Astro City: The Dark Age Book II #1

November 25, 2006

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: A Cold Wind Blowing (Eyes of a Killer Part One)

Charles and Royal’s story continues in the sizzling 70s!

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Art: Brent E. Anderson
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: John Roshell of Comicraft
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Alex Ross
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm

After too long a break, Astro City: The Dark Age returns. Book Two (subtitled “Eyes of a Killer”) picks up a few years after the first ends. Charles Williams is still a police officer. His little brother Royal, still a crook. But things are changing in the world around them. Heroes are no longer the objects of trust they once were, things are becoming strained between Charles and his wife, and both Charles and Royal are facing real dangers on the job, as it were.

This series starts in 1976, and Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson have done a fantastic job of emulating that 1970s comic book feel. Gleaming heroes like Samaritan, Silver Agent and the First Family are either absent or reduced to cameos, while characters in the kung-fu/pseudo-mystic vein take the forefront. We also see a lot from Street Angel, once a brighter character who has embraced a darker side (not unlike a popular JLA member who underwent a Bronze Age reinvention).

As always, though, Astro City isn’t about the superheroes as much as it is about life in a superhero universe, and the unique difficulties faced by Charles (a cop) and Royal (a criminal). Things feel very ominous for both of them, and you definitely get the feeling this issue that the current state of their relationship, not to mention their lives, will be drastically changed by the time this four-issue miniseries reaches its conclusion.

Brent Anderson, as usual, does a fine job on the artwork, and Alex Ross pulls off a particularly unique cover. While still using his regular linework and techniques, he’s dropped back to a muted color palette, doing the entire thing in shades of blue and pink. It makes for a very eye-popping cover, as well as a very unusual one for him.

This first issue is very promising, setting up a lot of things and showing us yet another invention of the Astro City universe.

Rating: 8/10

Astro City: Samaritan #1

July 24, 2006

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Eagle and the Mountain

Samaritan faces his arch-enemy Infidel… for dinner?

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Art: Brent E. Anderson
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: John Roshell of Comicraft
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Alex Ross
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm Signature Series

Boy this one was a long time in coming. Many years ago, Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross did a special feature for Wizard magazine to demonstrate how an Astro City character was created. The result of that feature was the Infidel, arch-enemy of Astro City’s premiere hero, Samaritan – and Astro City fans have been waiting for Infidel to show up ever since. Since we’ve been promised a standalone special in-between arcs of The Dark Age, this seems a great time to bring him in.

As Samaritan and the Infidel meet for their annual dinner together, the Infidel reflects on his own origins and how they brought him so deeply in conflict with Samaritan, eventually culminating in their unique understanding. Now the idea of a hero and his arch-enemy meeting for a truce periodically isn’t exactly new – I seem to recall a Fantastic Four story about Reed Richards and Doctor Doom meeting for a drawn-out chess game, for instance – but like all great Astro City stories, Busiek takes a convention of the superhero genre and gives it a nice twist. The reason for the meetings between Samaritan and Infidel are pretty clever, as are the conclusions reached at the end of this special. And if you’ve never read an Astro City comic before, fear not – this issue is totally standalone, and the archetypes are so familiar there’s no way any comic book fan could get confused.

Anderson steps up yet again with his classic artwork. His art style has a real timeless quality to it – there are Silver Age elements, to be sure, but nothing that looks out of place in a modern comic or a superhero tale of any genre – sci-fi, fantasy, horror… his style works with everything. Alex Ross contributes his usual snazzy cover, with a nice design to it that harkens back to a classic pulp magazine in a way that I like very much.

You can’t go wrong with Astro City, gang. Pick this one up.

Rating: 9/10