Debuting back in 1982, the New Mutants were the first X-Men spin-off team, but they would be far from the last. The Xavier Institute was always billed as a school and the team represented the next class of mutants, the ones who would go on to become the X-Men of the future. Of course, like any school, not every student went on to bigger and better things.
Some of the New Mutants would go on to become X-Men and be quite good at it. Others would become X-Men and it wouldn't go nearly as well. This list is going to look at the ones who excelled when they graduated to the main team and the ones who might have needed a bit more schooling.
10 Better On The New Mutants: Magma
Magma is one of the lesser-known members of the New Mutants. Hailing from a lost South American Roman colony, she had the power to control lava, hence the name Magma. A very powerful mutant, she was targeted by Selene and saved by the team, going on to join them to learn more about her powers.
Magma would join the X-Men on a few occasions later in life but was always one of the background members of the team. As powerful as she is, she never really did anything of note during her time with the main team.
9 Better On The X-Men: Cable
While he was much older than everyone else on the team, Cable was technically a member of the New Mutants for a short period of time, taking over the team and driving a wedge between them and the Xavier Institute. He would split the team off from the school and forge them into X-Force, his own personal army in his war against evil.
Cable would go on to become an X-Man, serving with several different incarnations of team. He wasn't the best X-Man and would always eventually end up back on X-Force or out on his own, but he was a better X-Man than New Mutant for one big reason- his time with the X-Men didn't end the team.
8 Better On The New Mutants: Sunspot
Born to a wealthy Brazilian family, Roberto Da Costa has the ability to channel and absorb solar energy, using it to fly, fire blasts of energy, and fuel his super strength. He was part of the first class of New Mutants and would go on to join X-Force and the X-Men before also becoming an Avenger.
Sunspot's time on the main team was short and barely remembered- he was a member of the team during the Utopia era and once the New Mutants started back up, he rejoined them. His time on the Avengers was more successful than his time on the X-Men, which is different to say the least.
7 Better On the X-Men: Chamber
This one is a bit weird. Chamber debuted as a member of Generation X, which took the place of the New Mutants as the team of young mutants learning the ropes. His body is a cauldron of psionic energy so powerful it blew a hole in his face and chest when his power emerged. He would go on to join the X-Men and is now a member of the New Mutants, which is a very weird regression.
While he has only just joined the New Mutants, he's barely done anything with the team, not really fitting in with the other members of the team, except for his former Generation X teammate Mondo. He wasn't a great X-Men, but he's a terrible New Mutant.
6 Better On The New Mutants: Mirage
Dani Moonstar was born with telepathic abilities that allowed her to generate illusions, but as time went on she refined them, gaining a wide range of psionic powers. During her time with the New Mutants, she would even become a Valkyrie during her tenure.
Mirage would join the X-Men on several occasions over the years, but never made much of an impact with the team, always in the background. It's a shame too because she always had a lot of potential.
5 Better On The X-Men: Armor
A Japanese mutant with the ability to generate psionic armor, Hisako Ichiki would graduate to the X-Men rather quickly after her debut. Wolverine took her under his wing for a time and she would learn to control her powers better, able to reshape her energy armor into whatever form she needed it to be. She just recently joined the New Mutants during the Krakoa era.
Armor hasn't been a New Mutant very long but her first outing with the team was a bit of a disaster, resulting in her team being taken hostage and the death of Beak's parents.
4 Better On The New Mutants: Wolfsbane
Rahne Sinclair is a Scottish mutant with the ability to transform into a wolf. She would eventually learn to turn into a human/wolf hybird during her time with the New Mutants. When the team split off to form X-Force, Wolfsbane wouldn't follow, instead joining up with the new X-Factor before bouncing around the mutants B-teams and briefly becoming an X-Man when Cyclops recruited her after his return from the dead.
Wolfsbane's tenure with the X-Men was very short- she only a member for a little bit before she resigned from the X-Men.
3 Better On The X-Men: Domino
Domino would join the New Mutants for a very brief time after Cable took over the group. In fact, her tenure would be just on the tail end of the whole thing, right before the team would become X-Force. She would later join the X-Men and while she didn't exactly make a huge impact on the team, it was better than her time as a New Mutant.
Domino spent barely any time at all in the New Mutants before the team became X-Force, so by default her time as an X-Man was better.
2 Better On The New Mutants: Cannonball
Cannonball has served in every incarnation of the New Mutants since its debut. Born with the ability to fly, his body also generated a field which made him invulnerable while doing so and allowed him to redirect kinetic energy generated by impacts. He would be the first member of the New Mutants to graduate to the X-Men and would also go on to become an Avengers, before marrying the Shi'Ar Superguardian Smasher and starting a family on the Shi'Ar throneworld of Chandrilar.
Cannonball was by no means a bad X-Man but as a New Mutant, he was always a leader of the team and one of its core members. He never rose so high in the X-Men.
1 Better On The X-Men: Magik
Colossus's sister, Illyana Rasputin was born the ability to teleport anywhere. As a young girl, she would be kidnapped by Belasco and brought to Limbo, where she would grow up and learn the use of magic. Returning to the real world as a teenager she would join the New Mutants before being de-aged and dying of the Legacy Virus. She would eventually return to life, rejoining the second incarnation of the New Mutants before becoming an X-Man and then rejoining the New Mutants on Krakoa.
As good as she was in the New Mutants, Magik took to being an X-Man better than any of the other New Mutants to join the main team. She did so well that she was made one of four Captains by the government of Krakoa, reporting directly to Cyclops.