Astro City: Through Open Doors

When this Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series returned after a hiatus, it relaunched with four excellent stories of the human side of superheroes, collected in Shining Stars. In this succeeding volume, preeminent comics scribe Busiek (Marvels; JLA/Avengers) reveals the reverse: the extraordinary side of more ordinary folk living among superpowered movers and shakers. Introduced here are an app developer and a mob lieutenant who dare to approach an alien ambassador, and a help-desk staffer on a superhero team's emergency contact line who deals with guilt over a mistaken judgment call. More closely straddling the boundary between "super" and "typical" are the apparently nonpowered early 20th-century steampunk adventuress Dame Progress, and a remarkable group of powered individuals who eschew the conflict of the hero/villain life and use their abilities in other ways (e.g., construction or movie special effects). And even here Busiek is not short of great ideas for new heroes and villains, presenting anime-esque supergirl American Chibi, Vertigo-esque occultist the Broken Man, and wannabe villain-master the Majordomo.