Astro City

Astro City 42-52

Well, at least I’m done now.  Doesn’t help that I have food poisoning right now, but it’s not like I’ve had the highest opinion of this title for the past two weeks.  Once again, it’s a mixed bag of quality.

Issue 42: A villain who’s spent the last forty years of his life stranded on a deserted island finally has a chance to return to civilization and have his revenge, only to realize that his isolation has changed him far more than he could have imagined.  As with issue 22 and a couple of other previous issues, the theme of understanding what makes you happy versus what you think will make you happy makes for one of Kurt Busiek’s better Astro CIty issues.

Issue 43: The origin of the Gentleman turns out to be a twist on Shazam, hardly a surprise given their similar faces under Alex Ross’ brush.

Issue 44: The Superpets issue with Kittyhawk and Rocket Dog.  Amusing, nothing more.

Issue 45-46: The Broken Man origin turns out to be as boring as all of his other appearances.  This ongoing storyline has been Busiek’s most egregious error throughout all of Astro CIty.  I suppose I should be grateful he didn’t spend any more issues to finish off what every grand plan he had mapped out.

Issue 47-48: A heartwarming story, really can’t go wrong with a Corgi superhero.  Busiek’s last standout story on this title.

Issue 49: The Resistors are basically MTG Slivers.  Heh.

Issue 50-52: Nearness of You, the unparalleled ½ issue of Astro City, did not need any kind of followup whatsoever.  But this is even worse than I could have imagined.  It ruins the magic and wonder of the original story and drags it back to earth in an unsatisfying, overly long manner.  I’ve been reluctant to cut issues from this title, just for completionist sake.  After thinking about it for 5 seconds, I’m going to cut these three issues since they’re at the end of the series anyway, the twelve Dark Age issues, seeing as how I never got the last four issues, and Supersonic and Astra specials.  I won’t miss them.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes (No for 45-46, 50-52)

Rating: Runs the gamut from Disliked through to Pretty good.