The first and most notable incarnation of the Hellions were students of Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club's Massachusetts Academy, and were rivals of the New Mutants.

The original Hellions first appeared in New Mutants #16 (June 1984), created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Sal Buscema.

This time they were a part of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning – the Hellions were one of several factions that the students were divided into including the New Mutants, with whom they had a rivalry.

During the Krakoan Age, as part of the Dawn of X publishing initiative, a new ongoing series titled Hellions launched in March 2020 which focused on the most dangerous mutant outcasts.

While attending classes at Frost's Massachusetts Academy, these young mutants secretly trained in the use of their powers in an underground complex beneath the school.

[3] After suffering a severe trauma at the hands of the Beyonder,[4][5] a number of the New Mutants were transferred to the Massachusetts Academy by Magneto (then headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters), due to their apparent need for psychic therapy from Emma Frost.

[7] They soon returned to Xavier's School after their recovery and the revelation that the White Queen had employed Empath to coerce Magneto into allowing the transfer.

[8] After an alliance between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club[9] and Magneto's ascension to the Inner Circle as its White King,[10] relations between the Hellions and the New Mutants improved.

Magma, realizing that she held feelings for Empath, eventually returned to the Hellions and the Massachusetts Academy;[11] the two would later leave the team to travel to her home in Nova Roma.

With the establishing of the new sovereign mutant nation of Krakoa, the original Hellions and Bevatron, now free of the Transmode Virus, have all taken up residence there.

[32][33] Written by Zeb Wells, and drawn by Stephen Segovia, the initial cast comprised Empath, Havok, Mister Sinister, Nanny, Orphan-Maker, Psylocke, Greycrow, and Wild Child.

[34][35][36] For the majority of the series, Segovia was the lead artist "but key chapters were also illustrated by Carmen Carnero, Ze Carlos, and Roge Antonio, among others".

From team leader Mr. Sinister's constant backstabbing to Psylocke's psychic swordplay, Hellions delivered one entertaining story after another until this month's 18th and final issue, which managed to wrap up all of its plot threads and put a cathartic capper on its various characters' quests for redemption".

[44] Brandon Zachary for CBR commented that "each of the Hellions is arguably in a better place emotionally and mentally than where they were at the beginning of the series, even if some of their personal situations have become worse.

It was one of the first titles to really start to poke holes in the Krakoan system, that still was employing methods of punishment and control similar to the world they left behind.