The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 1

One of my favourite comic series is Astro City, a series that has the audacity to make the city and its people the central character as opposed the superheroes as is the norm. Starman manages to do an excellent job of blending the typical superhero focus and this broader city-focussed narrative style. From the get go, Opal city and the non-super inhabitants become major players in Starman's adventures and it makes the book all the richer. In one of the included question sections from the old issues, Robinson discusses how the illustrator Harris has a clear vision for the skyline of Opal city, and an idea of what all the neighbourhoods look like etc. and you can really tell. Very quickly, you begin to know Opal city. It feels familiar—and not just because it kind of reminds me of Portland. And the final climactic story of this volume is very interestingly retold through several issues from the perspective of different characters, giving us a sense of how many different people around the city interpret the chaos that super villains create.

I do have one complaint with the text and that is that Robinson can sometimes verge on pretentious. I love an argument about which Sondheim musical is best mid fight just as much as anyone, but these little moments sometimes come off as forced—the author is peaking through a little too much and it feels overly indulgent. But it's easy to read past some of this missteps as the work on a whole is a thoroughly enjoyable read.