This Is Why I Like Trying New Titles

Astro City: Knock Wood and Justice Systems (Astro City tpb Vol. 5: Local Heroes)
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

Last time out, I discussed my positive reaction to the first two trade volumes of Astro City. I felt I had a good handle on the series after reading those first two and could discuss them at least semi-intelligently. But when I decided to buy some trades to try out the series, I found a good deal and bought the first five. That left me with more to read after writing my last post.

The third collection, Confession, breaks the done-in-one tradition of the title to present a longer narrative about the Confessor and his sidekick, Altar Boy. It was a very good read, presenting some familiar archetypes and taking them in new and unexpected ways. The same goes for the fourth trade, The Tarnished Angel, collecting one longer narrative, this time looking at an aging villain in the Astro City universe. Again, a nice read I very much enjoyed.

That brings us to the fifth trade, Local Heroes. This collection returns to the shorter standalone or two-part tales about various heroes in the Astro City universe, this time focusing on a different era in time for each of the narratives. And, in all honesty, this trade is proving a little harder to get through. Maybe I'm tired of Astro City and ready to move on to something else for a bit -- time to cleanse the palate, so to speak. The stories here aren't bad, just not holding my interest as well.

Until I came to this two-parter, the sixth and seventh chapters in this collection of nine. This one had me VERY interested to see what was going to happen, which was a pleasant surprise to find.

This tale is a courtroom drama, not the kind of thing one expects to see in a comic book format very often. The central character, Vincent Oleck, as often is the case in these Astro City tales, is a nonpowered individual, a defense attorney in Astro City during the mid-1970s. Oleck is representing the son of a mobster in a murder trial. The young man, obviously not a nice man at all, is accused of beating his girlfriend to death during a fight at a local restaurant in front of several witnesses. Oleck has no doubts that his client is guilty, but it is his job to defend his client to the best of his ability. To add to Oleck's pressure, the mob boss is less than happy when the prosecution begins its case and things look pretty open-and-shut.

Oleck finally gets an idea the night before he is to begin presenting his case to the jury. It is a novel strategy that could only have a chance in a world full of people used to superheroes, and to Oleck's surprise, the gambit seems to be working. And that is when Oleck's real problems begin. No more details on this tale because I don't want to spoil it. Instead, I encourage you to seek it out and read it for yourselves. A reader doesn't need any other reference to follow this story; Busiek does a great job of giving all the relevant information right there in this story. But it is a gripping story that left me wondering about the outcome from the first few pages. But then, I should have expected more than the surface drama from this story; it says right there on page one that it is a horror story!

Truly Great Story-Telling

Astro City tpb 1: Life In the Big City/Astro City tpb 2: Family Album
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

I've been curious about the Astro City books for a while now. It can be daunting, however, to know there is already a huge backlog of stories published when considering something new. And there were always other books that I was more certain about to fill my time. In the past, Astro City had been published sporadically, as a series of smaller minis and such, rather than as an ongoing book. But a while back, it was announced that an Astro City ongoing was ready for launch; it debuted last month, in fact. I decided it was now or never for taking the plunge, so that if I liked the series, I wouldn't just be getting farther and farther behind. So I recently went on the hunt for some of the earliest trade collections.

The conceit of this series is that superheroes are the norm on this world. They've been around for decades, and the general populace is pretty used to their existence and their adventures. That isn't to say that the average person is bored by superheroes. Just not as surprised as we might be if one suddenly showed up in our world. Many of the stories are typical superhero fare, but told from the perspective of the everyday person on the street, the office workers whose day is disrupted when a super-powered fight breaks out near their building, for instance. Or still focusing on the superhero, but more on the mundane aspects of their lives when not fighting to save the city or world. The very first story gives us a glimpse into the life of a hero named Samaritan, kind of a Superman analogue. He dreams of being able to fly. The power of flight is one of his heroic abilities, so why does he dream about flying when he goes to sleep at night? Because during his waking hours, he is always flying at super speed from one crisis to the next, never having the luxury of enjoying just floating among the clouds.

Another story focuses on the youngest member of the Furst Family, a multi-generational group of heroes. Astra can convert her body into pure energy, so she is a valuable member of this superhero group, which also includes her parents, an uncle and a great-uncle. With all of the adventures Astra has been on, she can talk fluently about battle tactics and multi-dimensional realities. But this pre-teen girl has absolutely no contact with other children her own age, doesn't know what kinds of programs they like to watch on TV or what kinds of music they listen to or even what kinds of games they might play during recess.

These are the kinds of things that set this series apart. Busiek is excellent at looking for the human aspect of superhumans. And because all of these characters are his own creations, even if a certain plot device might be familiar territory for comic books, you are never quite certain when a character might be affected in a new and interesting way. Because these aren't corporate-owned characters who can't undergo real, lasting change, anything could and does happen. But that ability to find the human quality in all of these characters -- powered or not -- makes it easier for a reader to relate to what is happening to the characters. We've all felt like an outcast or uncertain how to proceed in a given situation or not quite up to a task before us. By connecting with these characters on an emotional level, the reader is pulled into the story.

For simple economic reasons, I'm still not likely to pick up the new Astro City ongoing in single issues, but from time to time, when my budget allows, I would like to return to this world to read more of these incredible adventures in trade format. They're simply that good.