Astro City

Kurt Busiek's Astro City is a comic book series centered around a fictional American city of that name. Written by Kurt Busiek, the series is co-created and illustrated by Brent Anderson with character designs and painted covers by Alex Ross. The first series debuted in August 1995 published by Image Comics, and since then has been published sporadically (due to Busiek's health problems) by Homage Comics (now part of Wildstorm Signature Series).

Characters

:Main article: List of characters in Astro City series

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The world of Astro City has numerous heroes and villains in the cast, as well as normal, everyday civilians and stranger entities. Astro City characters are often analogs to previously established comic book characters by other creators, though likenesses are as likely to emerge from exploration of similar archetypes as from direct influence, which in any case tends to be more subtle and complex than is often understood. Some characters have also been modeled on actual persons, particularly famous actors and people prominent in the comic book industry. Stories usually concentrate on one or a few viewpoint or featured characters (often one and the same). Such are noted here; see the article on Astro City Characters for a more complete listing. Inspirations and analogs of the characters are also noted.

Related Topics:
Archetype - Actors - Astro City Characters

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Heroes

• Altar Boy (viewpoint) - The Confessor's sidekick; becomes the second Confessor after his mentor sacrifices himself to stop an alien invasion.
• Astra Furst (viewpoint) - a young adventurer/hero able to transform into energy and fly. Daughter of Rex and Natalie born in 1986. A member of the First Family.
• Atomicus (featured) - Nuclear-powered being from another world who was active in the 1960s.
• Augustus Furst (featured) ? a scientist/adventurer active from the 1950s through the present. Brother of Julius Furst and adoptive father of Nick and Natalie. Leader of the First Family. Based on actor Henry Fonda.http://www.captaincomics.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t10572.html
• The Black Badge (featured) - an urban hero active from the 1950s through the early 1970s, who in retirement owns and runs the bar Bruiser's.
• Blue Knight (featured) - A hyper-violent, gun-toting vigilante anti-hero who wears a police-style riot mask with a ghostly skull outlined by a blue glow for a face. Active from 1972 to the early 1980s; a representative example of the type of violent, vengeance-driven hero that emerged during that period. Compare the Punisher
• Cleopatra (featured) - At least two superheroines have assumed the name Cleopatra in Astro City so far. The first Cleopatra was a founding member of the Honor Guard and the second is a current member of the team. Both are magic users and, naturally enough, adopt an Egyptian look.
• The Confessor (featured) - a mysterious vigilante with a dark secret, apparently active from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. After his death, his apprentice Altar Boy becomes the second Confessor. A religiously motivated hero, analogous in role and methods to the Batman.
• Crackerjack (featured) - An egocentric and reckless blowhard with amazing agility and a staff weapon. Active since 1991. Visually akin to screen swashbucklers and actors like Errol Flynn who portrayed them, he also recalls the marked contrasts that frequently existed between their sterling public personas and their unappealing private behavior. Compare Daredevil (for agility) and Booster Gold (for self-aggrandizement).
• The Crimson Cougar (viewpoint) ? an actor portraying a superhero on a popular soap opera who attained notoriety by performing actual heroic acts.
• The Flying Fox (featured) ? a non-powered crimefighter who uses an aero-cycle for transportation.
• The Hanged Man (featured) - A ghostly figure who protects Shadow Hill. He appears as the floating apparition of a jet-black corpse with a burlap sack over his head and a noose around his neck; usually human-scaled, though he can also expand to great heights. His powers include a kind of empathy that guides him to those in need of comfort after traumatic events. Compare the Phantom Stranger and the Spectre (in his pre-1970s characterization).
• Jack-in-the-Box (viewpoint) - a bouncy clown-themed vigilante with no powers but amazing agility and an arsenal of clown-themed weaponry. The role has been taken by three different men, Jack Johnson, active from 1964-1983 (when he died), Jack's son Zachary Johnson, active from 1989 through the mid 1990s, and Zachary's protégé Roscoe James, active thereafter. A seeming tribute to the unusual and flamboyant creations of Steve Ditko; Spider-Man and the Creeper are useful comparisons.
• Julius Furst (featured) - a scientist/adventurer active from the 1950s through the present. Brother of Augustus Furst. A member of the First Family. Visually based on and named for Julius Schwartz.
• Natalia Furst (Natalie) (featured) - an adventurer/hero with energy powers that allow her to expand in size. Natural daughter of Prince Kaspian of the Beastmen, adoptive daughter of Augustus Furst, twin sister of Nikolai Furst, wife (since 1979) of Rex, and mother of Astra. A member of the First Family.
• Nikolai Furst (Nick) (featured) - an adventurer/hero with projective energy powers. Natural son of Prince Kaspian of the Beastmen, adoptive son of Augustus Furst and twin brother of Natalie Furst. A member of the First Family.
• Quarrel (II) (Jessica Darleen Taggart) (featured) - Daughter of the deceased supervillain of the same name, she is a sharp-shooting archer with trick arrows and a dry sense of humor. A current member of Honor Guard.
• Rex (featured) - an adventurer/hero, super-strong and dinosaurian in form. Son of the villainess Madame Majestrix, husband (since 1979) of Natalie Furst, and father of Astra. A member of the First Family.
• Samaritan (viewpoint) - An extremely powerful hero who traveled from the future to make the world a better place. Appeared in this era in 1985; active as a hero since 1986. A current member of Honor Guard. Is sometimes referred to as "Big Red". Busiek's take on the Superman archetype.
• Silver Agent (featured) - An armored vigilante active from 1956 through the early 1970s, now deceased. A founding member of Honor Guard. Connected with an event in the seventies that caused super-heroes to be mistrusted long afterwards. An exemplar of the patriotic hero archetype. Compare Captain America and (for the uniform) the Guardian.
• Starfighter (featured) - a cosmic hero of the 1970s, active from at least 1972. A member of Honor Guard. Currently inactive.
• Supersonic (viewpoint) - a flying speedster active in the 1960s, now retired.
• Winged Victory (featured) - A feminist, Greco-Roman themed superhero, controversial due to her emphasis on protecting women before men regardless of the situation; stigmatized as a "cult leader" for funding of women's centers and clinics. Patterned after the famous Hellenistic sculpture the Winged Victory of Samothrace. As a mythologically-based heroine and female role-model her closest parallel would be Wonder Woman.

Villains

• The Box (featured) - future son of Jack-in-the-Box II, an alternate version of the Jackson. An insane cyborg vigilante.
• The Brass Monkey (featured) - a living metallic simian statue with a human mind.
• Bridwell (viewpoint) - Enelsian spy gathering intelligence on Earth's heroes; enamored of humanity's better instincts, but ultimately disgusted by mankind's baser ones. Name and encyclopedic knowledge based on E. Nelson Bridwell.
• The Conquistador (featured) - a mysterious armored villain who hired villains from Kiefer Square and elsewhere as part of a grand scheme to discredit America's superheroes; secretly the disgraced hero El Hombre.
• The Deacon (featured) - soft-spoken lord of "ordinary" organized crime in Astro City, including drug dealing, hijacking, and murder-for-hire. Opposed by the original Confessor and his successor. Although many have tried, the police have never been able to connect him with the crimes his underlings commit.
• Eisenstein ("Eyes") (viewpoint) - a small-time crook who discovers Jack-in-the-Box's secret identity.
• The Enelsians (featured) - A matriarchal alien race that invaded Earth, with Astro City as their focal point. Defeated when the Confessor sacrificed his life to expose their plan. The name of the race is a sly homage to E. Nelson Bridwell. See also Bridwell.
• Glowworm (featured) - a glowing villain with energy-projecting powers and a long, eel-like tail in place of his lower body. A member of the Unholy Alliance.
• The Jackson (featured) - future son of Jack-in-the-Box II, an alternate version of the Box. A fanatic feral vigilante.
• The Junkman (viewpoint) ? an aged villain seeking vengeance on society for age discrimination. Recycles and enhances his weaponry from discarded trash. His closest analog is his primary antagonist Jack-in-the-Box, whose origin, inventive genius, and use of gimmicks parallel his.
• The Living Nightmare (featured) - Monstrous creature composed of peoples' subconscious fears made real, the Nightmare has been both hero and villain, and is currently a mindless, random force of destruction preying on superheroes.
• The Mock Turtle (viewpoint) ? an English armored villain explicitly inspired by the a character from Alice in Wonderland. Now deceased.
• Shirak the Devourer (featured) - a shark-like demon from another dimension that attempted to invade the Earth in 1959 and 1964. Stopped in one of the first (and rather odd) missions of the newly-formed Honor Guard.
• The Silver Brain (featured) - a scientist who became pure brain whose goal is to enslave the world. Imprisoned by the Samaritan in the Mentoverse, and banished back there by the Furst Family after he escaped.
• Slamburger (featured) - a bulky, powerful villain with mottled red skin and hot, sulfurous breath. A member of the Unholy Alliance. Apparently an acquaintance of Steeljack, he may have originally been a resident of Kiefer Square.
• The Time-Keeper (featured) - a time-stopping villain from the 1940s who nearly destroyed time itself in an attempt to remove superheroes from the world. A typical example of the themed (if mostly non-super) villains of the period.

Groups

• The Astro City Irregulars (featured) - a group of outcast heroes founded by Bravo in the early to mid 1970s; its original roster also included Alligator, Skitter, Switchblade, and Umbra; Orphan was added to the membership as a result of their first case. The current (1998) roster consists of Juice (the apparent leader), Ruby, Palmetto, Jailbait, El Robo and Stray. As an outcast hero team it finds parallels in the X-Men, the Teen Titans and the Outsiders. The name echoes the Baker Street Irregulars of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
• The Crossbreed (featured) - a group of pariah religious heroes, consisting of Noah, Daniel, Peter, Mary, David and Joshua. Stigmatized by society as "Jesus Freaks." Based on biblical figures.
• The First Family (featured) - A family of interdimensional explorers and superheroes consisting of brothers Augustus and Julius Furst, Augustus' adopted children Nick and Natalie, Natalie's dinosaur-like husband Rex, and their daughter Astra. Based in part on the acting family of Henry Fonda, and comparable to such small, close-knit hero teams of the 1950s and 1960s as the Fantastic Four and the Challengers of the Unknown.
• Honor Guard (featured) - the most prestigious grouping of superheroes. Founded in 1959 by Max O'Millions; its original roster also included the Silver Agent, Starwoman, Leopardman and Kitkat, the first N-Forcer, and the first Cleopatra. Appears to maintain an active membership of seven; members added over the years to replace departing ones include the Mermaid, El Hombre, Hummingbird, Mirage, the Living Nightmare, and Starfighter. The current (1998) roster consists of current leader the Black Rapier, Beautie, Cleopatra (II), M.P.H., the current N-Forcer, Quarrel (II), and Samaritan. Heroes the team has worked with but who have not become members include the Bouncing Beatnik, the Old Soldier, Winged Victory, and the Gentleman. As an agglomeration of otherwise independent heroes, Honor Guard is similar to the archetypical super team the Justice Society of America and such modern descendants as the Justice League of America and the Avengers.
• The Unholy Alliance (featured) - a group of villains led by Demolitia. Current members include Flame-thrower, Glowworm, Slamburger and Spice; apparently other villains have also been members in the past. Compare the Legion of Doom.

Civilians

• Darcy Conroy (featured) - a former district attorney, now a partner in one of Astro City's law firms; known for a tough attitude. The fiancé of Nick Furst.
• Tamra Dixon (viewpoint) - Anchorwoman of Channel 3's Morning News, married to toymaker and entrepreneur Zachary Johnson (aka Jack-in-the-Box). As a hero's romantic foil she is analogous to such characters as Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane, among a host of others.
• Pete Donacek (viewpoint) - Bell captain at the Astro City Classic, the town's premier hotel. Directs visitors to the best locations to see the heroes "at work", but reminds them that what occurs is real and dangerous, and that the heroes "don't come out and do shows, you know."
• Looney Leo (viewpoint) - A cartoon lion brought to life in 1946, he was briefly the Gentleman's sidekick, then a media star, a homeless bum, a supervillain's pawn and a recluse before becoming part owner and host of a nostalgic nightclub bearing his name in the entertainment district. Funny animal sidekicks are a comparative rarity in superhero comics. The most notable analog would be Tawky Tawny.
• Marta (viewpoint) - a resident of Shadow Hill who works in the City Center.
• Elliot Mills (viewpoint) - the editor of the Astro City Rocket.
• Ben Pullam (viewpoint) - a new resident of Astro City.
• Steeljack (Carl "Carlie" Donewicz) (viewpoint) - A former supervillain and member of the villain group the Terrifying Three resident in Kiefer Square who attempts to reform after serving his time. Active as a villain from about 1970 to 1978, with interruptions due to incarceration; served 20 years in Biro Island from 1978-1998. Later tapped by former associates as a private investigator to solve the string of "Black Mask" murders. Consciously modeled after Robert Mitchum.
• Michael Tenicek (viewpoint) - an ordinary man whose wife was lost to reality due to a time-storm.
• Charles Raymond Williams (viewpoint) - police officer who sees superheroes as instigating chaos in the world. Born October 19, 1946 and active as a policeman in the early 1970s. Brother of Royal Williams.
• Royal James Williams (viewpoint) - petty crook who sees superheroes as instigating chaos in the world. Born June 5, 1950 and active as a criminal in the early 1970s. Brother of Charles Williams.

Others

• Eterneon (featured) - Lord and watcher of the timestream, fought the Time-Keeper to prevent the destruction of time itself. In an earlier event, fought Samaritan while the latter was on a time-traveling mission. Compare Eternity, Immortus and (in his more cosmic incarnations) the Spectre.
• Thunderhead (featured) - a cosmic entity that destroyed Draketown, Alaska and later threatened Astro City. Possibly an ancient weather god. Married to Helia, who mockingly refers to him as "Dunderhead." Based on Zeus and similar sky deities.