Fri Dec 9, 2016
Alright, another Astro City post!
After the original six-issue series, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross began a new volume whose second storyline has remained, arguably, their best: “Confession.”
The “Confession” story arc deals with a young man, Brian Kinney, who heads to Astro City from a small town to escape the hardships he’d experienced there (mostly dealing with poverty while his father, a doctor, worked thanklessly–often without pay–to help his community). After Brian arrived, he eventually became the sidekick to Astro City’s most mysterious hero, the Confessor (a clear Batman stand-in, although the comparison’s not perfect). Brian’s hero persona, by the way, was Altar Boy.
I don’t want to spoil everything about this story because it’s incredibly well-crafted and, for me, quite powerful emotionally. Suffice it to say that, by the time issue 009–the final issue in the story–comes around, the Confessor has died.
On the cover of this issue, the members of religious super-team The Crossbreed stand in the shadows, a light cast on them from off-panel. Together, the members hold the Confessor’s outfit in their hands.
Kurt Busiek's Astro City issue 009
After seeing the Confessor die, Brian has to come to terms with his understanding of the world. What does he want to do? Why be a hero at all? Plus, he has to do so in the middle of a MASSIVE crisis–and not surprisingly, he ends up overwhelmed and shocked by everything he’s experienced. The Crossbreed get a hold of Brian and take him to their refuge to rest. There, Noah offers a question to Brian that echoes for me as one of the greatest demonstrations of the superhero ethos I’ve read: “What is more important? The burdens we bear–or the way we bear them?” I think about this passage a lot. I mean a lot.
Eventually, Brian makes peace with his past, his family, the Confessor’s memory, and he figures out a plan for the future.
Maybe it’s easy for me to see myself in Brian (especially as I was closer to his age when I first read “Confession”). Maybe I just love a great Batman & Robin story. Maybe this particular story just has everything I wanted to see in a coming-of-age hero tale, plus it tugs on my Catholic upbringing too. Whatever the case … this is a solid-gold comic. Admittedly, on its own it’s a bit tricky to enter into easily, although there’s a little effort to help a new reader (that said, this is definitely the payoff to several issues’ unfolding).
It’s also really cool to revisit this story in the context of the Astro City universe’s 1:1 time lapse scale to the real world; in the current volume, Brian is older, wiser, and has a ton of tricks up his sleeve regarding superheroics. But I’ll admit I miss the old Confessor, too.
Anyway: this is essential reading material for the superhero comics fan.