Astro City

• Title: Astro City: That Was Then… (One-shot)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Kurt Busiek
• Artist: Brent Anderson

Kicking off Astro City‘s new run at Image Comics (where the comic originally started), Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson return with this one-shot special looking in on the teen heroes on the verge of adulthood on a camping trip in the summer of 1969. Set only weeks after burying the Jayhawks, another teen hero team who fought the good fight in Kansas City for years before eventually falling to a bigoted villain fueled by hatred, the comic features the team coming to terms with the loss and the sudden brutal understanding of how dangerous their profession can be.

As a kick-off point, Astro City: That Was Then… feels a bit odd. It’s really more of a teaser of things to come. Along with the introduction of several new heroes we do see some familiar faces as well and are teased that although the Jayhawks may be dead that doesn’t necessarily mean they are gone. 

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• Title: Astro City #51
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Kurt Busiek
• Artist: Brent Anderson

Astro City #51 continues the theme started in Astro City #50 as we hear from more survivors of those touched by the supernatural telling their stories the in support group led by Michael Tenicek. We get the terrifying tale of Rose Wilkerson who was saved from a giant spider-creature by the Honor Guard (unfortunately her son was not so lucky). It’s a heart-wrenching opening, but from there the comic takes an even darker turn as the grieving mother turns her anger on Michael who (because his wife was taken out of existence) she thinks is a fraud. How to you prove something that, according to the current timeline, never existed?

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• Title: Astro City #49
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Kurt Busiek
• Artist: Brent Anderson

Astro City #49 takes a look at the unusual hero Registor as shown through the eyes of a reporter who catches the wiff (literally) of a story with ties to her childhood when she witnesses the hero appear to stop an attack by Earthpride white supremacists during a protest. With ties to old school civil disobedience, civil rights protests and rallies, I’d be curious to know the origins of this story which tie our protagonist’s current search back to her missing father.

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