2015 Reading Challenge Book 059 Astro City Tarnished Angel

TITLE-Astro City The Tarnished Angel
AUTHOR-Kurt Busiek
FORMAT-Hardcover
FIRST TIME READING-No
PRICE-Free

I didn't start reading Astro City until around issue 8 of the second volume.And I read it until there was very very long delays between issues. With the Tarnished Angel storyline being the last one I read. Then back in 2008 I had managed to Stump the Rios on the Comic Geek Speak podcast 2 times. So I got an email from Peter Rios asking me what I would like as my 2 prizes. I wanted a CGS shirt and then asked him what trades/hardcovers they had as prizes. Saw they had this one and asked for it. About a month later I got it.

Originally published as issues 14 thru 20 of volume 2 of Astro City. This is the story of Steeljack. A super villain that has skin made of some kind of weird metal. Which means he can not be harmed easily. Plus he has super human strength. At the beginning of the story he is getting out of jail after spending right at 10 years for some crime.

Steeljack wants to got straight. He moved back to the slums of Astro City. But finds out no one wants to hire a super powered ex-con. And his parole officer basically tells him to just leave the country.

Then the families of various super villains he worked with in the past make him  a deal. It seems someone is killing off the low level super villains. And because of who they are the cops aren't really bothering to look into this. So their families hire Steeljack out to find out who is behind these killings.

Over the course of the 7 issues we get to learn so much about the various villains of this comic universe.Steeljack really really wants to put his criminal habits into his past.And the main thing in his past he wants to correct is that his mother never got a tombstone.

Steeljack figures out who is behind the killings. And tries to get some of the various heroes that populate Astro City to help. But because of his past they ignore him. So it is up to him to save the lives of a huge group of low level criminals.

The story is so well written. The mystery of who the big bad villain is can be solved with just the clues the reader is given. But it isn't so easy to figure out that you guess it as soon as you meet the person.

The artwork is amazing. The covers are all done by Alex Ross.With Brent Anderson doing the interior art. I love how Ross and Anderson make Steeljack look like Robert Mitchem. And the image on the cover was created just for this hardcover.

After the issues we get 14 pages of character sketches from Alex Ross. It is always neat to see how the character's look evolve between their creation and when they first appear. Then there is 14 pages devoted to sketches and pictures showing how Ross did the covers.

Plus you got the neat extras for this hardcover. Like the dust jacket. That seems to be made out of heavier paper than most dust jackets are. And I really like the built in ribbon bookmark.

Astro City Tarnished Angel gets a 4.11 outta 5.