Volume 2 Issue #1: Welcome to Astro City (September 1996)

Theme: The power of teamwork

Focus Civilian: Ben Pullam and his two kids Faith and Meg and have just moved to Astro City from Boston, apparently due to mommy Lorraine having an affair with “Chuck.” Isn’t Busiek from Boston too? I'm always on the lookout for the "I-guy" in fiction.

Other Civilians: Marcy Doerr is a reporter for KAST-TV. Pete is her cameraman. KBAC is another local network. Mrs. Damiani and her son Bobby live near the Pullams.

Focus Villain: Thunderhead is a gigantic Zeus-shaped cloud who threatens mass destruction, reminiscent of the “Beethoven’s Eroica” mythological segment of the the original Disney “Fantasia” film. His solar-themed wife Helia shows up to talk him down, and they depart.

Other Heroes and Villains: Silversmith and Brahmin live in the Boston area. Samaritan has a brief battle with a member of the Iron Legion right in front of Pullam, then later orchestrates Helia’s appearance. A statue commemorates Air Ace, “the very first superhero,” (but not really, as we learn later) who was from Astro City. Another statue commemorates “Alan Craig, The Silver Agent, 1932-1973, To Our Eternal Shame.” Cryptic! Loonie Leo is an anthropomorphic lion, retired from cartoons and running a restaurant bearing his name. The big fight in the sky brings out Honor Guard, First Family, the Astro City Irregulars, Winged Victory, and The Gentleman. The latter is a new hero to us, looking like Fawcett’s Captain Marvel dressed in a tuxedo and cummerbund. He gets a spotlight moment saving the KBAC helicopter from gusts. Jack-in-the-Box calls Crackerjack and Quarrel II “my associates,” indicating a change from two issues back when he wouldn’t give Crackerjack the time of day. The Hanged Man floats giant-size protecting Shadow Hill during the crisis. Nightingale and Sunbird foil a bank robbery by The Otter.

Places: FBU was mentioned in the first issue. It now has a full name: Fox-Broome University, named after two Flash creators. Draketown, Alaska was destroyed by Thunderhead last year.

My Two Cents: A soft reboot of sorts, after a pause in publication of seven months. The basic story is again “peons caught in forces beyond their comprehension or control.” The specific plot reconsiders Marta’s “Safeguard” story from the fourth issue last year. In the face of superhuman-associated dangers, Pullam thinks seriously about pulling out of Astro City and moving to Charlestown for the safety of his daughters. But then the volunteer spirit of his neighbors, cleaning up after the near-catastrophe, wins him over. (Contrast with Mr. Bridwell's negative assessment of his neighbors two issues ago, triggering a future alien invasion.)

What makes the difference between Pullam and Marta? Community. Marta works in the city, but she lives at home in Shadow Hill with her parents, and despite her career ambitions, Shadow Hill is where her heart remains. Pullam on the other hand has lost his home and needs all the community he can get. Mutually reinforcing social networks have the power to draw people in and make them feel at home while exerting subtle conformist influences that can also make non-comformers feel like outcasts. Among normals, there’s no class or racial animosity in Astro City so far at least. There are racial minorities, but they seem culturally integrated into the majority. However, we will see monster people soon who operate as ciphers for minorities and the economic underclass of this society.

The superhero plotline sort of echoes this “everybody come together” theme, as the flying heavy hitters tackle Thunderhead head-on while the Black Canary and Daredevil types deal with opportunistic looters on the ground. But it’s ultimately the ubermensch Samaritan who alone has the power to bring Helia to end the crisis, everything else is damage control. This undermines the theme a bit.

Kurt Busiek has said in my presence that "the Gentleman is Captain Marvel in a tuxedo." Those were his exact words.

This one sets up the First Family nicely, and takes some of the elements of the inspiration (the Fantastic Four) and plays with them in a way that Marvel would never allow (well, depending on sales). Sue's infatuation with Namor is turned into actual infidelity, as Augustus Furst's wife goes off with a lover (non-human, to boot) and produces twin children, for Augustus to raise. One of them falls in love with and marries a "monster," the son of an enemy (mixing Thing and Namor) and produces their own "Franklin," who is artificially tutored to scientific brilliance; but, social awkwardness.

It is The Prince and the Pauper, but; with more at stake: childhood. There is a good lesson to be had in this two-parter: let kids be kids. There is a tendency in segments of society to want children to grow up too quickly, with too much emphasis on getting a leg up in school, at the expense of play, discovery, and social development. Plus, there is the insulating impulse, to keep children from running around outside, for ear of predators. There is some nice subtle and blatant commentary here.

The First Family are a nice mix of the FF, the Doom Patrol and the Challengers of the Unknown, probably the apex of the explorer heroes.

Mr Smarty was a clever and more palatable twist on HERBIE, the robot foisted upon the second FF animated series (the Ruby-Spears one), due to the Human Torch Rights being held elsewhere (and not the urban legend of his being banned because of the flaming aspect).

Volume 2 Issue #3: Adventures in Other Worlds (November 1996)

Theme: Downward mobility is easier

Focus Hero: Astra Furst adopts the secret identity of Astrid Ljinders so she can go to school like a real girl. She’s gone from home long enough to get her picture on the milk cartons, and her family runs around frantically looking for her. She stays to master hopscotch against a mean girl.

Places: Rex’s childhood home of Monstro City, an Attilan stand-in beneath the waves of the Bermuda Triangle, has been abandoned after an attack by Atlantean-type Trenchers, presumably of the Mariana variety. Astra is attending Bolling Elementary School.

Monster Folk: Madame Majestrix (recalling Shi'ar empress Lilandra's title) disappeared into the Gemension Jewel. Skrek is a lowly fish-goblin. Kaspian, the beast-lord father (and Namor stand-in) of Natalie and Nick Furst, is apparently now out of prison and has a tense relationship with Gus Furst, who raised his kids.

Villains: The Fursts harass a series of powerful beings in search of Astra: The robotic Praetor’s supergadget is the Omniac. Lord Volcanus is a Toltec magma man whose thousands of rocky followers were all gathered in a multi-tiered arena for a rally or something. Kratorr the Invincible (lives in a crater on the moon, and looks like craters too) has actually been “vinced” repeatedly by the Furst brothers over the decades. Insectra, Ugly Max, and The Derelikt are discarded as possible suspects.

Civilians: Matrice and Leesha are playground kids of the mean and nice varieties respectively. Mr. Lucey is a school administrator and Mrs. Toole a school secretary.

Miscellanea: Astra’s programmable suit lets her appear to have different clothes on every day at school. I guess it controls B.O. and tooth decay as well. All her jackets have a star somewhere, as befits her name.

My Two Cents: It’s an idealistic study of social differences. Astra the ten year old homeschool kid has the most benign runaway experience ever, with public fountains providing enough spare change to buy food indefinitely, super-clothes to protect her from exposure, and no threat more intense than the principal’s snooty daughter. Because Astra comes from privilege and has both resources and training, she’s better off on the street than poor kids are in their own homes, though that disparity never gets explored. She has no trouble blending in with the well-dressed, well-behaved kids at this upscale public school, which mom Natalie agrees to let her attend part-time for socialization. Despite her sheltered upbringing, Astrid can pass as normal very easily, and her earned mastery of hopscotch symbolizes her rapid climb to the social apex of the small pond of Bolling Elementary School, causing her to burst into flame/energy and fly into the air, awing her classmates that one of their social betters has been slumming in their midst clandestinely. Entertaining angels unawares!

The furry former felon Kaspian is not so lucky; he and his dark people have self-segregated from normal (=white, middle class) society and resent it when one of “their kind” get pulled out of their orbit by the gravity of the dominant culture. (Marta’s mother’s anxiety replays here. Though Kaspian tells himself and the Fursts that super-kids Nick and Natalie “surely would have had a hard life among the beast-peoples,” he would probably leave too if he could “pass” in the dominant culture.) Is Kaspian’s name a nod to C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian, who lives in the magical land of Narnia as king of the talking beasts?

The thrust of these first three issues of Volume 2 as a whole is that it’s easier for upper class (superhuman) people to thrive in reduced circumstances than it is for middle class (unpowered) or lower class (beast) people to elevate themselves to the next stratum of society. Astra can be accepted in Pullam’s “other world” where an ex-con like Kaspian never will be. Perhaps a future story will explore Rex, the “East End boy with a West End girl.” This is also the second time in three issues that we’ve seen divorce result in kids being raised by a father-figure in the absence of a mother.


In Spanish!

Volume 2 Issue #4: New Kid In Town (December 1996)

Theme: Resentment gets you nowhere.

Focus Civilian: The son of Dr. Kinney moves to Astro City looking for a job after his father dies destitute. He’s resentful that his physician father was charitable toward his patients but didn’t pay enough attention to him or provide him a higher standard of living or inheritance. When his father died, he apparently had no relatives and was forced him into the county orphanage (a typical comic book Little Orphan Annie anachronism; by then, orphanages in our world had been phased out in favor of the foster care system).
He finds a job where heroes gather, then finds trouble.

Other Civilians: Jedson Godfrey is a former butler who inherited millions from Anders Van Rupert (who was possibly the hero Leopardman) and opened a swanky club, Butler’s, where Miss Kennealy handles H.R. (and empathic mind reading?) Benny, Sandy, Jim and Rachel are on the wait staff at Butler’s; they resent Kinney getting the clientele’s attention in his first week on the job.

Focus Villain: Gluegun tries to take young Kinney hostage at Butler’s, but the kid subdues him instead, earning applause from the crowd.

Other Heroes: Six Crossbreeds are proselytizing outside the bus station. One is a giant, one a lion-man named Daniel (but a pickpocket disparagingly calls him Lafcadio, after a singing lion who started as a Shel Silverstein cartoon in Playboy Magazine and ended up as a children’s book), one winged, and three others. They protect Kinney from the pickpocket’s thievery. Hey look, a good religious person in a comic book! Johnny Crash wrote a memoir.

A bar crowd includes Julius Furst, Rex, Sledgehammer, Rockslide, Krunch, Wrestla, Lummox, and Ironhorse the Human Locomotive (puffing since 1862, making him older than Air Ace and thus the series’ first internal retcon, apparently). Jack-in-the-Box tumbles by the building in the night. Crackerjack shows up preening at the swanky club Butler’s, infuriating Jess. Is she Quarrel II? The Confessor appears in the night outside Butler’s to recruit Kinney. Did he see the fracas inside? Was he one of the guests?

Other Villains: The Devil’s Own and Temblor were defeated by the Crossbreeds.

Places: Kid Kinney is from Buchanan Corners. His bus to Astro City crosses Outcault Bridge. Fass Gardens is still adjacent to Shadow Hill, which I now realize is probably a reference to Whisper Hill, the spooky area where Franklin Richards’ witchy nanny Agatha Harkness lives. Bruiser’s is a superhero bar. Butler’s club is at 34 Wodehouse Mews. So veddy British!

Miscellanea: For some reason (thematic?) trade collection #2 (“Confession”) has issues 4-9, while #3 (“Family Album”) has 1-3 and 10-12, plus ½. Issues 4-9 in the trade edition are labelled Chapters 1-6, making it clear that they tell a serialized story, with each issue still retaining its own internal title. This issue came out in December but is set in early summer. This is different from the first six issues, which took place in the months of their respective cover dates.

My Two Cents: Lots of people in Buchanan Corners probably have heartfelt stories to tell of their gratitude to Dr. Kinney for his tireless service and generosity. But his son (We’re now 3 out of 3 that a single parent in greater Astro City is the dad, not the mom) suffered first from poverty and then from the orphanage. No life insurance I guess? So he’s stewing in resentful daddy issues and feels like everyone in town looked down on his dad, which is almost certainly not true, despite some words he overheard at the funeral.

The bus driver resents the evangelists, who seem pretty benign and even get Kid Kinney his wallet back from the footpad. The other kitchen workers at Butler’s are violently jealous of Kinney for being the one whom Gluegun tried to abduct, giving him a shot at a hero moment which he seized adroitly. The degree of their rage is odd, especially at a club that employs an empath to screen out unstable or unreliable employees. I’m not sure what purpose the detour to Bruiser’s Bar served, other than to let the reader know that it exists. I’m surprised to see Rex there since he’s a Furst as well as a prince in his own right, but a prince of monsters, so I guess he prefers the low class bar instead of the tuxedo wine and cheese club. (And Julius was there too, so...) This fits with the notion from last issue that monsters represent the working class in Astro City.

This is the first part of the Confessions arc, which is still my favourite storyline in the whole of Astro City.