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

Coagula was a MTF transgendered heroine from Rachel Pollack's run on Doom Patrol. She's like one of the most positive examples of trans people in comic books due to the fact that she'd never been raped or tortured as a plot device when she was a main character, nor was it included in her back story. She had been harassed when she was young, but she was still a rational and emotionally healthy woman. Some people call her a Mary Sue, but considering she was created when there practically were no positive examples of trans characters in comics, those people are best left ignored.

Unfortunately, she was killed off unceremoniously in John Arcudi's run on Doom Patrol, this time to give Cliff Steele even more angst than he already had. She didn't even have a body left to bury.

well, if there's no body... hopefully she could pull herself back together and...[this post has been stopped by the pun police]

Would you guys like to hear the description I came up with for one of the unseen heroes, the Real Thing? I plan on using it for commissions in the future.

So, as mentioned in the Multiversity post, it looks like there's an ersatz Astro City Earth in the DC Multiverse. Earth-34.

So, catching up on some of the recent issues of Astro City, I think that the latest stories, featuring "mystical legal work" done on Shadow Hill have been two of the strongest issues so far! I've absolutely loved them, and especially liked the Hang Man issue.

*Sometimes* Kurt can start to feel a little repetitive and he always refreshes things when he not only changes the POV character, but also changes the setting slightly. That definitely happened in these Shadow Hill stories, both of which may be my two favorite since the recent relaunch.

^ Yep...what Cobie said.

Astro City's consistently been one of the most enjoyable comics DC's been publishing in the last several years, and the only thing that frustrates me is when they introduce characters with amazing designs and costumes and they either A: Aren't given names, or B: There aren't any decent full body shots of them in the comics so it would make things difficult to try and get commissions or sketches of them.

I guess I'd have to wait for the trades and hardcover collections in case there are designs in the back.

I fell behind on my comic book reading and so have been catching up all week, and one issue that just stuck out as one of the best of the pile was Astro City #42 which features a villain who falls into obscurity through dubious circumstances, Mister Manta. I thought this was one of Kurt's best AC stories ever, and it just works incredibly well as an analysis of a person's character and how they are changed by their environment--in an wonderfully ironic way.

Over the years, it's often been when I go into an AC story with no expectations that I'm most blown away, and that's certainly the case here. I'm not sure if Mister Manta was ever referenced before, and that made it a bit of blank slate, which Kurt used to craft a wonderful small story. The rest of the industry should take note: if every series could do one of these once in awhile, I'd be impressed.

Astro City is such good comics. Even when I drop comics (due to money or interests), I keep up on Astro City

The Mister Manta story was great

I'm even looking forward to the culmination of the ongoing story happening in the margins

Our local graphic novel discussion group's book this month is Confession. April 27. Come on up/down/over, Astro City fans!

Or reread it and tell me what you'd say/ask.
"A fan from Legion World has a comment..."

As Astro City starts working towards #50, there is a sense that various plots and characters are coming together and the larger tapestry is now visible. And that is a wonderful feeling. I loved the latest, #45, in which Glamorax learns of their connection to past selves. I love "long hidden histories" in comics and you can feel Busiek's enthusiasm as he starts to finally get to this point in his plotting.

What stood out the most of this particular issue was the utterly fantastic artwork by Brent Anderson. Brent is always terrific but his layouts here were just outstanding. He knows when to he experimental, yet how to make sure the storytelling aspect is not disrupted, which tends to happen with over stylized artists. Brent doesn't get nearly as much praise as he should on a regular basis and AC is as much his series as Kurt's after all these years.

Great issue!

If #50 means the end of that narrator, I'm all for it.

Man! I just read my copy of AC # 41, and it had a huge defect! Two sets of story pages are repeated and replace pages that are completely omitted in the process. Man, this SUCKS! I hope my CBS has other, non-defective copies I can swap out or can get a replacement from DC.

Those two missing pages were the best in Astro City's history. That's terrible you happen to be missing out on the two that tease readers for years ahead, while still retaining the nostalgic feel for everything that had gone before.

I'm not helping am I? I'll never read Plastic Forks for the same reason.

^^

So....AC is ending with issue 52. Busiek says it will continue as OGNs.

I'm disappointed and disheartened. This book is easily one of my all-time faves. And given AC's prior track record, I'm skeptical that we'll see these OGNs on any real timetable. Best case: one a year. Worst case: maybe never see even one.

In any case I've been spoiled by getting Astro City on a regular basis, and I'm more sad about this than I am feeling anything else about it.

I want to say I'm surprised DC screwed this-wait, no, I don't.

That is disheartening. Still, looking on the bright side, this 52 issue run was more than I'd ever thought we'd see, given past track record. I was incredibly skeptical when the series started, and while he didn't make a monthly schedule throughout, it was regular enough to make me happy.

Does this mean the end of the starchild storyline is in sight?