Hal through Henry IV 1 & 2, leading up to Henry V. It's about growing and learning and taking responsibility."

The series was originally written by Claremont and illustrated by McLeod, the team's co-creators, but McLeod soon passed artistic duties on to Sal Buscema. McLeod was unprepared for the demands of doing both pencils and inks on a monthly book, prompting him to have Buscema do the breakdowns after the first three issues, and left entirely after issue #8 when he began to lose interest in the stories. Claremont gave the series a darker tone, which was heightened with the arrival of artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz's avant garde art style and painted covers broke through the conventional comic book boundaries of the day and helped The New Mutants stand out on the shelf.

In addition to very serious depictions of teenage angst and growing pains, the series featured themes of mysticism. The stories also relied on wilder, more far-fetched premises than were typical of X-Men at the time, shaping into more of a science fiction and fantasy series than the superhero coming-of-age comic it had been touted as in its early days.

A supplementary New Mutants Annual series began in 1984. These annuals were always written by whoever was the regular New Mutants writer at the time and often included significant changes to the status quo. These changes were not explained in the parent series, so that readers would have to buy New Mutants Annual to follow events in both series. The 1985 annual was solicited as New Mutants Annual #2, but published as New Mutants Special Edition #1 because it exceeded the maximum page count for an annual.

With Claremont taking on Wolverine and Excalibur, he left The New Mutants and the series was turned over to writer Louise Simonson and illustrator Bret Blevins with issue #55 (Sept. 1987). Simonson was intended to be only a fill-in writer for the six months Claremont needed to get the two new series launched, but he ultimately remained with his new projects, and Simonson ended up writing the series for over three years. During her run, due to his unpopularity with New Mutants readers and artists, Cypher is killed off in The New Mutants #60 (February 1988). Simonson recalled, "He wasn't fun to draw. He just stood around and hid behind a tree during a fight... Every artist who ever did him said 'Can't we kill this guy?' We would get letters from fans about how much they hated him."

The most controversial issue of Simonson's run was New Mutants #64. Titled "Instant Replay!", the story deals with the New Mutants' mourning for Cypher, and includes a scene in which Warlock attempts to resurrect Cypher by taking his corpse out of its coffin and showing it to Cypher's loved ones. Simonson holds it to be her favorite New Mutants story, though she acknowledges that many readers found it too morbid.

Sales of the series had slumped for several years, but took a sharp upturn after Rob Liefeld took over the penciling and co-plotting chores at the end of 1989. A new mentor for the group, the mysterious mercenary Cable, was introduced, further helping sales. However, the relationship between Liefeld and Simonson was fraught with tension, and Simonson claims that editor Bob Harras dealt with the situation by rewriting her plots and dialogue so that the characterizations did not make sense: "Although I wasn't being fired, I think I was being shoved out the door with both hands by Bob Harras. Bob was only doing what he had to do, I expect, which was make Rob Liefeld happy." Simonson eventually gave in, leaving after issue #97. When Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, who wrote dialogue based on Liefeld's plots, took over as writers of the final three issues of the series, they included several harder-edged characters.

The New Mutants was cancelled in 1991 with issue #100, but the new platoon-like team formed by Cable continued in X-Force, a successful series (whose first issue sold approximately five million copies) that would continue until 2002, and feature a variety of the former New Mutants cast.

2003 series
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 would continue for 13 issues, until June 2004, before being relaunched as New X-Men: Academy X in July 2004, with a new #1.

2009 series
In May 2009, a third volume of New Mutants was launched. The series was initially written by Zeb Wells and pencilled by Diogenes Neves with the titular characters forming a new field team for the X-Men. The team is a reunion of the cast from the first volume.

The reunion is spun from events from the limited series X-Infernus.

This series lasted until 2012.

2019 series
New Mutants was relaunched in November 2019 as part of Dawn of X. It was written by Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brisson, and drawn by Rod Reis.

Vita Ayala took over the title December 2020.

This series lasted until 2021.

Volume 1
The New Mutants has been reprinted in several trade paperbacks, some containing specific story arcs (such as the "Demon Bear Saga" by Claremont and Sienkiewicz), and some collected as part of a larger crossover of the various X-titles. Only in 2006, however, did a chronological reprinting of the series begin, with the commencement of The New Mutants Classic series of trade paperbacks.