Astro City: The Dark Age is a modern classic

Astro City: The Dark Age
Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson look at the 1970s and 1980s through the prism of the superhero world of Astro City, in a 16-part storyline.   Four four-issue miniseries (“Astro City: The Dark Age” Books 1-4) follow Charles and Royal Williams as they seek the man who murdered their parents.   Their lives are intertwined with that of the Silver Agent, who is traveling through time in an attempt to avert a coming disaster.

Busiek and Anderson are taking apart the grittier comics of the 1970s and 1980s and exploring them from the point of view of characters who are living it.  It recreates the feel of reading comics as a younger person in the late 70s and early 1980s, but with a story that works on multiple levels.   Any superhero fan should take a look at The Dark Age, which probably suffered from its extended shipping schedule as far as sales.   But with two collections containing all 16 issues, there’s no reason not to read this modern classic.  Alex Ross remains active with the book as a character designer and cover artist.