A Class of Their Own: Looking At the Classes at Marvel’s Mutant Schools

The X-Men’s school for mutants has gone by many names – The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning — but it has always had one mission: to educate and train mutants in the use of their powers and to strive towards co-existence with everyone. Founded by Harvard grad and one-time professor at Oxford and Columbia Universities Charles Xavier, it served as the launching pad for the X-Men as we know it. And although some of the X-Men outgrew the school and some never matriculated at the school itself, it remains the root of the X-Men and Xavier’s dream for those who would have it. And in those hallowed halls that have been built and rebuilt countless times, there’s a unique and expansive set of distinct classes that have studied at this school and learned to be a hero from its teachers.

The inaugural class at Xavier’s is none other than the original X-Men: Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel and Jean Grey. These five became the standard-bearers for what graduates of this mutant school could become, akin to the Justice League’s big seven or the core trinity of heroes at the center of the Avengers. Cyclops’ brother Havok and his longtime girlfriend Polaris joined the class as late drop-ins, but are considered amongst the first crop of students.

Following in their footsteps (with a bit of a hiatus in-between) were the next class of mutants, dubbed the New Mutants. Early enrollees were Karma, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Cannonball and Sunspot. They were later joined by the likes of Magik, Magma, Warlock and Cypher, along with the X-Terminators: Rictor, Skids, Rusty Collins and Boom-Boom. They were joined briefly by exchange students like Gossamyr and Bird-Brain, but mainly stuck to themselves as part of the New Mutants team. One exception to that was Kitty Pryde — aka Shadowcat — who served as a classmate to the New Mutants while being able to adventure with the adult team of the X-Men. This team went through a lot of upheaval, with Xavier being replaced at one point by the newly heroic Magneto and the entire class eventually disbanded when Cable arrived with a new ideas on proper schooling.

After the dissolution of the New Mutants in 1991, classes at Xavier were few and far between. In wasn’t until 1994 when Generation X was founded that a official new class was inducted, albeit studying offsite at Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy and being the first to have no instruction from Xavier himself. Frost and the long-time X-Man Banshee taught an eclectic class of mutants ranging from former X-Man Jubilee to the sister of a previous student, Husk. They were joined by a crop of complete newcomers such as Skin, M, Chamber, Synch and Penance. They were joined briefly by others such as Mondo and Gaia, but those two students’ stays were brief to non-existent. Like the New Mutants before, they didn’t have a proper graduation as a group, with several members dying but others going on to become future teachers at the school later in life.

Generation X‘s time as student body of Xavier’s was cut short when writer Grant Morrison joined the X-titles, pulling the school back to the X-Mansion and inducting its most diverse cast yet. During this “New X-Men” era of the school, you had diverse groupings like the Special Class (Beak, No-Girl, Angel, Ernst, Dummy), the so-called Omega Gang (Kid Omega, Glob Herman, Radian, Redneck, Tattoo) along with other squads like the Alpha Squadron, The Paragons, the Corsairs and others elaborated on in the revamped New Mutants title which changed names to Academy X and eventually New X-Men.

But following the destruction of the X-Mansion during Messiah Complex, the idea of a school for mutants was put on hold. Standalone classes were sometimes held across the country when the X-Men relocated to San Francisco, but it isn’t considered part of the Xavier school lineage. It wasn’t until 2011 when Wolverine broke away from Cyclops and the San Francisco X-Men in Schism that a new school in the lineage of Xavier’s resumed. Under the new moniker of the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, Wolverine and a host of graduates such as Kitty Pryde, Beast, Iceman, Cannonball and others rejuvenate the campus — albeit with a mutant Krakoa living underneath the mansion.

In this current iteration of the mutant school, Wolverine plays host to several lapsed students like Glob Herman and Kid Omega, while alongside more alien enrollees such as the mutant Brood known as Broo and Kid Gladiator, crown prince to the Sh’iar Empire. Also joining this class would be a first — a graduating student who re-enrolled for more with Warren Worthington III, whose mind was wiped in Uncanny X-Force. And don’t even ask about a kid-version of Apocalypse attending — you need to read it in Wolverine & The X-Men for yourselves.

Unlike most heroes who seem to age only in their origin and then sit in a stasis of sorts at the same age for eternity, the matriculation process as a teenage student at Xavier’s (and now Jean Grey’s) seems like one of the few places you can see heroes (and sometimes villains) grow up. To see former students become teachers, former students re-enroll for a second chance, or even a former student like Angel re-enrolling for the first time, it gives a positive light to the idea of school.

Although there have been various students that don’t fit into these neatly grouped classes, the five classes presented here pretty much create an over-arching legacy for Xavier’s dream of educating mutants on their powers and to be a positive part of society. In recent months with Xavier’s death and Cyclops more militant take on the idea of mutant education, that dream still lives at 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Salem Center, New York… and I’d argue to say that most of the iFanboy readers are glad that school is behind them, they’d change their tunes real quick if an acceptance letter from the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning came in the mail.