Sunday, July 15, 2018

Astro City: Family Album

Astro City, Vol. 3: Family AlbumAstro City, Vol. 3: Family Album by Kurt Busiek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Junkman wants to prove he's still a good criminal even though he's old. Astra Furst wants a chance to be an ordinary kid. Jack in the Box meets versions of his future son. And Loony Leo, the cartoon come to life, is down on his luck. All of this and more in Family Album, the third Astro City collection!

Here we are, the third Astro City volume. It's real and it's spectacular. Busiek continues to focus on the human aspects of life in Astro City. The first tale is about a family that moves to Astro City to start a new life and gets a good look at what that entails. It was a nice slice of life tale.

The second story was my favorite of the collection. Astra Furst, third generation member of the First Family, decides she wants to try out being an ordinary kid. It nearly brought a tear to my eye and made me wish Kurt Busiek would be given free reign on the Fantastic Four. The First Family is what the Fantastic Four could be if they were ever allowed to progress, multiple generations of super heroes.

The fourth story featured a criminal called The Junkman and was about getting older in Astro City. I'm amazed at how easily Busiek made me a fan of The Junkman, who will probably never be featured in another story.

The fifth tale was of The Jack in the Box, Astro City's Batman/Daredevil hero. Super heroing his hard but what about having kids? I would gladly read more about Jack in the Box. And the First Family, for that matter.

I wasn't crazy about the sixth tale when I realized it was about a cartoon lion brought to life but it wound up being really good. Poor Loony Leo.

Kurt Busiek's love for the super hero genre shines through in each story. As with the last two volumes, Astro City feels like it has decades of history prior to this book that I haven't read yet. Brent Anderson and Will Blyberg did a great job bringing his vision to life. Once again, I'm irritated that it took me two decades to get interested in Astro City. I'm not sure I'd put it in the same league as Starman just yet but it's really great. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

View all my reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment