Astro City: Local Heroes #5
Originally Presented at Comixtreme.com.
Quick Rating: Great
Title: Justice Systems
Vince Oleck has found a way to defend the guilty son of a mob boss - but will it cost him his soul?
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Brent E. Anderson
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: John Roshell & Bob Steen
Editor: Ben Abernathy & Kristy Quinn
Cover Art: Alex Ross
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm/Homage
REVIEW: Kurt Busiek concludes our latest journey into Astro City the same way he began it - brilliantly. For the uninitiated, Astro City is a title that examines a superhero universe from all possible angles - the hero, the villain, the bystander, the sidekick. In this two-part story arc, it’s from the viewpoint of a defense attorney pressured into saving the son of a mob boss facing trial for a murder that he is clearly guilty of. Fearing for his family’s life if he doesn’t get the mobster off, Vince Oleck tries a radical defense strategy. He suggests that the prosecution cannot prove his client committed the murder because of the known existence of alien shapeshifters, mind control and other superheroic elements in their city. Like all great Astro City arcs, it takes an idea that’s perfectly obvious for superhero titles, but has never been done before.
In this issue, Oleck deals with the fallout of his plan - the mob loves him, police hate him, and a criminal-killing vigilante called the Blue Knight is plaguing his dreams. To say any more would be to spoil one of the best comic books you’ve read all year.
It would be impossible to imagine this title with anyone doing the artwork but Brent Anderson (even cover artist Alex Ross would make it feel like a totally different series). Anderson’s artwork is not completely like an old-fashioned superhero title, but it has enough of that style to make the book work. The sequence where the Blue Knight invades Vince’s dream is particularly frightening - he is a chilling, disturbing character, made even more chilling because both you and Vince know he’s right.
You can’t envy the choices presented here - if seeing justice done meant seeing your family murdered, how many of us would do the same thing Vince Oleck does? That’s why this comic works - it is about real people in a fantastic setting.
Ironically, this is the only book DC has put out this week that has a “Previously” page at the beginning - ironic because it’s one of the most accessible books out there, and because it’s a book I’ve been reading anyway. If you haven’t been reading it, you’ve got to start.
Rating: 4/5