The 4th issue promised there'd be more of this series, but it's been a year since then and I haven't seen even a solicitation for one, we're going forward.
So, for around six months, there's been a vigilante roaming the streets of Summer City. Well, not the streets so much as the sidewalks. Crosswalks, too. He shows up, helps people in danger, and then speed-walks into the night with nary a word. What's his deal? Well, it has something to do with that assemblage up there, but it's unclear how much the man inside the suit is an active part of the whole thing. There's also an opposing force, represented by the big red hand in the "DON'T WALK" sign, and while The Pedestrian has one person in his corner - a veteran now working as a crossing guard - the opposition is grabbing all the new recruits it can.
With The Pedestrian a silent figure, likely in the thrall of forces larger than himself, and the other guy's identity a secret, a lot of Esposito and von Gorman's focus is on the regular people drawn into the orbit of these forces. Not only Kira, a young woman the Pedestrian saves from a mugging on her way home, but also James Tucker, the guy who tried mugging her. Twin brothers, Syndey and Jeremy, new to town and nearly run over by a drunk driver, who Kira ends up babysitting later. Randy, who The Pedestrian helps parallel park one time, and vaguely knew James in high school. There's a detective, investigating the vigilante, trying to figure out what his deal is.
Nothing is exactly working out for these people. Randy was pre-med, but dropped out after a year, due to a drinking issue. Now she works at seemingly the only pizza place in town. Kira can barely afford a studio apartment shared with 3 people, and loses her job because her being interviewed on the news about her mugging makes it look like the store is in the "bad" part of town. Jeremy and Sydney seem to have come from a school district with lots of extracurriculars, and that's not the case at their new school, so they feel isolated. James takes a lot of abuse as the cashier of a crappy local hardware store, and goes home every night to an empty apartment and orders pizza. Detective Sherwood is sort of a joke among her coworkers, and even her father thought she was a fool for thinking she could make the city a better place.
For all of them, Summer City is like a vortex they can't escape. Nothing seems to get better, no avenues for improvement of their lot in life are available. So it becomes a question of whether they fight the pull, or surrender to it. But they are, at the end of the day, regular people. Von Gorman doesn't draw any idealized bodies or figures. A lot of the characters slouch, or walk with a stooped-shoulders, defeated gait. The detective has some stress lines on her face, James has the kind of stubble that just looks sloppy, not whatever it is people who keep stubble and look attractive do for that effect.
That doesn't mean they're helpless, it just means it can be difficult on your own. The Pedetrian's opposing force seems to feed into resentment and frustration. Not so much power as revenge. James, once under its control, isn't interested in money, or getting out of town. He just wants to hurt people, to lash out. There are a lot of people like that in Summer City. They eventually become a horde, dressed all in black except for the handprint over their faces and the red glove. There's a scene where the twins have dragged Kira out on a search for The Pedestrian, and as they stand at a crosswalk, the red "DON"T WALK" sign flashes. With each flash, more of those guys appear across the street.
It's very effective, nicely done, and it emphasizes that even if you don't give in, that doesn't mean you can't get overrun if you try and handle it alone. The twins would have been in deep trouble if they had gone out without Kira, who couldn't have protected them much longer if Detective Sherwood hadn't shown up. When The Pedestrian's out of commission for a bit, it's Randy helping the crossing guard that gets him going again. It's connections, but also whether those connections are trying to help, or drag you down.
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