Astro City: Life in the Big City

Rating:
Summary: A world of Mediocreheroes . . .
Review: I'm a fan of superhero-type post-1970s comics, especially when they're compiled in graphic novel form (so you don't have to wait for the next installment), but I prefer the "realistic" school invented in _Watchmen_ and _The Dark Knight_ series over the Marvel variety. Stories in which the hero isn't necessarily all that heroic, set in a grubby sort of world not unlike our own. Sort of an alternate universe in which superheroes or extraordinary mortals can exist. That's what Busiek says he's after here, but he's not all that successful. This may have to do more with the fact that the seven stories in this volume each center on a different hero and don't adequately relate to each other. The focus is very fuzzy. There are too many references made to events and people the reader knows nothing about, if he hasn't already read all the original comics. And the characterizations are rather trite, too. Samaritan is a workaholic, Winged Victory is a go-it-alone feminist, Beautie is a Barbie doll (literally), Crackerjack is a jerk, and we learn nothing at all about Starwoman, the Deacon, the Furst Family, or most of the other walk-ons. The best story in the book, almost by degault, is "Safeguards," about a woman from a Third-Worldish corner of the city where ghosties and ghoulies still survive, who is trying to make a career downtown. This whole thing could have been much, much better.