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New X-Men refers to two superhero comic books published by Marvel Comics within the hugely popular X-Men franchise. The first was New X-Men, a title that was in use during Grant Morrison's tenure on X-Men. This article concentrates on the second series New X-Men, originally titled New X-Men: Academy X and a continuation of New Mutants.

New X-Men (also New X-Men: Academy X), relaunched from New Mutants volume 2, was launched during the X-Men ReLoad event. It resumes directly where the most recent New Mutants series ended, with the same writers, artists and cast of characters. The Academy X subtitle was dropped from the title when the new creative team of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost took over the series with Issue #20.

Whereas the other X-Men comics mostly deal with established adult mutants, this comic concentrates on the lives of young students residing at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning as they learn to control their powers and, as of late, to survive the backlash against mutants that befell them as part of House of M.

New Mutants/New X-Men began where Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men ended. The school was rebuilt and Emma Frost and Cyclops were named the headteachers of the school. They organized the students fifteen-years-old and older into several squads who trained together.

Featured are two teams, the New Mutants, whose members tend to be more clean-cut, and the Hellions, whose members are generally more belligerent. The rivalry—not only academically, but certainly also in private matters—plays a significant role in the series.

The cast of this series are described in the following paragraphs.

The New Mutants squad's tutor is Dani Moonstar. It is co-led by Wind Dancer and Prodigy.

• Wind Dancer, a.k.a. Sofia Mantega. A girl from Venezuela who controls winds. (Depowered)
• Prodigy, a.k.a. David Alleyne, could absorb any non-superhuman talents from nearby people. (Depowered)
• Icarus, a.k.a. Jay Guthrie, can fly, sing mesmerizingly and heal himself rapidly. (Deceased)
• Wallflower, a.k.a. Laurie Collins, exudes pheromones which alter the feelings of other people. (Deceased)
• Elixir, a.k.a. Josh Foley, is an Omega-class healer who ironically was a rabid mutant-hater before he found out he was one himself.
• Surge, a.k.a. Noriko Ashida, is a Japanese girl who constantly absorbs static electricity and can discharge it as electric blasts or bursts of superhuman speed .

The Hellions squad's tutor is Emma Frost. It is led by Hellion.

• Hellion, a.k.a. Julian Keller, is telekinetic.
• Dust, a.k.a. Sooraya Qadir, is a shy girl from Afghanistan who can turn herself into a living whirlwind of dust. She regularly dresses in a niqab.
• Mercury, a.k.a. Cessily Kincaid, consists of a mercurial substance which bears a certain resemblance to "T-1000" from the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Rockslide, a.k.a. Santo Vaccaro, consists of solid rock and can shoot his appendages at targets.
• Tag, a.k.a. Brian Cruz, could "tag" a person so that bystanders are compelled to run away from the person. (Deceased)
• Wither, a.k.a. Kevin Ford, can destroy organic matter on touch. He accidentally killed his father when his powers manifested. (Ran away)

There are also other teams advised by different X-Men. For a complete list of students prior to Decimation see Xavier Institute student body.

• Alpha Squadron, tutored by Karma (formerly by Northstar). Consists of:
  • Anole (leader), Rubbermaid, Indra, Kidogo, Loa, and Network.
• The Corsairs advised by Cyclops consists of:
  • Stepford Cuckoos (co-leaders), Specter, Dryad and Quill. Quill was killed in Rev. Stryker's attack on the school.
• The Paragons, tutored by Magma (formerly tutored by Wolfsbane), consists of :
  • Match (leader), Trance, Wolf Cub, Pixie, D.J., and Preview.
• Gambit's squad, introduced in X-Men, consists of:
  • Bling!, Flubber, Onyxx, and Rain Boy
• Rogue's squad, shown in Uncanny X-Men was never named.
• Storm's squad that was mentioned in New X-Men has one survivor, the student called Nezhno.
• The Excelsiors, Iceman's squad, and the Exemplars, whose mentor is Beast, have only been mentioned, never having appeared.
  • It is possible that Armor and Blindfold are part of the same squad due to their uniforms have matching colors in issue # 23.

Cover of New X-Men #20, pencils by Mark Brooks. This issue marks not only a new direction for the title, but the dropping of Academy X from its title.

As a result of the Decimation event, in which the Scarlet Witch's magicks de-powered most of the mutant population, only 27 of the 182 students enrolled at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning still retain their powers, and the comic changed its name to simply New X-Men. In response to the increasingly desperate situation that mutants now faced, Emma Frost has disbanded all the former training squads (most of which had lost much of their membership to the Decimation) and integrated those students she deemed capable of combat, including new addition X-23, to a new team that is essentially a junior team of X-Men, while relegated the others to the sidelines and an unknown future, since Emma seems to have abandoned the general education program formerly in place at the school.

Of the former New Mutants, Prodigy lost his powers; Wind Dancer left the school almost immediately, but Prodigy has been forced to stay to avoid wide-spread attacks worldwide against former mutants who are now seen as easy targets by mutant-haters. Most if not all of the other de-powered students were killed in an attack by the anti-mutant fanatic, Reverend William Stryker. Furthermore, Icarus was misled by Stryker into allowing his wings to be amputated, and was later killed by Stryker after serving his purpose in leading the former Hellion Dust to her apparent death (although the "vision" showed Dust disappearing as a threat, it was later revealed that the girl who had arrived in the burqa was actually X-23, Dust's roommate with a nearly undefeatable healing factor). A sniper working for Stryker was responsible for the shooting death of Wallflower. Elixir, who had a former romantic relationship with Wallflower and witnessed her death, was reduced to a near-catatonic state over this event compounded with his inability to save any of his former classmates after Stryker's prior attack.

The New X-Men were able to defeat the Purifiers and Elixer killed Stryker, which caused his gold skin to turn black. Soon after they received a visit from Ms. Marvel who informed them that Jay was dead and he wrote the letter NIMR on the ground next to him. David deduced that it was Nimrod and is proved right when they receive a distress call from Forge, who was forced to repair Nimrod for fear that Storm may be hurt. They then went off with David in tow to help Forge only to be shot down by Nimrod and attacked by a horde of robots. Forge tricked Nimrod into downloading into a new prototype boy he built that has a firewall to keep Nimrod from harming mutants. Nimrod was sent to help the New X-Men defeat the robots, but was mistaken for a threat. When he was attacked his prime directive took over and he implodeed part of the building.

Hellion protected the team from harm, and they attempted to defend themselves from Nimrod, but the robot proved to be unbeatable. Rockslide was incinerated, but was later reassembled with a new look, and the others were unable to defeat Nimrod until David and Forge figured out away to stop him by overflowing his power core. X-23, Mercury and Surge managed to send Nimrod back in time. X-23 was severely injured, forcing Hellion to ask Emma Frost to push his powers to their fullest so he could make it back to the mansion for help. This caused him to increase his flight speed to above Mach-5 and even allowed him to destroy a Sentinel. Hellion forced Elixir to snap out of his catatonia to heal X-23 and then collapsed to the floor.

Later it was revealed that Wither has been living in Mutant Town with a strange woman who was revealed to be Selene, the Black Queen, who seduces him into using his powers to kill. This was aided by his discovery of Wallflower's death. Back at the mansion a memorial was held to honor all the X-Men and students who perished. David decides to stay at the mansion after Cyclops praises him and Surge on the defeat of Nimrod. Hellion is unable to control his powers after they were "unlocked" and even the smallest use causes major force. Elixir tells Beast his desire to study up on the human body to gain greater control over his abilities. Mercury discovers that Emma has been harassing X-23, which causes her to become angry and take X off the grounds to talk with her. X-23 reveals that she knows about Mercury's obsolete need for food, and Mercury figures out about X's interest in Hellion. They are stopped when an assassin named Kimura blows up the coffee house and attacks them. Mercury is taken hostage and experimented on and tortured by scientists who are trying to find away to make the living mercury that she is made out of to use as skin for Predator X. Mammomax is killed by the creature. X-23 returns to the mansion where Hellion decides to help her track Mercury down. The attack several places trying to get information. Hellion disapproves of X's lethal tactics and orders her not to kill again. Finally the go to the Owl who after some persuasion gives them the location. Surge and Prodigy attempt to recruit Bling onto the team, but she turns them down saying it is to dangerous and that Onyxx and herself are leaving the mansion because it is unsafe. Surge and the rest of the New X-Men along with Emma Frost use Cerebra to locate them, but as soon as they come within range of the facility she loses contact. The experiments on Mercury are successful and skin is made for Predator X just as X-23 and Hellion arrive.

It has been stated that the mutant student body in the academy dropped from 182 to 27 (though that number is technically inaccurate; 29 remain). The following are the students that have been confirmed to have retained their powers.

Note: Although Quentin Quire is no longer a student at the Xavier Institute (as he has evolved to a higher state of being), he retained his powers and is being held in a containment unit at the school.

Most of the students listed above were confirmed in New X-Men #21 and in X-Men: The 198 Files. Indra and Quill were confirmed in Decimation - The Day After, while Bling was confirmed in X-Men vol 02 #177.[1]. Wallflower was killed by Reverend Stryker in New X-Men #26. Quill was killed by one of Stryker's henchmen in New X-Men #27. Icarus was shot by Stryker and died a few issues later.

In the aftermath of Decimation, Emma Frost created a team of X-Men trainees. The team consists of:

• Surge [leader]
• Dust
• Hellion
• Prodigy
• Rockslide [new form]
• Mercury
• X-23
• Elixir [kicked off the team for a violent outburst, revived from coma]

There are other students residing at the Institute that has aided the X-Men, but are not part of Emma's select group. Some of which are:

• Anole [last seen helping Elixir with his health lessons, apparently will join the team].
• Pixie [Last seen in New X-Men, apparently will join the team].
• Match [Apparently will join the team]
• Loa [Last seen in New X-Men].
• Indra [Last seen in New X-Men].
• Wolf Cub [Last seen in New X-Men #37].
• Bling! [last seen refusing to join the New X-Men because of the death count].
• Armor [currently a member of the Astonishing team].
• Blindfold [last seen aiding the Astonishing X-Men].
• Stepford Cuckoos [last seen uncovering their Weapon Plus past].

• New X-Men on Marvel.com