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Post by rberman on May 8, 2018 7:00:55 GMT -5
Volume 3 #34 “The End of the Whole Mess” (June 2016)
Theme: Undone by nerdiness Focus Hero: Jared Everall takes his prisoners Steeljack and Cutlass on a tour of his museum lair full of villain gear. Those villains love to gloat! (See also: The Junkman in an issue long ago.) After listening to the shop talk for a bit, Steeljack and Cutlass break their bonds and engage Everall’s armored defenders A.T.A.C.C. (Dwight) and Traktor. Traktor betrays Everall, and Steeljack overcomes Everall’s remote-controlled Death-Walker murder-droid. Our heroes follow Everall to his swanky mansion, which has partially exploded when Steeljack caused Everall’s robo-command suit to overload, fatally wounding him. Steeljack has to defeat the freed demon Antediluvian, who turns out to have a fatal weakness to iron, so it’s a short fight against her and her sisters for a guy whose skin is mostly iron. The cops find Steeljack (but not Cutlass) in Everall’s collapsed mansion and haul him off to jail. Cutlass sends her fancy lawyer to defend him, and he is released when Goldenglove comes forward with exonerating video evidence. Other Heroes: Commando K once fought Death-Walker. Silver Adept and Winged Victory help mop up escaped monsters from Everall’s mansion. Goldenglove, of all people, was working for Cutlass and tailing Cutlass and Steeljack the whole time, collecting the video evidence that would ultimately exonerate them. This oddly includes recording the fight in the subterranean lair, instead of joining it. Other Villains: The Outlaws from Venus were a gang of fake aliens in 1958. Antediluvian was “One of the seven brides of Sug-Tashash, slaves of the sorcerer Tasri-Koth, rumored to have fought the mythic hero Irrek the Godsblade.” Even when bleeding to death, Everall is just a fount of super-villain lore! Places: Dame Progress built an underground base that Lady Mercury later took over. The Underlord had bases under the Gaines River like the one that Royal and Charles Williams commandeered. Everall’s home overlooks Romeyn Falls, past Gibson Hills and Patterson Heights. Residents of Kiefer Square come to support Steeljack at his arraignment. My Two Cents: I love how Everall is portrayed as a consummate nerd, over-eager to get into a trivia contest with Steeljack at even the most importune moments. He’s a satire on fanboys who want a piece of the action but can’t stand the heat. I was surprised that Cutlass was truly reformed. I was more surprised the Goldenglove apparently stuck with her assigned role of videographer even when a massive superfight against armored mech-suits was unfolding before her eyes. That doesn’t sound like the scrappy kid we met in Kiefer Square all those years ago! I guess she’s mellowed. I was happy to revisit Steeljack, whose original arc remains my favorite series of issues in Astro City to date. He knows how to use his invulnerability to solve cases; he makes himself a target, and the villains can’t resist stepping out of the shadows to take a shot at him. 
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Post by rberman on May 8, 2018 7:01:11 GMT -5
Volume 3 #35 “What I Did on My Vacation” (July 2016)
Theme: Trying on daddy’s shoes Focus Heroes: Jack Johnson was a toy designer who found out that his inventions had been weaponized. He adopted the identity of Jack-in-the-Box (I) and died when The Underlord’s lair on Torres Island exploded. His teen son Zachary took up his mantle and avenged him, capturing Underlord. Now Jack-in-the-Box III (Roscoe James) teams up with his friends in the Trouble Boys to solve crimes. Focus Villain: The Weirdies are semi-humans who fight for The Underlord, whom we finally see for the first time in this issue. Frame Story: Jerome Isaac “Ike” Johnson is the son of Zachary Johnson. He watches his dad supervise a dig for buried tech on Torres Island near Astro City and thinks back in time to his grandfather. He recalls when he tried to imitate his dad and Roscoe, donning a hoodie and white mask as young Jackie Justice, but all it got him was a bum knee and an argument with his parents. Vibrations from a captured Weirdie mask lead the Torres Island excavators to a buried mask for villain Mister Drama, but no sooner do they see it in the dirt than a villainess appears before them calling herself Drama Queen.Other Heroes: Silver Agent in the 1960s busted a crime ring at Whamco Toys.Other Villains: Dust Devil, Brass Monkey, The Human WeaselOther Civilians: Bumper gives Ike a boat ride. Antonelli is a cop. Zack, Moko, Ernesto, Esme, and Duane are Trouble Boys (and Girls). Ramona is Roscoe’s girlfriend. Names and Places: The Trouble Boys Foundation is sponsored by Zachary Johnson. The Weirdies are partly made of hexanitrotoluene, which I suppose is twice as explosive as trinitrotoluene (TNT). Ike plans to attend Fox-Broome University.
My Two Cents: In Barry Levinson’s 1992 film “Toys,” Robin Williams plays an eccentric toy designer who must fight back when his inventions are used for destruction. We get a little bit about him, but this story is mainly about Ike thinking about his dad and grand-dad and Roscoe. Ike is looking for his place in the world, and he seems disqualified to follow in his idols’ foosteps. We saw the story of Jack Johnson briefly back in Volume 2 Issue #12. That was the same issue in which Zachary’s adult son Jerome came back from the future. Zachary’s son is still named Jerome, so the jury may still be out on whether Zachary has avoided any of the three disappointing futures foreseen in that issue for Jerome. 
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Post by rberman on May 8, 2018 7:01:24 GMT -5
Volume 3 #36 “The Other Side of the Story” (August 2016)Special Note: I see that I skipped a groove in my posts, accidentally going straight from issue #22 to issue #32. Sorry! I will go back starting tomorrow and cover the issues in between. Thankfully, the anthological format of Astro City means that we can generally get away with that sort of skipping around. Still, I was planning to publish my reviews in chronological order as much as possible, so I apologize for the gaffe. Theme: Intergenerational Grudge Match Focus Villain: Frank Darman, “Mister Drama,” robs banks and tangles with Jack-in-the-Box I, abetted by his Stagehands. When he dies in the explosion on Torres Island that also killed JITB, his daughter Juliet swears revenge against JITB II but never gets a chance to carry it out. Her own daughter Francesca “Frankie” does though, finding Frank Darman’s cache of weapons and gear, and training in secret. She learns to make more Weirdies and attacks JITB III with them repeatedly, wounding him badly on one occasion. As Drama Queen, she accosts the whole Johnson/James bunch on Torres Island. She has trouble believing that the man under the JITB mask has changed (twice) since the 1960s, which shows she’s pretty crazy. But she does agree to halt the attack of her Weirdies until the drill proves what’s really in Underlord’s old base. It turns out that Underlord wasn’t even there when JITB I came to visit; Mister Drama, dying from toxic exposure to Thermigene Gas, had commandeered the base and its Weirdie army, then exploded the Weirdies to make a more memorable finish for himself than “died of cancer.” Francesca realizes she’s wasted her whole life on a mistaken revenge scheme, and she tries to immolate herself but is taken to the hospital. Young Ike Johnson, intrigued by her psychopathology, thinks he’ll become a psychiatrist when he grows up. Other Heroes: Silver Agent and Max O’Millions also fought Mister Drama. Civilians: Jonni is Darman’s wife. Paulie is Frankie’s absentee dad. Ernesto is a Trouble Boy.Places: Starr Theater is on Landau Street. Giordano Street. Taco Brothers is a restaurant. My Two Cents: This is a Norman Osborne/Harry Osborne homage. Drama Queen even rides a mask-shaped glider and throws mask-bombs. Her story is a twisted mirror of the “Serpent’s Teeth” JITB plotline in which Roscoe took over the costume. In that story, Zachary gave up on following in his father’s heroic footsteps any further, because he saw that doing so would probably turn his son into a Bizarro version of himself. The family legacy had to end, though the JITB character did not. But in the Darman family, the legacy carries on strongly, consuming both Frank’s daughter and granddaughter. Not all legacies need perpetuation. Not all wrongs need vengeance. 
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Post by rberman on May 8, 2018 7:05:54 GMT -5
Volume 3 #39 “The Party of the First Part” (November 2016)
Theme: Status Quo Focus Civilian: Marta Dobrescu, the accountant from back in Vol 1 Issue 4, still lives in Shadow Hill. She has her own accounting firm. (Wait, is she a lawyer or a CPA?) Unlike her brother Andrei, she’s still single, a fact about which her mother’s ghost chides her. The Hanged Man visits her at work for some actuarial assistance. He’s inhabiting the body of an executed eighteenth century Frenchman named Stefane Mesnier, who has a descendant, William Trauvert, in trouble. Marta makes some calls to look into a real estate scam in which Trauvert is tangled. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Tom Aaronson takes her to dinner at swanky Goscinny’s. Tom wants her to get married, or at least move to town from Shadow Hill, but her work and her father are still there, and Tom is too scared of vampires to be the one who moves. Other Civilians: Marta’s employees include Clara, Anton, Tereza, and Laura. Raitha Mcann, Silver Adept’s personal assistant, is a potential new client. Laura is leaving Marta's employ to work downtown at Poole/Berman law firm. Gheorgie Vasiliu the butcher (son of the butcher mentioned in issue 4?) and his wife Anna appreciate Marta’s financial expertise. Augusta and Ionela are siblings whose squabbling over their father’s will is ended by his ghost’s intervention. Marta’s ex-boyfriend Grozny is now married to Lara. Darcy Conroy is a real estate attorney. Virgil Aero was purchased by N.R.Gistics.
Other Heroes: Reflex 6 are chasing the Artcrime gang of “performance criminals.” My Two Cents: Living Nightmare, Jack-in-the-Box, now Marta. Twenty years on, Busiek has certainly earned the right to catch up with characters of yesteryear rather than always giving us someone new. It’s nice to see a problem that has to be solved by civilians doing real world work; not every challenge is amenable to punching in the face. As I noted, in the previous issue, lots of our main characters have made it through twenty years in Astro City without marrying or having kids; Marta joins their ranks. As such, she’s in what singer David Wilcox calls “The big, boring middle of the long book of life, after the twist has been told.” After you finish school and start work, if your family composition and job and residence stay the same, it’s hard to mark one year off from another unless some major medical issue hits you. 
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Post by rberman on May 9, 2018 6:45:51 GMT -5
Volume 3 #40 “The Party of the Second Part” (December 2016)
Theme: Big girls take care of themselves. Focus Civilian: Marta Dobrescu gets an urgent package of documents from Raitha McCann on behalf of Silver Adept. Marta calls herself a lawyer, so I am still confused about her profession. Suddenly, Silver Adept draws Marta through a dimensional portal into the middle of a battle with the Agrapani and the Candlemen who are trying to conquer Panalethium. Raina gives Marta several pages of exposition, the upshot of which is: Marta needs to read some mystic contracts so that Adept can regain access to some of her powers. Marta, protected in a stasis bubble, muddles through the contract language, but term after term is unfamiliar. When the time comes for Adept to argue her situation before Krannik the Untameable, Marta calls his boss Tzammath as a witness, and Tzammath turns out to be none too pleased with how Krannik has been interpreting his job description as a pretext for conquest. Silver Adept, repowered, returns Marta to Earth and gives her a big hug and the promise of more accounting work. More Mystic Pizza: The seven Foundational Entities ( Ikotur, Felith, Tzammath, Kra-Dema, Basran, Lemakka, and OP) are the source of magic powers. Other Civilians: Denis Ardisian helps vampires transfer assets between their old and new identities when they present themselves as their own descendants. (For whom do they feel the need to engage in that charade?) Marta calls him a “professional Renfield,” referring to Count Dracula’s accountant in the Bram Stoker novel. My Two Cents: The field of jurisprudence is very specialized. When lawyers finish law school, they have learned how to learn about some particular field of law, but they are not yet experts in any particular field of law. After law school they specialize: Family law, corporate law, criminal law, etc. I would expect in Astro City (which has specialized brokers for vampire wealth transfer, for crying out loud), there would be lawyers specializing in eldritch blood oaths. But apparently not since “financial lawyer who happens to be from Shadow Hill” is the best that Silver Adept can do in her hour of need. Ultimately, lawyers can only make arguments to the judge, who is the actual arbiter of the case. Who is the arbiter of Silver Adept’s dispute with Krannik, who alleges to represent Tzammath? Krannik and his buddies, evidently; no recusal here. That’s a nitpick. The heart of the story is Marta’s desire to be an independent adult who can solve her own problems, though she’s not above reaching out unsuccessfully to The Hanged Man when under attack in the realm of Panatlethium. His whole real estate case from last issue has proved to be something of a red herring plotwise, just an example of how more than one superhero in Astro City has use for a lawyer (or CPA?) who doesn’t cower in the face of mystic Armageddon. 
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Post by rberman on May 10, 2018 4:53:15 GMT -5
Volume 3 #41 “The Deep Blue Sea” (January 2017)
Theme: Cast Away Focus: Mister Manta (Mr. Martin Mantel) was a sub-oceanic villain whose suit was damaged in a battle against Mermaid. Washing up on a deserted isle, he’s been playing Robinson Crusoe for thirty years now. When the Scandinavian Star cruise ship radios a distress call about an attack by Skinner Bones and the Plunder Squad, he uses his cobbled-together glider wings to join the frey, imagining he can get some easy loot. He beats up the goon squad, which the tourists on the ship interpret as a rescue mission. When Mermaid and her team arrive to help, she runs with that assumption too. But the shock of being around so many people, and so much noise and talking, is too much for Mantel. He flees back to his quiet desert island to live out his days in peace and quiet, alone. Others: Cyprin and Tetranna are merfolk. My Two Cents: Mister Manta had a first career as Black Manta and a second one (briefly) as The Vulture. One of the strengths of humans is that we can adapt to a wide variety of circumstances. Would I like to live in Alaska or Saudi Arabia or the Amazon rain forest in the 19th century, before climate control and indoor plumbing? No, but people did, and made a life that way. Mantel similarly adapts to his Swiss Family Robinson situation even without a volleyball named Wilson to keep him company. But adaptation takes time, and when he’s suddenly confronted with the world he left behind, he flees, all his dreams of looting forgotten in an instant. Given time, he could re-adapt to the world of society. But without someone forcing him to do that, he’s not going to make that leap at this point. 
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Post by rberman on May 11, 2018 7:08:54 GMT -5
Volume 3 #44 “The Cat Who Walked Through Walls” (April 2017)
Theme: Legion of Super-Cute Pets Focus Villain: Back in 1982, Poppinjay has kidnapped Rosie, daughter of Dr. Simon Chavez, inventor of the Omni-Flux energy cell. Sunshrike (Leah) and Nightingale (Ginny) have one of Rosie’s mittens as a clue. Focus Feline: When Sunshrike and Nightingale fought Stovepipe Johnny the chimneysweep-themed crook, an alleycat got covered in radioactive goop, adopted by our heroes, and dubbed Kittyhawk. The cat has developed phasing powers a la Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Kittyhawk nicks the mitten, grows a cape-cum-wings (!) and flies off to rendezvous with Rocket Dog, a flying beagle who follows the scent to Poppinjay’s hideout. Kittyhawk turns off the protective shield, allowing Sunshrike and Nightingale to burst in and clean house. People: Michaelson is a villain goon. My Two Cents: We still don’t know anything about the two human heroines, and it’s never explained how they followed Rocket Dog and Kittyhawk to the villain lair, but whatever. Busiek is having a lot of fun here. This story’s title homages Robert Heinlein once again. "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" is the name of Heinlein's 1985 sci-fi heist novel about the rescue of a sentient computer from enemy forces. Our bird-themed heroes manage to have a bird-themed nemesis, with a suitably ridiculous bird-costume. Kittyhawk, apart from being a cat, also references Kitty Pryde, whose shares her power of intangibility. When Kitty Pryde was being developed as a character, "Kittyhawk" was one potential code name for her that Chris Claremont and John Byrne considered, as Kurt Busiek surely knows. Cats certainly do appear in some unexpected places, as any owner can attest. Then there’s the cat with a lost mitten. Rocket Dog is Cannonball, flying through the air with a trail of fiery Kirby Krackle behind him. The villain makes a rueful Scooby-Doo “if not for you meddling kids” comment as he’s being put into the paddy wagon. Just great fun all around, not an issue to be taken seriously. The overall plot of this story (inventor's daughter is kidnapped to force him to work for the bad guys, but super-animals come to the rescue) is essentially what happens in every episode of Bolt, the TV show in the cute and fun animated film (also of the same name) made by Disney in 2008. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it!  Wow, it’s the last issue! That is, the last issue that’s been collected into a trade volume for now. The next trade volume isn’t due until the end of summer apparently, so this will be the last post in this series for a while. The cover of this issue is just too beautiful not to use as the representative image. Our phasing cat, sitting on a stone cat gargoyle, with her human partners above. 
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Post by Hoosier X on May 11, 2018 12:09:14 GMT -5
I don't think there's any Astro City story I want to see more than a sequel to #44.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 11, 2018 12:17:24 GMT -5
It's interesting about the cat encountering radioactive goop and gaining powers; in Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the cat and mice were all exposed to excess magic, from feeding on the trash pile of Unseen University (home of the wizards). The become sentient, which prevents Maurice, the cat, from eating the mice, since he knows they are thinking and feeling creatures, not just meat. It kind of makes you think about how much our animals are affected by our environment.
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Post by rberman on May 11, 2018 12:35:04 GMT -5
It's interesting about the cat encountering radioactive goop and gaining powers; in Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the cat and mice were all exposed to excess magic, from feeding on the trash pile of Unseen University (home of the wizards). The become sentient, which prevents Maurice, the cat, from eating the mice, since he knows they are thinking and feeling creatures, not just meat. It kind of makes you think about how much our animals are affected by our environment. Yes, lots of heroes and villains got their powers and identities from toxic chemicals. Joker, Flash, Daredevil, etc. Who else?    |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 12, 2018 21:00:03 GMT -5
You forgot the Turtles!  |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 12, 2018 22:42:47 GMT -5
One of the best Jonny Quest stories, from the Bill Messner-Loebs run (at Comico) had a story from Bandit's point of view. He is dognapped by some people who run illegal dogfights and is able to engineer their escape and reunite with Johnny. Most of the story is told via the animals internal communications, with thoughts about their human owners and the men who have stolen them. Really well done.  |
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kellyg
Junior Member
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Post by kellyg on Jun 21, 2018 21:03:56 GMT -5
Issue #4: Safeguards (November 1995)
Heroes: The Hanged Man floats silently around Shadow Hill on patrol each night, decked in skintight black with a noose on his neck and a bag over his head. I have only read the first series and found it was a brilliant homage to superhero comics without resorting to shocking and grim elements that the Watchmen did to gain an effect--thus a greater artistic challenge and accomplishment in my judgement.
In this particular issue, the way the Hanged Man was introduced and established as an environmental fact of life, yet something beyond the world of the regular folk, then makes an unsuspected connection with the Marta character by a simple head turn--strangely powerful moment! Like the earth woman in the Day the Earth Stood Still confronting Gort.
My favorite scene/book in the series.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 9, 2018 0:55:20 GMT -5
I finally got Astro City #18 and #19. I've had #20 and #21 for quite a while. These four issues are devoted to Quarrel and Crackerjack; they are getting old and wondering how long they can stay in the super-hero business. Quarrel starts thinking about how she got into this crazy life, and we get a close look at her origin. Meanwhile, Crackerjack is looking into ways to keep going and going, and he falls in with a bad crowd with a crazy plan to betray them AFTER he gets a power boost. Even back when I only had the last two parts of this story, I thought it was the best multi-part story of the latest Astro City series. Now that I've read the whole thing, I think it easily compares with my favorites from past Astro City incarnations. (The first Steeljack storyline comes to mind.) Quarrel and Crackerjack mostly remind me of Black Canary and Green Arrow. I love the Black Canary but I've never been such a big fan of Green Arrow. (Despite that, I've read bunches and bunches of Green Arrow stories because he was the backup in Detective Comics for so long.) When I read a Green Arrow story, I always wish Black Canary was in it ... but as soon as she shows up, I wish I was reading a Black Canary solo story! So I think that may be part of why I like this Astro City so much - the Green Arrow/Black Canary dynamic without the specific baggage of Ollie and Dinah's particular relationship. Also, it's one of Busiek and Anderson's best stories! I'm not the least bit surprised at Busiek's letters-page revelation that Quarrel is his favorite Astro City character. I could go that far myself if it weren't for Rocket Dog and Kitty Hawk. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 9, 2018 9:51:57 GMT -5
Quarrel and Crackerjack mostly remind me of Black Canary and Green Arrow. I love the Black Canary but I've never been such a big fan of Green Arrow. (Despite that, I've read bunches and bunches of Green Arrow stories because he was the backup in Detective Comics for so long.) When I read a Green Arrow story, I always wish Black Canary was in it ... but as soon as she shows up, I wish I was reading a Black Canary solo story! So I think that may be part of why I like this Astro City so much - the Green Arrow/Black Canary dynamic without the specific baggage of Ollie and Dinah's particular relationship. Have you read Grell's on-going Green Arrow series? By far the best Ollie has ever been portrayed. |
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