Astro City, Volume 2: Confession

  Volume 2 of Kurt Busiek's award-winning series stars the Confessor and his new sidekick, Altar Boy. The duo is the Astro City equivalent of Batman and Robin. So I thought I would be reading a sort of tribute to the Dynamic Duo but with a Catholic slant to their personas. Instead, Confession is the Astro City version of Watchmen. 

    A serial killer is on the loose in the poor neighborhood of Silent Hill and the carefree superheroes of the metropolitan marvel seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it. Along with several destructive episodes of careless heroics, the inaction of the city's heroes has allowed the Mayor to sway public opinion and opened the city up to an alien invasion. Added to the chaos is the Confessor's strange behavior as he the only hero who conducts searches for the Silent Hill killer. But why does even the burg's mystical protector, the Hanged Man, shy away from this troubled Man of God in his pursuit of justice and what is the horrible secret that keeps the Confessor awake at night?

    With Halloween almost here, I thought this would be an eerie (but fun) little jaunt through Astro City. I was not disappointed. Busiek crafted not one but two great mysteries in this story. The main one about the Confessor- just who or what is he? Since this is technically the second volume of the franchise, if you view all of the comics published under different publishers as a whole and I've read all of these out of order, I already knew his secret. But I was completely unawares of the whole alien invasion plotline and so my a priori knowledge of Astro City didn't detract from enjoying this story. Also, the intimidating presence of the Hanged Man throughout this book just deepens my level of interest in wanting to know more about his origin, which after 20-years of publication, Busiek has just scratched the surface with him.

     With completing Confession, my historic tours of Astro City is now complete. Thankfully, there's an all-new series being published monthly by Vertigo. So, I'll get to make some return trips from time to time. But with the inclusion of the rare Wizard issued mini-comic #1/2 added at the end of this volume, I am all caught up on all of the classic Astro City stories. 

     This really is one of the best franchises in all of the modern age of comics. With it's timeless approach to honoring all genres and levels of comics and pop culture history, my trips to Astro City is always fresh and never do I see the same thing twice. Plus, with the very rare exception of a fill-in artist or guest writer, it's rare to have the same trio of writers and artists working on the same project for as long as Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross have. To put the trio's 20-year run into perspective, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's longest continuing collaboration on a title, which was Fantastic Four, was only 9 years. 

     That's dedication not just to the craft but to the level of pride and care Busiek, Anderson, and Ross put into every issue of Astro City.

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.