Astro City vol 16: Broken Melody (Superhero) (Graphic Novel)

by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, & Alex Ross

 

Publisher: Vertigo (August 21, 2018)

 

Hardcover, 192 pages

 

 

Collecting issues 37, 38, 41, 43, & 46  of the ongoing Vertigo series, Astro City is the best superhero comic on the market today, bar none. When it first emerged that may have been debatable, but now with the quality decline of mainstream superhero giants this remains the last title standing.

Finally the creative team of the comic reveals to us the origin (maybe) of the green haired, purple skinned hero The Broken Man- a hero that has popped up since the series switched over to the Vertigo imprint. As usual the character breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the reader. Of course, the wall is only broken from our perspective, the character thinks he talking to beings in another dimension.

 

This volumes focuses on heroes from Astro City’s past, back to when the metropolis was called Romelyn Falls. We see the origins of The Gentleman and The Astro-Naut (whom Astro City was later named after), two characters mentioned and pictured often, but never before have they been the center of attention.

But primarily The Broken Man describes an entity which shifts with the musical currents of the time. The entity has some strange connections to a snake cult, and The Broken Man describes various stories tracking this odd entity as he becomes Mr. Cakewalk around the turn of the 20th Century, Jazz Baby in the 20s, The Bouncing Beatnik in the 50s, The Halcyon Hippie in the 60s, and ____ in the 70s - then a catastrophe leads to a different entity being spawned. As before each of these characters had been mentioned in various issues, but now they are all drawn together definitively.

This is the type of story telling that keeps me coming back to the series. Each issue adds a little more to the complicated puzzle of this world’s universe. The art, as always, perfectly fits the action. It is a joy to read. I always become a little sad at the end of each volume, as I now have to wait months for the next one. But that moment when I rip open the package and take out the book...ohhhh. It's like Christmas when I was seven all over again.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.