The Hellions are supposed to be the antagonists to the New Mutants team that is the star of New X-Men: Academy X. This book takes place right after Volume 3 of that series, as the Hellions crash at the house of their leader, Hellion. They get caught up in a monkey’s paw like scenario with a guy called The Kingmaker that the writers try to make enigmatic by having him always wear sunglasses.
There are several nice character moments, with Dust, the Afghani, burka-wearing mutant (who disappeared in the last couple volumes of the regular series) reuniting with her mom, and Hellion decided to kind of be a good guy. Still, other characters’ plights, like Wither’s Death Touch, and Mercury’s metallic skin, are the exact same problems faced by old X-Men, Rogue and Nightcrawler, respectively. Rockslide’s decision to use his power to become a wrestler completely rips off Spider-Man and The Thing’s wrestling aspirations. At the end of the four issues, guess what, the Hellions learn that maybe they shouldn’t sign a contract with an enigmatic dude, and being good isn’t so bad.
Clayton Henry has a nice fluid style that works well on Marvel’s second-tier superhero books. He makes reading books like this and Alpha Flight easy, and once or twice an issues draws something really fun.