After reading the first issue of one of my most-anticipated titles of 2024, I’m not surprised to be saying thatJames Tynion IVand Elsa Charretier’s new seriesThe City Beneath Her Feetis definitely worth the wait. With a twisted take on classic romantic comedy tropes and stylish cartooning,DSTLRY’snext comic asks: what if Nora Ephron made a movie about a mysterious assassin?
I jest, butTynionand Charretier’sThe City Beneath Her Feetis billed as “a bloody love letter to New York City,” so rest assured: I’m not joking all that much. The first issue - with frequent Tynion collaborators Jordie Bellaire on colors and Aditya Bidikar on letters - follows the two leads,the mysterious assassin Jasper Jayne and the struggling writer Zara, as they make their separate ways across New York City, only for the paths to serendipitously collide after Jasper gets injured on one of her jobs.
December 11th, 2024
Variant Covers:
Anwita Citriya, Tula Lotay, Annie Wu, Marley Zarcone, Elsa Charretier
A bloody love letter to New York City, The City Beneath Her Feet is an action/thriller love story for a new generation by lauded creators James Tynion IV (Spectregraph, Something is Killing the Children) and Elsa Charretier (Room Service, Love Everlasting). Jasper Jayne was the girl of Zara’s dreams, but their brief relationship came and went in such an intense blaze that Zara was left thinking Jasper was just that… a dream. Years later, Zara is thrust back into Jasper’s world — unknowingly listed as her emergency contact, Zara must piece together the mystery of Jasper’s life, all while being hunted by the assassins who once called Jasper one of their own.
And so"girl meets girl" in a blood-soaked meet-cute that changes both their lives- but Zara’s most of all. Set in a gorgeously grimy New York, from Brooklyn to the pits of Midtown,The City Beneath Her Feetis just as much a thriller as it is a romance - and just as much about one woman’s dangerous quest for meaning in another person as it is about assassins and writers.
New DSTLRY SeriesThe City Beneath Her FeetEmbraces Everything New York City Can Do for a Story
Nothing Screams “Romance” More than New York
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: one ofDSTLRY’s strengths as a publisheris its willingness to take big genre swings, offering a home to stories that don’t fit comfortably within traditional genre boundaries and may even upend those boundaries.The City Beneath Her Feetfits within that “upending” mold by combininga traditional thriller-spy story with the familiar and even comforting trappings of romance. The “star-crossed lovers” trope is only one such trapping, and star-crossed they are: the wealthy, strange Jasper is vastly different from the almost curmedgeonly writer Zara.
If this story pulls from the action and style ofKill Bill, it pulls just as much from the New York ofWhen Harry Met Sally.
But New York itself has its own role to play in this story, and it’s not as a “character,” no matter how the traditional cliché goes. At this point in romance and romcom history,New York is more than a character; the city is a trope in its own right, and Tynion and Charretier play with that trope just as much as they play with any other genre tool in their expansive tool belts. If this story pulls from the action and style ofKill Bill, it pulls just as much fromthe New York ofWhen Harry Met Sally.
James Tynion IV’s Comics Continue to Explore Queer Storytelling in All Its Possible Iterations
Including the Romance at the Heart ofThe City Beneath Her Feet
Beyond the how-it-works of genre storytelling, it’s a straight-up pleasure to seeTynion play with and within a new genre, taking a step back - or maybe in front of - the horror and mystery farethat cemented his still-growing role in the comics industry. Romance shows up in his other work, of course, but it’s rarely the focus of the story, makingThe City Beneath Her Feeta refreshing change of pace, especially with a sublime partner like Charretier, who is no stranger to blending romance with action.
And, for what it’s worth, seeingTynion’s post-Batmanbody of work growing increasingly, unabashedly, and now nakedly - in all its meanings - queer, without pretense or explanation, has been a thrill as a long-time reader. What was once subtextual inBatmancharacters like Miracle Mollyis now pure, textual subject matter inBeneath Her Feet, and I can only hope it’s been just as much of a revelation for the traditional superhero readers who have followed him to his creator-owned work over the years.
Wondering who Miracle Molly is and why she might be read through a queer lens? Check outBatman Secret Files: Miracle Molly#1 by Tynion, Dani, Lee Loughridge, and Tom Napolitano, available now from DC Comics.
Perhaps most strikingly,the queerness ofThe City Beneath Her Feetis almost incidental,an unquestioned part of these characters. Of course these two women would feel immediate attraction. Of course Zara would follow Jasper home. Of course Jasper would continue to haunt Zara, even in her absence - and perhaps that’s the queerest development of all.
What IsThe City Beneath Her FeetReally About?
Falling in Love Isn’t Everything It’s Cracked Up to Be
If Jasper Jayne is the visual hook of this comic - with her bright smile, blonde bob, and bloody knives - thenZara is its human, flawed heart. So much of this story is about the tragic difference between dream and reality - or, more accurately, between what we imagine about places, career paths, and other people and the hard-crash reality of what they are with the veneer chipped off.
Is it ever really possible to know another person, even if - especially if - you love them?
New York - that classic romcom trope and home tosomany kitschy “Irish” bars, unattainable apartments, bridges, and people! -New York is more than setting, more than trope, and far more than a real place in the world.ForBeaneath Her Feet, New York is a metaphor: beneath what we imagine a person or thing to be is its complex, unknowable self.
What makesThe City Beneath Her Feetmore than a fun thrillride of an action/romance comic is how it embraces that metaphor - and having a mysterious assassin as a co-lead - in order toquestion just what it means to fall in love with another person. Jasper may orbit Zara’s life, and Zara may miss Jasper when she’s gone, but the twist in the final pages of the first issue offer one single question: is it ever really possible to know another person, even if - especially if - you love them?
Elsa Charretier and Jordie Bellaire’s Art Elevates Even the Grimiest Corners of New York
There’s Beauty Even in the Trash Cans
All this pontificating means absolutely nothing without Charretier’s art, of course, and the genius Bellaire on colors. Bellaire does so much of the atmospheric heavy-lifting, creating a sepia-toned city that feels right out of a late-80s flick, no matter the genre (though, again,Ephron does come to mind). The energy inCharretier’s line makes even the most innocuous scene a thrill to look at- would it be weird to tell you just how much I loved looking at the curves of each character’s legs in motion? Or how many hours I could spend staring at Charretier and Bellaire’s full-page depiction of a grimy, overflowing New York trash can? I could almost smell it.
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For the art alone, even after reading a digital copy of this issue, I can’t wait to get the oversize physical book in my hands, if only to bask in Charretier’s version of the greatest - grimiest, ghastliest, most cry-your-eyes-out-in-the-street, most bleed-out-on-the-subway - dreamiest city in the world. ButThe City Beneath Her Feetis so much more than a pretty thing to look at, just like the romance genre offers so much more than easy love stories.Tynionand Charretier’s firstDSTLRYproject together, like all the best romances, is about what it is to know another person - and what it is to let yourself be known.
The City Beneath Her Feet#1is available December 11th, 2024 from DSTLRY. It’s available for pre-order from local comic shops until Monday, November 4th, 2024.
DSTLRY
DSTLRY is a comic and collectibles publisher founded in 2023. Formed by former comiXology heads, DSTLRY is known for some more famous works such as “Gone” and “Spectregraph” and continues to expand to include a wide variety of genres and artists.
