Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Astro City by Kurt Busiek

doctorbeck

13:28 / 23.08.05

can't find a thread on these so...

just read one from my library, can't remember the title but a really good story of a down at heal supervillian who is a strong and made of steel and the lives of all the other working class small time villians, i really enjoyed this, quite noir-ish, tho without the femme fatal, a nostalgic look back at the old times of when they were contenders, a poingnant reminder of why and how they all stayed such small time hoods and why none of them made much of their lives and a lovely shot at redemption for the protagonist

also really liked how distant the gilded heroes looked to the hoods, very very nice bit of writing. anyone else a fan and any others in this series you can recommend?

FinderWolf

13:54 / 23.08.05

I love the original AC miniseries and pretty much all of the ongoing series...really good stuff, although I would say the storyline you read is the last really quality arc.

The miniseries and one-shots since have really been lacking, in my opinion...the new Dark Age miniseries doesn't look very good. I think it's a case of Busiek, like many other creators, used to be pretty sharp but now has kind of descended into mostly-hackdom.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

01:22 / 26.08.05

It was called The Tarnished Angel, as I recall. That was the last one I read, simply because it was the last trade to come out.

I'm disappointed to hear that the new ones are crap, though, as I really loved the original series. The first trade, with all the individual stories, was really brilliant. I loved the story about the girl that lived in the spooky, occult-comic district. The Confessor (think vampire-catholic-Batman)storyline was really good, too.

In fact, I've really enjoyed everything Astro City. So it's really a bummer to hear that the new ones suck.

werwolf

07:13 / 26.08.05

i don't think that the new ASTRO CITY series is crap. as a matter of fact, i think that busiek is going somewhere with the new 'dark age' miniseries, that he didn't dare to do previously.

if you look at early ASTRO CITY it was always very episodic. it was always focussed on one or a small group of characters. connections were only hinted at. it was very much slice-of-superhero-life. i enjoyed that greatly and agree with most critics that suggested that ASTRO CITY was leading on a new chapter in the superhero revisionist genre.

but the new series aims at bringing the whole ASTRO CITY 'cityverse' together into a flowing storyline. also i like the more grim aspects of it. i'd say that ASTRO CITY is, was and will be one of the top series to come out.

Haus of Mystery

11:00 / 26.08.05

I agree. 'The Dark Age' is a far more interesting Astro City tale than some previous - I'd place it up there with the Alien Invasion storyline from the ongoing series. I like how Busiek is forcing the silver age Astro City through the grim and gritty late 70's era comic style. TheBlue Ghost is a nice cross between the Spectre and the Punisher (his splash page in the last ish was fucking great, cast against the red sky) and a grim herald of the oncoming darkness of the 80's. Brent Anderson's art has a timeless Neal Adams/Gene Colan qualioty that sits perfectly with the era it's set in, and Busiek seems to have found his voice again. So far it's been great, and provided it doesn't succumb to the previous delay problems, I'm along for the ride.

doctorbeck

14:23 / 26.08.05

so am i right in thinking that at the moment there is some big timeline story going on tracing the AC characters through several decades?

it sounds like the kind of meta-comic idea that moore and morrison have played with but never fully delivered on, tho i guess planetary beat it to the punch on that one.

which old trades should i start with? thanks in advance...

Mark Parsons

18:38 / 26.08.05

The first issue of DA was very, very good, as good as the best of the series. Have not got to issue two yet, but I expect more of same...

I think the DARK AGE in question is the turbulent 1970s, so the series (four 4-issue arcs) may well connect many diverse past characters/arcs together.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

19:05 / 26.08.05

Doctorbeck: I read them in this order, and I believe that it's the chronological order as well, but I might be wrong:

Life in the Big City

Confessions

Family Album

The Tarnished Angel

If that's not right, it reads really well, anyway.

Mario

00:16 / 27.08.05

It seems to me that ever since the ongoing series stopped, AC has become a much less optimistic place. But that could merely be my own preconceptions affecting my view of the material.

Augury

10:30 / 02.09.05

I flicked through the 1st issue of the Confessor arc, and it was one of those comics that grabbed me and really emotionally connected with me. Loved it - enthused about to it to my friends who all started buying it.

Lately though, since the Tarnished Angel arc, there's just not the same vibe - Tarnished Angel was over long and drawn out. I checked out of the recent stuff, but it's not hooking me like it used to, I'm not currently buying the new arc

_Boboss

12:24 / 02.09.05

well i'm an on/ooff fan of this title and have been for what feels like TOO long. my interest never really stuck around after the robert mitchum story which was just a very very badly judged attempt at doing superheroics at glacier-pace. what lifts AC above titles it could be compared to , i.e. planetary and the whole early-noughties 'analogues' trend books, in my view is simple maths - his supertypes are always at minimum two, rather than smelly elly's whose are always just one. this blue knight guy is a great character, even if he never appears outside of covers and splash pages - ghost rider and punisher combined perfectly to give just the right vibe of horror and dark-age style justice. this new series is shaping up really nicely. that's right, i said 'vibe' and meant it.

FinderWolf

12:40 / 09.09.05

hmm....all the praise for The Dark Age is inspiring me to give it a second look sometime...

Add Your Reply