Kurt Busiek's Astro City #13

Issue #13 of Kurt Busiek's Astro City arrives in February 1998 with an Alex Ross cover that immediately pulls you into an intimate, film-noir atmosphere — a brooding, red-skinned leonine figure sits alone at a dimly lit bar table, a bottle and glass before him, while two human figures loom close in the shadowy foreground, framing the scene with quiet tension. The mood is more melancholy than menacing, suggesting a story — titled "In the Spotlight" — that puts its focus squarely on what it means to live in a world of extraordinary beings. With Anderson, Blyberg, Sinclair, and Comicraft rounding out the creative team, this is Astro City doing what it does best: finding the deeply human (or not-quite-human) heart beneath the surface.