Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Astro City

A shop had the first trade on sale pretty cheap so I thought, "why not." I liked it so now I hope to find the next one for the cheap.

I'm sure the trades are great. However, in AC's case the back issues are inexplicably incredibly cheap. I mean, most VF/NM issues are only a dollar or so on Mycomicshop.com. You could actually save money by buying floppies over even discounted trades!

In a perfect world, great comics would be worth a fortune, and pieces of crap like New Mutants #98 would be worth 2 cents!

>hurriedly puts away NM#98 and abandons "My Favourite Comic" thread plans<

I've been reading a few more AC's this week. Not having the months of waiting between each installment is certainly making quite a difference.

Issue of shelf space and maintenance. I pretty much stick to trades now-a-days.

Certainly understandable. I was going to mention this factoid at some point, though, and your post provided a perfect opening!

I've gone through three more Astro City trades.

My favorite by far is Confession. I think Busiek does a very graceful job of dealing with some meaty themes which other writers dealt with in a far clumsier way in the Marvel events Civil War and Secret Invasion. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll say that people who love Batman & Robin yet are usually wary of Batman & Robin analogs will love this story.

Life in the Big City, collecting the earliest issues of AC, was more of a mixed bag to me. I loved the issue about the guy who finds out Jack-in-the-Box's identity -- I would go so far as to call it Eisner-esque. The issue about Crackerjack was more self-consciously Eisner-esque, and didn't work as well for me, although the later connection to the Confession arc makes it work better. The issue about the woman from Shadow Hill deciding against starting a new life was one I'd hated when I read it in my early 20s, but all these years later I found it more nuanced and complex than I'd given it credit for. I thought the Samaritan/Winged Victory issue was an out-and-out dud, though -- Winged Victory's outburst in the fast food establishment came off to me as petulant and self-centered, as well as patronizing towards women on Busiek's part. The other two issues didn't make much of an impression on me.

And, sad to say, none of the stories in Local Heroes made much of an impression on me. I don't know, maybe Busiek felt burned out at that point, or had too many projects he was juggling, or was having personal and/or health problems? Whatever the answer, I think I'll give this trade a second try before I comment further.

After that, it's on to the Dark Age.

Yes. I was hoping you'd enjoy it.

Confession is a wonderful story, so wonderful that I feel I can't really say more about it without spoiling important things in it. As with the Beautie and Samaritan/Infidel stories in the Shining Stars trade, I think Confession should be read by anyone who loves comic books.

Gave the library a try. Local doesn't have it but the inter-library system did. Somewhere in Ohio, someone has Family Album so hoping to read that soon.

Yep! "Confession" is good for the soul!

I think you'll also like "Tarnished Angel". I like that one and "Confession" so much that I just can't choose between them for best multi-part AC story!



The Shadow Hill and Jack-in-the-Box stories are definitely the stand-outs in the original mini. But I also like the look at Samaritan's life that opens it. It illustrates really well how a hero expected to save everything has no time to do anything else, something that he attempts to rectify in the Winged Victory date. The Crackerjack story is the least memorable of the batch.



What? No love for a lawyer using the evil twin, etc. defense? How about the take on Silver Age Lana/Lois and her relentless pursuit of the hero's identity? And the perils of working for a comic company in the AC universe?!?!



I'm curious how this plays with you. There's a lot of interesting things going on in it and a good story at the center, but it's definitely too long.

Amen to that.



I've been trying to decide between Tarnished Angel and the most recent trade at the library, Through Open Doors, as what I'll read after The Dark Age (about which, I have what I feel are realistic expectations, based on what you guys have said about it.)



I thought it was easily the best story in Local Heroes, but I still found it a bit "on the nose", because Busiek's homages in AC are usually slyer and subtler. I appreciate the sympathy and humanism shown toward the Lois/Lana analog, though, and the ending is great.

Confession is my favorite, and I was mesmerized by it when it came out. During those few months, may have just been my favorite series. I'm so glad you read it! It's been over 15 years since I've read it, so maybe it's time a found it again.

Thanks, Cobie.

As I said before, it's arguably the best use of Batman & Robin analogs I've ever read.

While there's undeniably the analog you mention in "Confession", I've always felt it was so much more to it. I hope no one who hasn't read the story reads that bit and passes on the book assuming it is unoriginal. That's definitely not the case!

Oh, dear. That wasn't how I meant it at all. I still forget sometimes how easy it is to misinterpret things on the internet.

What I meant was that most Batman & Robin analogs are lame, but the ones in Confession are 180 degrees from that, they're awesome!

And, yes, despite the homages, it's still a very fresh and original story.

Aww.

REVIEW OF ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE (with some additional thoughts about Marvels: Eye of the Camera)

The portents were not good. The Dark Age is 16 issues long, one issue longer than Busiek's interminable Kang storyline from his Avengers run. And the protagonists are minorities (black to be exact), when Busiek has done less than sterling work at portraying minorities in the past (Triathlon and Silverclaw, again from Busiek's Avengers run). And the basic premise -- that the Bronze Age of comics was a rotten time -- seems a bit simplistic to me.

For all that, I have to say that the Dark Age isn't bad. Not bad at all. Overlong and overambitious, yes, but not without merit. Busiek clearly has some personal demons to exorcise where the 70s and early 80s are concerned, not just as far as comics but also including the overall quality of life at the time. I still don't entirely agree with that, but then I went from birth to infancy to early grade school in the time covered in this story, so I'm bound to have a different perspective on those times than Busiek, who went through adolescence and young adulthood at this time. So his points are eloquently stated and well taken. And I do feel I have to commend Busiek for portraying Charles and Royal as well-rounded characters rather then the caricatures I anticipated.

But what's most important, I think, is that this story, for all its flaws, clearly came from the heart, which is more than I can say for the very belated Marvels sequel, Marvels: Eye of the Camera, which, IIRC, came out about halfway through Astro City: the Dark Age. There's no escaping that there was no need for Eye of the Camera, especially knowing that Dark Age was the story Busiek had originally intended to be the sequel to Marvels. Without anything but Phil Sheldon's failing health to hang the story from, the result is a depressing and boring exercise in going through the motions. I can only guess that Busiek had some major bills to pay, and that that's why he did Eye of the Camera.

The Bronze Age will one day transcend its bad rap. Until then, stories like Astro City: The Dark Age reinforce the conventional wisdom, but at least here it's done with care and craft.

You know, you've definitely inspired me to reconsider a full read of the Dark Age. You hit on a lot of great points, foremost that the story comes from the heart and the two lead characters are truly well developed.

I think a lot of us had a hard time with the long delays which felt like they lasted years. A fresh read from start to finish in ine straight shot might allow a better perspective.

That would be great, Cobie. I'm glad I helped inspire that.

Library been beddy beddy good to me through inter-library loan I can find almost any book. Though wiki not so much, somehow I got the order of Family Album and Confessions mixed up and read Family Album first.

It still seemed to work out though with the main and predictable plot device of Confessions. In fact, if they hadn't followed through with the obvious I'd probably accuse the writer of a cheap ploy.

Either way, enjoyed confessions to the point I ALMOST thought about playing hookie from work after reading the first story while taking my morning bath. Family Album, can't put my finger on it but it's like some of the stories, the dialogue went all wonky. He seemed to be trying to pull off a golden age, film noir vibe or something and it was not working for me and was distracting. Other stories I loved.

My one "complaint" about confessions was its more novella approach whereas I loved the short story approach of the first two books.

On-line with the library now to see if they can hunt down the next books, "Tarnished Angel" and "Local Heroes."

Tarnished Angel, I enjoyed a lot even if it was a full length story. Reading the monthlies had to be a joy, not one of them seems condensed or stretched to fill the pages. Every issues seemed to have a natural pace, start at a good start and end at a good end.

Lots of new parts of the city added too.

The newest Astro City (#18) mentions Shvaughn Erin in the letter column. Shvaughn is referenced as a transgender comics character who preceded a trans character in Astro City #16.

I wish Coagula had been mentioned.

Agreed on Coagula, Sarky. She's a much more positive transgender character than (yuck) S. Erin.

That's all I'm gonna say on the subject of S. Erin.

Who is Coagula? I don't recall that character.

I don't think S. Erin was ever depicted as transgender. Might be an issue of semantics. Wasn't it more of a disguise than an identity reassignment? Kind of an elaborate cross-dress, not so much of a feeling of "wrong body?"

I'm not even sure "reassignment" is consider accurate. I think "correction" some might consider correct? Not an area I have much exposure to but that's my take to this point.