Thursday, January 28, 2016

Astro City #31


With the help of guest-artist Jesus Merino, with Astro City #31 writer Kurt Busiek offers up a story from the perspective of a monster who, it turns out, isn't all that monstrous. Told from the perspective of the Living Nightmare, a nightmarish creature that feeds on the fear of others, who escapes captivity not to wreak havoc but to do some serious soul searching, the story is one of introspection about what the creature is and who it wants to become.

Frankenstein Monster stories are hardly new, but in this day and age taking the time to explore the empathy of the creature rather than let it wreak wanton destruction down on innocents is something unexpected, anywhere but Astro City that is.

I don't know if or when the series might step back in to give us a look at the creature's new life with the Honor Guard, who accepts the Living Nightmare when it shows courage and true heroism and a driving desire for change, but in a series with countless nooks and crannies that might go unexplored for years, its good to know that the creature has earned a new life. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $3.99]

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