Brian Thaddeus Rusk

Brian Thaddeus Rusk steps onto the page in 2007's Astro City: Dark Age / Book Two #1, a Modern Age creation from the celebrated team of Kurt Busiek and Brent E. Anderson — architects of one of comics' most beloved superhero tapestries. His corner of Astro City is populated by a striking cast that includes Encephalon, Lafayette O'Hearn, Clayton Rhodes, "Energy" Brown, and Shrff, the kind of richly textured ensemble that makes Astro City feel like a living, breathing world. Though his catalog footprint is modest, he belongs to a DC series that has earned its devoted readership through sheer storytelling craft, and his appearances across both Dark Age / Book Two and the Astro City Metrobook collections place him within one of modern comics' most thoughtfully constructed mythologies. For fans who love the human texture beneath the capes, Brian Thaddeus Rusk is exactly the sort of character worth seeking out.