Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City, by Kurt Busiek, et al. Juke Box Productions, 1995 & 1996. 1-56389-551-X

and Astro City: Confession, by Kurt Busiek, et. al.

Summary: Life in the Big City features a series of vignettes about various people living in Astro City, a city protected by a wide variety of classic superheros. Confession is told from the

perspective of a young sidekick following a very mysterious superhero.

Analysis: This is delightful! The characters are multifaceted while still being traditional superhero-comic inhabitants, and it has depth and darkness without being depressing or getting above a PG-13 rating. I particularly like the first vignette in Life... which has a superhero wistfully counting the seconds he gets to spend actually flying while juggling his "real life" job and flitting all over averting various forms of disaster. The worldbuilding is just amazing.

Illustrations: Typical comic-book style digital color illustrations.

Rating: 5Q/5P

Curricular connections: It would fit in very well for a middle or high school English class studying superhero comics, if such a thing could get past the school board. Also good for a discussion on the nature of heroism.

--SLH