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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 12, 2018 12:22:27 GMT -5
Exciting end to Book 2 and we're still not done with this storyline.
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Post by rberman on Mar 12, 2018 12:36:44 GMT -5
Exciting end to Book 2 and we're still not done with this storyline. I cracked the next trade volume and realized that the first two stories in it were released prior to Book 2 and Book 3 of The Dark Age, so they are up next. Then back to The Dark Age Book 3. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 12, 2018 19:56:12 GMT -5
... McManus (probably a reference to a criminal played by Stephen Baldwin in the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects”) is Deke’s surname. Also possibly a reference to cartoonist George McManus, creator of the newspaper strip Bringing Up Father and its stars, Maggie and Jiggs.  |
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Post by rberman on Mar 13, 2018 6:58:01 GMT -5
Special: Samaritan: “The Eagle and the Mountain” (September 2006)
Theme: Bosom Enemies Focus Villain: Warning. This is one of those “narrated summary” issues focusing on a single character’s life history, so a summary that does it justice is inevitably long. Infidel grew up in ancient Kenya and was sold into slavery, eventually ending up a lab assistance in ancient Persia. He gets his nickname from not being Muslim. He learned alchemy and somehow became immortal, drawing upon the same Empyrean Fire that will later empower Samaritan. All he wants is a fortress/laboratory where he can do his human experiments in peace, but the pesky peasants keep rising up against him and must be brutally put down every few generations. His solution is to relocate into the post-apocalyptic future, when Earth is an empty wasteland, build his laboratory there, and rescue the inhabitants of Pompeii and other natural disasters to live out their lives with hard labor as his slaves. Better than dying, he tells himself. But one day (in the past), Samaritan completes his mission to rewrite history by saving the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, the apocalypse is averted, and the post-apocalypse evaporates, dumping Infidel in a utopian future that we saw before when Samaritan tried to return to his home in the timestream. Infidel sets all his powers about setting things back to “normal” (i.e. turning the apocalypse back on), but when he succeeds, Samaritan undoes it again. Back and forth they go countless times, with neither able to win a lasting victory. They settle into an uneasy détente of psychological warfare involving having dinner together once a year to see if either one of them seems to be wavering. Will Samaritan come around to the need for a strong hand to rule the world in peace? Will Infidel foreswear atrocities and use his big brain for the common good? Samaritan embarks on a risky gambit, drawing modern scientist Dr. Gretchen Hastings into the plot. Infidel has some respect for her and passes along some cool tech to her. Is this his brilliant plan to draw her in on his side, somehow tipping the balance of power in his favor? Or will her lure bring the lonely reclusive genius over to the Light Side? Stay tuned, true believers!
Places: Taco Cat, last seen when Samaritan visited his fixed future in an early issue, makes another appearance when Infidel is dumped in that same plaza, when his timeline evaporates. My Two Cents: This story from 2006 was released between Volumes 1 and 2 of The Dark Age but was withheld from trade publication until after the Dark Age series was collected. The Dark Age experimented with long-form storytelling in Astro City, but I’ve missed these standalone compressed stories telling us most everything we need to know about a single character. Busiek gives us a plausible scenario for Superman and Lex Luthor to be eternal equal/opposites, each unsure whether he’s making any headway in his long game to bring the other guy around. His bald head and purple clothes recall mid-80s Luthor as well. Like Apocalypse (whom I saw as a Darkseid knockoff), Infidel is an ancient superpower trying to rewrite reality, but with control is really just a means to his end of the ruthless pursuit of science. The fact that our reality currently exists in the world desired by Samaritan shows that Infidel must have blinked first in the use of physical power to achieve the desired status quo. Infidel is smarter than Samaritan, so we might expect him to prevail in their current long-term battle of wits. A very satisfying issue. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 14, 2018 5:15:22 GMT -5
Special: Beauty “Her Dark Plastic Roots” (April 2008)
Theme: Skin deep Focus Hero: Beautie feels in her element when battling to save the universe but is super awkward in social situations. She doesn’t get invited to the hero after-parties and has all but given up on faking pleasantries she doesn’t feel. Guys hit on her in bars but are repulsed (or worse, turned on) to discover that she has a plastic doll’s lack of anatomy under her clothes. Her only solace is playing dress-up alone in her apartment. She thinks back on what she can remember of her life… She recalls her first act of heroism, saving young Joanie Wheaton from kidnappers in 1969. The next thing she remembers, she’s immobile, laying around in an abandoned Tip-Top Toys laboratory for months. Villain The Toymaker discovers her and tries unsuccessfully to duplicate her. He’s defeated by the Silver Age Honor Guard, now including Leopardman, Cleopatra I, N-Forcer, and Mirage. Beautie turns off Toymaker’s toys and is accepted into Honor Guard. As with Looney Leo before her, the owners of her trademark decide to capitalize on her fame rather than fight for her ownership. She becomes the toy company’s spokesmodel and buries herself in work there and with Honor Guard. When a group of Cobra-looking Lawmen take aim on the 1978 Astro City Gay Freedom March, she intervenes and unwittingly becomes a gay icon. She’s been shattered by The Living Nightmare then repaired by Dr. Furst. Then again broken by Silver Brain’s Sledgehamsters (heh) and reassembled by Black Rapier. (We haven’t seen him being tech-savvy up to this point.) Honor Guard speedster (and semi-alien) M.P.H. (Mike Hendrie) pities her friendlessness and reaches out. He gives her information that suggests she was created by the evil Dr. Gearbox (Anton Girbachs), now dead. She resolves to seek out his still-living daughter Elaine but somehow keeps waking up every morning wiped of her knowledge of this new data. She starts writing things down and eventually goes to 92140 Aguacate Road, Santa Rosita, CA, which turns out to be the rural cabin/lab of which she had vague memories. Now she remembers that Elaine, still a child, built Beautie to impress her father. He was not impressed and told her to send Beautie away. She did, with instuctions to “forget.” Beautie dutifully went away and forgot, and periodically keeps rediscovering and returning to Santa Rosita, to the dismay of now-middle aged Elaine, who keeps repeating the same instructions that didn’t get lasting results before. M.P.H. spies on one of these little visits and rebukes Elaine. Isn’t she giving Beautie the same rejection that she hated from her own father? Other Heroes: Supersonic foiled Dr. Gearbox, putting him in a foul mood. Places: Nordling’s store sells the full line of Beauty dolls, of course. Civilians: Mitchell hits on Beautie in a bar. She lives above Charlie and Greg’s bar, The Range Rider. Sally and Cara are M.P.H.’s wife and sister, respectively. Real world filmmakers William Wyler and Mark Sandrich are mentioned, and Sandrich’s films Shall We Dance (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, 1937) and A Woman Rebels (Katharine Hepburn, Herbert Marshall, 1936). My Two Cents: Wow, it’s daunting to unpack all the themes in this issue; Busiek’s mind was clearly spinning with new ideas while he gradually dealt with just a few themes over time in The Dark Age. The most obvious comic book reference here is The Vision, by way of Barbie of course. Alpha Flight also has a robot-builder named Roger Bochs who drives a powerful droid named Box. We get the cycle of child abuse between Gearbox and Elaine and Beauty. We get an autism alienation allegory with Beautie’s inability to engage in normal social (or sexual) intercourse, and her subsequent acceptance by a group of men who not only don’t hit on her but also share her interest in fashion. (Only some of them, Busiek specifies.) We also get a replay of the plight of Leonard, the amnesiac protagonist of Christopher Nolan’s thriller film Memento (2000), who can never move on from a tragedy because he can’t remember that he ever got closure. Elaine’s “big reveal” is emotionally powerful, though she could avoid the repeated grief of Beautie’s visits by at least giving her a letter explaining the story that she keeps forgetting, if not trying to reprogram her outright (likely a risky option). I detect a note of exoticism in Busiek’s implication that homosexual culture is a relational utopia where everyone is just accepted for who they are. In reality, to whatever extent a subculture sequesters itself from the broader culture, it tends to find something internal to bicker about, whereas the experience of persecution from the outside tends to draw a group together despite its differences. People are just people, wherever you go, with all the petty foibles we all battle. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 15, 2018 5:33:34 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 3 (Into The Abyss) #1: A Cold, Gray Morning in America (July 2009)
Theme: Into the Woods Focus Brothers: A newspaper clipping reminds us of the apartment fire on Saylor Avenue in which Pyramid agent Aubrey killed Lloyd and Willa Williams. They were from Biloxi. Lloyd was a janitor at Hillman Manufacturing, and they were buried at Cooper Street Cemetary. Their sons Charles Raymond and Royal James were twelve and eight years old, respectively. Other clippings remind us that Charles was “wounded in the line of duty” (actually, shot by his partner for refusing payoffs), and Royal was sentenced to prison for six years (but was released after four; the next issue will claim the sentence was ten years). As with the previous two books, Book Three of The Dark Age opens with a skyline shot of the Empire State Building, Baxter Building, and Grandenetti Cathedral. It’s April 1982, with spring blossoms being blown off the trees as ominous thunderheads loom overhead. The captions depict Charles (in blue text boxes) and Royal (in red boxes) reminiscing about these events, so they both apparently survive to the end of our story. Charles survived his wounds and testified against his partner Lannie, resulting in some convictions for corruption, but he’s been shunned by the police and is on disability, hobbling around with the help of a couple of arm braces. He convinces Royal, recently released from prison, to join Pyramid to find out more about Aubrey Kendall Jason, the man who murdered their parents. Royal trains with the Pyramid gang as a Jackal-Trooper member of Squad Ibis in the Nicholson Range of mountains. At bedtime, they take pills, inhale gas, and wear headphones blaring propaganda to brainwash them in the service of the Scarab Throne. Royal has noseplugs that keep the gas (and thus the pills) from working on him. He sneaks to the file room to read up on Aubrey, the Tiger-level operative who has been in Pyramid since 1955. Royal has a gadget to send Charles data about the other Pyramid bases. When those are shut down by heroes, Royal’s chances of a rapid promotion will improve. But it’s Royal’s base that gets attacked, and Charles is one of the E.A.G.L.E. troopers somehow. He warns Royal that Pyramid suspects a mole, and he lets Royal escape into the woods. Focus Brawl: Hellsignor, Satan’s Archbishop, a skeletal wizard, has captured the First Family and the Omega Rangers and has killed Dr. McGillicuddy, who had unearthed the Gem of Thebis for him. But no! The Point Man snatches the Gem away and attaches it to a nearby black civilian, Sarah Brandeis, who is possessed by the spirit of Cleopatra (II) and banishes the baddie and the 136 civilians whose bodies he had possessed. A sad day in Binderbeck Plaza. Other Heroes: We’re told that the first Cleopatra was short and gentle, whereas the new one is more strident and brusque. Jack-in-the-Box captures Chain and Handgun, minions of the Underlord in Chesler. We’ve already learned that both of those villains will perish at the hands of El Hombre in his Conquistador disguise. Pyramid researchers discuss how the Apollo Eleven can combine to form The Incarnate, whose previous incarnations include Egron the Sifter, Narmad the Judge, Kerresh, and Shurruck. Skyborne is going to attack the Apollo base as a distraction, while Pyramid plants a bug inside. Civilians: Lynette McGee is a TV newscaster. Joe Montana and the 49ers win the Super Bowl. Ronald Reagan is president of the United States. Miscellanea: This issue also begins the second trade volume “Brothers in Arms” as well as the third book of The Dark Age, which has the separate title “Into the Abyss.” My Two Cents: This issue divides neatly into two parts: The Hellsignor story (illustrating rough modern heroics) and the next phase of the Charles and Royal story. Charles contemplates how heroes have gone from always saving the civilians, to being unable to stop some civilian deaths, to actually having to kill captured civilians for the greater good. Obviously this is Busiek describing changes in the comic book industry’s view of heroism, mirroring similar 1970s cinema trends like “Dirty Harry” and “Death Wish.” The Pyramid training camp operates right out in the open just a hundred miles from Astro City. Why do the heroes permit this? It operates like an army base, with barracks and a rec hall. I would have expected that Pyramid either just hired disposable goons off the street, or else had elite units composed of ex-military types. The notion that they spend years training soldiers themselves doesn’t ring true, but it’s necessary for where Royal’s story is going. His fellow soldiers are mostly reluctant recruits who couldn’t get legitimate jobs and felt forced into a continued life of crime, as seen in the Tarnished Angel arc with Steeljack. 
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 15, 2018 15:00:25 GMT -5
I think the Pyramid training stuff was meant to mirror GI JOE, a bit, as well as its inspiration, HYDRA. In those comics, HYDRA and Cobra had large training facilities and massive bases, that were somehow hidden, like the SPECTRE volcano, in You Only Live Twice. I just assumed that was going on here, that they had some kind of holographic projection or something that kept their base hidden. The training element isn't that far fetched, as terrorist cells often undergo long periods of trainers, especially the 70s networks of terror groups, like the PLO, Black September, Red Army Faction, Provisional IRA and Baader-Meinhoff. Members of those groups underwent training in secret camps in Libya, Syria and Lebanon, with KGB or KGB-trained instructors (while the US did similar things with the School of the Americas and the advisor groups who aided the Afghan mujahadeen, who would later form the nucleus of al-Queda). Hired goons and mercenaries have a tendency to run from the fight, if the odds are too high or if there is a better offer on tap. Most mercenary units were filled with wannabes, rather than veterans. Professional military look down on those groups as being parasites.
I enjoyed this segment of the storyline, with the EAGLE and Pyramid battle, as it kind of reflected the classic SHIELD/HYDRA, as well as GI JOE/Cobra (same thing). I really loved those stories and the 70s and 80s were a tough time, as SHIELD became mostly a metaphor for the CIA and the dirty wars, in the post-Vietnam climate. It seems no one at Marvel really wanted to play with the idea of HYDRA being a metaphor for modern terrorism, until Larry Hama launched the GI JOE comic (dusting off a SHIELD spin-off proposal). Still, that never quite felt the same to me, since it was tied to a pseudo-military group, so that it seemed more like Delta Force-on-steroids (and I didn't care for the artwork on most of the issues I saw of JOE). About the only decent use of SHIELD, from my perspective, was when Tony Isabella put them in Daredevil, recruiting Foggy Nelson for the Executive Board. They and DD fight a HYDRA cell, run by Silvermane, of the Maggia. It had several divisions, each headed by a supervillain commander. It was also similar to Japanese shows, like Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) and live shows like the Sentai series (which spawned the Power Rangers) and the Kamen Rider series (which spawned Saban's Masked Rider). The live shows had been inspired by the success of Gatchaman, which had an alien organization, with an army of goons, led by a colorful captain, with some kind of monster battle-mecha. Some 60s shows, like Johnny Sokko, also had this (Unicorn vs the Gargoyle Gang).
I noticed that these 70s era stories, aside from lots of street-level heroes and vigilantes, also focused heavily on cosmic and magic threats, matching the 70s obsessions with the paranormal and UFOs.
I assume the McGee name for the reporter was an homage to the Incredible Hulk tv series.
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Post by rberman on Mar 16, 2018 5:34:13 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 3 (Into the Abyss) #2: Gone to Ground (August 2009)
Theme: Who needs whom? Focus Brothers: Royal is severly spooked that Pyramid knows there was a spy at the base where he was training. He walks the streets of Astro City, refusing to contact either Pyramid or his brother Charles, who is working with E.A.G.L.E. He doesn’t know that another man, Red Sidderud, has been blamed and executed in his place. Thinks back to his childhood, fishing with Grampa Snow on his boat Cora off the coast. (Which coast is this again? A lighthouse is in the distance. His parents are from Biloxi, so probably the Gulf Coast, but I thnk of lighthouses as an Atlantic thing.) Deacon sends Royal a message: Come work for me again, or I’ll assume you’re working for my new rival The Underlord.At the E.A.G.L.E. base The Aerie high in the Rockies, boss Flannery Hawk is frustrated. Charles got into E.A.G.L.E. based on his ability to use Royal for Pyramid intel, but now Royal seems to be flaking out. One of Charles' comrades Benne asks him out for drinks but gives up when she sees how obsessed he is with taking out Pyramid. Heroes: Honor Guard battle their alternate-earth twins The Olympians, including Captain Lightnight, Sunstar, The Weaponeer, and a different Starfighter. (We've seen the First Family battling evil twins in the past.) The Experimentals (Ener-Jeannie, Vapor, Liquid, and Solid) save the inhabitants of a building collapsed during a fight with the Micron Army, but the citizens are still irate to lose their homes. But everybody remembers what Silver Agent said about his Third Advent on May 3, 1982. Excitement builds! Royal sees Jack-in-the-Box busting some heads in an alley. Pyramid stages a boat crisis to get an opportunity to bug members of The Apollo Eleven who come to help ( Kahoutek, Ichthyos, and somebody else). Places: Streets mentioned include Craig Avenue, Kamen, Ingels, and Chesler Street. Plus the Sweatshop and Bakerville. Tip Top is a bar. Miscellanea: Royal runs through the rank insignia for Pyramid: Jackals like himself are privates, Scorpions are Sergeants. Officers are Crocodiles, then Tigers, then the Theban Council, then five Lords of the Saqqaran Council: Horus, Osiris, Ra, Ibis, and Set. But a pharaonic head, the Stone of Sekhmet, is running the show. My Two Cents: This issue turns the tables on the Royal/Charles power dynamic. Royal is content-ish hunkering down in the underbelly of Astro City, working odd jobs and maybe some small time mob action. But Charles has ambitions not just to avenge his parents (a thought that kept him alive through rehab for his gunshot wound) but also to prove his worth within E.A.G.L.E. The brothers are at a very different sort of cross-purposes now than we’ve seen before. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 17, 2018 8:20:26 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 3 (Into the Abyss) #3: Deep Cover (September 2009)
Theme: Charlie Wilson’s War Focus Heroes: At long last, we get to see more from the Apollo Eleven than hints from a distance. There’s lots going on here. We get all their names in a five page sound-off: Leonard Vindari (Encephalon, a helmeted Strieber alien head with tentacles for a body); Tory Willets (Nihil, a Negative Man); Clayton Rhodes (Shrff, looking like Cousin It) tossing lawn darts with a childlike Lafayette O’Hearn (Strangeling, a spindly body with a Streiber head); Jeremy Nederdorff (Kahoutek of the flaming head), cuddling on a blanket with Renata Delamare (Aquarina, looking blue and liquefied as you’d guess); Xi Lun Chu (Ichthyos), swimming in a watery habitrail around their base; Robin Carruthers (Gas Giant, locked in a containment chamber and pining for Simon McCaleb (Arthro the four-armed man); Andrew Garrison (Commander One, with his perpetually worn helmet and rocket pack); and L.G.M. (he has “no other name known,” but until it’s proven otherwise, I declare that it means Little Green Man), an advisor-type somewhere between Mister Spock and Mister Mxyzptlk. Their base is an unused missile out Montana way. Their mysterious boss Xosmos, a god-figure who looks sort of like a bearded Eternity, is impatient. They’re supposed to be forming together as The Incarnate, testing earth to either be admitted to The Continuum or else be “quarantined forever.” Most of them are captured during a Pyramid attack, and the rest are incapacitated by Pyramid’s Ka-Cannon during in a failed rescue. They all end up in the Pyramid basement, where the Sekhmet Stone seeks to suck that strength of The Incarnate out of them. Focus Brothers: Charles (under the fake surname of Wilson) volunteered to infiltrate Pyramid on behalf of E.A.G.L.E. He somehow has risen far enough in the ranks that he can see Lord Osiris spying on The Apollo Eleven as well as Honor Guard and The First Family. Thanks to Charlie and Royal's previous work, Lord Ibis has already been brought down, and the hated Aubrey Jason is slated to take his place on the Saqqaran Council. Pyramid sends a squad including Charles to raid tech from the First Family home on Mount Kirby, but they return to find Commander One, Arthro, and Koutek tearing their base to shreds, looking for their compatriots. In the chaos, Charles stumbles into Royal, who has rejoined Pyramid, and the two of them race to find Aubrey Jason. Focus Messiah: Silver Agent appears at the waterfalls at the appointed hour on May 3, 1982, just as he had prophesied. He’s travelling backwards through time, gaining power with each jump. He instructs the First Family to come back with the Innocence Gun, and all the other heroes follow Agent to find The Incarnate manifesting as a giant demon made of scrap metal, Kerresh the Devastator. I don’t think this fight with a titan is going to end with a family member calming him down. Other Heroes: Stormhawk is a Hawkman type with an actual bird head, like Hawkman in Kingdom Come. Places: The Continuum previously tested planet Deneb-13, which proved unlucky indeed and took out four star systems when it failed. Aswan Trading is a Pyramid front company. Civilians: Conrad, Jones, and Vasquez are drunken Pyramid goons. My Two Cents: The waiting period between the first mention of the Apollo Eleven and their detailed reveal was much longer than it as for the First Family, and it takes a lot of space just to run through the roll call. It’s not clear what’s driving a deadline for Earth’s testing by the Apollo Eleven. Wouldn’t Earth be more likely to succeed with more time? Maybe not. The Continuum works in mysterious ways. The Silver Agent plot continues to unfold with satisfying surprises. We learn to expect his future appearances to be successively lower in power, arriving back at his Captain America-level origin. Charles is thoroughly invested in his undercover role, so much so that Royal has to argue with him to get him to go after Aubrey instead of reporting back to E.A.G.L.E. about the plight of the captured Apollo Eleven. It’s unlikely E.A.G.L.E. could have done anything in time, but Charles didn’t know that. He’s roiling in a sea of professional duty, filial allegiance, and vengeance. Busiek is setting a good example of how to mix a large cast of cosmic superheroes with a down to earth personal narrative. 
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 17, 2018 13:04:07 GMT -5
That last statement is probably why cosmic stories have always been a bit off, to me (including Starlin): you don't often get the human connection to the whole thing. Far too often the writer is attempting to show off, either poetically or with the scope of his concept and the character is left to whither. One thing you can say about Busiek is he keeps his mind on character.
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Post by rberman on Mar 17, 2018 18:35:05 GMT -5
That last statement is probably why cosmic stories have always been a bit off, to me (including Starlin): you don't often get the human connection to the whole thing. Far too often the writer is attempting to show off, either poetically or with the scope of his concept and the character is left to whither. One thing you can say about Busiek is he keeps his mind on character. For sure. Busiek doesn't really have a character-driven cosmic story either, but he does split each issue of The Dark Age into some fraction of the character-driven story of Royal and Charles for part, and a superhero romp (cosmic or otherwise) for part. Sometimes they intersect, as here, but often it's more like "Meanwhile, we heard about this crazy adventure of the First Family..." The upcoming Astra two-parter will be the most character-driven cosmic tale we've seen. I suppose ROM could be character driven and sorta cosmic, but it did take place mostly on Earth. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 18, 2018 7:23:02 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 3 (Into the Abyss) #4: All the Way Down (October 2009)
Theme: Haste Lays Waste Focus MacGuffin: Many ages ago, the benign race of Firstmen were preparing to leave Earth to its period of testing of worthiness to join the cool kids in the galactic club. They left behind the Innocence Gun which can be fired only once, and should only be used by the purest hero, against the absolutely appropriate foe. Which hero and which foe? That’s part of the test. Focus Brawl: It’s issue #4 in a Dark Age series, and that means all the supers turn out to fight the giant menace. Besides Honor Guard and the First Family, there’s Bravo leading the Omega Rangers, including Quarrel II, Witchling, Krakaboom, and Butterfly. During the big battle, the cocky Point Man grabs the Innocence Gun and, ignoring the warnings of Grimoire, fires on Kerresh the Devastator, destroying him. But the gun also opens a crack in reality, causing untold devastation on the city, with hundreds (I might have expected thousands) of civilian dead. Worse, says Grimoire, now the Gun won’t be available to use against something really dangerous down the line. Blame Silver Agent, who specifically told the First Family to go home and bring the Innocence Gun to this battle. Luckily, Silver Agent’s brain contains plans for a device (the lay press later dubs it The Cosmic Spackler) to heal the rift; then he winks out of existence, continuing on his reverse trip through time to intervene in the Black Velvet debacle from Book Two. The last page shows that the rift isn’t quite as healed as we thought and hoped, and something tentacular is crawling through… Focus Brothers: Charles and Royal Williams pursue Aubrey Jason but are severely wounded when the Omega Rangers catch them in the middle of a throng of resisting Pyramid goons. Aubrey is about to do unto them what they wanted to do unto him, but the big battle intervenes again, so the final reckoning will have to wait for another day. The brothers vow to each other to continue their chase, as a team this time. Other Heroes: Grimoire says Simon Magus is gone; no elaboration given. The Apollo Eleven, now severed from The Incarnate, have returned to human form. Starwoman will help the First Family get a hearing with The Continuum to try to call off their plans to destroy the unworthy planet Earth. Civilians: Sally Jonas is a TV reporter. My Two Cents: Aubrey now knows that Royal and Charles are gunning for him, though he’s more annoyed that two kids are seeking vengeance from the past than he’s worried that they will succeed. The Sekhmet Stone has gone inert, but we already know that Pyramid is still active in the 1990s and beyond, so that probably won’t last. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 19, 2018 7:01:40 GMT -5
Special: Astra #1 “Graduation Day” (November 2009)
Theme: Just the way you are Focus Hero: Astra Jeanine Majestros-Furst grew up into (according to Inside Scoop) a party girl and graduated from Tarleton College in Doolin, Ohio (both fictional). She’s celebrating with Deirdre, Leesh, and Matt Zimmer at Mychos’ club and planning to move with Alicia to Boston. Everywhere she goes, she has to shoot down paparazzi flittercams sent by Inside Scoop to spy on her. Astra and Matt are about to smooch when Monstro City relatives Bertos, Grimlar, and Seneschal pop out of a shallow pond to deliver a gift from grandma Madame Majestrix: a power rod designating her an official “princess of the undersea realms.” Oh, and eventually she’ll also be a Beast-Men princess thanks to her bio dad, Kaspian. Time to kiss Matt yet? Nope; three supers float down from the sky with an offer to join their new team. She’ll think about it. Matt is feeling quite inadequate now. She teleports him to her home on Mount Kirby to meet the family, including the animal headed Sasha and kid brother (?) Karl, both of whom are new to us readers. Surprise! She’s taking him through a dimensional portal into a very Negative Zoney world to see the Gordian Knot.
Other heroes: The Reflex 6 may eventually include Jason Szolda (Skysweeper, formerly Kid Jackdaw), Medulla, Tearaway, The Gorgon, and Jimmy Shade. People and Places: Faith Pullam of 1234 Rosen Blvd, Palo Alto, CA subscribes to Inside Scoop magazine, which runs a special on Astra’s graduation. Prince Harry Windsor and actor Shia LeBoeuf are real-world celebrities whom Astra has supposedly dated. My Two Cents: From the “girl gone wild” opening panel of Astra flashing her undies and falling out of her dress, I thought we were headed into Jupiter’s Legacy territory, exploring super-kids who rebel against the super-expectations of their super-parents and make some super-bad life choices. But instead, it’s a fish-out-of-water story focused on Astra’s boyfriend Matt. Astra’s family seems quite happy with the direction her life is taking, which means that Inside Scoop's opening narration is a manufactured scandal, not an accurate picture of Astra. Astra appears to show astounding insensitivity to Matt, basking in the attention from her various Amazing Friends and then taking him to an alternate dimension in what seems like a very poorly thought out attempt to impress the one guy who just likes her for her. Looking at her situation charitably, she’s insecure and doesn’t feel like she’s much of a catch beyond her super elements, so she overcompensates, dragging reluctant Matt on an adventure that’s sufficiently dangerous that he receives a panic button to teleport home if things get hairy. This is not going to end well. (And, we’ll later learn, there is a method to the madness.) 
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,202 
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Post by Confessor on Mar 19, 2018 9:43:01 GMT -5
The Astra #1 special was really enjoyable and felt like a breath of fresh air amidst the brooding and seemingly never ending Dark Age. It was also, in my view, probably the most engaging and dramatic use of Astro City's penchant for characters who age in real time that we'd seen up to this point.
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Post by rberman on Mar 20, 2018 6:40:41 GMT -5
Special: Astra #2 “The Gordian Knot” (December 2009)
Theme: Private eyes, they’re watching you Backstory: Armageddon (Donato Degamra) was a scientist in the far future (like, the 212th century) who used a Collapsar Wave to try to prevent the Big Bang from creating the Multiverse. Astra had been instrumental in foiling his plans, forming the Gordian Knot in the process. Focus Hero: Astra Furst brings her boyfriend Matt Zimmer to admire the Gordian Knot, the most impressive thing she’s ever done, but he’s too busy being bewildered by the general ambience of the Negative Zone, or whatever this crazy Reality Nexus is called. She has numerous job offers pending from various parties involved in untangling the partially collapsed multiverse. Matt suggests that Inside Scoop magazine would find this place really cool; he thought it was neat when he himself was featured in the magazine for being Astra’s new boyfriend. Bad move; Astra goes on a rant about how Inside Scoop only wants pictures of celebrities when they are drunk.
Prince Gavrad of Tellurin pops by to invite Astra (his former girlfriend) to a party on Reklak-4. Astra says she’s not interested in Gavrad anymore, but she immediately takes Matt to Reklak-4, where they don glider wings and cruise around the sky inside an anti-gravity dome. Matt enjoys that and hints that anti-gravity sex sounds like fun. Astra implies that she has tried it, presumably with Gavrad, and found it disappointing. Matt’s attempt to press her further for sex is interrupted by a child in jeopardy, whom Astra rescues, and it seems that even on alien worlds, everybody knows (and loves) Astra. He brings sex up a third time. Dude! Astra instead takes him to the Knot’s Caldera, where millions of universes are stuck, waiting to be extracted. Then—plot twist! Matt is actually working for Inside Scoop, trying to record his life with Astra. He was going to get a million dollar bonus for making a surreptitious sex tape even. But (plost twist number two!) Astra has known about Matt's ulterior motive for a while, and has already deactivated all his recording equipment. He admits that her recently secretive behavior about her post-graduation plans telegraphed her intention to break up with him, so he figured he might as well screw her (literally and figuratively) and make some money on it. Sorry! And then after apologizing, he has the gumption to ask if they can keep dating anyway! Nope Nope Nope. He teleports back to Earth, saying he’ll be discreet. But it was another lie; he still gives what he can to Inside Scoop to make some money and maybe cause her some embarrassment. The combination of all these events convinces Astra to spend her life here, working on the Gordian Knot, rather than endure constant paparazzi back home. But she’ll work some with the Reflex 6 too, for a change of pace. (And so we can see her periodically.) Earth People and Places: The cover is a commemorative special of Astro City Current being mailed to Andrew Eisenstein, 437 Szenics Ave, Fairbanks, AK. A funny nod to “Eyes” Eistenstein from one of the first issues of Astro City. We never knew his first name before now. Lindsey Lohan is mentioned. Multiversal People and Places: Carissa is Gavrad’s new girlfriend. Aristurcian Pillinlynxes are apparently pretty slinky, since Gavin compares Astra to one. The Krelm are celebrating Remembrance Day. Tubro and Bolbra are inhabitants of Reklak-4. My Two Cents: Is Reklak-4 really a cultural utopia free of petty things like gossip and tabloids? Even there, Astra is apparently exceptional, not just for being the only human around; the people of the Gordian knot don't seem to even care about such trivial distinctions. Comic books often idealize exotic realms like alien planets and alternate dimensions into paradises whose inhabitants lack human foibles. The appeal for Astra is obvious; who wouldn't want to move to heaven, especially if you could still return to Earth to visit your friends whenever you felt like it? I was actually disappointed by the twist that Matt was working for Inside Scoop. Not disappointed in him for being a money-grubbing spy (though obviously that too), but disappointed in the story twist for giving him an Astra an easy out for breaking up instead of working through their differences. Perhaps it’s churlish of me to want Busiek to tell a different story than the “celebrity betrayed to the gossip hounds by a spurned lover” story he wanted to tell. Thinking about the story without that mercenary twist: It would have simply explored celebrity, and how the circumstances of Astra’s life conspires against healthy relationships with “normal” people. Astra’s rap sheet of famous boyfriends leaves Matt feeling inadequate, and the pressures of her fame and her supremely demanding job are difficult for someone like him to cope with, even when he's not under heavy temptation to exploit his relationship to her. They come from two worlds, and it really does take more than good intentions and attraction to hold a relationship together, and a deep dive into her world would have highlighted the hopelessness of their romance. It’s important for dating couples to really understand the worlds in which each of them walks and ask, “Is this a place I could live?” 
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