Legacy.It is important to Marvel right now. It has always been important to Astro City. IMO the former is struggling to be successful with it. Astro City almost always nails it. Why is this so?Here are three reasons (off the top of my head - it is not a complete list).1 - The Name. When I pick up an Astro City comic I don't need Winged Victory or Samaritan or who ever. The story is about Astro City and all its inhabitants. If someone picks up a comic called Spider Man or Hulk most people are goi...

This collection is all one-off issues, most of which are very strong. Sorrowsday is touching as it explores unintended consequences; there's a story of an Adam Strange analog in retirement; a coming of age/finding one's parents story that is heartwarming; a video-game influenced story that doesn't completely mess up the concept (and features some adorable artwork as well as some not-very-good work); an 80's Australian superhero troupe story that is surprisingly effective, and the redemption of a...

One thing I know about Astro City is that you will always get a amazing read from the story that is told. Even when an old and well used plot is the basis of the story, like the character/group has a dark secret that is revealed. It will be done better, newer, fresher and more awesome that it has ever been in the past. If you are a comic lover or just enjoy good writing you need to try out Astro city. My highly recommended

A bit of a mixed bag, unfortunately. As the title suggests, the six stories here focus on the Honor Guard, whether individual members or as a team. Some are quite good, but others do little for me. My favorite is the Wolfspider one, for its commentary on nostalgia and for being a ton of fun. I also dig Starfighter’s retirement tale and the first issue about a alien atoning for his mistake. But the Hummingbird story is just okay, and the fragmented narrative of the Living Nightmare issue gets ann...

Yahoo! My new library has all the Astro City volumes my last library was lacking! Time for a week-long binge to catch up!I don't think Kurt Busiek has ever been so blatant in his secret plan to use Astro City to lock down all the possible remaining superhero names so no one else can ever create a new comic book without having to cut him in for a royalty or a huge buyout. He's just like those internet domain speculators! Dozens of new heroes and villains are thrown into the mix with his dozens an...

Kurt Busiek's Astro City is an extremely unique comic: every issue is inexcusably good. The first thing one needs to grok about Astro City, and thus understand it's appeal, is what it isn't. Since the 1960s comic book industry has been completely overrun by superheroes. While there has been many successful and critical acclaimed comics since then that are not superhero titles, the industry remains firmly in the grip of costumed vigilantes and adventurers. That's not inherently a bad thing. There...

There are some books where it feels really weird to have guest artists, and this is very much one of them. Still, for all that the Astro City in my head simply is Brent Anderson's version, the stand-ins here all acquit themselves decently enough. And the stories...we're far enough down the barrel now that Busiek is riffing on some real obscurities at times (one of the issues centres on a guy who seems to be a hybrid of Quasar, Warlord and Adam Strange), yet each of them is also solid enough as a...

Myabe it's time to talk about what's really happened to Astro City. Back in the day, Astro City was THE SHIT, and only people in the know knew where to pick up the best superhero comics available. It was an underdog book, built on the legacy of Busiek and Ross, with a distinct outlook on supeheroism, that left the reader with a whole new perspective. It gave every other superhero book new context, by grounding itself in the human elements, without ever shying away from the fantastic. Astro City

13 volumes in and Busiek is still finding new ways to entertain us with this alternative look at heroes. What is different about this volume is the regular artist takes a break and we get some alternative artists. Most of them do an amazing job. I like the regular artist BUT I am not a huge fan, it is really the writing that takes front and center stage for this book. Having some fill-in artists actually made this volume MORE fun. The best stories (IMO) in this volume were Sorrowsday with Busiek...

Another re-read. And I definitely didn't like this as much on this read. I definitely prefer the longer stories rather than the more disconnected ones. Another old man superhero story. The hummingbird story might have been my favorite. And I appreciated the origin stories for American Chibi and Wolf Spider. I found the Nightmare story hard to read. 3.5 of 5.Good solid book, with interesting stories and characters. But not great - which is kind of unusual for Astro City. The art on American Chibi...

It's great to at last get a whole volume (of standalone stories) dedicated to the Honor Guard. And, it's a pretty good excuse to go out to different artists, and thus keep the comic on time for the first time ever.So what do we get here? A story of sacrifice, a story of retirement, a story of coming of age, an origin story, the nostalgia of youth, and another origin story. We've seen many of these themes before in Astro City, but they remain the sort of story that the serialized stories from the...

Vol 13 shifts back to an anthology of stories, illustrated entirely by guest artists for the first time. After my occasional earlier mentions of Brent Anderson’s internal art being fine but not amazing to me, I love getting to see a variety of other artists’ take on AC (mostly following the broad style Anderson has established). The stories are pretty good this time too, though there’s fewer of the quiet, lower-stakes stories that tend to be my favorite issues.Nightmare Life is the first AC stor...

3.5 StarsWhat can I say, but I enjoy this series. It's "old school", taking the time to develop characters and build a universe. This volume is unique in that each issue pretty much gives the origin story for the newer members of the Honor Guard. Sure some of them are variants of heroes from the Big 2 but there's always something personal to the story, the "human" side.What is also unique about this volume is that none of the issues are drawn by series regular Brent Anderson. Each artist has it'...

A good continuation of the series. The first story, about the subatomic regions, was quite fascinating with its worlds too tiny for comprehension. The next couple stories, though, I just couldn’t connect with. They were fine, just not the relatable fantasy-to-reality stories I’ve come to expect from Astro City. But the last half of the book really took off! American Chibi, a character I’d previously disliked, got an origin as well as a chance to shine, and the artwork was just so fun! Wolfspider...

I think I've made it abundantly clear in my earlier reviews of Astro City and The Legend of Wonder Woman that I am a pretty big of Kurt Busiek and his work, especially on Astro City, which I feel is his love letter to the history of comic books and superheroes in general. For the most part Astro City is groundbreaking, with Busiek's best work on the series when he makes the superheroes of the Astro City universe secondary to whatever story he's trying to put across. Phone answering servi...

I was shocked to crack this open and not see Brent Anderson's art anywhere. He's been almost the exclusive artist on the book to this point. But I guess DC was forcing them to meet a schedule. So we get Astro City with some more modern artwork. I honestly didn't like it as much as Anderson's. The book contains 6 solo stories focusing on some of the unsung members of Honor Guard. There seemed to be something missing from most of the stories. Maybe Anderson contributes more than just the art, but

I was pretty disappointed with this collection. Astro City is generally fairly dependable, old school superheroing, but this one just fell short of the mark for me.The stories were pretty basic and the art was inconsistent. Brent Anderson is nowhere to be seen for some reason, so each issue was by a guest artist. Some of it is good while some of it is... not. I've "eknown" Busiek for more than two decades now, so I'm aware he's been fighting various illnesses the past couple of years, which migh...

Some really Starline-esque stories in this one, that's always a plus.

As the volume title suggest this book focuses past, current and or future members of the Honor Guard - Stormhawk, Starfighter, Hummingbird II, Wolfspider and the highly original character American Chibi, with aa additional surprise member in the last issue. As ever when Astro City focuses on the superheroes too much the book looses its lustre. 6.5 out of 12.You are now Leaving Astro City, please drive carefully.

Surprise surprise I loved another volume of Astro City. These were all stand alone stories about different heroes and each felt very unique and interesting. Brent Anderson not doing the art felt weird but Jesús Merino was the perfect substitute and the three issues he drew were easily the best. Although I also liked the first story about the "alien's", I thought that was a really cool shift in perspective. I've been looking forward to a Living Nightmare story and it more than delivered, the narr...