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.

Astro City

Astro City 37-42

Another decent batch of comics!  It’s not a good sign for this series when I’m pleasantly surprised that I had a good time.

Issue 37-38: Mister Cakewalk and Jazzbaby dance onto the scene.  I like the character designs a lot more than the stories themselves.

Issue 39-40: I was not excited when I saw that Kurt Busiek was returning to Marta, the Shadow Hill resident from issue four of the original series.  So it was awesome to read the best arc since the Quarrel/Crackerjack story.  Marta’s called upon to apply her lawyer contract expertise to the magical world, and it’s lots of fun to read.  

Heh.  This would have been useful for my grandma.

Sounds just like a Chinese mom :)

Issue 41: The Astro-Naut, the hero from whom Astro City got its name.  Mostly notable for the random appearance of the Broken Man, once again breaking the fourth wall.  I haven’t been a fan of him so far, but this cameo was successfully creepy.

It's the silence and abruptness that sells it.

  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice, Pretty good for 39-40

Astro City, New comics

New comics day 2!  This has been an amazing week of new stuff.  Weeks like this are why I love comics.

Moon Knight 1

I picked this up because of writer Jed MacKay’s excellent work on Black Cat.  My confidence is rewarded with this entertaining start to a character who’s always been a second-rate Batman to me.  (Except for Warren Ellis’ run.  I missed Bill Sienkiewicz’s classic time on the title.)

Can’t ignore artist Alessandro Cappuccio; Moon Knight’s amazing looks in this issue do a great deal of the heavy lifting.

Love the suit.

Love the cape.

Definite add to my pull list.

Captain Marvel 30

A fine ending to the Strange Magic arc.  Carol gets back together with Rhodey and pisses off Doctor Strange with her method of dealing w/ Ove.

Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem 2

I can barely keep track of all the characters and their relationships with one another, but I’m still having a good time.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow 2

Holy moly do I love what Tom King’s doing with this title.  His writing is lovely, and Bilquis Evely’s art continues to match.  

Superman: Red and Blue 5

One of the better anthology issues that I’ve read in a long time, where all but one (the Mark Buckingham) story is a highlight - Judd Winick’s Krypto story:

Ibrahim Moustafa on art.

G. Willow Wilson’s De-escalation story with a great Christopher Reeve Clark by Valentine de Landro:

Jimmy Olsen’s favorite Superman photo as told by Joshua Williamson and Chris Sprouse:

And Daniel Warren Johnson’s touching lesson on how to raise your kid right:

An amazing issue.

Astro City 26-36

Sigh, back to just fine stories.  If that.

Issue 26: A callback to the very first issue of Astro City on its 20th anniversary issue.  Samaritan dreams of flying, but this time they’ve become nightmares.  

Issue 27: The story of American Chibi.  It has to do with video games brought to life.  

Issue 28: Wolfspider, the Australian Ant Man, gets his moment in the sun.

Issue 29-30: Standard “child living in a fascist society conditioned by propaganda and brainwashing learns that the world’s very different from what he’s been raised to believe” story.  For all the alien trappings, it’s very much by the numbers.  

Issue 31: Boring issue about Nightmare.  I don’t know why Kurt Busiek bothered.

Issue 32-34: Steeljack returns for a story I certainly didn’t ask for.  It’s not as bad as his first arc, but maybe that’s just because it’s half as long.  

Issue 35-36: Jack-in-the-Box’s story and legacy continue.  Meh.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes (No for 29-31)

Rating: Didn’t suck through Nice

Astro City, New comics

New comics!

Shadecraft 5

End of the series (for now).  That ended way faster than I thought, I assumed this was 12 issues for some reason.  Everything gets tied up rather neatly, I’d rate it as Nice if this were a re-read.  Not nearly as good as Skyward, but maybe it’ll be better the second time around.  (Which will be surprisingly soon; I’m getting to the box after this one.)

Many Deaths of Laila Starr 4

This is really good, and unlike anything else that I’ve ever read.  Ram V’s story and Filipe Andrade’s art combine into this amazing series that feels like a mix of Death: High Cost of Living and Daytripper, I think.  Only uniquely its own.  I think it ends next month, very curious to see how it turns out.

Nightwing 82

So Dick Grayson has a retconned half sister that I’m totally cool with.  Tom Taylor does an impressive job of pulling off the Melinda Zucco connection in a way that doesn’t piss me off.  Told almost completely in flashback, the main story continues next issue.

Astro City 18-21

A nice stretch (for Astro City) of eight issues with no clunkers!

One of the better arcs in this whole series; Hawkeye/Mockingbird analogues Crackerjack and Quarrel are rapidly approaching retirement age, and struggle with the pending life change in different ways.  Kurt Busiek tells a great origin story with some wonderful narration from Quarrel.  He doesn’t do much to redeem Crackerjack’s annoying egotism, but he at least makes his motivations understandable.  Plus, some of Alex Ross’ best covers for Astro City.

Love the joy on her face and the angle of the shot.

Profound grief, masterfully depicted.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Astro City 22-25

Issue 22: In stark contrast to the Quarrel arc, here’s a calm, satisfying tale about a hero who recognizes when his time in the line of fire is over.  It’s surprisingly serene and peaceful, and it totally works.

Issue 23-24: A talking gorilla who just wants to play drums in a band.  His dilemma is amusing (his rehearsals are always interrupted by villains who want to use his gorilla-ness for evil) and his solution is sublime (form a rock band comprised of superheroes so that no one will mess with them).  

Issue 25: The origin story for Hummingbird.  Not too bad.  It’s fun reading about someone who has all the women of the Honor Guard as aunties.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Astro City

Astro City 12-17

All over the place again, and the weaker issues have the same problems as the ones yesterday:

Issue twelve: The Gentleman Bandit is the requisite weak-willed criminal of Kurt Busiek’s Astro City.  Luckily, his gimmick is cool enough that I still had a lot of fun with this issue.  The Bandit is a clotheshorse, and it’s his addiction to fine apparel that keeps drawing him back to a life of thievery.  Love it.  

Issue thirteen: I haven’t talked at all about artist Brent Anderson yet, which is pretty wrong as he’s been Busiek’s partner since the very beginning.  He’s not a bad artist by any means, but he’s never going to be the reason why I buy a comic book.  

Just when I was thinking that very thought though, I turn the page to see this:

He can bring it every once in a while, but I’m still not searching him out when I’m looking to buy something.

Issues fourteen and fifteen: Fuuuuck.  A naive main character and her asshole loser nephew.  Hate hate hate.

Issue sixteen: A good enough story about a teenage Lex Luthor who discovers her own true identity as she learns about that of her archnemesis.  Not at all where I thought the story was going at the beginning, a neat outing by Busiek.

Issue seventeen: Completely forgettable.  Something about a bad guy in the quantum realm who grows large enough to be a threat in the human-sized world.  Blech.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes for 12, 13, 16.  No for the others.

Would read again: Yes.  No for 17.

Rating: Boring (17), Didn’t Suck (14-15), Nice (12-13), Pretty good (16)

Astro City

Astro City 6-11

For such a seemingly positive title, Kurt Busiek sure spends a lot of time on losers, lowlifes, and a populace that’s quick to distrust the heroes.  I think that’s why so many of these issues are an emotional drag.  Take a look at what I’ve read today:

Issue six - A mob flunkie tries to take advantage of a naive Galactus-type cosmic character.  Blech.

Issues seven through ten - The public turns on Winged Victory when she’s framed by one of her enemies.  Sadly still relevant today, magnified for me by the sexual harassment lawsuit against Activision/Blizzard that was announce a few days ago.  People suck.

Issue eleven - The only issue where the protagonist is not only a good person, but good at her job as well.  (Similar to issue four yesterday.)  This story about “Dr Strange’s” personal assistant isn’t bad, but it’s actually weaker than the previous Winged Victory story.

Overall, nothing that gets me excited to keep reading.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Didn’t suck through Nice

Astro City

Astro City 1-5

Here we go into the back half of Astro City.  It’s a mixed bag:

The Broken Man is a crazy, annoying version of John Constantine, the person scheming behind the scenes to stop a threat that no one else can see.  Issues one and five: Meh.

The high tech hotline handling all of the Honor Guard’s incoming calls is a really neat idea.  Kurt Busiek fleshing out the organization to a very satisfying degree, but the human element of a call center worker wracked with guilt over a botched call gets tedious fast.

Issue four brings back a minor character from Volume 2 issue 22.  Awesomely, she’s perfectly happy as a minor character, someone who has powers but zero interest in any kind of superheroics.  This traditional comics-adjacent world is the kind of thing that Busiek excels at writing.

Oh yeah, Mister Cakewalk seems very problematic.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No (Yes for 4)

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine through Pretty good

Astro City

Astro City: Dark Age Book Three 1-4

Geez Louise, how long does it take to get revenge for your parents’ murder?  I thought this interminable series was twelve issues long, since that’s how many issues I have.  Turns out past me lost patience and didn’t get Book Four.  Sixteen fricking issues.  Are you serious?

Dark Age is the strongest argument so far for making cuts to my Astro City collection.  I’ve got fifty two issues left to read, let’s see how it goes.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring

Astro City: Astra Special 1-2

The little girl from Volume 2 issues two and three has graduated from college, and isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life.  And her boyfriend sells out to a tabloid.  Blech, it sounds worse when I type it out.  Downgrade in rating!

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

Astro City

Astro City: Dark Age Book Two 1-4

I do not care about these brothers, makes it hard to enjoy this series.  Using a lot of narration is a double edged sword; When it’s done well, the result can be amazing.  When it’s not, reading each issue feels like the longest, most tedious thing.

I did really like Kurt Busiek's take on the arbitrary line Batman draws when it comes to killing. It's the point I was making here.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

Astro City Special: Beautie

Busiek really has a handle on the one-shot issue.  Here, Beautie (think life-size living Barbie doll) is a metaphor for the neurodivergent.  At least, that’s how I read it.  Someone for whom saying the “right thing” doesn’t come naturally, not fitting in because she doesn’t conform to people’s expectations of “normal.”  

On top of this is a surprisingly creepy story involving constantly lost memories and a missing origin.  And while the reveal is a bit of a let down, everything up to it is really well done.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Astro City

Astro City: Dark Age Book One 1-4

The story of two brothers during the Seventies, one a cop, the other a small-time crook.  This is Fine, the very definition of replacement level.  The Silver Agent revelation is...okay.  (He was executed for an assassination he was mind controlled into performing.)  Not sure how this can go on for another 8 issues.  Sigh.

Haha, L.S.Deviant.  So amused.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Astro City Special: Samaritan

Man, does Kurt Busiek yank the reader around with the quality of these issues.  This one is really nice; After years of fighting, Samaritan and his archnemesis, Infidel, have reached a cordial truce, meeting for dinner once a year to take the measure of each other.  A really nifty scenario.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Astro City

Astro City 22

Kurt Busiek finishes off volume 2 on the same low as the previous issues.  Here, an actor turned hero realizes it isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.  I’m discovering that I really don’t like the Astro City stories about losers.  Busiek rarely makes them sympathetic enough for me to care about them, resulting in a disappointing reading experience.  I did like the lesson from this issue, though:

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

Astro City: Local Heroes 1-5

Busiek returns to form here.  This did come with the revelation that he’d been suffering from mercury poison, impossible to say if his recovery is related to the improvement in his storytelling.  Issue one has a beautiful ending with a callback to the opening scene:

Page 2

Flashback scene.

What a wonderful, unspoken connection.

Issue two has a nice take on the “Lois Lane trying to prove Superman is Clark Kent” trope from the 50s.  Issue three introduces us to a girl who learns to appreciate the intersection between farm life and superheroes.

The last two issues are about a lawyer who goes down the slippery slope of introducing comic book science into the courtroom.  It’s cleverly done, and the Blue Knight character is pretty cool too.

A nice little run, let’s see if Busiek can maintain it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Astro City/Arrowsmith

A flip book with super short stories for each one.  Complete filler.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Astro City: Supersonic

A pointless issue.  A sad retired cop convinces his retired superhero friend to put on the suit one last time to fight a giant robot.  Poor Supersonic prevails after getting the crap kicked out of him, and I got zero joy out of watching a 70-year old guy get smashed into the ground.  Totally cuttable if I end up gutting this collection.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Disliked