Kurt Busiek's Astro City #19

From the acclaimed Homage Comics run, issue #19 of Kurt Busiek's Astro City arrives in November 1999 with an Alex Ross cover that pulls you right into the heart of a tense, crowded confrontation. Rendered in Ross's signature painterly realism, a silver-armored hero dominates the foreground while a caped figure in red sweeps dramatically overhead, with additional characters — some in period or ornate dress — filling the background with a sense of urgent, chaotic energy. With Kurt Busiek writing, Brent E. Anderson on interior art, and the story titled "The Only Chance," this issue promises the kind of deeply human superhero storytelling that has made Astro City one of 1999's most thoughtful titles.