As James Robinson so astutely observed in his foreword to the latest Astro City trade collection, Local Heroes, Kurt Busiek's brilliantly constructed anthology comic series is one that simply couldn't have existed forty years ago. Busiek very cleverly uses the modern reader's familiarity with superhero formulas and archetypes to give his universe a feeling of great depth; he further uses that familiarity to undergird the thoughtful, usually low-key stories he tells, most of which highlight the exploits of the ordinary people who live in his extraordinary, superhero-filled city. Years ago, before comic readers and the public at large had really picked up on these formulas, the series just wouldn't have worked.





The Astro City comics take place in a world where honest-to-goodness superheroes have existed since World War I (and a few even before that). The series isn't interested in postulating a limited, "realistic" world in which superheroes and supervillains might actually function; instead, Busiek goes all out, including all of the usual superhero-universe standards that make comics so much fun: invading aliens, improbable Norse god-types (called "the Trolls of Glittertinden" here), other dimensions, superhero teams, wacky Kirbyesque heroes and over-the-top villains (the "Bouncing Beatnik" and "Shirak the Devourer" being prime examples), and even oddities such as cartoon characters accidentally brought to life by "belief rays" -- Busiek mirrors exactly the sort of oddball plots that early comic writers used to come up with regularly, and then, intriguingly, treats the plots seriously and uses them to lend his universe a crazy sort of coherence.

(His astonishing attention to detail helps; Busiek never goofs up his own continuity, and always introduces new superheroes in very careful, deliberate ways, so that readers are not apt to think he's merely making up Astro City's history as he goes along).

Local Heroes isn't Busiek's strongest trade collection (that would almost certainly be Confession, with The Tarnished Angel coming in a close second), but it does contain several very good stories. "Great Expectations" tells the story of a soap opera actor who plays a superhero on the show Tomorrow's Dawn (amusingly, his character is added to the show to provide more realism) who tries his hand at actual superheroics, and soon realizes that he's out of his element; "Shining Armor" deals with a woman trying to discover the secret identity of her superhero love interest Atomicus back in the early 60's; and "Pastoral" follows the story of an Astro City teenager who gets a dose of rural superheroics when she spends a summer with her relatives in the country. The tone of these stories is generally light, though "Shining Armor" ends on a fairly tragic note.

Other stories are somewhat more forgettable -- readable, and enjoyable in that they inevitably help flesh out the Astro City universe, but still forgettable. "Newcomers", dealing with how visitors to Astro City react to the place, is one such, along with "Where the Action Is", which tells the story of a young comic book writer in Astro City (who writes about the exploits of actual superheroes). The latter allows Busiek to comment on the comics industry somewhat, and to imagine what it would be like to write adventures for heroes who really exist (and who want royalty checks), but the tale doesn't seem to really go anywhere beyond that, and ends up being a bit of a dud. "Old Times", about an older hero coming out of retirement for one last fight, is meanwhile a good read, but seems abbreviated; I get the feeling that Busiek could have done quite a bit more with the theme.





Probably the best stories are "Knock Wood" and "Justice Systems", which comprise a two-part story about a lawyer who tries out a unique defense for his underworld client back in the 70's. It's very intelligently done, well-written, and Busiek gets extra points for tying the trend of violent anti-heroes (such as the Punisher) that arose in comics in the 70's and early 80's with a malaise that began to affect Astro City in that same time period. "After the Fire", the final comic (only six pages long), is also quite good -- refreshingly mature and subdued.

A certain familiarity with comic book history can add a great deal to one's enjoyment of the series, and especially to particular stories: "Shining Armor" takes as its inspiration the Superman comics of the 50's and 60's, which almost invariably featured Lois Lane trying to prove that Clark Kent was Superman, usually through some convoluted method (following Comics Code censorship that made it hard to tell stories with even a remote edge to them). Readers who might not catch that inspiration, or others that crop up, may find themselves scratching their heads at times, however; Busiek tends to write these comics for an understanding audience. (I find it hard to believe a reader unfamiliar with DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths or the practice of retconning in general could truly get the award-winning The Nearness of You, for example, which was included in the Confession collection).

The art, by Brent Anderson, is commendably good, never getting in the way of the writing, while Alex Ross's covers are, of course, superb. Astro City: Local Heroes is high-quality stuff (even the book's eccentric design is class act), and for superhero fans it's about the best thing out there right now. Highly recommended.

---

back to trenchman.com