History ComicBook / AstroCity

* DarkerAndEdgier: One character specifically notes the phenomenon when he sees Street Angel beat up a bar full of bad guys and thinks about how he used to be all smiley, telling jokes all the time and using gimmicky throwing halos. When he sees that the halos he uses now are "high impact ceramics with a steel core", he thinks it's a perfect metaphor for Astro City in the 70s.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Infidel is a black man with a platinum blond beard - implicitly his hair changed color as a side effect of time travel much like Samaritan's did.
** Note that when he uses his powers, his hair turns emerald green, just as Samaritan's turns sapphire blue.

* {{Determinator}}: The Blue Knight, who once hunted Royal Williams over several months for the crime of ''unloading stolen merchandise.'', even chasing him down while the planet was literally shaking itself apart

* DisproportionateRetribution: The villains care about what you write about them. Yes, even the cosmic ones.

*** And the Pale Horseman is worse; dispatching supervillains and jaywalkers alike. He incinerates a pair of boys aged 12 and 13 for shoplifting candy.

* EldritchAbomination: The Hanged Man is seen fighting one at the end of the "Confession" arc. It's implied that Shadow Hill may house or imprison more.

* GenreDeconstruction: ''Astro City'' is a deconstruction ''and'' a reconstruction; it focuses on the impact of superheroes on regular people, but also on the inner thoughts of heroes and villains.
** Even more so, it deals with those issues in ways that are not just negative or cynical as deconstructions often are. For example: One comic deals with a parent bringing his children to Astro City, and deciding that, after a chaotic night full of alien gods, the strength and idealism of the city was exactly the message he wanted to send his children even considering the danger. Sometimes. Other times, we see results like a woman spending decades blaming herself for driving off one of the world's most powerful heroes, or a lawyer's manipulation of super-hero cases in a trial leading to deep danger for his entire family. And some stories switch gears midway. Kurt likes to keep his fans guessing.

* TheGhost: The occult serial killer in the Confessor arc is never seen or even named.

* GloryHound: The Conquistador in ''Tarnished Angel'', who is actually [[spoiler: the disgraced superhero El Hombre, who misses being famous so much that he stages a supervillain attack so that he can stop it and become famous again.]]
** And Crackerjack, a vain hero who ''loves'' signing autographs.

* GoKartingWithBowser: Samaritan and Infidel eventually realized the futility in continuing their feud when it became clear that there was no way either of them would ever be able to win, and thus set up a yearly meeting along these lines just to compare notes and talk.
** It's interesting to note that at this point they don't even seem to regard one another as enemies. There's a lot of mutual respect in that arrangement. [[spoiler: Though it should be noted they're still indulging in stratagems to wear the other down, psychologically and emotionally. And Infidel himself admits he isn't sure who will be the victor of ''that'' battle.]]

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: The villain Mock Turtle spent his childhood trying to find his way into a magical world like Oz or Narnia or Wonderland. As an adult he became an engineer and finally snapped and became a supervillain after learning that he wouldn't be allowed to pilot the battle suit he had created. His childhood [[TheVamp sweetheart]] may have had something to do with it as well...

* LawOfConservationOfNormality: ''Astro City'' refines this to a fine art. An early issue had a recent immigrant to the town (from Chicago) witness to an attack by a gigantic storm elemental. Heading to the roof to watch the fight between the monster and all of the town's superheroes, he sees a bunch of the people in his building have gathered to watch the spectacle. When he asks one woman where her kids are, she tells him that they're working on their homework, since if the city isn't destroyed, there'll still be school tomorrow. This almost terrifies him into leaving town the next day, but when he sees how quickly the place is cleaned up and how everyone pitches in, it charms him into staying.

--->But that's okay. Somebody's got to live in all the other cities.

* LegacyCharacter: Cleopatra, The Confessor, Jack-in-the-Box, The Blue Knights, [[spoiler:The Silver Centurions]]

* LoserSonOfLoserDad: In "Confession", Brian wants to be a superhero to avoid this trope.
** And in "The Tarnished Angel", Yolanda Costello -- daughter of the super-villain Golden Glove -- vows to avoid this by being a smarter crook than her dad was.

* MistakenForGay: Crackerjack doesn't know this, but the old women in his apartment building think he's gay because he's a "theater type" with long hair.

* MookHorrorShow:In the first issue of the "Dark Age" arc, Royal Williams, one of the viewpoint characters and a petty criminal, is part of an armoured car robbery that is foiled by Jack In The Box; the whole thing is played like a horror movie monster attack, with Royal cowering in fear under a truck while Jack takes the others apart.

* NinetiesAntihero: A depressingly large number of characters in the Dark Age arc, but subverted by one of the first DarkerAndEdgier heroes Hellhound, who, despite having the demonic background, monstrous appearance, torn leather and chains costume and [[DarkAgeOfSupernames "edgy" name]], is actually a NobleDemon who had nothing but respect for the [[TheCape Silver Agent]] and worked alongside and was friendly with the old-school heroes Jack In The Box and Mirage.

* TheRealHeroes: Samaritan says this in "In Dreams" when receiving an award from the fire service. He really believes it, though he wishes he could skip the ceremonies and spend more time saving civilians instead.

* RetGone: In the TearJerker short "The Nearness of You."

* ShroudedInMyth: The Blue Knight is the subject of much rumor and speculation. An ex-cop with a holographic skull face, an actual avenging spirit, etc. Whether or not he's 8 feet tall or has a skull collection is also disputed.

* StealthPun: The supervillain Slamburger appears to be made of ground beef. ''Get it?''

* {{Superdickery}}: The story "Knight in Shining Armor" is a deconstruction of Lois's brand of Superdickery in the SilverAge Superman/Lois Lane relationship. Irene Merriweather tries to prove herself worthy of Atomicus' love by repeatedly trying to exposing his secret identity, but when she finally succeeds, he gets pissed off and leaves Earth forever -- he never wanted to play that game with her, but was too afraid to admit it. To reiterate so that the gravity of the situation: Irene was so obsessed about discovering Atomicus' secret identity that he, the greatest hero of the Atomic age, '''left the planet forever.'''
** What's more? In her initial inquiries into his identity, word started spreading and Adam Peterson's house was blown up by the local mafia. Afterwards, she ''still kept trying to prove he was Atomicus''.

* SuperheroTrophyShelf: Subverted with Samaritan, who has a PhantomZone that he uses only as storage space for the many awards and souveniers that he receives, and which merely gather the extradimensional equivalent of dust.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: Deconstructed in the Steeljack arc. Steeljack points out that all of the villains he knows (including himself) made millions at one point or another, but he finds all of their widows living in run-down apartments. They all put their fortunes into their next crimes and extravagant spending sprees, telling themselves that the next heist would be big enough to retire on. To a degree, [[TruthInTelevision this corresponds to real-life criminal psychology.]]
** And this is even specifically pointed out when he interviews the Chain's boyfriend, who mentions that he kept pushing the Chain to sell his invention (which allows him to transfer his mind into a metal body) for space or deep sea exploration, making millions in a perfectly legit way. The Chain would always shoot down the suggestions and insist he didn't understand.

** In the ''Tarnished Angel'' storyline, Steeljack becomes one when he finally figures out what's going on. An 800-pound man made of steel is pretty darned unstoppable when he wants to be.

* MundaneUtility: "On the Sidelines" focuses on a community of superpowered people who use their powers for mundane jobs, like construction and special effects, rather than heroics or villainy. Examples include a [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] who controls things for stunt work, [[PlayingWithFire a fire-manipulator]] who's a glassblower, an [[TheEmpath empath]] who's a club deejay, and a man with SuperStrength who works in construction. Then a super-villain comes along who thinks their lack of world-breaking ambition [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome make them ripe for exploitation...]]

* MundaneUtility: "On the Sidelines" focuses on a community of superpowered people who use their powers for mundane jobs, like construction and special effects, rather than heroics or villainy.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism (Highly idealistic)
** Sometimes. It depends on the story, character featured, and arc. For example, the "Dark Age" story arc is (appropriately) very grim and cynical, since it explores how idealistic characters may become enticed into cynicism.
** While it does have cynical moments, ''Astro City'' as a whole is more idealistic than not.
*** It varies by the viewpoint character. Busiek seems to be experimenting with stories where neither the idealistic nor the cynical characters come out constitutionally certain that their core beliefs are correct as the series progresses (e.g. the ''Infidel'' and ''Beautie'' one-shots).

* DieselPunk: Astro City is a gleaming art deco metropolis full of pulp heros.

* LongingForFictionland: As a child, the [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Mock Turtle]] always was trapped in wardrobes. Everyone thought he was an idiot. But he was trying to find a portal to [[ChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. If he could [[TheWizardOfOz have found a twister]] or [[Literature/AliceInWonderland a rabbit hole]], he would have tried that too. Once he is an adult and gets to Astro City, where the super human community saved him from some assassins and accepted him, he gets to a bulding's roof to see all the city, [[TheWizardOfOz put in her green visor, and all the city looks like an Emerald City]].

*** It varies by the viewpoint character. Recently (as in the ''Infidel'' and ''Beautie'' one-shots) Busiek seems to be experimenting with stories where neither the idealistic nor the cynical characters come out constitutionally certain that their core beliefs are correct.

* SamaritanSyndrome: Alot of the heroes have shades of this, but the [[TropeNamer Samaritan]] has it the worst.

* ActionGirl: Or, in the case of Winged Victory, Action LADY

''Astro City'' is a comic book series written by Creator/KurtBusiek, first published in 1995. It was originally published by Image, then moved to Homage[=/=]Wildstorm, staying with Wildstorm when it was bought by DC.

* BoobsOfSteel: Literally for Beautie, a human-sized robot based on an {{Expy}} Barbie doll whose proportions border on freakish at that size.
-->"My skin is ferro-styrene over an omnitanium frame. My breasts and buttocks are rigid. And I have no genitalia."

* DoingItForTheArt: Busiek and Ross certainly don't spare the details. For example, when a newspaper is shown, the ''entire article'' is written there, not just the headline.

** Palmetto of the Astro City Irregulars teen group resembles a giant cockroach, but hates to be called as such. Other animal-themed members include Stray, a heroic werewolf, and pas member Alligator, a mutant reptile.

** Palmetto of the Astro City Irregulars teen group resembles a giant cockroach, but hates to be called as such.

** How does Honor Guard, the world's greatest super-hero team, stay on top of the millions of emergency calls sent in every day? Easy! They have a call center. With thousands of operators and other than the building having matter transporters, materializing at locations around the world for secrecy, and occasionally is a key component in defeating super-villains, it's more or less just like any call center one's ever worked for or interacted with.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Glowworm (who is African-American) is specifically incensed that his mother was exposed to the Jack-in-the-Box comic that depicted him as a white supremacist. Manny Monkton tries to appeal to reason somewhat by asking how she feels about him robbing banks, and that probably didn't help.

* EvilTwin: Brief mention is made of the Worst Family, evil versions of the First Family from another dimension. The simple fact that these situations can happen motivates a defense attorney to set a new standard for excellence in litigation by bringing up the uncontestable idea that maybe it was his client's evil twin who killed that woman in front of 59 eyewitnesses.

* BadAssNormal: Apparently one can naturally train one's reflexes up to bullet-dodging levels in this universe.

* The Blue Knight: A vigilante police officer who hunts criminals with high-tech weapons and a ruthless determination. Later inspires the creation of The Blue Knights, a team of vigilantes.

* Beautie, a life-sized BarbieDoll who fights crime. FABULOUSLY.