Astro City is, at its heart, about what it might be like if we lived in the heroes' world, adding a touch of realism without losing the magic of fantasy that the superhero genre represents. Throughout the stories, Busiek has managed to explore not just meta-issues surrounding the comics industry but real life issues using the superhero genre, from the price of fame to not having enough time to yourself to the time-honored notion of redemption. This special focuses in on an issue that is close to the heart of the comics industry and its aging fanbase, namely getting older and knowing when to quit, or, more optimistically, when to change. On top of being a pretty decent little action story with pretty art by Anderson, this is a story with several layers of meaning, and a nice bite-sized taste of Astro City, although in all honesty mostly what it does is make me hungry for more.
There are any number of interpretations of this issue. On the surface level, it's a compelling story of a retired hero and his police captain friend, an archetype that is common in superhero fiction and which transplants easily into Astro City. Reading it as a metaphor for life, we can see a decision we all will face, a time when we'll all need to realize we're not as young as we used to, and that no matter how much we may want our glory days back, trying to recapture them will only hurt us or the ones we love. Reading it as a metaphor for the comics industry, it's a condemnation of the style of storytelling that requires everything to be solved by page upon page of violence rather than by cleverness and imagination.
It is this last interpretation that really fascinates me. There's a real war going on in fandom right now for the future of superhero comics, and neither camp is entirely right. One side wants nothing but nostalgia, retelling of stories where the characters are essentially unchanged, like flies in amber, and the other side wants nothing but constant change, whether it makes sense or not. Busiek is one of the few who can hit a middle ground with his work, respecting what the older comics did well while bringing a modern sensibility to the proceedings. His imaginative ideas for how Supersonic used to outfox his opponents rather than outfight them pays tribute to the smart heroes of Gardner Fox and Julius Schwartz, while the methods that Supersonic uses in his modern incarnation more closely resemble the widescreen destruction so prevalent in modern comics.
Brent Anderson and James Sinclair actually excel at the more human and thoughtful style of storytelling that usually characterizes Astro City, which means that this issue isn't their strongest work on the title. That said, however, while Anderson isn't the best guy for widescreen action, he certainly provides the sense of the brutal violence between Supersonic and the robots and the destruction that their fight causes. The best visual moments of the issue, though, come when the script is playing more to Anderson's strengths, whether it's the epilogue of the issue where Supersonic and his friend have a talk or the Silver Age-y flashbacks to Supersonic's career and some of his "greatest hits."
With Astro City, Busiek can tell stories that are very difficult to tell in the DC and Marvel universes thanks to continuity concerns, but which resonate with the same iconic power and style. The story of Supersonic is a cautionary tale about the need for smarts as well as strength and about knowing your limitations. When it comes to the potential for Astro City, however, it's pretty clear that there aren't a lot of limitations, and it's always great when we get another tale of this still relatively-untapped and fascinating property.
