Astro City #36

This haunting Alex Ross cover tells the whole story at a glance: a red-and-teal costumed heroine lies sprawled and motionless in a debris-strewn alley, while in the middle distance a tiny fallen figure echoes the same defeated pose. Astro City has always found its power in the human cost behind superhero life, and "The Other Side of the Story" looks to push that theme somewhere raw and uncomfortable. Writer Kurt Busiek and artist Ron Randall bring this Vertigo issue home with color work by Peter Pantazis that makes the dim alleyway feel quietly devastating.