Astro City #28 - "Yesterday's Heroes"

[laughing_tree]

"At the end of 'JLA/Avengers,' I felt like I scratched my Marvel itch. Whatever there was of my 15 or 16-year-old self that said, 'I desperately want to write Marvel comics,' he's satisfied." -- Kurt Busiek on moving away from corporate comics















Sure enough, once the machine is destroyed:

Comments

[jeremyp]

Thanks for posting this!

For me, Astro City hits almost all the aspects of comics that draw me - they're fun, meaningful, include character development, and never get too dark - they feel like they have substance, without getting too dark.

[thatnickguy]

It's basically how I would personally define a "mature" superhero comic. It has some adult themes, but it also holds all the things you mentioned. I don't think swearing, sex, and gore makes a comic "mature" in the right sense of the term.

[jeremyp]

I agree.

[silverhammerman]

I liked this issue a lot, but boy does Wolfspider have hideous facial hair.

[raspberryrain]

Good on ya, K.B.

[dragontail]

The attempt at an Australian accent hurts my eyes and ears (honestly, guys, we may sound different but we still use the same words as the US... and no one says "copper") but damned if this isn't the best and coolest idea for an Australian super hero I've ever seen. Love it.

Also? Queenslaw looks so much like the super hero groups my friends and I used to design as kids. We weren't immune to stereotypes, either :-)

[laughing_tree]

The guest artists for the issue, Gary Chaloner, is Australian. The letters column says he was hired in part specifically so there'd be someone who could vet for inaccuracies. Other than "copper," which bits strike you as inauthentic?

[dragontail]

It's Chaloner? Interesting... I used to read all his comics back in the 80s (his Southern Squadron was the epitome of the Queenslaw-style heroes I was talking about, although SSquad went out of its way to subvert the tropes and did a damn fine job of doing so). I'd not recognised his artwork here at all. Cool to hear he's continuing to work in the US.

Other than "copper", the only bit in these scans that really sounds wrong in my ear is the "aw" on the last page. And it's me being picky - I'd suggest we tend to say "ahh" with more of a drawn-out sound, where as "aw" seems to be shorter when said. Like I said, I'm being picky. Interestingly (perhaps), back in the 80s I had the same problem with Chaloner's SSquad dialogue. Maybe that's a product of him being from the east coast and myself from the south coast, dialects and all?

Real Australians probably don't use that slang, but..

[7dialsmystery]

...these are criminals that were turned into cartoon characters of stereotypes. So, perhaps they're still behaving somewhat cartoonish.

[dragontail]

*hands you the Astro City equivalent of a No-Prize*

I love that explanation so much that it is officially head-canon now! Thanks!