This is a good year for fans of the super-hero, as it promises the return of both Planetary and Astro City, opposite sides of the pop-culture coin in the examination of super-heroes. Astro City, as the more optimistic and fun of the two, has always resonated more closely with me, and I was filled with both glee and nervous trepidation to see a new issue. Could Kurt Busiek overcome the health problems that have plagued him and deliver a story as good as the ones we'd seen before? Would Anderson's art still look as good as I remembered? Would Astro City still look so good now that the quality of super-hero comics in general is higher than when it launched? As I read the book, I was a little nervous, thinking maybe that Busiek was trying to cram too much of a primer to Astro City in, but by the end, I had once again been moved by the book, and I'm happy to report that, in every way, Astro City is back.
This is, by my count, the third first issue of Astro City. It's the weakest of the three, in my opinion, but that's down to the strong competition those other issues offered more than any real weakness on the part of this series. My complaint with the book (and it's my only complaint) is that Busiek spends a lot of time introducing the cast of Astro City, the various heroes and their realms, and since I knew all of them, I wasn't quite as interested in that. However, it's the perfect choice for a series that has been MIA so long, and it's amazing that Busiek will probably give new readers the same sense of Astro City that readers of the previous series have had thanks to some well-done one or two page scenes throughout the middle of this issue.
While Busiek's blend of Silver Age and modern sensibilities always creates fascinating characters, however, the hook for Astro City has been the slightly different viewpoint of the narrators. Not always a regular guy, sometimes a hero or villain, this is a "street level" view of super-heroes, and Busiek uses as his narrator this issue the doorman of a famous Astro City hotel. You can read the book on two levels, as a straightforward introduction to the world of Astro City that indicates that maybe living here makes even normal people heroic, or as an allegory about the nature of super-hero fiction. As a friend pointed out to me, it's quite possible to read this as a treatise on the super-hero genre, how it's not for everybody and that's OK, but for those who enjoy it, it can provide both entertainment and maybe even a little inspiration.
Though Brent Anderson has kept busy with work on Rising Stars and elsewhere, I must confess that his Astro City work stands out as my favorite of what he's done. He has switched over to inking his own work here, instead of Will Blyberg, and the result is slightly different. Not better or worse, just different, and there's some beautiful shots here with silhouettes, shadows, fire, rain, a variety of settings that demonstrate his flexibility and a big part of the reason why Astro City works. Anderson can convey a lot of different styles and tones within the genre, and that allows Busiek to confidently visit whatever part of the city strikes his fancy.
Astro City was long held up as the cream of the crop of super-hero comics, proof that you didn't have to have characters from the big two to make something resonant and the example of a creative team that just clicked. It's long absence led many, including me, to think we might never see it again. I'm pleased to find that I was wrong, and even more pleased that it has returned just as strong as ever.
