Customer Reviews

Astro City Vol. 3: Family Album

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Astro City is a city filled with superpowered beings. You can't walk from street to street without noticing at least one meta-human, if you're an inhabitant of the city. But not so like most 'superhero-titles' the focus here isn't only on the heroes and their deeds, but on the regular people who live (and try to cope with all the supernatural activities around them) there as well. It tells about their personal lives as well as about the events they all witness.
This Trade-Paperback is the first Astro City collection that collects issues from the ongoing series (#1-3 & #10-13, no loose ends there though).
The great thing about Astro City TPB's is that they both work for longtime readers as for people who are new to the title. For 'experienced' readers there are many recognizable (background-) characters, surroundings and situations that it feels familiair (without being repetitive), yet never the same. At the same time all those recognizable parts aren't vital points to the story-arcs so that new-comers will never feel like their missing out on something (and once they're through reading their first TPB and move on to another Astro City book THEIR party of recognition begins, without anything being spoiled in a previous book. No matter what order you read them in because they work as self-contained books as well). The issues in this book I'd like to advise to especially take a good look at are #10-12. Issue #10 is about a man called "The Junkman" who once managed to pull off the greatest bank-robbery in the history of Astro City. Only the one thing he wants most, recognition for it, he doesn't have. He decides to go back and do it again. Issues #11/12 are about one of the most famous characters of Astro City namely 'Jack-in-the-Box'. One evening he leaves home and he gets confronted with some persons from his 'possible futures'. An event which makes him rethink his activities, both private as professional.
Finally the volume is concluded with some pages filled with sketches of how the characters came to be what they are now AND the Alex Ross covers to the original issues which are collected in here.
Like I said in my review-title, I consider this one of the best titles in the genre where superheroes are involved. It's about superheroes AND about regular folks among them AND about the the lives these metahumans have apart from being heroes. Especially people who liked "Marvels" and Alan Moore's "Top Ten" will have a good time with this book, but it really should appeal to most other comicbook-readers as well, both superhero-fans as fans whose interest lies in the more 'serious' sub-genres. Really well-executed.

This trade paperback collects the stories of some of the super hero characters of Astro City. It follows their joys, their disappointments, their thoughts, and their process of growing. Sure there is fighting, but what is important in this collected stories are the psychological process of dealing with a reality that is filled with different kinds of people, heros , villians, and of course, plain old humans. This is a good and insightful read. The bad? Well, if you want Alex Ross, forget it. This book lied. There is NO alex ross save for the cover art. This is written by Kurt Busiek (a great writer by his own right) and Anderson (whose art is sharp but boring). I wanted Ross. But no,only the cover are by him. So if you want action, you'll be disappointed. If you want characters , this is a good read. If you want a good story, well again, this is good. But I recommend readers to be patient and slow on this. This is one to be cherished and enjoyed slowly. If you are a quick reader, you'll miss something. Not in the art, but in the characterization of a hero, villian, or spectator. I bought the Hardcover version of this collected series. It's worth it for me. I would like more exciting art, but Busiek's writing was the primary reason I bought it. Busiek didn't disappoint me.

Very well-written, engaging and at times rather clever storylines.
Some of the stories are rather dark which just adds to the contrast of the more light-hearted ones.

Dearly recommended!

I'm glad to add this volume to my Astro City collection. I'd say this series does a better job of humanizing superheroes than most. The Junkman's story was pretty good and did a good job addressing social standing relating to age in a light touch way. I also liked the Jack in the box stories. He always gave off an upbeat Batman mixed with Joker style. It's a small dead for me, but it's kind of cool to see a black guy from the city as a superhero and not be the brooding type. Time travel has always irked me, but the way it was pulled off in the story and how it related to Jack in the box's choices was pretty nice. All in all, it was a very enjoyable read.

After all the dark and depressing stories by the big two (Marvel and DC)finally comics that stir the childhood wonder again. Of course these are very well written by adults.

Reading this collection of stories was like driving around Astro City and visting different members of it's community. First take a look at how a dad rasies his two girls in the city, and then look at a superhero as he faces the challenges of being a dad in the near future, then see how a little girl of a superhero family just wants to be treated like a normal kid. These are all family oriented stories, and they are another great example of Kurt Busiek's writing. Let;s have more please.!

Not a bad series, but not that great a series either. I feel that Vol 3 was the poorest of the 3 volumes. The stories on the little girl who was born into the Fantastic Four -like team and the CrackerJack character were rather dull. These stories could have been told without the superhero angle, couldn't they?

I continue to be amazed at the blandness of the product.

This book contains the first story arch of Astro City. In the previous issues, it was literally issue to issue, no to be continued endings, but this has it. The first arch shows the life of a 10 year old girl who is a super hero and struggles to cope with how she is different from normal girls. The second is of Jack In The Box (the dude on the cover) and how his pregnant wife will have a child who might grow up hating his father for dying when he meets 3 people from potential futures. 2 of which were homocidal maniacs claiming to be his son.