Review: Astro City

If you are looking for a good thing, look no further than Paul. He always recommends some great reads to me.

His latest venture was recommending Kurt Busiek’s Astro City to me.

WARNING – These are comic books. Read no further if you have no interest in expanding your horizons to the ever cool picture and text format.

Astro City starts off looking at the superhero Samaritan who seems like a Superman-type figure, flying to trouble all over the world. In fact, that is the focus of the first issue…how he flies everywhere and helps everyone and he really has no time for himself. It takes a look at the other side of being a superhero…what’s going on in a superhero’s head when he can’t get enough sleep because there is a typhoon in Japan.

Astro City is a fictional city which has had it’s years of superheroes dating back from the 60s, much like you would think New York in the Marvel Universe is. The story is told in present day (circa ’90s when the comic came out) and it’s interesting to see the story unfold with names you don’t know and such a rich history which is alluded to. Imagine yourself starting to read Batman or Superman and realizing they may be referencing things about Metropolis or Gotham City which have happened sixty years ago!

I read the first six issues last night and they were a fresh read. Each comic focussed on an entirely different aspect of Astro City…a superhero, a super-villain, life as a citizen of Astro City…it was a good introduction to the entire universe.

Highly recommend this read.

I also did a little reading about Kurt Busiek and it looks like his first foray into this type of storytelling was in the Marvels mini-series which showed the Marvel universe from the standpoint of the outsiders – the reporters, the citizens….imagine yourself seeing Spider-Man swing by on your way to work! I am anxious to take a look at the Marvels mini-series.