City Boy #2 // Review
Cameron should feel good. He’s in the largest city imaginable. Given the nature of the powers that he has come into, a city of 14 million people should provide him a deep connection with the reality of the humanity that he is so much a part of. Cameron is not happy, though. He’s quite upset...a situation that is going to be a problem for quite a few people in City Boy #2. Writer and co-creator Greg Pak and artist and co-creator Minkyu Jung continue to usher Cameron through the first major plot arc of his new series. Though the concept for Cameron and his powers is very interesting, the creative team is just getting going on developing exactly what it is a story with this particular character is going to look like.
Cameron can feel all 14 million. And he's intimately aware of the fact that they said he doesn't necessarily care about them. It's a city. The people within the city, however? THEY know that. The city can’t exist without them. Metropolis only lives because the citizens of Metropolis do. There are bullies within the city at every level. Cameron can feel them, too. He is in a unique position to deal with them as things begin to fall apart. Boss Chung has hurt Cameron. And when Cameron gets hurt, the city can feel it. And it can give him menacing strength.
It’s not often that a concept like the powers of City Boy comes along. It’s only capable of being as interesting as the situations that the writer places them into, though. Pak has a solid basic understanding of what needs to happen with his character. Pak has yet to really engage the deeper themes of interconnectedness and the consciousness and conscience of a major metropolitan area. The immediate plot is entertaining on a whole bunch of different levels. But it hasn't moved beyond a very standard sort of superhero dynamic.
Jung looks at a city from many different angles. Ariel establishing shots lead to much more earthbound drama and then off to the distinct supernatural look of a superhero comic book. The artist is versatile enough to make all of the scenes feel like they flow naturally into each other, even as they flit from moment to moment and character to character. There's real power in the physical aggression that is present on the page. Jung gives that aggression quite an impact. As of yet, the character and his adventures have yet to live up to the kind of dramatic nuance that Jung seems to be capable of, but there’s a good chance that subtlety is coming once the smoke clears on the first couple of issues of the series.
There is so much potential for exploring Cameron's powers on every level, from individual people to neighborhoods to aspects of infrastructure. In the first couple of issues of the series, Pak is exploring City Boy’s power in more of a traditional superhero story. Cameron is different enough from other superheroes that it will take a while to really settle into the kind of story he has the potential for. Hopefully, people stick around long enough for the premise to embrace its originality.
