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mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
5.0
Continuing the re-read of Astro City. This is a longer story on Winged Victory with a shorter backstory of an Intro to Astro City. Winged Victory is basically a Wonder Woman knock-off. But as always in Astro City it's not really a knock-off. This story basically is the story of fake news and a frame up. And had yells of "Lock her up". Some of it felt scarily current. 4.5 of 5. I've been a little harsher on this re-read. Mostly because it's hard for Astro City to feel like something I've never read before on a re-read. It was really nice to have Confessor back in the mix - and yes that makes this a Superman, Batman, Wonder-Woman teamup.
A shorter volume, but still very good. This one tell us the story around Winged Victory with a couple of other heroes and villains thrown in for good measure. And it rings true like it could be happening in the real world. And then there is an Intro to Astro City done as a travel magazine which isn't bad. The writing and story-telling on Astro City is consistently fantastic, it makes everything else kind of look bad.
A shorter volume, but still very good. This one tell us the story around Winged Victory with a couple of other heroes and villains thrown in for good measure. And it rings true like it could be happening in the real world. And then there is an Intro to Astro City done as a travel magazine which isn't bad. The writing and story-telling on Astro City is consistently fantastic, it makes everything else kind of look bad.
jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
I love reading these to spot the original inspirations.
rouver's review against another edition
4.0
This book focuses on Winged Victory and how a smear campaign against her & her good works could completely undo her years of work helping empower women. I do think that's it's sad that the whole point of this book is about how Victory feels that women must work to rescue themselves (rather than always BEING rescued), yet the synopsis reads "When criminal charges are brought against Winged Victory, the Confessor (male hero) must investigate and it leads to open combat with Samaritan (male hero)!"...seeming to indicate that the focus is on the men in the story & how they save the day. Seems like someone didn't get the memo.
trike's review against another edition
4.0
Astro City is Kurt Busiek's love letter to comics from the Golden and Silver Ages, and this one features the Wonder Woman of this universe, Winged Victory. The supporting cast is the Superman simulacrum, Samaritan, and the Batman body-double, The Confessor. Neither Samaritan nor Confessor map exactly on to their iconic inspirations, but Winged Victory is very close to Wonder Woman.
What we have here, though, is Busiek using WV to tell a story about female empowerment, while undercutting the radical notion summed up by the phrase, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." The extremist man-hating side of feminism has always been troubling to me, because it's hard to be a feminist and an ally when you are demonized as the personification of everything that's wrong with the world.
In this tale WV is being set up by persons unknown to undercut her image and erode her support. In the fictional universe of Astro City, Winged Victory's power is derived from the belief women have in her as their champion. Staged fights and a whisper campaign damage public opinion of her, thus decreasing her power.
For me, this is how these iconic superheroes work best: as metaphor.
Samaritan and Confessor try to help, but that merely erodes her support further because some perceive this as her needing to "turn to a man." So they step back and let her handle it, assisting from the shadows. (In the Confessor's case, literally. Like I said, metaphor.)
Meanwhile, there's a teenage boy in need of treatment for injuries he's sustained at the hands of bullies, and he turns up at Winged Victory's compound begging for sanctuary. The women there grudgingly aid him only because WV specifically ordered it. No spoilers, but the kid is the key to their realization that their position has been too extreme.
This is a message everyone needs to hear, I think, and to the credit of Busiek et al it isn't a cudgel they bludgeon you with. The issue is stated and you're left to connect the dots yourself.
The second part of this collection is the Astro City Visitor's Guide.
I don't really like playing PnP RPGs, but I thoroughly enjoy reading through the guides that give the world's backstories. Mutants & Masterminds, Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, I dig that stuff. I'm also a big fan of the Marvel Universe collections, so this guide with character bios, map, neighborhood guide, etc., is right up my alley. I actually wish it were more comprehensive.
What we have here, though, is Busiek using WV to tell a story about female empowerment, while undercutting the radical notion summed up by the phrase, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." The extremist man-hating side of feminism has always been troubling to me, because it's hard to be a feminist and an ally when you are demonized as the personification of everything that's wrong with the world.
In this tale WV is being set up by persons unknown to undercut her image and erode her support. In the fictional universe of Astro City, Winged Victory's power is derived from the belief women have in her as their champion. Staged fights and a whisper campaign damage public opinion of her, thus decreasing her power.
For me, this is how these iconic superheroes work best: as metaphor.
Samaritan and Confessor try to help, but that merely erodes her support further because some perceive this as her needing to "turn to a man." So they step back and let her handle it, assisting from the shadows. (In the Confessor's case, literally. Like I said, metaphor.)
Meanwhile, there's a teenage boy in need of treatment for injuries he's sustained at the hands of bullies, and he turns up at Winged Victory's compound begging for sanctuary. The women there grudgingly aid him only because WV specifically ordered it. No spoilers, but the kid is the key to their realization that their position has been too extreme.
This is a message everyone needs to hear, I think, and to the credit of Busiek et al it isn't a cudgel they bludgeon you with. The issue is stated and you're left to connect the dots yourself.
The second part of this collection is the Astro City Visitor's Guide.
I don't really like playing PnP RPGs, but I thoroughly enjoy reading through the guides that give the world's backstories. Mutants & Masterminds, Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, I dig that stuff. I'm also a big fan of the Marvel Universe collections, so this guide with character bios, map, neighborhood guide, etc., is right up my alley. I actually wish it were more comprehensive.
graventy's review against another edition
5.0
Astro City is the most enjoyable fake DC comic about fake DC superheroes. This collection features a great story about fake Wonder Woman, and some neat side character stories. Good stuff.
bowienerd_82's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed the main storyline, which featured the origins of Winged Victory interspersed with her dealing with a plot to discredit her (aided by Samaritan and Confessor). However, that only took up a couple of issues, and the rest of the book was padded by the Astro City visitors guide et al. It's nice to have that guide, but I wish there had been more of the actual story and less of the additional materials. Still, another excellent entry in the Astro City universe, and for me, it was particularly awesome to check in with the Confessor, as we hadn't really seen anything much about him since Vol 2.
bstratton's review against another edition
3.0
This is a very well-meaning attempt for an older white guy to write a story about and in the voice of a feminist superhero (basically, ASTRO CITY's version of Wonder Woman). Busiek is a great writer, and he's also always seemed like a wonderful, well-intentioned person. He doesn't come off as out-of-touch here, but AC works because it's a series about fantastic people and events where everything feels very grounded and authentic. And here, Busiek is writing in a voice that does not seem natural to him. It was a bold creative risk for him to take, and one taken with great empathy, but it just wasn't entirely successful.
aloyokon's review against another edition
4.0
Not as familiar with the Astro City universe (is it Astroverse?) as I'd like, but this is a nice touch.
Winked Victory, the Wonder Woman analogue, stands as a pillar in Astro City. But when she is framed and accused of criminal activity, it takes all her will and courage, as well as a bit of help from friends, to clear her name and take down the true culprit.
Very nice art, story, and characters.
Winked Victory, the Wonder Woman analogue, stands as a pillar in Astro City. But when she is framed and accused of criminal activity, it takes all her will and courage, as well as a bit of help from friends, to clear her name and take down the true culprit.
Very nice art, story, and characters.
mrpink44's review against another edition
4.0
Good, but not quite great. Main 4 issue story was good. Visitor Guide extended issue at end was a bit of a sludge to get through.
brettt's review
5.0
One of the reasons critical darling comic series Astro City had such an intermittent publishing life was that creator/author Kurt Busiek spent large chunks of the 1990s dealing with health issues eventually discovered to be the result of mercury poisoning. The interlocking narratives and richly-built world of Astro City, he said, demanded a level of concentration and effort that the sickness had made impossible.
Before his illness, Busiek completed Confessions, held by a number of Astro City fans as one of the top story arcs in the series. It focused on one of the city's nighttime vigilantes, the Confessor, and unspooled his secrets as public opinion soured on super-heroes amid several crises and a secretly mounting alien invasion. The conflicted central character, the widely-ranged slices of life in Astro City and the realistic way that ordinary folks tried to grapple with a world of heroes and villains with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men (and women) carried all of the strengths of Busiek, cover artist Alex Ross and series artist Brent Anderson, and very few of their weaknesses.
Long illness-related delays and a rotating series of publishers made subsequent story arcs shine less brightly, or at least quite a bit more unfocused and harder to follow. When Busiek at full strength reignited the series at DC's Vertigo imprint, he once again started showing why even a mediocre Astro City stood significantly taller than some other creator's best efforts. And while the tail end of the Vertigo period had some serious clunkers, its 2014 Victory arc, focusing on the the Greco-influenced Wonder Woman analog Winged Victory and a threat to both her work and her hero status, challenges the earlier Confessions for the title of Astro City's best overall arc.
Winged Victory's foes are going on low-level crime sprees, getting caught and hinting that they actually work for the hero herself. Former residents of her shelters, run as both recovery and education schools for women and girls victimized by abuse and other crimes, are claiming that she is a fraud. Astro City's Superman-analog, Samaritan, is also Winged Victory's lover and offers to help her as she needs. She declines -- partly because she believes she teaches the women who look to her by her example and she needs to continue to demonstrate her independence, and partly because she has no idea how the attack is being mounted or who's behind it. The Confessor, Astro City's version of Batman, appears on the scene with evidence of an electronic trail that may hold the answers. But even if he tracks the culprit down, will the damage to Winged Victory's reputation and work be too great to repair? And will her willingness to let men help her fight the threat cut her off from the source of her power?
Busiek doesn't let the limitations of dialogue and exposition forced on the comic format by the need for artwork keep him from writing characters and a story that goes deeply into their motivations and thoughts. Victory's previously unknown origin sheds a lot of light on the foundation for her non-heroic work and Busiek shows how her concern for its continuation keeps her from falling back on the old super-hero standby tactic "Just Start Punching." He establishes a great relationship between the three leads and spends time making sure some potentially cardboard characters do more than just show up. By the end of the story, all of our three main characters have grown in different ways as they've seen how choices they have made in their lives until now might actually have offered their opponents avenues of attack.
Anderson is as reliable as ever in conveying emotion as well as action and feeding the comic junkie's need for cool art. Ross's covers are, as almost always, superb and are subtle twists on iconic scenes between the three mainstream comic heroes on which Samaritan, Winged Victory and the Confessor are modeled.
One appealing part of the Astro City project was how it was not only told great super-hero stories with great characters but how it also commented on the comic medium and its history. If Busiek ever manages to do that as well as he did in the Victory arc alongside Anderson, Ross and colorist Alex Sinclair, he'll have another fine feather in his cap.
Also available here.
Before his illness, Busiek completed Confessions, held by a number of Astro City fans as one of the top story arcs in the series. It focused on one of the city's nighttime vigilantes, the Confessor, and unspooled his secrets as public opinion soured on super-heroes amid several crises and a secretly mounting alien invasion. The conflicted central character, the widely-ranged slices of life in Astro City and the realistic way that ordinary folks tried to grapple with a world of heroes and villains with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men (and women) carried all of the strengths of Busiek, cover artist Alex Ross and series artist Brent Anderson, and very few of their weaknesses.
Long illness-related delays and a rotating series of publishers made subsequent story arcs shine less brightly, or at least quite a bit more unfocused and harder to follow. When Busiek at full strength reignited the series at DC's Vertigo imprint, he once again started showing why even a mediocre Astro City stood significantly taller than some other creator's best efforts. And while the tail end of the Vertigo period had some serious clunkers, its 2014 Victory arc, focusing on the the Greco-influenced Wonder Woman analog Winged Victory and a threat to both her work and her hero status, challenges the earlier Confessions for the title of Astro City's best overall arc.
Winged Victory's foes are going on low-level crime sprees, getting caught and hinting that they actually work for the hero herself. Former residents of her shelters, run as both recovery and education schools for women and girls victimized by abuse and other crimes, are claiming that she is a fraud. Astro City's Superman-analog, Samaritan, is also Winged Victory's lover and offers to help her as she needs. She declines -- partly because she believes she teaches the women who look to her by her example and she needs to continue to demonstrate her independence, and partly because she has no idea how the attack is being mounted or who's behind it. The Confessor, Astro City's version of Batman, appears on the scene with evidence of an electronic trail that may hold the answers. But even if he tracks the culprit down, will the damage to Winged Victory's reputation and work be too great to repair? And will her willingness to let men help her fight the threat cut her off from the source of her power?
Busiek doesn't let the limitations of dialogue and exposition forced on the comic format by the need for artwork keep him from writing characters and a story that goes deeply into their motivations and thoughts. Victory's previously unknown origin sheds a lot of light on the foundation for her non-heroic work and Busiek shows how her concern for its continuation keeps her from falling back on the old super-hero standby tactic "Just Start Punching." He establishes a great relationship between the three leads and spends time making sure some potentially cardboard characters do more than just show up. By the end of the story, all of our three main characters have grown in different ways as they've seen how choices they have made in their lives until now might actually have offered their opponents avenues of attack.
Anderson is as reliable as ever in conveying emotion as well as action and feeding the comic junkie's need for cool art. Ross's covers are, as almost always, superb and are subtle twists on iconic scenes between the three mainstream comic heroes on which Samaritan, Winged Victory and the Confessor are modeled.
One appealing part of the Astro City project was how it was not only told great super-hero stories with great characters but how it also commented on the comic medium and its history. If Busiek ever manages to do that as well as he did in the Victory arc alongside Anderson, Ross and colorist Alex Sinclair, he'll have another fine feather in his cap.
Also available here.