Reviewer: Jimmy Lin
Story Title: Human Nature, Metal Fatigue
Written and Pencilled by: Howard Chaykin
Colored by: Michelle Madsen
Publisher: Wildstorm > DC Comics
Normally, I would have reviewed issue 1 and come back to wrap up the miniseries. However, sometimes, I’m a slacker. Issue 2 was out before I knew it, and am I glad it’s out, because my estimation of the book went up several notches. City of Tomorrow was clearly envisioned as a single, unbroken narrative, and where the story left off in issue 1 left too many questions unanswered to be functional. However, with issue 2 in sway, City of Tomorrow is a great place to be.
The story begins with a terrorist attack, but it’s the most tasteful presentation of an attack that I’ve ever read. You’re then introduced to Eli Foyle and family, filming an ad for his new country Columbia (assuming the South American nation is gone at this point), a sort of perfect suburbia built with nanotechnology and serviced by androids. Cut to “T.” as he works his way through a series of covert military assignments based on 9/11 and the Iraq War. In between black ops, we see Eli and his son Tucker fall out as he becomes a rebellious teen. At the end of issue 1, Tucker is apparently returning to a slimier, seedier Columbia, as he is first beset by robot hookers and then robot mobsters.
It’s in issue 2 that we find out “T.” and Tucker are one and the same and that Columbia’s robots, infected by a computer virus, have turned from their better sides and turned Pleasantville into Times Square circa 1975. Tucker, supposedly “cleaned” during on op, has returned to Columbia to disappear, only to find his mother dead and his father in hiding. The scene is set for some hard-boiled action as Tucker and Eli prepare to take back Columbia. One can only assume that firearms and explosives are part of the plan.
Chaykin is in top form here. Since returning to comics three years ago, he’s shaken off any rust that might have clotted his chops. Employing noiresque dialogue (with wordplay inspired by Alfred Bester) and sharply inked, dynamic art, Chaykin brings City of Tomorrow to life in a big way. My personal Chaykin benchmarks are Thick Black Kiss and his adaptation of Bester’s Stars My Destination, and City of Tomorrow can play with those bad boys on half-court littered with broken glass and razor wire. The creative machine is purring like a ’58 Fury named Christine, and Chaykin is riding it like your mom at a 50 Cent concert.
