| Ad Astra: Astro City: What happened in V1, #1-6 |
Story: Kurt Busiek
Art: Brent Anderson
Cover: Alex Ross
Title: in dreams
We follow a day in the life of Samaritan, Astro City's
greatest hero and discover he's so busy being a superhero that he
hasn't got the time to lead a "normal" life. He's even denied his greatest pleasure,
which is to fly, to soar amongst the clouds, without any worries,
without having to hurry. He dreams of it at night, but unfortunately,
the only flying he does in reality is from one disaster to another.
This story also functions as a quick introduction to the world of Astro
City.
S: Kurt Busiek
A:Brent Anderson
C:Alex Ross
T: the scoop
Astro City #2 tells the story of an alien invasion in 1959. It is told in a flashback by a newspaper editor at the Astro City Rocket to a young reporter. At the time of his story the editor himself was a young rookie reporter who was just scooped out of his first big story.
One night he was walking home when he saw something suspicious. He follows some cultists into the underground and discovers they are opening a portal to the world of Shirak the devourer. At that point Silver Agent and the Honor Guard show up and fight the cultist who have been transformed into shark creatures. The Honor Guard is losing when the Old Soldier turns up. Together they manage to close the portal and defeat the shark creatures, but all the heroes get sucked into the portal.
After all that happened the reporter hurries back to the press club and starts writing his story down, however he isn't believed. After several rewrites the story is tuned down to a short piece about a shark found in the underground.
Back in the present the editor tells the new reporter he saved the piece to remind himself to only write articles based on facts.
S: Kurt Busiek
A: Brent Anderson
C: Alex Ross
T: A little knowledge
Andrew "eyes" Eisenstein discovers by accident the secret identity of Jack-In-The-Box. He thinks he can sell this information to one of the big crime-bosses of Astro City. He fantasizes about what he can do with the information, but these fantasies quickly turn sour. He keeps imagining the bad things that could happen to him if he tried to sell the information. The end result is that he leaves Astro City, doing nothing and scared of his own shadow...
S: Kurt Busiek
A: Brent Anderson
C: Alex Ross
T: Safeguards
Marta is a young woman who lives in the neighbourhood of Shadow Hill, a place where magic dwells. In order to survive there she has to depend on a lot of magic talismans. Marta lives in Shadow Hill, but works in the city center as one of the few inhabitants of Shadow Hill. Marta looks at city center and it's superheroes with awe and loves working there, untill one day a group of super villains attack the building where she works. The First Family rescue Marta and her coworkers and defeat the super villains, but the attack still shocks Marta. Her view of a perfect, gleaming city center is shattered. The next day Marta decides to stop working in the city and find a job in Shadow Hill.
S: Kurt Busiek
A: Brent Anderson
C: Alex Ross
T: Reconnaissance
If you asked Bridwell why he was spending so much time wandering the streets
of Astro City, he would say that now that he was retired from his job in a
basement room without windows, he wants to spend as much time as possible
outdoors. But in fact Bridwell wasn't a harmless old pensioner, he was an
alien spy, spying on our superhumans to determine if earth should be invaded!
But why, after years of reconnaissance hasn't he given the signal? He doesn't
know himself, perhaps he hesitates because he sees similarities between us
earth people and his own race, perhaps it's something else. However, tonight
he wants a resolution, tonight he wants to make the decision. And he'll
make that decision by observing one hero until dawn, and that hero is Crackerjack.
Uh oh.
Crackerjack is without question the most arrogant, obnoxious selfish hero in Astro City, so it's no wonder that Bridwell makes the decision to let the invasion begin...
There's a conspiracy going on in Astro City. A conspiracy to let the world's foremost's superheroes go on a date. Their date begins a little bit awkward, as Samaritan arrives at Winged Victory's apartment in full hero outfit, and WV is in her civilian id. After a brief conversation, they decide to go to Astro City's top restaurant, but are hounded by autograph seekers. Then Sammy has an idea; they'll go to a hamburger joint in their civilian Id s. There they enjoy a quit meal and a less quit discussion of WV's activities. the story ends on a romantic note, with the two kissing each other.
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