The bulk of this book deals with the arrival of Warren "Angel" Worthington to X-Men HQ, having been ditched by parents ashamed of his mutant-spawned wings, and the creation of a government-sponsored New Mutants program to compete with (and distance the president from) Charles Xavier's controversial Westchester school.

But the most moving portion of New Mutants -- and the subplot that shows most strongly the differences between the Ultimate X-Men and their mainstream Marvel counterparts -- is the one about a boy who wakes up with a new mutant power, one that kills without choice or action every living being in his immediate radius. Xavier's solution to that calamity -- and an anti-mutant backlash waiting to happen -- involves a surprisingly compassionate Wolverine and a can't-turn-back-now resolution.

Meanwhile, you just know the government's mutant program is going to have immediate and catastrophic problems, especially considering its choice of membership. Emma Frost, a mutant, teacher and Xavier's former lover, leads the charge. Brian Michael Bendis, who made Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man series one of the best on the market, handles the writing for this sensitive volume in which several new characters are introduced to the X-family and one, at least, takes his leave.