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Rating: 
Summary: One of the better series in the superhero-genre
Review: Astro City is a city filled with superpowered beings. You can't walk from street to street without noticing at least one meta-human, if you're an inhabitant of the city. But not so like most 'superhero-titles' the focus here isn't only on the heroes and their deeds, but on the regular people who live (and try to cope with all the supernatural activities around them) there as well. It tells about their personal lives as well as about the events they all witness.
This Trade-Paperback is the first Astro City collection that collects issues from the ongoing series (#1-3 & #10-13, no loose ends there though).
The great thing about Astro City TPB's is that they both work for longtime readers as for people who are new to the title. For 'experienced' readers there are many recognizable (background-) characters, surroundings and situations that it feels familiair (without being repetitive), yet never the same. At the same time all those recognizable parts aren't vital points to the story-arcs so that new-comers will never feel like their missing out on something (and once they're through reading their first TPB and move on to another Astro City book THEIR party of recognition begins, without anything being spoiled in a previous book. No matter what order you read them in because they work as self-contained books as well). The issues in this book I'd like to advise to especially take a good look at are #10-12. Issue #10 is about a man called "The Junkman" who once managed to pull off the greatest bank-robbery in the history of Astro City. Only the one thing he wants most, recognition for it, he doesn't have. He decides to go back and do it again. Issues #11/12 are about one of the most famous characters of Astro City namely 'Jack-in-the-Box'. One evening he leaves home and he gets confronted with some persons from his 'possible futures'. An event which makes him rethink his activities, both private as professional.
Finally the volume is concluded with some pages filled with sketches of how the characters came to be what they are now AND the Alex Ross covers to the original issues which are collected in here.
Like I said in my review-title, I consider this one of the best titles in the genre where superheroes are involved. It's about superheroes AND about regular folks among them AND about the the lives these metahumans have apart from being heroes. Especially people who liked "Marvels" and Alan Moore's "Top Ten" will have a good time with this book, but it really should appeal to most other comicbook-readers as well, both superhero-fans as fans whose interest lies in the more 'serious' sub-genres. Really well-executed.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as 1st 2, but still worth the effort
Review: Family Album did not quite do it for me like the earlier 2 (Life in the Big City and Confessions). It starts out with a great stand-alone opening story seen through the eyes of a single-Father newcomer to Astro City. Parental fear/concern is a common theme in this book and it succeeds best here. A-The 2nd story is a twist on the FF (here called the First Family)with its youngest and most powerful(?) member ( a female counterpart to Franklin Richards perhaps) becoming a precocious runaway who shows a very different form of courage as the rest of the FF tear up the 4-corners of the globe looking for her. B- In the 3rd story, an age-discriminated inventor becomes a criminal mansermind and finds that wealth beyond his wildest dreams is not enough to quench his thirst for revenge. He then pulls of a form of career sabatoge. Or does he? Nice twist at the end. B+ Although more developed than other heroes in Astro City such as Samaritan, Jack-in-the-Box, the star of the 4th story comes off as flat to me. He is a cross between Spider-Man and a clown, shooting confetti instead of webbing. His alter-ego is a kind of black Peter Parker struggling with the news he is to become a father and the implications his dangerous lifestyle could have on his future son. The resolution is as positive and mature as I've seen in comics. B Leo is a cartoon lion (sort of a real-life Joe Camel) whose scandalous life is fit for "Hollywood Lies & Scandals" in the final story. Again, very different, but the superhero quotient is very slim. C All in all a solid B, but it does not match the high standards of the 1st 2. If you enjoyed either one, there is still enough here to keep you happy.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Last Really Good Superhero books
Review: I guess you could say that mainstream comics and superheroes have become something of a wasteland with few good writers doing work that really stands out. Such is not the case with Kurt Busiek's Astro City. Here the writer shows us a city where people and superheroes have their own stories to tell and the stories are so well written, that you want to read more. Astro City really is one of the very few good superhero books left.
Rating:
Summary: Please Take a Drive Around Astro City
Review: Reading this collection of stories was like driving around Astro City and visting different members of it's community. First take a look at how a dad rasies his two girls in the city, and then look at a superhero as he faces the challenges of being a dad in the near future, then see how a little girl of a superhero family just wants to be treated like a normal kid. These are all family oriented stories, and they are another great example of Kurt Busiek's writing. Let;s have more please.!
Rating:
Summary: This really is the first story-arc...
Review: This book contains the first story arch of Astro City. In the previous issues, it was literally issue to issue, no to be continued endings, but this has it. The first arch shows the life of a 10 year old girl who is a super hero and struggles to cope with how she is different from normal girls. The second is of Jack In The Box (the dude on the cover) and how his pregnant wife will have a child who might grow up hating his father for dying when he meets 3 people from potential futures. 2 of which were homocidal maniacs claiming to be his son.
Rating:
Summary: Characters first, fighting last
Review: This trade paperback collects the stories of some of the super hero characters of Astro City. It follows their joys, their disappointments, their thoughts, and their process of growing. Sure there is fighting, but what is important in this collected stories are the psychological process of dealing with a reality that is filled with different kinds of people, heros , villians, and of course, plain old humans. This is a good and insightful read. The bad? Well, if you want Alex Ross, forget it. This book lied. There is NO alex ross save for the cover art. This is written by Kurt Busiek (a great writer by his own right) and Anderson (whose art is sharp but boring). I wanted Ross. But no,only the cover are by him. So if you want action, you'll be disappointed. If you want characters , this is a good read. If you want a good story, well again, this is good. But I recommend readers to be patient and slow on this. This is one to be cherished and enjoyed slowly. If you are a quick reader, you'll miss something. Not in the art, but in the characterization of a hero, villian, or spectator. I bought the Hardcover version of this collected series. It's worth it for me. I would like more exciting art, but Busiek's writing was the primary reason I bought it. Busiek didn't disappoint me.
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