Ooomph!

Young X-Men #2

Cyclops has formed a new team of X-Men, including Dust, Blindfold, Rockslide, Wolf Cub, and Ink, and he’s given them an assignment to hunt down and kill the current Brotherhood of Evil Mutants — the former New Mutants, Cannonball, Magma, Sunspot, and Dani Moonstar. Whoa, wait a minute, why did the New Mutants turn evil? Why does Cyclops want them dead? His explanations make no sense, and the team’s training against holographs of the old New Mutants team aren’t going well. Nevertheless, Cyke splits the team and sends them out after Dani Moonstar and Magma. Unsurprisingly, things don’t go that well, and even worse, there are suggestions that there’s a traitor on the team…

Verdict: Thumbs up for now. Yanick Paquette’s artwork is sweet, but I’d definitely like a credible explanation for Cyclops’ sudden and uncharacteristic bloodthirstiness.

Wonder Woman #20

A weird issue. On one hand, Wonder Woman is in a wintry wasteland, besieged by wolves, seeking out the legendary hero Beowulf. Elsewhere, she’s in the Department of Metahuman Affairs, in her mortal guise as Agent Diana Prince. Sarge Steel promotes her, even though he doesn’t seem to trust her at all. And she and Etta Candy run into the Stalker, an minor DC hero/villain from the ’70s, who manages to strand Diana in, well, a wintry wasteland where she has to seek out Beowulf.

Verdict: Thumbs up, mainly for the dialogue, which rocks. I’m less than thrilled with this Stalker dude, who really needs a little backstory and explanation to make him a decent character.