Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Eric Garcia
Artist: Javier Fernandez
Release Date: 12th March 2014

With Issue #2, “CITY: The Mind in the Machine” takes a further step into the possible future of government information gathering. What results is a terrifying look into the very real possibility of privacy violations. There are cameras in changing rooms and sound devices on the street, all analysed simultaneously by the man plugged into the machine, our main character Ben.

The plot of CITY is greatly developed in this issue, bringing in an ongoing love interest for Ben and introducing a revenge thread as Ben looks to dish out vengeance to the terrorist who caused Issue #1’s public disaster. The revenge aspect of this book is definitely slow burning, and is truly exciting to behold. The problems I had with issue #1 were mainly in the dialogue and artwork. These have both most definitely been rectified in issue #2.

The dialogue is stronger due to writer Eric Garcia dropping the cringeworthy “ladchat” between male characters and either keeping all dialogue strictly in a professional environment, or simply keeping as minimal as possible. The art also vastly improved, losing the off-putting ‘glossy kitchen worktop’ shine and sticking to natural colours.

Everything is definitely not as it seems for the CITY characters in this issue, and I am confident there are some excellent plot twists still to come. I advise you to jump on board now and enjoy this story as it is released. The jump from mediocre issue #1 to action packed issue #2 has made this book one of my most anticipated monthly reads. Enjoy.

Rating: 4/5.

---

The writer of this piece was: Blair Stevenson
You can also find Blair on Twitter.