Astro City #9 - "The View from the Heart"

[arbre_rieur]

"One of my basic rules for Astro City is that if the story's comfortable, if I know how to write it, with no problems, then I throw it out and do something else." -- Kurt Busiek

Winged Victory has been framed by her enemies, who've made it look like she's been hiring supervillains to commit crimes over the years so that she could pretend to defeat them and thus promote her feminist agenda.









However, she soon decides she doesn't have it in her to stay this course of action. Or inaction as the case may be.









The elderly woman relates her life story and how she joined the Council of Nike, the group whose pooled psychic strength empower Winged Victory, though I have to skip that because I'm coming up to the page limit.

Comments

[glprime]

"Give you advice? Ha ha ha. Why would I do that?"

[thezmage]

This does seem to point out the problem with being a force of empowerment: when you do need help, nobody is forthcoming.

[starwolf_oakley]

This is closer to Wonder Woman's character arc in INFINITE CRISIS than I thought. Without the whole "Killing Maxwell Lord" thing.

Exactly how important a secret identity is depends on the company and the specific hero, and ASTRO CITY is its own thing (despite being published by DC). A very good example was SUPERBOY #100. Superman realized Superboy was looking for a "normal life" and didn't quite know how to get one.

[hradzka]

This storyline hasn't clicked for me. The decision to ride so heavily with the Samaritan narration and POV is a mistake, IMHO -- this is a Winged Victory story! Important stuff is happening to her! It'd be a lot more apropos to get her internal narration throughout than Samaritan's musings on her character and What This All Means To Him.

It's an earnest failure, don't get me wrong, but it's like Busiek is trying so hard to write a feminist story with a feminist hero dealing with things that feminists have issues with that he forgets to make the story actually about the woman he's put at the center of it.

[arbre_rieur]

Each chapter is narrated by a different character.

[crinos]

Yeah, the issue that just came out is narrated by Winged Victory herself.

[icon_uk]

As noted, it's a shifting narrration throughout the story.

And it's been important IMHO to see more than just her own POV in this story, to see her as other people see her, until the finale where we, and everyone else, see's her as SHE see's her, not Samaritan, not Confessor, not even the Council of Nike, but herself.

[mastermahan]

Darn it, arbre, you cut off the best part! Following that last panel:

"I just wanted... to give you a break. A temporary place of refuge, perhaps. Somewhere to find your footing, gather your strength...

"And remember that you're a strong woman, and have everything you need to stand up.

"And to tell you that I'm proud to have been part of all you've done. All the women you've helped stand, all these years, all of it...

"You're my hero. I wanted you to know that."

[quatoria]

Aw - thank you so much for including that, Mahan. That's genuinely touching and affecting.