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Sorry to steal this last one about Astro City...

Although we didn't spend a great deal of time talking about it in class, I very much enjoyed reading Astro City - I felt that it was really fresh and, despite it obvious references to other existing superheroes, really unlike anything else that we had read. The characters had depth and issues and we got to see aspects of superhero life that just aren't ever discussed, such as dating and how exhausting it is to try to save the world even when you can travel thousands of miles a second.

My favorite story (that no one else seemed to like very much :)) was the one about the woman from the haunted hill who comes into the city and is more afraid of what she encounters there than the monsters and demons lurking around her town every night. Obviously this story was a reference to tradition vs. change but even superficially, it was so strange and intriguing and that was what really made it interesting. I've always been fascinated by narratives, whether in literature or film, that just place you in the middle of the story because, although its disorienting sometimes, you really get a unique perspective as you have to just accept the world you're in without trying to understand it, which is something that humans very rarely do right from the beginning.

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