Do his powers allow City Boy to exist in any part of the DC Universe?
Yes. Well, there's some interesting stuff done. We did a team-up story with Jack Hawksmoor, who is the other big character in the DC Universe that has a connection to cities. It's a different kind of connection, as we explore in that story. Hawksmoor has different reactions to being separated from cities. Exactly how Cameron's powers will differ from that [is] also a fun thing for us to explore as time goes on.
But to your point, one of the fun things about this character is that you can stick him in any environment, and it raises interesting questions and there's something that can happen that's worth exploring and figuring out. That's solid gold. When you have a character that has a theme that can resonate in a bunch of different ways, that character might have legs — so knock on wood, we're doing our best here.
Ultimately, it comes down to emotional connection. Do we care about this dude? I sure care about him. I feel for him. I want to find out more about what happened in his past and how he's going to handle all of that conflict and trauma and make his way into the future here. I hope he resonates with readers on that emotional level as well as on this big thematic level.
How excited are you to see this book come out? What do you hope readers get from "City Boy" #1?
I hope folks will feel like they're seeing something that they haven't seen before. That's always the thrill of comics and movies. I remember years ago when I was in college, I went to the movies with a friend of mine. He was a very funny person, but as the credit started to roll, he said, "Welcome to the world of fantasy." I don't know, he was a goof, he was messing around — but there is something to that. Every time we open a book, every time we go to a movie, every time we take a shot on a new story, we want to be transported, we want to go somewhere, and we want to see something we haven't seen.
This is definitely distinct from a lot of the other stuff that I've written in the past. It's a different kind of power and story, and I hope folks take that same pleasure and are surprised and have fun with it.
"City Boy" #1 by Pak, Minkyu Jung, Sunny Gho, and Wes Abbott from DC Comics arrives in comic book stores and online retailers on Tuesday, May 23.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
