DEMO (AiT/Planet Lar, $2.95)
In the ''X-Men,'' when teenagers wake up with hair in funny places and brand-new superpowers, the kindly Professor X wheels in and takes them to a lush private school and teaches them to use their new gifts for the betterment of mankind. ''Demo'' takes place in a world where those same kids are left to fumble with abilities they can neither understand nor control -- like the barely held-together telekinetic who takes her boyfriend and runs from her mother, who pushed mind-numbing drugs on her. Writer Brian Wood and artist Becky Cloonan let their touching character sketches breathe with a sense of space and life rarely seen in books about mutants.
