Astro City #16
In "This Town," Kurt Busiek crafts a poignant origin tale for the space hero Astro-Naut, tracing the rise and fall of inventor Roy Virgil from wartime hero to forgotten legend. The story unfolds through the lens of Astro City’s founding, where a city’s memory of a lost hero becomes a living monument, shaped by grief, legacy, and the quiet weight of sacrifice. With evocative art by Brent Eric Anderson and a striking cover by Alex Ross, this issue blends personal history with urban myth in a way that feels both intimate and timeless.
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The story of how brilliant inventor Roy Virgil became the space hero Astro-Naut, how he fell out of favor during World War II, and how he apparently sacrificed himself to save Romeyn Falls in 1946. As a reward, his friend and mayor Joe Greenwald renamed the city Astro City in 1947.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).