Thanks! I figured with 100 issues, I had better do one a day so it doesn't drag out forever.

Every other review thread usually grinds to a halt, you are already past 20 issues in about a month. Good job !

Actually, I appreciate the correction. I assumed that the Local Heroes trade collection was in chronological order, but it's not. Thank you for noticing! I edited my most recent posting accordingly.

Volume 2, Issue #21: Where the Action Is (March 2000)

Theme: Playing with Reputations

Focus Civilian: Novelist Sally Twinings now writes for Bulldog Comics. She’s disappointed that her cigar-chomping publisher Manny Monkton has added speculative details to her real-life reporting of a battle between Jack-in-the-Box (III?) and Gloworm in Bakerville. And now Monkton is getting Bulldog staffer Eli Gavin to monkey with her latest M.P.H. comic script. She picks Eli’s brain. In the Sixties, when he and Manny worked for Rampart Comics, they had liberty to tell the stories they wanted. But in the litigious Seventies, their bosses constrained them, so they left to found Bulldog to tell the stories they wanted to tell, and she must admit she enjoyed the results as a child when she herself read comics.

At Astro City Comicon, she signs a book for an enthusiastic kid named Enrique and feels better about her artistic compromises. But then Gloworm rampages in, enraged that her comic put racist words in his mouth, and puts Manny in the hospital. Manny resolves to refocus future stories on cosmic heroes (Samaritan, Starwoman, Starfighter, The Apollo Eleven) and villains (Derelikt, Pulsarr, the Unimaginables) who are unlikely to show up and put him in traction. But one of them must have taken offense, because one day, Sally shows up to work and finds the whole building gone. She turns down an offer from rival publisher Robert Cottonman to release her in-the-pipeline stories.

Heroes: Crackerjack crashes through a skyscraper window to argue with Monkton about royalty checks. Nightingale threatens Monkton over the implication that she and Sunbird are lovers. Flying Fox has a signing booth at Comicon. Cottonman recounts a comics reality gaffe involving Cometeer and Skulliar.

Old comics: include Penny Bright, Carmichael, Little Butch, Denny, Penny’s Pals, N-Forcer, Our Heroic History, Starwoman, Cleopatra, Silver Agent, Experimentals, and Leopardman. New comics include Threat, ID:Keep it Secret, Heroe$, Alter Ego, and Kaboom! Batman and Captain Atom comics exist in Astro City.

History: The “Lamplighter case” established the rights of superheroes to testify in criminal (but not civil) court without revealing their secret identities.

Civilians/Real Comics People: Macey is a character on a TV superhero soap opera that we'll learn more about next issue.
Louise is Monkton’s secretary. Len Wein and Jim Aparo worked on Doc Salem comics. The Comicon hall has booths for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Vertigo, Homage, and AJ Comics. Devin Grayson and Mark Waid staff the DC Comics booth. They are said to be Sally’s friends from “back East.” Wait, where is Astro City exactly? Not on the East Coast? I guess its TV stations do have "K" in their call sign rather than "W," implying that Astro City is west of the Mississippi river. But the aerial shots seemed to show a large body of water to the east of its "Manhattan" area. “Mort” (Weisinger of DC Comics) is said to have had Superman meet JFK in an issue ultimately published after the assassination. (Marie) Severin is mentioned as a cover artist. Dr. Wortham tends Manny in the hospital. Nolte and Sylvia sign Manny’s cast.

My Two Cents: Yay, another issue satirizing comics directly! Hollywood loves movies about making movies, and Busiek is in a unique position to give us a good comic about making comics. Naturally the story reads best for comics insiders who recognize not only the names but Brent Anderson’s renditions of their faces. I’m reminded of those loopy Silver and Bronze age stories where the writers wrote themselves into the plots.

This whole issue is about the creative compromises that authors reach with publishers, as Sally learns to adapt to Manny’s house style. Manny is too bold, ticking off real people by exaggerating details of their lives. In our world, the tensions in making comics often involved political and religious themes deemed too sensitive to touch, especially in Comics Code stories nominally aimed at children, yet replete with busty, suggestively attired and posed heroines. (Astro City has few of those.)

We see a few pages of the Jack-in-the-Box comic book, done in Bronze Age style with hilariously over-expository dialogue. (see illustration below) This highlights Busiek’s own naturalistic dialogue, which reminds us that Astro City is written for people who (1) are smarter than average kids and (2) have read a lot of comics already and thus don’t need all the tropes exposited for us. (The part about the tropes is highlighted in the Local Heroes trade volume’s introductory essay by comic author/screenwriter James Robinson.)

Astro City Vol 2 #22: Great Expectations (May 2000)

Theme: If you can’t stand the heat…

Focus Hero: The Crimson Cougar is a character on KBAC’s super-hero soap opera “Tomorrow’s Dawn.” Mitch Goodman (symbolic name!! Plus, Martin Goodman was the publisher of Marvel Comics) plays the hero role (“thrown in to add realism,” hah!) against the villain Karns. But Mitch is not the star, and he’s frustrated that he only appears masked. After foiling a real-world Astromart robbery, he gets a taste of fame and starts pursuing a film deal. That leads to him being accosted by a switchblade-flipping Pyramid punk, whom he decks easily. When Demolitia and the Unholy Alliance appear to menace him, Honor Guard come to the rescue. Mitch realizes that he’s way out of his league in the hero game, so he gets his friend Eric to pose as a villain, Dark Centurion, and beat him up before the cameras. This cools his fame enough that he feels safe pursuing his acting career under lower pressure.

Civilians: Mitch’s co-stars Michael-Evan and Brittany are more famous than he is. Pro-Motion Talent Agency represents Mitch.

Other Heroes: Samaritan defeats White Lightning (Electro?) on his third attempt.

Civilians: Martha Sullivan gave up heroing as “Mind-over-Mattie” before she got started; now she works in special effects. Angelique and Clarice also work on the TV show.

Real People: As in the previous Loony Leo story, real-world celebrities (this time Larry King and Dustin Hoffman) are mentioned to give the story a Hollywood feel.

My Two Cents: It’s about time we saw some supers simply using their powers for real world job applications! Stuntman is an obvious super-job, as previously seen with DC and Marvel heroes Blue Devil, Wonder Man, and Longshot. But Mitch isn’t the super working on the show; Martha the tech is. Mitch is just a rodeo guy turned stunt guy turned actor. Maybe they should have Steeljack be his double! Note that local TV station KBAC also produces a local soap opera. This is not completely ridiculous; my aunt once had a role on soap opera The Catlins (1983-1985) on Superstation TBS in Atlanta. But most TV stations buy their content from the network or from syndicators rather than producing such shows on their own.

This Mitch story bears a strong thematic resemblance to the story of Marta from Shadow Hill. Both are at the bottom of their career food chains, aspiring to join co-workers higher up. Both are dissuaded from the career climb by an appearance of the Unholy Alliance, and are rescued by heroes (Honor Guard and First Family, respectively). Both settle for a lesser goal. In Marta’s case, “wife of the Shadow Hill butcher” was well within her grasp. In Mitch’s case, the number of TV actors who don’t get a second role far outnumbers those who do, which is why actors hold onto roles so tenaciously.

9/11 #2 After the Fire (2002)

Theme: 9/11 tribute

Focus: Samaritan and his foe King Missile plow through a skyscraper during a fight. The boy Farrell was saved from the collapsing structure by fireman Arnie Prentice. Arnie lost a leg on a later mission but considers it worth it in light of how many lives he’s saved over time. He himself was saved from an exploding boiler that took his leg, but took the lives of six other firemen who rescued him. He visits their graves often.

Places: Schiff Street Firehouse. Fox-Broome University hosts a playoff game.

My Two Cents: A brief vignette, six pages out of a larger 9/11-themed anthology. Busiek pays tribute to the human heroes of one of NYC’s most traumatic days. Comic books are not uniquely a New York phenomenon, but the presence of both Marvel and DC offices in NYC have made American superheroes distinctively Manhattanite, as opposed to the TV/movie business’ focus on Los Angeles.

No, I mean super hero characters appearing in traditional soap operas, in a world where superheroes and villains exist.  DC and Marvel hadn't really done that, before this.  Imagine GBS, in the Bronze Age, broadcasting a soap opera, where a pseudo-Phoebe Tyler is working alongside a pastiche of Lex Luthor, against Mighty Man (or something), all within the confines of a tv studio, much like an episode of All My Children.  Heck, Elliott S! Maggin could have done a plot like that and had the real Lex so angry he launches an attack on the show, only for Clark Kent, who is on another floor of the building, to have to leave the newsroom and save the day.  General Hospital, in the Marvel Universe, might have a storyline with a mysterious costumed avenger prowling the streets, instead of a secret agent trying to trace artificial diamonds, being used to create a weather machine (the 80s were a weird time for soaps).  Instead of Dark Shadows, the MU might have had Caped Wonders, a campy soap opera with superheroes and villains, rather than vampires and werewolves; or else, real vampires on Dark Shadows.