Astro City Vol. 06: The Dark Age, Book One: Brothers and Other Strangers
by Kurt Busiek (Writer), Brent Anderson (Illustrator), Alex Ross (Cover artist)
Astro City Collections (6), Astro City (Collections and Selections — Dark Age V1 #1-4 & V2 #1-4)
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"Collecting the first eight chapters of the 16-part 'Dark Age' saga, revealing the history of Astro City and shedding light on some of its greatest heroes! Book One, now in trade paperback, takes place in the early 1970s and follows two brothers-- with one becoming a hero and the other taking a far different path. Along the way, the long-standing secret tale of the Silver Agent and his fate is told at last, as the story shifts back to the 1950s and what made the Williams brothers turn out so show more differently" -- from publisher's web site. show lessTags
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Life Despite Superheroes
I never particularly enjoyed superhero comics, but as a youngster, the two that I enjoyed were "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen." Their deconstruction of superheroes and the superhero genre was novel. Those style of those two comics, with first-person narrative and moral challenges, were then copied and hacked to death.
Rather than deconstructed the superhero genre, "Astro City" comics try to construct it by placing heroes in a living, breathing world where life goes on not because of their heroic actions but despite their heroic actions. The focus of Busiek's best stories is on the citizens who look up at the heroes briefly and then carry on with their daily work. They are irritated by the show more distractions superheroes cause or, perhaps, they are themselves super-powered folk who use their abilities to further their careers rather than save lives.
In "Astro City: The Dark Age," Charles and Royal struggle with their relationship to superheroes in Astro City. Their strained relationship is centered on their mutual distrust of superheroes and villains. Superheroes come and go throughout the book in a rather blasé manner as Charles and Royal evolve. The two books in the series unfold slowly over the course of about twenty years with flashbacks and shifting narrative perspectives.
Because of the dull, repetitive stories in the superhero genre, I have ignored it. However, I was attracted by the lovely and often incongruous painted covers of "Astro City." Fortunately, the stories were equally interesting and equally engaging. show less
I never particularly enjoyed superhero comics, but as a youngster, the two that I enjoyed were "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen." Their deconstruction of superheroes and the superhero genre was novel. Those style of those two comics, with first-person narrative and moral challenges, were then copied and hacked to death.
Rather than deconstructed the superhero genre, "Astro City" comics try to construct it by placing heroes in a living, breathing world where life goes on not because of their heroic actions but despite their heroic actions. The focus of Busiek's best stories is on the citizens who look up at the heroes briefly and then carry on with their daily work. They are irritated by the show more distractions superheroes cause or, perhaps, they are themselves super-powered folk who use their abilities to further their careers rather than save lives.
In "Astro City: The Dark Age," Charles and Royal struggle with their relationship to superheroes in Astro City. Their strained relationship is centered on their mutual distrust of superheroes and villains. Superheroes come and go throughout the book in a rather blasé manner as Charles and Royal evolve. The two books in the series unfold slowly over the course of about twenty years with flashbacks and shifting narrative perspectives.
Because of the dull, repetitive stories in the superhero genre, I have ignored it. However, I was attracted by the lovely and often incongruous painted covers of "Astro City." Fortunately, the stories were equally interesting and equally engaging. show less
I'm more into horror, fantasy and humorous graphic novels, but boy do I love this superhero series. I'd rather read Astro City than any other superhero books, except maybe PS238, which is also a sideways approach to the genre.
The POV in this series is often a regular Joe, and the regular Joes in Dark Age are two brothers, one a cop and one a criminal who both resent the "Masks." The transition from one point of view to the other was seamless, thanks to the color-coded speech bubbles, and their motivations for choosing their different paths are conveyed sympathetically on both sides.
If I knew more about comic book history, I would have proof of this, but I have a feeling that as the story moved over the course of about 20 years, the show more types of superheroes emerging in the 60s and 70s paralleled what was happening in comic books in reality during those decades. And that's pretty cool.
I'm looking forward to Dark Age part 2. show less
The POV in this series is often a regular Joe, and the regular Joes in Dark Age are two brothers, one a cop and one a criminal who both resent the "Masks." The transition from one point of view to the other was seamless, thanks to the color-coded speech bubbles, and their motivations for choosing their different paths are conveyed sympathetically on both sides.
If I knew more about comic book history, I would have proof of this, but I have a feeling that as the story moved over the course of about 20 years, the show more types of superheroes emerging in the 60s and 70s paralleled what was happening in comic books in reality during those decades. And that's pretty cool.
I'm looking forward to Dark Age part 2. show less
Kurt Busiek may be the best writer in comics working currently, with a unique postmodern perspective of superheroes. His Astro City series takes a keen look at the tension that builds in the world of superheroes—both among their own ranks and with the ordinary people suffering the fallout from living in a city overpopulated by them. The Dark Ages series is Busiek at his best, focusing on the ordinary vs. superhero conundrum with heart-rending effect as two brothers whose young lives were impacted by the murder of their parents follow very different lives as a consequence.
Everybody who’s been following me the last few years know I love Astro City. It’s quite frankly the most clever take on Superheroes since Watchmen. Perhaps it’s even better, for Busiek and his team manage to find new perspectives constantly – more often than not focusing on the everyday people who only sometimes see the heroes fly by up in the air. Here the action is set in the 70ies, a time of racial tension, political unrest and a growing suspicion of vigilantes in masks. That the Silver Agent is charged with murder of a foregin head of state isn’t helping either…
This is really work on an epic scale. Our main characters are two brothers taking very different paths in life after a tragedy in their childhood, and we follow show more them for a number of years. A lot of things only hinted at in earlier Astro City albums are beginning to come together now, and if there was ever any doubt Busiek knows exactly what he’s doing, it’s time to let all doubts go. This universe is solid, nothing is put in by chance.
I’m very very eager to read the second part. For now, my feeling is that this is absolutely up to the ridiculously high standard Busiek sets, but perhaps not the pinnacle a lot of people paint it out to be. For me, so far, the overflow of brand new perspectives on a small scale he tossed out in “Local heroes” still holds the fort. I’m prepared to be convinced otherwise though, and can’t wait to see how this big storyline unfolds. show less
This is really work on an epic scale. Our main characters are two brothers taking very different paths in life after a tragedy in their childhood, and we follow show more them for a number of years. A lot of things only hinted at in earlier Astro City albums are beginning to come together now, and if there was ever any doubt Busiek knows exactly what he’s doing, it’s time to let all doubts go. This universe is solid, nothing is put in by chance.
I’m very very eager to read the second part. For now, my feeling is that this is absolutely up to the ridiculously high standard Busiek sets, but perhaps not the pinnacle a lot of people paint it out to be. For me, so far, the overflow of brand new perspectives on a small scale he tossed out in “Local heroes” still holds the fort. I’m prepared to be convinced otherwise though, and can’t wait to see how this big storyline unfolds. show less
Dark City turns to Astro City's past and follows the tumultuous 60s and 70s of Astro City through the lives of two brothers who choose very divergent paths. Charles and Royal Williams lose everything in one night as children and both blame a single superhero. One follows the path of justice as a police officer, the other lives a life of crime. At the same time, Astro City finds itself trying to reclassify many of its heroes and villains in the shifting landscape of social change and politics.
Busiak's Astro City is once again a brand new city with hints of the familiar throughout - a strength in this series that is not a conventional series. The brothers share narration and focus throughout, avoiding any feeling of good v. evil. After show more all - if the climate during this time was one of shifting perceptions, why should anything become as easy as simple good brother vs. bad brother? All in all, the move to full story-arc has held up over the traditional vignette view of Astro City. show less
Busiak's Astro City is once again a brand new city with hints of the familiar throughout - a strength in this series that is not a conventional series. The brothers share narration and focus throughout, avoiding any feeling of good v. evil. After show more all - if the climate during this time was one of shifting perceptions, why should anything become as easy as simple good brother vs. bad brother? All in all, the move to full story-arc has held up over the traditional vignette view of Astro City. show less
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Alex Ross was born in 1968. He attended St. Alban's School in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Harvard University in 1990. It was there that he studied under composer Peter Lieberson and was a D.J. on the classical and underground rock departments of the college radio station. He earned a Harvard A.B. in English summa cum laude for a thesis on show more James Joyce. From the years, 1992-1996, Alex Ross was a music critic at the New York Times. He also wrote for the New Republic, Slate, and The London Review of Books. In 1993 he started contributing to The New Yorker and became a staff writer in 1996. In 2007 his released his first book in the U.S. entitled The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, a cultural history of music since 1900. This book received widespread crritical praise in the U.S. and earned a National Book Critics Circle Award, a spot on New York Times list of the ten best books of 2007, and a finalist citation for the Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction. His second book - Listen to This- was published in September 2010. Alex Ross has also received a Holtzbrink fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Astro City Collections
17 works (6)
Astro City
112 works (Collections and Selections — Dark Age V1 #1-4 & V2 #1-4)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Astro City Vol. 06: The Dark Age, Book One: Brothers and Other Strangers
- Original publication date
- 2009
- People/Characters
- Silver Agent (Alan Jay Craig); Leopardman; Starwoman; Pyramid; Cleopatra; Black Badge (show all 28); L. S. Deviant; Jack-in-the-Box; Charles Williams; Royal Williams; Maharajah of Maga-Dhor; Steel Sidar; Street Angel; Tryanos Rex; Hellhound; Simon Magus; Apollo Eleven; Starfighter; Blue Knight; Madame Majestrix; Jade Dragons; Jitterjack; Joey "The Platypus" Platapopoulous; Darnice Williams; Black Velvet; The Incarnate; Aubrey Jason; Grimoire
- Important places
- Astro City, USA
- Epigraph
- Thanks to the usual suspects--Lawrence Watt-Evans, Karl Kesel, Richard Howell, James Fry and others--for tirelessly serving as sounding boards. Thanks also to my mother, for sharing her perspective on the 1960s and 1970s.
... (show all)
--Kurt Busiek
I thank the City of New York, which was in the throes of The Dark Age when I first arrived there in 1976, for its immeasurable inspiration in the object creation of Astro City.
--Brent Eric Anderson
My thanks to Marcus McLaurin for allowing Kurt and me a home for our Marvels project so many years ago and driving both of us elsewhere to elaborate upon its inspiration for Astro City. Also thanks to Bob Schrec... (show all)k, formerly of Dark Horse Comics, whose embrace of the Dark Age concept and dismissal of the previously-agreed upon Astro City series would cause us to realize the importance of building up that universe first before fulfilling this project.
--Alex Ross - First words
- It was Bakersville, in 1959.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I heard him. I heard him just fine.
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- 741.5973 — Arts & recreation Drawing & decorative arts Drawing Comic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas, cartoons, caricatures, comic strips History, geographic treatment, biography North American United States (General)
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- PN6728 .A79 .B86 — Language and Literature Literature (General) Literature (General) Collections of general literature Comic books, strips, etc.
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