Astro City #4: Safeguards Review
Medium: Comic
Release date: 11/1/1995
Review date: 10/24/2024
Score: 8/10
“Safeguards” is another really interesting issue of “Astro City,” keeping up the series’ winning streak and this time focusing on its Shadow Hill neighborhood. In-universe, Shadow Hill is where night first begins to fall in the city, and so has developed a reputation with a lot of the citizens as being rather dangerous and scary - the bus driver who picks up our narrator on her way to work everyday is visibly nervous driving through its roads. Because of this reputation, a lot of immigrant families in Astro City live in the Shadow Hill neighborhood, including this issue’s narrator, a young woman named Marta who lives with her parents but works downtown in Astro City proper, specifically with Ms. Conroy, the fiancée of Nick Furst, a member of the city’s Furst Family super-team. Marta fantasizes about being a part of the bustling, sun filled part of the city as she finds herself tiring a bit of the expectations of her family and the neighborhood, only for her to realize (after a super villain attack on her office and Ms. Conroy that the Furst Family shows up to stop) that she does really care for Shadow Hill and doesn’t mind staying there, as it's not so different from the rest of the city, dangers included. I think the issue does a really good job of contrasting not just the bright Astro City downtown with the dark and moody Shadow Hill, but also how both areas have their own rituals and talismans - the herbs and amulets the Marta’s grandmother taught her to use to protect her home aren’t all that different from Ms. Conroy’s Furst Family emergency call device she carries on her at all times. Likewise, for how heroic Nick Furst is in saving Marta during the super villain attack on her office, it's hard to argue the genuine danger she ended up in just because she was working nearby the superhero’s fiancée, a danger that the narrator just simply wouldn’t be in if she stayed and worked in Shadow Hill. I think it's actually that specific detail that really drives home the issue’s theme and help me to appreciate even more the series’ focus on the everyday people of Astro City, because yeah, as cool as living in a shiny metropolis full of super villains and heroes might seem on paper, the reality would probably be a bit stressful and might even be a danger worth moving away from entirely. I think Marta’s decision to stay and get a job in Shadow Hill ends up feeling like the mature, level headed choice by the end of the issue, even though the more fun and exciting decision would be to leave and move downtown, which displays strong writing chops on author Kurt Busiek’s part. I really enjoyed this issue, it made me think more than I usually do with superhero comics (also there wasn’t a really good place to mention it in the main review, but “Astro City” is still killing it with all the super people name drops like the Winged Victory, Slamburger, and Demolitia and the Unholy Alliance; it feels almost disrespectful to say that’s my favorite part, but it really might be).