Astro City is finally back! Hurray! The first two issues were warmly received and met the level of quality I expect from the series. Does the third issue maintain the quality streak? Find out with your Major Spoilers review!
SUMMARY
Pros
The story is original and incredibly heartwarming
The art compliments the story wonderfully
Cons
Its not coming out more often
[rating:overall]
READER RATING!
[ratings]
ASTRO CITY #3
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Brent Eric Anderson
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterers: John G Roshell & Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Publisher: Vertigo
Cover Price: $4.99
Previously in Astro City: Marella Cowper just got a job at the call center for the Honor Guard, the world’s most prominent super hero team. Her job consists of taking calls directed at the Honor Guard and investigating them to see if they are truly worth the heroes’ time. Cowper had received a call from a little girl about a man hitting her dad, and Cowper, doing her job, directed social services towards the incident. Two days later, a war has broken out at the town the little girl live in; a war between the Honor Guard and a super terrorist group known as the Skullcrushers!
WHY CAN’T ALL COMICS BE THIS GOOD?
Busiek, once again, presents the readers with a completely new and original story grounded firmly in classic superhero mythos story trappings. In this issue Marella Cowper feels guilt ridden because she believes that sending the social workers is what started the conflict, and attempts to absolve herself. Busiek works his magic and brings out a level of humanity and emotional relevance usually reserved for genre deconstructions, but instead uses it to re-enforce classic superhero myth tropes, ultimately bringing the genre back to its inspiring and hopeful roots. In the hands of a lesser writer this tale could come off as incredibly cheesy or feel too divorced from the superhero world to feel like it matters, but Busiek manages to keep everything in balance. This two part arc manages to end with a really poignant, if not a bit straight forward, life lesson- something that I feel like is missing from a lot of superhero books these days.
FITTING ART
The art is not the best, or really all that special, but it feels very much like classic super hero comic book art. Its almost like the cliche art you might see in a movie during a scene where a character is reading some generic comic book. This is not a negative to the book, on the contrary, it completely compliments the type of story telling that is going on in the series. It also never feels like its art from a specific era in comics and gives Astro City a sort of timeless quality to it as a result.
BOTTOM LINE: BUY! BUY! BUY!
Its incredibly refreshing to read a book that makes me feel just genuinely optimistic. A book that really delivers on just a great tale, set in a super hero universe, that never tries to be anything more than it is. To me, Astro City, always has been, and continues to be, a perfect superhero story.
[rating: 5/5]DID YOU READ THIS ISSUE? RATE IT!
Reader Rating
[ratings]
