Astro City #3

[arbre_rieur]

In the previous issue, we met Marella Cowper, who works for a superhero team's emergency contact line. When there are alien invaders, robot imposters, or supervillainy afoot, that's the number you call.

Marella answered a call from a young girl about how her mother's boyfriend was abusive towards the mother. Marella didn't think that a superhero-level crisis though, so she just sent social workers to deal with the matter.

That might have been a mistake:



Guilt can drive people to drastic actions.







One day, a blond guy shows up for medical treatment.



She sends the picture to one of her friends at the call center, who's able to identify the man as Horst A. Nilsson, one of the Skullcrushers.



When he leaves, she secretly follows him to a secret entrance to the Skullcrushers' HQ, where it turns out Maria and Esme are. She gets spotted and captured pretty quickly, though.









She thinks she's going to be fired, but Honor Guard actually want to keep her on staff.





(8 pages from a 24-pager.)

Comments

[icon_uk]

Astro City is always worth a look, and I'm enjoying this run better than the last one so far!

[grazzt]

Oh yes. Volume 2 was fairly mediocre, except for the small town story. That was one of the most rage inducing stories I've ever read (The moral: "Small towns are good because thirty year old superheroes can date seventeen year old girls with impunity") That story might have lowered my opinion of the entire second volume, now that I think of it, because I liked the legal story and the comic book story. They did overuse the Unholy Alliance, though.

I haven't read the Dark Ages, but I loved all the specials. The Beautie one was amazing, the Infidel is a great character, and seeing Astra graduate and all the cool things she gets to do was quite possible the best piece of wish-fulfillment fantasy in comics ever.

[junipepper]

Wow, rage inducing? I'm a little surprised by that, mainly because I'm usually the first one jumping on the "Don't over-sexualize and abuse teenage girls" bandwagon, but I didn't have that reaction at all. I don't think her age was actually given, and I thought he was more like late 20's. But either way, it's not really unusual for 17-year old girls to date guys in their 20's -- I know I did, and so did one of my daughters. I mean, I'd worry about a 13 year age gap, but the premise doesn't particularly bother me.

To be clear, I totally respect your right to have your own POV and to express it; I'm only saying I had a different reaction to that story.

[grazzt]

Well, it wasn't just that. The entire story was so unbearably smug in its attempts to portray small town life as so much better than big city life, that by the time it got to the ending it basically would have taken very little to set me off. I was already annoyed by the story, and the ending just cemented it for me. And especially the idea that protagonist was going to hide this fact from her aunt and uncle. I'm sure you were comfortable with your daughter dating a guy in his twenties, but what if she had been hiding that fact from you? That sets off all sorts of warning bells to me.

And the weird thing is, there was a great story in the first volume with a similar theme, about keeping your roots. And it was done really well. It was the one with the woman who lives on Shadow Hill and is thinking of moving away.

[crabby_lioness]

I don't understand ageism against consenting adults. I remember when it was considered the equivalent of racism or homophobia.

[grazzt]

Yes, but they were hiding the relationship from the parents, which makes it creepier than most. Also, there are at least twelve states where the age of consent is 18, so consenting is debatable (Astro City doesn't specify which state it is in, correct?). And, as I mentioned before, the story itself is entirely smug and self-satisfied in its innocence and its false depiction of small-town life. The creepy relationship and the protagonists determination to hide said relationship is just icing on the cake.

[crabby_lioness]

I understand small-town creepiness. I know a lot of people reared in the Deep South who can't stand The Andy Griffith Show -- especially if they were brought up in Deep Southern small towns. To us TAGS was the worst kind of farce.

[pteppic]

That was a rather excellent story. I may look in to this.

[protogarrett]

This is wonderful. I love this comic.

[junipepper]

I do love Astro City. I thought Tarnished Angel was one of the best graphic novels I've read.

Going to wait for the trade, since I usually like the series enough to re-read. Even my husband will read it, which is rare. (I mean, he reads a lot, but not comics. Not that this matters to anyone, but I don't want to libel the poor guy...)

[crabby_lioness]

Tarnished Angel should be a movie, but who makes movies that good anymore?

[junipepper]

Yeah. I say, let's not push our luck...

[torporish]

Damn straight.

[crabby_lioness]

Astro City is the anti-NuDC.