Marvel formed the New Mutants to serve as the future X-Men, but they ended up the biggest mutants in the world early on when the actual X-Men were off planet. Professor Xavier sought out teenagers, the same as he did when he formed the original X-Men team, but this time, he intended only to train them and teach them in school, giving them an education on top of leaning how to master their powers. However, the New Mutants outgrew that and ended up as heroes in their own right before, eventually, Cable took over the team and turned them into the special ops mutant team known as X-Force. Here is a look at the first 10 members of the New Mutants, all ranked according to their power levels.

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10) Cypher

For many years, Douglas Ramsey was a joke in Marvel Comics, widely considered the most worthless of all mutants. At first, he didn’t even know he was a mutant nor did he know the reason he was invited to enroll as Xavier’s Institute. Fans hated him from the start, because when he did learn he was a mutant, he acted like he was important, when in reality, he brought nothing to the table. He can speak and understand any language, human, alien or computer. When he died, it wasn’t a sad or tragic moment and most fans were glad to see him gone. Cypher underwent a power change when he became Revelation thanks to Apocalypse, but in the New Mutants, he was the least powerful of them all.

9) Warlock

Warlock was the only member of the New Mutants original team that wasn’t a mutant. He was an alien who came to Earth to hide from his father, who was attempting to kill him. He found the X-Men, became close friends with Douglas Ramsey, and was taken in by the team when they stopped his father’s attempts at killing the young alien. In many ways seen as a mascot for the New Mutants, Warlock actually had some serious powers, including shapeshifting, energy absorption, and superhuman strength and senses.

8) Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane was one of the founding members of the New Mutants, a young Scottish mutant who has the power to turn into a wolf. Unlike werewolves, she transforms at will and keeps her intelligence in wolf form. However, she had a traumatic childhood as her own preacher father tried to kill her when he decided she was cursed by demons. Also, since she wasn’t a real werewolf, she also didn’t have their weaknesses. While her powers is basically just that of a wolf, she is very strong and can grow larger, up to 1,000 pounds.

7) Boom Boom

Boom Boom made her debut in Secret Wars II #5 in 1985 and she had run away from home to find the Xavier Institute when her parents were disgusted by her new mutant abilities and physically abused her as a result. However, before reaching Xavier’s, the Beyonder found her and because she was with him when she reached the Institute, the X-Men attacked them both. It took a long time (and a stint with X-Factor and the X-Terminators), but Boom Boom finally joined the team in New Mutants #76.

6) Cannonball

Cannonball was another founding member of the New Mutants, and in many ways, he was the teenager team’s version of Cyclops. He was one of its first-ever members and he was with the team for their entire existence before transitioning over to X-Force when Cable arrived. He was the team’s co-leader alongside Danielle Moonstar, and they developed a close friendship. As for his powers, he can fly at superspeed using thermo-chemical energy field propulsion and hit things like a cannonball. He has taken out Gladiator and has destroyed several city blocks in the past.

5) Magma

Magma made her debut in New Mutants #8 in 1983 and she was one of the first newcomers to join the team after the originals joined together. Unlike the rest of the New Mutants, who are teenagers, she is very, very old. Amara was actually born around 44 BC and remained in the lost colony of Nova Roma for years before she had to escape for her own safety. This is when the New Mutants discovered her and they took her in to help her learn to control her powers better. Those powers involved manipulating actual magma from the Earth, making her a destructive and very powerful mutant.

4) Mirage

Mirage is Danielle Moonstar, the co-leader of the New Mutants alongside Cannonball and one of the most respected mutants to ever serve on the team. She was a founding member and was a powerful mutant, and she was the reason for the team’s greatest Marvel storyline as she was who caused the Demon Bear to attack the team, the storyline that also played out in the New Mutants movie. Her mutant powers allowed her to create images that others could see, and later she could even create images pulled from people’s actual fears. She became even more powerful after M-Day when she lost her mutant powers, but then became a Valkyrie warrior.

3) Karma

Karma was one of the first-ever New Mutants as Reed Richards suggested she join the Xavier Institute and she was named the first leader of the new teenage mutant team. She debuted before most others, making her first appearance in Marvel Team-Up #100, where Spider-Man teamed with the Fantastic Four, and that led her to Xavier’s school. However, she left quickly, departing the New Mutants in their seventh issue and believed to be dead for almost three years. However, she survived, and much of that is thanks to her powers, as she is a telepath who is skilled at psychic possession and mind control.

2) Sunspot

Sunspot was one of the original New Mutants members, debuting alongside most of the team in Marvel Graphic Novel: The New Mutants in 1982. Over time, he became close friends with Cannonball, a friendship that lasts to this day. Sunspot also went above and beyond just his role in the New Mutants, as he even led his own Avengers team for a while, while also serving with X-Force and the X-Men, as well as buying and running AIM. His powers are immense. He has solar radiation absorption and can re-channel that energy into almost anything he wants.

1) Magik

The most powerful of the New Mutants’ first 10 members is Magik, and it isn’t even close. When Illyana Rasputina first debuted in Marvel Comics, she was a young girl with no powers, the little sister of Colossus brought to America for her safety. However, she was abducted into the Limbo realm and held there for years, learning black magic, before returning in what was only minutes in this world’s time, aged many years. Her mutant powers allow her to teleport across dimensions with stepping stones. However, her magical powers made her the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo.

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