Middlewest vol 2 by Skottie Young

Illustrated by Jorge Corona
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Abel continues his search to cure himself of the mysterious mark on his chest, and the terrifying ability he has to turn into a cyclone when he loses his temper. He leaves the traveling Carnival group, afraid he will cause more death and destruction, but, within days, Bobby decides to search for him and help him come back to his new family.  Abel’s quest leads him to the Winter Woods where a reunion with family from his past doesn’t go quite like he hopes. He then stumbles upon a city that isn’t known for being super family-friendly, and he gets swept up by a decades-long slave-labor plot.

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There is a little more world building and it definitely sounds like there was a big war and we're in a post-apocalyptic society. Between the child slave-labor camp Abel gets into and his abusive father, there is a recurring theme of adults being awful to children.  Within families, it is apparently not uncommon for parents to be so horrible to their children that the children decide to run away.  Both the Carnival and the slave-labor scheme bank on staffing their ranks with runaway children.  I’m starting to wonder if all parental instincts were destroyed in the war that preceded the events of this series.  Abel's fox friend is the brunt of Abel's anger in this volume, but he still doesn't lose the loyalty to Abel despite his horrible attitude.  I find myself more emotionally invested in the fox's feelings than some of the other characters, which is a reflection of me as a person and not of Young as a writer.
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Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Magic, Action Adventure, Family