Hostage rescue can never be easy.
Creative Staff:
Story: Andre Parks with Joe & Anthony Russo
Art: Fernando Leon Gonzalez
What They Say:
She was kidnapped and taken to the worst place on earth. He was hired to get her out. Now, they’re both trapped in a city that wants them both dead, and their hopes of getting out are fading fast. From the bloodthirsty criminals, to the corrupt police, to the kid hiding a Glock under his sweatshirt on the corner, everyone wants Tyler Rake and Eva Roche dead.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Set as a five issue series, Ciudad is an interesting title in that writer Andre Parks is working off of a story that was done between him and the Russo brothers, who have gained a little bit of fame for their recent work on Captain America: The Winter Soldier film. With this being a set five part series, the opening chapter is naturally one that’s like the opening scene in an action movie in that it’s all about the movement and action while getting a bit of a feel for the main character, at least who we assume is the main character so far. There’s not a lot of detail to really be given here, but it works a very solid piece of action choreography in black and white while advancing the style and tone of the narrative well.
Taking place in the city of Ciudad Del Este in Paraguay, we’re introduced to a man that gives the name John Bonham as he tries to go through some of the details of setting up a hostage payoff for the hostages father. In reality, his name is Tyler Rake and, with his brothers that we don’t see but get plenty of dialogue about, he deals with bad situations like this. It’s not done with comedy as we see him interacting with the kidnappers in the room as he tries to get them to realize that they’re asking for too much since the girl they’ve kidnapped, Eva, is eighteen and not worth what they’re demanding. It moves through familiar patterns here with a humble Tyler just trying to survive through it so he can bring the information back to the boss.
Or so you would believe at first as he’s just looking for his prime opportunity to take down the kidnappers and rescue her. That hits relatively early on in the book and a lot of what we get here is his attempt to get Eva out of there, making sure she listens to him and sticks close while they run the gauntlet of people that are after them. There’s not much establishment of who the kidnappers are – or who Eva is for that matter – and we get plenty of forward movement as they barrel through things and then we get the growing number of other parties that appear to be after them as well, with local security, cops and more. There’s something of a minor twist at the end, but since we don’t know anything about anyone here there’s not enough to really latch onto.
In Summary:
Ciudad kicks things off with a lot of action and works through it in a solid way without going overly big or unrealistic with what it does. In fact, it looks a lot like storyboards overall for a movie as the action tracks and it gives off the sense of the opening act of a film. That’s both good and bad as we get some solid action to it and a good sense of space and movement, but it also comes across as weak as there’s not enough to really hook you here. While it is a five part series and it has a beginning, middle and end to it with its entire run, the beginning doesn’t offer anywhere near enough of a hook to really draw you in to wanting to read more of it, even with the talents involved.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Oni Press
Release Date: October 27th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
