Astro City: Difference between revisions
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* [[All Crimes Are Equal]]: The Pale Horseman
* [[Alternate Company Equivalent]]: Most of the cast, really.
** As The Gentleman is a [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Expy]] of [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]], it's rather fitting that he's drawn to resemble Alex Ross's renditions of the Big Red Cheese (especially since Ross paints almost all of the ''
* [[Alien Invasion]]: The Enelsians (a [[Shout-Out]] to E. Nelson Bridwell; the first Enelsian invader even uses the pseudonym "Mr. Bridwell.")
* [[All Musicals Are Adaptations]]: Crackerjack, in his civilian identity, mentions blowing an audition for the musical version of ''Inherit the Wind''.
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* [[The Cowl]]: Confessor, though unlike most of these he's not part of a larger team and doesn't associate with other heroes at all ''ever''. {{spoiler|Well, other than the club where he recruited Altar Boy. But he was off duty at the time and specifically looking for a partner.}}
** Implied with Black Rapier, we haven't seen a lot of him but he appears to be Batman [[Recycled in Space|with fencing]] (or just a [[Captain Ersatz]] [[Zorro]]) Plus Junkman describes him as a detective.
* [[Crisis Crossover]]: In "The Nearness of You", a man becomes increasingly obsessed about a woman who keeps appearing in his dreams. It turns out it's because a minor villain caused a [[Temporal Paradox]] that threatened the universe and required all of the heroes to stop
** Also appears in the ending of the "Confession" arc, which is basically a Crisis Crossover as seen from the sidelines.
* [[Cryptic Background Reference]]: Used liberally. Right from the first issue we're given all sorts of names and concepts that are not given direct exposition, it is simply expected that readers will fill in the gaps with their knowledge of comic book tropes.
** In particular, the death of a hero named Silver Agent is referenced in quite a few issues, we even see a memorial at one point. Why did he die? Why does the memorial say "To Our Eternal Shame"? This would go unrevealed for a long, long time, until ''The Dark Age'' revealed that {{spoiler|he was framed for murder by the Mad Maharajah, and the government executed him to show they still had control over superheroes. Using time travel, he saved the entire city mere minutes after his death, and saved the ''world'' several times years later, illustrating that he was a hero to the last.}} The kicker? {{spoiler|The Mad Maharajah wasn't even really dead.}}
* [[Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon]]: Professor Borzoi threatens the Gentleman that he'll mess up his hair and crumple the flower on his lapel. Admittedly, these might actually be threatening statements to a dapper fellow like the Gentleman.
** Also note that the encounter occurred during
* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: Deconstructed in the Steeljack arc. Steeljack points out that all of the villains he knows (including himself) made millions at one point or another, but he finds all of their widows living in run-down apartments. They all put their fortunes into their next crimes and extravagant spending sprees, telling themselves that the next heist would be big enough to retire on. To a degree, [[Truth in Television|this corresponds to real-life criminal psychology.]]
** And this is even specifically pointed out when he interviews the Chain's boyfriend, who mentions that he kept pushing the Chain to sell his invention (which allows him to transfer his mind into a metal body) for space or deep sea exploration, making millions in a perfectly legit way. The Chain would always shoot down the suggestions and insist he didn't understand.
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* [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]: Often referenced, especially in flashbacks and by older supers. One in particular, fighting an ultra-modern superbot, thinks about how "Back in the day, I'd probably whip up a sonic tornado, get him out into the atmosphere or something." Instead, he just punches the shit out of it. With a water heater. And lays waste to six city blocks.
* [[Good Guy Bar]]: The lowbrow Bruiser's Bar, complete with popcorn, longnecks, and arm-wrestling, and Butler's, a private club with formal evening wear and elegantly catered meals.
* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: The Gentleman is implied to be
* [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking]]: Augustus and Julius Furst smoke a pipe and cigars, respectively, as befits an [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]] and a [[BFG]]-toting [[Badass Normal]].
* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Astra (and her mother and uncle).
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* [[Hermetic Magic]]: Simon Magus was specifically designed to look more "European hermetic" than "carnival prestidigitator".
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Street Angel has one after Black Velvet confronts him with the [[Fridge Logic]] of [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]. Specifically, she pointed out that for all of his nonlethal combat tactics, it's not like he ensured medical attention for every internal injury he caused and that many thugs likely died in cold alleys because of Street Angel's beatings.
* [[Heroic Bystander]]: Pete Donacek from "Newcomers", a former hockey player and a hotel doorman at The Classic. He once saved a little girl's life during a giant robot attack. He sees her every day walking home from school, but has never talked to her and doesn't even know her
{{quote|My name is Pete Donacek. I live in Astro City. I wear a uniform, too.}}
* [[Heroic Self-Deprecation]]: Samaritan is prone to this, on the few occasions you can get him to settle down for dinner and talk.
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'''Black Velvet:''' "G-good... Do it. Please. ''Now.''" }}
* [[Law of Conservation of Normality]]: ''Astro City'' refines this to a fine art. An early issue had a recent immigrant to the town (from Chicago) witness to an attack by a gigantic storm elemental. Heading to the roof to watch the fight between the monster and all of the town's superheroes, he sees a bunch of the people in his building have gathered to watch the spectacle. When he asks one woman where her kids are, she tells him that they're working on their homework, since if the city isn't destroyed, there'll still be school tomorrow. This almost terrifies him into leaving town the next day, but when he sees how quickly the place is cleaned up and how everyone pitches in, it charms him into staying.
** And the story "Newcomers" reveals that this isn't the case for all new
{{quote|But that's okay. Somebody's got to live in all the other cities.}}
* [[Legacy Character]]: The Confessor, Jack-in-the-Box, The Blue Knights, {{spoiler|The Silver Centurions}}
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* [[Le Parkour]]: Practiced by the Trouble Boys, a bunch of young men who admired Jack-in-the-Box. When you can practically keep up with a guy on springs, you're ''good''.
* [[Literal Surveillance Bug]]: Jack-In-The-Box's doodle bug from "Father's Day".
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Even excluding one-shots and background cameos, the lack of a single main character/team (along with the [[Cryptic Background Reference]]s and [[Continuity Nod]]s) causes ''
* [[Locked Into Strangeness]]: Samaritan has his hair turn blue after the [[Time Travel]] incident that gives him his powers. He can change it to white at will, but apparently not back to its original black. His archenemy Infidel's hair also changed color as a result of the same incident, going from black to green, though when not using his powers it's blonde.
* [[Logging Onto the Fourth Wall]]: "Pastoral" featured a character looking up the hero Roustabout on herocopia.com. If you looked up herocopia.com at the time, you got taken to the same page as in the comic. These days, [http://www.herocopia.com herocopia.com] is the location of a sanctioned but near-moribund [[The Wiki Rule|fan wiki]].
* [[Longing for Fictionland]]: As a child, the [[Alice in Wonderland|Mock Turtle]] always was trapped in wardrobes. Everyone thought he was an idiot. But he was trying to find a portal to [[Chronicles of Narnia|Narnia]]. If he could [[The Wizard of Oz|have found a twister]] or [[Alice in Wonderland|a rabbit hole]], he would have tried that too. Once he is an adult and gets to Astro City, where the super human community saved him from some assassins and accepted him, he gets to a building's roof to see all the city, [[The Wizard of Oz|put on her green visor, and all the city looks like an Emerald City]].
* [[Loser Son of Loser Dad]]: In "Confession", Brian wants to be a superhero to avoid this trope.
** And in "The Tarnished Angel", Yolanda
* [[Lower Deck Episode]]: Some of the most memorable stories are of this trope.
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Infidel combines this with the "Mad Alchemist" and "Mad Wizard" subtypes.
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* [[Not So Different]]: Samaritan and Infidel.
* [[Not Worth Killing]]: Happens to actor Mitch Goodman (who plays the "Crimson Cougar" on TV) in "Great Expectations". He gets attacked in public by the Dark Centurion, who easily pummels him. When Mitch begs for mercy, the Centurion sneers that he's [[Not Worth Killing]] and leaves. {{spoiler|It was a ruse set up by Mitch and his friends so Mitch could stop being a high-profile <s>celebrity</s> super-villain target.}}
* [[Old Superhero]]: Several, due to the comic's aversion of [[Comic Book Time]]
* [[One Last Job]]: In "The Tarnished Angel", Steeljack finds that almost all of his fellow low-rent supervillain peers are constantly lining up for that one last job, the one that will lead them to greatness and riches... but it never works out.
{{quote|"Oh, there was always a new job. And always a sure thing, too. This time was the big one, always. This time, the one that'd end all our troubles."}}
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* [[Sinister Minister]]: Subverted by The Deacon, who is the undisputed boss of all organized crime throughout the city, but not an actual religious figure. This is balanced by his greatest enemy, the Confessor, not only also being religiously themed, but actually being a real priest.
* [[Skull for a Head]]: The Blue Knight wears a face mask that projects a holographic skull.
* [[Slave to PR]]: Explored by Samaritan in "In Dreams", where he ''forces'' himself to make public appearances and accept
* [[Slice of Life]]
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Highly idealistic.
** Sometimes. It depends on the story, character featured, and arc. For example, the "Dark Age" story arc is (appropriately) very grim and cynical, since it explores how idealistic characters may become enticed into cynicism.
** While it does have cynical moments, ''
*** It varies by the viewpoint character. Recently (as in the ''Infidel'' and ''Beautie'' one-shots) Busiek seems to be experimenting with stories where neither the idealistic nor the cynical characters come out constitutionally certain that their core beliefs are correct.
* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: Crackerjack is genuinely a fantastic physical specimen and often shows himself to be a true hero, but his grandiosity is too much for ''any'' amount of skill to back up.
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* [[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum]]: Infidel narrates that he once destroyed the universe in a "fit of pique." After discovering even that wouldn't kill Samaritan (and Samaritan realizing the same for Infidel), they collaborated to put everything back together. Once that was done, they decided to [[Go-Karting with Bowser|have lunch together once a year.]]
* [[Super Family Team]]: The Furst Family.
* [[Super Dickery]]: The story "Knight in Shining Armor" is a deconstruction of Lois's brand of Superdickery in the [[Silver Age]] Superman/Lois Lane relationship. Irene Merriweather tries to prove herself worthy of Atomicus' love by repeatedly trying to exposing his secret identity, but when she finally succeeds, he gets pissed off and leaves Earth
** What's more? In her initial inquiries into his identity, word started spreading and Adam Peterson's house was blown up by the local mafia. Afterwards, she ''still kept trying to prove he was Atomicus''.
** There was also a brief mention in the story "Old Times"
* [[Superhero]]
* [[Superhero Trophy Shelf]]: Subverted with Samaritan, who has a [[Phantom Zone]] that he uses only as storage space for the many awards and souveniers that he receives, and which merely gather the extradimensional equivalent of dust.
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* [[Whip It Good]]: El Hombre
* [[Wonder Twin Powers]]: The Jade Dragons are a brother/sister martial arts team who can summon a giant dragon by linking their arms together.
* [[You Are What You Hate]]: Done intentionally in the "
* [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]]: Humorously deconstructed in "Show 'Em All"
* [[You Killed My Father]]: Aubrey Jason, a Pyramid agent, killed Royal and Charles Williams' parents during a fight with the Silver Agent. When Royal learns his identity twenty years later, he uses that information to give his dying brother Charles the will to live on.
* [[You Know I'm Black, Right?]]: A boisterous, money-grubbing comic publisher did ''not'' know that the supervillain Glowworm was black before depicting him as a white supremacist in a Jack-in-the-Box story. The results were not pretty.
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