Samaritan

A time-traveler from the 35th century, Samaritan hurled himself back to the 20th century to prevent a catastrophic event, and the energies of that journey—the Empyrean Fire—transformed him, granting flight, super-strength, super-speed, and the power to shape empyrean fields. Stranded in the past, he now protects the world he saved.

Few characters announce a publisher's ambitions quite like Samaritan — debuting in the very first issue of Kurt Busiek's Astro City in 1995, he arrived as a cornerstone of one of the Modern Age's most celebrated superhero universes. Created by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson, he's been a fixture of Astro City for thirty years, sharing its richly imagined pages with the likes of Winged Victory, Quarrel, N-Forcer, and Cleopatra. That debut issue carries genuine key-issue status, a testament to how fully-formed and compelling this world felt right out of the gate. If you love superhero storytelling that takes its characters seriously and rewards long-term readers, Samaritan is exactly the kind of figure worth tracking down.