Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Tarnished Angel

   Rough Neighborhoods.

   Every city and town have those places where family members warn you not to go alone or at night... OR BOTH! These are communities that due to drugs, alcohol, and crime and rampant unemployment, have very little hope left in it's citizens and future. 

   Even with its host of superheroes and bustling cityscapes, Astro City isn't immune to the phenomena. It's called Kiefer Square and because of it's noted reputation of being the headquarters of scores of B-list super villains, the Square is where you go to hire your goon squad for your next heist or plot to take over the world. It's also where old villains and ex-cons go to die. And right now, someone is killing off those villains, one by one.

   Just fresh from parole is Carl Donewicz. You might remember him as the Steel-jacketed Man AKA Steeljacket. He grew up in Kiefer Square, turned to a life of crime in Keifer Square, became a super villain in Kiefer Square, and would like to retire in Kiefer Square if his past would just let him. 

   It's bad enough trying to get a job as an ex-con, but Carl has an even harder time because of his appearance, in which a medical experiment gave him shiny silver skin and super strength. Unable to find a job and not wanting to break parole, Carl reluctantly takes on a role as an amateur private investigator to the recent string of serial killings of old associates and neighbor's of Steeljacket. 

    With the cops refusing to even enter the neighborhood, Steeljacket will need any and all resources available to catch the killer referred to by residents as the 'Black Mask Killer.' But Carl is going to have to act fast as his snooping has put him not only back on the radar of the ACPD but the killer as well.

   I love Kurt Busiek's Astro City stories. They are fun, exciting, and great tributes to the works of legendary DC and Marvel writers and artists. The Tarnished Angel is all of that plus it has that gritty noir element added to it. This was like reading a graphic novel based on the works of Dashiell Hammett with Robert Mitchum starring in the lead (All-time favorite artist Alex Ross even based the look of Steeljacket on the late actor.)

   But the Tarnished Angel also has something more to this story than other Astro City works- it has a human element that is unbridled and raw. It's that quality, which is rare and ironic to find in a superhero book, that knocked Astro City: the Dark Ages out of first place of my favorite AC stories. At 224-pages, this is one of the longest Astro City works to date, but it is worth the read. Every panel oozes pathos and the entire book is nearly flawless. I just wish a few certain characters in this book had lived. AND I kinda wished Steeljacket's story never had to end.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9.99 out of 10 stars.