The Pedestrian

This cockeyed superhero story from Esposito (Batman: Urban Legends) and Von Gorman (Secret Adventures of Houdini) mixes urban paranoia and the paranormal. In Summer City, a dead-end town with a tendency to “swallow everything and everyone,” an unusual hero appears: a silent, white-suited speed walker who rescues citizens while scrupulously observing traffic laws. Assorted locals investigate the mystery of the Pedestrian, including a police detective, a pizza delivery woman, a pair of precocious twins, and Kira, a teenager who becomes curious after the offbeat hero saves her from a mugger. As these characters’ paths cross, unexpected connections emerge between them and other townspeople. Meanwhile, the Pedestrian acquires a nemesis, a sinister figure in black and red who possesses townspeople and makes them give in to anger and despair. Von Gorman’s art is at its best in the comic’s moments of traffic-themed Grant Morrison–esque surrealism: a vision of stoplight-headed celestial beings, characters transported and trapped inside a lit up “walk” symbol. With hints of evil conspiracies and cosmic forces brewing beneath the surface of the aggressively dull town, this offers a jaunty detour from the norm. (Feb.)