Civilians and Others
Everyone else who is neither a hero nor a villain, but just the folks trying to get through the day without undue duress. open/close all folders
Michael Tenicek
"He never met her. He knows he never met her."
Michael was just a regular guy living a regular life until he kept getting these strange, vivid dreams of a woman. A woman that he thinks he knows very well and feels very strongly for, and yet he has never met her.- Absence of Evidence: Played with in his second story. a recent addition to his support group goes looking into his past...only to find no record he was ever married. The nature of his unique trauma from Superhuman battles means there's inherently no evidence of his trauma.
- Big Damn Heroes: Downplayed. When challenged for evidence that by definition can't exist, he can only ask the members of his support group to trust him that he's not a liar and a fraud. And then the Hanged Man silently appears behind him, worldessly confirming the truth of his story to everyone
- Cosmic Retcon: The cause for all his suffering. The Honor Guard fought a time-travelling villain across many different periods in history. While the Guard were ultimately victorious and put most of everything back together, little pieces like Michael's wife Miranda were erased due to minor disruptions in the timestream (her grandparents never met, so she was never born).
- I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: While he doesn't really cry, Michael is absolutely obsessed with the woman of his dreams because she's his wife who was erased due to a retcon event.
- The Lost Lenore: Miranda, his wife. Even 20 years later he still can't get over her.
- No Endor Holocaust: Averted. Michael's suffering is because his wife was erased from the timeline due to time-travel shenanigans. There is no proof that she ever existed, and the only people/beings who know or even care are Michael and The Hanged Man. According to Hanged Man, there are several other people across the world suffering from this as well, and he offers to wipe their memories of their lost loved ones.
None of them forget. None of them. - Pals with Jesus: The Hanged Man, an eldritch being capable of holding off alien invasions alone, keeps a watchful eye on Michael. Michael considers him the closest thing to a real friend he has.
- Ripple-Proof Memory: It is his gift and his curse.
- Tropaholics Anonymous: After The Hanged Man visited him, Michael started a support group for people affected by trauma related to superheroic incidents, and has been running the group full time for 20 years. The Honor Guard are secretly funding him so he still gets to pay his bills and provide a valuable service.
Andrew "Eyes" Eisenstein
"I just — I just saw Jack-In-The-Box's real face."
A small-time crook and lookout. In "A Little Knowledge", he manages to get a good glimpse at Jack-In-The-Box's unmasked face; now he just needs to figure out how to make it pay off...- Atrocious Alias: When stuck on a pseudonym in the presence of Zachary Johnson and his wife, "Eyes" quickly improvises "Jack Bachsinger", and immediately mentally slaps himself.
- Call-Back: Eisenstein scrambled aboard a bus way back in Vol. 1 of Astro City, but his name appears on a magazine subscription in Astro City: Astra #2 - in Fairbanks, Alaska. Looks like he's still hiding out.
- Mook: He's not a supervillain, just a street thug.
- No Honor Among Thieves: "Eyes" becomes increasingly worried about being cheated out of his discovery by his colleagues.
- Paranoia Fuel: An in-universe examination of the trope: Eyes begins to panic as more and more possible consequences of squealing occur to him.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Ultimately, Eisenstein doesn't try to cash in on Jack-in-the-Box's secret; instead, he hops on a bus to Alaska and never comes back.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: "Eyes" figures out what Jack-In-The-Box's identity is, but Jack himself doesn't know he knows.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Eisenstein worries that this trope will hit him once he reveals his secret.
Pete Donacek
"My name is Pete Donacek. I live in Astro City. I wear a uniform too."
The Senior Doorman at the Astro City Classic hotel. He checks bags, gives directions, and loves hockey. He likes to look out for the newcomers to the city, pointing them to tourist spots and informing them where the danger zones are.- Good Samaritan: He saves a little girl during a supervillain attack.
- Heroic Bystander: Pete decided to stay in Astro City after risking his life to save a stranger's little girl, as he had lived the dream of being a real hero.
- Samaritan Relationship Starter: Played with; during an attack on the city, Pete saved a young girl from falling debris, despite risk and injury to himself. Even after she's grown up, he watches her pass his station every day, but it's strictly a one-way platonic affair.
Manny Monkton
"The kids don't want facts. They want drama! THRILLS!"
Editor-in-chief and publisher of Bulldog Comics. Through Bulldog, Manny publishes many books about Real Life superheroes and villains, and sometimes gets into trouble over his unlicensed and creative interpretation of events.- Bald of Evil: While not supervillain evil, he's a total slimeball.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To his employees and coworkers, he's a generally good-natured guy who just wants to tell the most entertaining stories he can, but his taunting of Nightingale and dealings with Crackerjack show there's a seriously unpleasant person under that charm.
- The Charmer: Even people who know about Manny's manipulative skills can't help but admire his bravado.Eli: He's a good talker. Besides, I'm used to him. And life, well, life would be a lot duller without him around.
- Cigar Chomper: Often seen chewing on a stoogie.
- Consummate Liar: When Crackerjack shows up to complain about unpaid royalties, he used outrageously lowballed sales figures and Hollywood Accounting to claim that he hadn't made any money on Crackerjack's title and therefore didn't owe him anything.
- Control Freak: He quit his original job because they wouldn't let him tell stories his way, and founded his own company. Most of his interactions show him browbeating or persuading his employees to go along with his ideas.
- Deadpan Snarker: To his credit, Manny can deliver zingers even when he's being manhandled by a super-villain.Glowworm: Do you know what my mother thought when she read that stinking book of yours?!
Manny: And, um, how does she feel about you robbing banks—? - Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: After his encounter with Glowworm, Manny becomes inspired to create a new line of comics dealing with Cosmic Entities, beings who wouldn't care about anything ordinary humans do. Needless to say, it does not end well.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Played for laughs. Glowworm teaches Manny a 'lesson' that leaves him with a cast, a neck brace and a swollen eye, but he hasn't learned a thing.
- Fat Bastard: Chubby, round, and kind of a colossal jerkass.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Monkton unashamedly made a living publishing libel against superbeings, good or bad, just to get his stories to sell. He had the shit kicked out of him for it by Glowworm the first time around before he decided to shift his focus into slandering Cosmic Entities instead. Cue said enraged entities making him and his entire building disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.
- Malicious Slander: Although Manny doesn't intend to hurt anyone with his truth-stretching, some of his subjects see his 'alterations' as vicious libel.
- Never Found the Body: Exactly what happened to him is unclear. But no-one on Earth ever saw him again.
- Never My Fault: He's got a severe allergy for taking any responsibility for the consequences of his publishing decisions. It's everyone else's fault for getting offended.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: He claims that if he doesn't take liberties with the truth, readers won't be interested.
- Smug Snake: Manny takes this tack when Nightingale chews him out for insinuating a lesbian relationship between her and her sidekick Sunbird. He accuses her of being homophobic for taking offense, and then points out that she can't sue him without revealing her secret identity.
- The Storyteller: A Loveable Rogue version.
- Too Dumb to Live: He writes not exactly true stories about people who could, at the least, throw him out of his office, and at worst, turn him into a gnat's fart. This gets Monkton pummeled by Glowworm after he finally grows sick of his slander, and would eventually come back to bite him in a most final manner when he starts antagonising Cosmic Entities of all things, only to learn the hard way that they aren't putting up with his crap either.
- Uncertain Doom: One day after he decides to start publishing stories about cosmic-level superbeings, the entire Bulldog Comics building vanishes into thin air. It's anyone's guess what happened to it, or him.
- Unreliable Narrator: Manny is this in-story, as he encourages his writers to play fast and loose with the facts to make their stories more exciting.
Loony Leo
"Ah, what the hell. It's show business, right?"
A cartoon lion who was accidentally brought to life in 1946. After realizing he was stuck in the real world, he had a series of adventures, from superhero sidekick and movie star to supervillain's pawn and a recluse, until finally finding something that would fill his days.- The Alcoholic: Sank into this after his career failed.
- Appeal to Novelty: The main gimmick of Loony Leo's restaurant is visiting Leo, the living cartoon.
- Chaste Toons: Was one of these before being brought into the real world, with three rascally nephews and a chaste romance with Lola Lion.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: He was originally sustained by the combined belief of Astro City's citizens.
- Complete Immortality: At the very least, he doesn't age, starve to death, or die of exposure (although he does feel every bit of the latter two). He's not even sure if being torn apart would kill him.
- Death Seeker: After he hit rock bottom, he was one of these for a while, to the point of briefly becoming a supervillain working for someone who was (lying about being) able to kill him.
- Desperately Craves Affection: He paid Corliss McBride money that he knew very well was going straight into her veins because it was the only reason she stuck around and he was too lonely to break things off.
He really should've gotten a pen pal. - Expy: Of Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic talking tiger from the original Captain Marvel stories.
- Face–Heel Turn: Briefly served as The Myth-Master, a villain who defeated Honor Guard by summoning the greatest fighters of human mythology. He was tricked by an alien who assured Leo that this would allow him to finally die.
- Fake Memories: Strictly speaking, the events of the cartoons which were made before he became real didn't actually happen to him, but he remembers them as though they had.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He's a chain-smoker - when his cartoons were being made, 'Smoking Is Cool' was the prevailing opinion.
- Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: He doesn't like his career much, but he does love being a celebrity.
- Interspecies Romance: Apparently can and does hook up with human women. It's probably better not to think about it.
- Nonstandard Character Design: as a living cartoon, he stands out from the more realistically-rendered characters.
- Old Shame: In-universe. He feels that he earned the disdain people showed him after his Role-Ending Misdemeanor, and is also ashamed of his turn as The Myth-Master.
- Refugee from TV Land: In-universe, Leo started off as the star of a series of theatrical cartoon shorts, but was made real due to a "Belief Ray" from Professor Borzoi.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Leo is a living incarnation of this trope. After becoming "real", he even featured in a couple of live-action films in the style of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the novelty value eventually faded.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In-universe. His career was doing a fine job of dying quietly on its own when the hooker who was the closest thing he had to a friend OD'd in his hotel bed. Oh, and she turned out to have been hiding the fact that she was only fourteen. Pretty soon nobody would even hire Leo to wash dishes.
- Sidekick: To The Gentleman, for a while.
- Small Role, Big Impact: While most of his story is self-contained and he's barely ever appeared since, he was the subject of a landmark court case that asked the question of whether a company could claim an artificial being as property (being based on a copyrighted character). Due to having acted as the Gentleman's sidekick, he was too beloved in the public eye for the company to risk the bad press, and so they allowed him to exist as an independent person.
- Trademark Favorite Food: A review of his restaurant mentions that the beef dishes are incredible and everything else is either fine or so-so—he is a lion, after all.
- Tulpa: Brought to life by scientific means but sustained through belief and completely independent.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Fago's Funny Features attempted to claim Leo as their property. The court case which established him a free person and citizen set a precedent for other artificial beings such as Beautie.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Leo used to be a major movie and television star, but now spends his day as a restauranteur and living novelty.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: He's virtually immortal, and has gone through extended periods of angst and depression.
- An added issue is, while Leo can't starve or freeze to death, he can FEEL those sensations, meaning that during his time on the streets, he both froze and starved with no possible relief.
Carl Donewicz (Steeljack / The Steel-Jacketed Man)
"But I been runnin' all my life now... and I'm still in the same place..."
A delinquent from the seedier Kiefer Square section of Astro City, Carl Donewicz volunteered for an experiment that resulted in his body being covered with organic steel, then exploited it to be a super-villain. After a youth wasted in elaborate schemes that landed him in Cardboard Prison over and over, Steeljack just wants to stay out of trouble and make an honest living — but is hard-pressed to do so when a killer stalks the residents of the Square.- Bad Guy Bar: His favorite little bar serves a clientele of C-list supervillains, fences, fixers and Mooks. Carl can't even walk past the place without violating the terms of his parole.
- Blessed with Suck: Being made of metal isn't all it's cracked up to be. His fingers can't operate touch screens and are slippery when wet, he stands out in a crowd, he's extremely heavy, vulnerable to magnetism, and as he ages his skin is starting to feed off of itself (though iron supplements have been recommended to help with that last one).
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: Carl admits that his sex life is almost entirely nonexistent due to the scarcity of partners who can endure an 800-pound steel man.
- Ultimately averted in his second arc, when he is reunited with a former partner in crime, Ismiri "Izzy" Dvi-Zaralkh, alias Cutlass, former leader of the Terrifying Three, who also underwent a Heel–Face Turn, making a small fortune in real estate. Iz came from an interdimensional city called Uld, and is physically tough enough to hold her own with Steeljack. At the end of this arc, she tells Carl, "Make sure you take your iron pills, you're going to need them."
- Averted before then as well, as Steeljack points out that there are other superhuman women who can handle him, even if not all of them are... traditionally attractive, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Mentioned but not seen is a villainess named Mammoth.
- Chrome Champion: His visually distinctive power means he can't just adopt a new identity or drop out of sight.
- Cold Iron: The Tarnished Angel reveals that he qualifies as this when he fights The Seven Sisters, a group of The Fair Folk who had been released from imprisonment during the story climax. Since Steeljack is a literal person made of Cold Iron, he outright kills three of them before the survivors flee.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: His appearance, along with his world weary film noir narration, makes him one for the actor Robert Mitchum.
- Commonality Connection: How he figured out that The Conquistador and the former El Hombre were one and the same. After hearing Hidalgo's story, he recognized that they both regarded themselves as failures who had ruined their lives and who would do anything to change how they felt.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He reflects at one point that, if he was in a better state, he could probably have become a soldier or an explorer or something that would let him put his talents to work in a legal fashion. He became a supervillain more because he was young and shortsighted, and by the end, he didn't have any other options. When he backtracks and tries to reform, he discovers that only the most menial jobs will accept him, and on top of that, almost all the money he got over the course of his career left his hands quickly. In his next story arc, years later, he's shown to be a sort of freelancer, doing jobs like bounty-hunting and exploring sunken wrecks.
- Determinator: An 800-pound man made of steel is all but unstoppable when he wants to be.
- Dumb Muscle: Averted. He'll freely admit he's no genius, but he's not half as stupid as he says he is.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It's a Bittersweet Ending, but that's all he ever asked for.
- He earns a better ending in his second arc. He winds up arrested for the murder of Jared Everall, a corrupt businessman who had been framing other super-criminals for his own crimes and was killed by a Sealed Evil in a Can he tried to open. At his arraignment Carl stays silent, convinced that he can't prove his innocence. However, Izzy then shows up in court with a first-class lawyer to defend him from all charges, testifies on his behalf, reveals evidence proving his innocence and brings a lot of Carl's friends from Kiefer Square to the courtroom to act as character witnesses, although by the time she's done testifying they aren't even necessary. By the end of the story, he finds that he has the respect of his neighbors, is lauded as a hero by the press, and he and Izzy renew their old romance.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Steeljack's efforts to reform are partly an effort to live up to the standards his mother set, and he visits her grave often. He eventually becomes caretaker for the cemetery she's buried in.
- Everyone Has Standards: Early in his first arc, Carl sees a man being mugged. He's determined to mind his own business until he realizes that the street thugs are going to kill their victim to avoid being identified. He steps in, lets the bullet bounce off him, and orders the thugs to leave.
- Falsely Reformed Villain: The tragic form of the trope is examined and, eventually, subverted. What are the legitimate job prospects for an known ex-con whose only useful skill is invulnerability, in addition to sticking out like a sore thumb wherever he goes? Will anybody believe he's going straight?
- First-Name Basis: With Cutlass.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was once just another street punk until he decided he needed an edge to stand out in the underworld. He ended up the subject of a mad scientist who bonded him with a metal skin, giving him invulnerability, super strength and endurance, creating one of the most famous supervillains in Astro City.
- Grumpy Old Man: Carl is too old and too tired to fight any more, but somehow trouble keeps crossing his path.
- Hardboiled Detective: Years after the events of the "Tarnished Angel" story, Carl sets himself up as a private investigator. He spends more time chasing super-powered bail jumpers than solving cases, however.
- Healing Factor: Seems to have a low-key one.
- How We Got Here: His second arc begins with his being arrested for murder, and then flashes back, Film Noir-style, to how he got into this mess.
- Logical Weakness: He's ferromagnetic, so he's vulnerable to weapons designed to exploit this.
- Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Literally man of steel in his case - Steeljack notes that he can't have sex much because normal women can't take his strength and enormous weight (about 800 pounds). Thankfully, there ARE willing superpowered villainesses around so he doesn't have to be completely celibate.
- My Greatest Failure: His one murder, another teen criminal named Manny, back during his younger days, even before Steeljack. To this day, despite everything else he did during his criminal and supervillain career, it's the one thing he regrets the most. He still stops by Manny's tombstone whenever he walks through the cemetery, just to say he's sorry.
- The Needless: Not entirely, but he does metabolize oxygen much more slowly than other people.
- Not Used to Freedom: In the story "The Tarnished Angel", Steeljack agrees to investigate the deaths of small-time criminals simply because, as a recent parolee, he's got way too much time on his hands and can't think of any other way to fill it.
- One Last Job: In "The Tarnished Angel", Steeljack comes to realize that almost all of his fellow low-rent supervillain peers are constantly lining up for that one last job, the one that will lead them to greatness and riches... but it never works out."This time was the big one, always. This time, the one that'd end all our troubles."
- Private Eye Monologue: He narrates his arcs.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Steeljack is the poster boy for this trope - his past is well known and he is stigmatized by all.
- Averted in his second arc, which ends with him being lauded as a hero, and showing that he has earned the respect of his neighbors, many of whom turned up at his trial to serve as character witnesses if necessary.
- Retired Outlaw: At the beginning of his first arc.
- Right Makes Might: In the final confrontation of his first arc he's badly hurt. But the stakes are too high for him to lay down and die. He goes back into the fight, though even he doesn't know where he's getting the strength to stand."Unless, maybe, bein' right is what gives me the strength."
- Scrap Heap Hero: It's a long and difficult road, but Steeljack eventually fulfills this trope by defeating the Conquistador and making peace with his checkered past.
- Spider-Sense: Although he himself doesn't have one, he eventually obtains a pair of goggles which warn him of the impending potential deaths of others.
- Super-Strength: He can, with effort, tear through six inches of titanium steel.
- Walk, Don't Swim: To be fair, it's hard to swim when you weigh 800 pounds. Carl later turns this into a part-time job, performing underwater salvage operations for the city.
Donnelly Ferguson
"One thing this world'll always have plenty of is those needin' a dirty job done, and those willin' to do it."
A longtime resident of Kiefer Square, Donnelly is the grizzled old fixer everyone goes to when they need some muscle for a job or a job where they can rent out their muscles. He may be an affable and charming old snake, but how much can you trust someone who deals in information?- Affably Evil / Faux Affably Evil: He's affable, and definitely not a nice person, but how much of this is genuine, and how much him knowing the value of PR, is left ambiguous.
- Back for the Dead: Donnelly eventually returns to Kiefer Square for burial in the cemetery.
- Knowledge Broker: Fergusson uses his knowledge of the city's underworld to find jobs for the villains of Kiefer Square.
- Mysterious Past: It's entirely possible he was the Scarlet Snake, once the biggest crime lord in Astro City, but he's not saying. The most the reader ever learns about his former life is when he suddenly pulls out a snake-themed laser pistol.
- Not Proven: Despite his numerous shady dealings, Ferguson manages to keep himself clear of any wrongdoing. This is one reason why Steeljack hangs out with him, because Ferguson is one of the few people he could associate with and not risk violating his parole.
- Pet the Dog: Played with. He could be acting for completely selfish reasons when he helps Steeljack find the "black-mask killer", or it could be a case of Even Evil Has Standards.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The "Tarnished Angel" arc ends with him going on the run to avoid possible retribution from the villains he (unknowingly) set up.
Charles and Royal Williams
Charles: He killed 'em, remember? Shot 'em dead, like they were nothing.
Royal: I'd like to get him, sure. But I'd rather my brother was alive.
Royal: I'd like to get him, sure. But I'd rather my brother was alive.
After their parents were killed in a conflict between the Silver Agent and a Pyramid squad commander, Charles and Royal Williams grew up following very different paths. But their attempts to live their own lives is tested when their parents' killer returns to Astro City, setting them on a course of vengeance that will test them — and their uneasy relationship.
- Badass Normal: Both Charles and Royal would eventually become this, thanks to years of training and their ongoing pursuit of Aubrey Jason.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The death of their parents made the Williams brothers disillusioned with society's ideals. Royal ended up believing he was justified in doing whatever was necessary to get by, while Charles ended up skeptical and distrusting of all super-heroes.
- Darker and Edgier: In The '70s, Charles is a policeman who dreams of starting a family, while Royal is a low-level Mook making money through questionable means. The "Dark Ages" story arc follows their descent into becoming cold-blooded Anti-Heroes in their search for retribution.
- Determinator: Once he discovers the identity of his parents' killer, Charles embarks on a years-long pursuit for vengeance, taking his brother Royal along in his wake.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Over the course of the story, they go from terrified kids to ruthless avengers.
- Gold Digger: Darnice, Charles's first wife, turned out to be one of these. Royal warned him against marrying her after she flirted with him while Charles was out of the room, but he didn't listen. Ultimately, she left him after he refused to take bribe money.
- The Infiltration: Royal Williams ends up joining Pyramid to get more information on Aubrey Jason's whereabouts.
- It's Personal: Very much so.
- Mook: Royal Williams starts off as this, being perfectly happy to make a living picking pockets and doing low-level grunt work for other criminals to get by.
- Nineties Antihero: Charles and Royal eventually become this.
- No Points for Neutrality: Not taking bribes, but also refusing to report dirty cops to Internal Affairs left Charles poor, wifeless, and eventually shot in the back.
- Origin Story: Defied. The brothers (or Royal at least) consider what to do after Aubrey is dealt with, that maybe they could keep putting their talents to use in order to avenge other victims like them. But ultimately, they resist the call.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Royal has to do this to deflect suspicion while infiltrating Pyramid.
- Retired Badass: After Lord Sovereign disappears into the dark dimension, the Williams brothers realize how self-destructive their quest for revenge was, and eventually leave to run a chartered fishing business.
- Silver Fox: It's a small thing, but in the framing story where the brothers are in their late-fifties or so, "Royal" mentions that he never married, preferring to hook up with pretty young tourists instead. "Charles" snarks that he's having less success these days—implying that he's still having some.
- Stage Name: At the end of the "Dark Age" story arc, it is revealed that "Charles" and "Royal" are not their real names; instead, they're picked by an author writing a book based on their experiences, and he is using aliases to protect their real identities.
- Street Smart: Royal is unashamed of his street-savvy ways, and Charles even acknowledges that he's the smarter one.
- The Unfettered: Charles does just about anything in his quest for revenge, and at one point is prepared to let the heroic Silver Agent fall to his doom just to avoid losing any time in pursuit of Jason.
- What Have I Become?: While pursuing Lord Sovereign, Royal catches a glimpse of his reflection, which causes him to eventually realize that he and Charles were turning into the same type of cold-blooded Anti-Heroes who had ignored them in their own tragedy.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: When they become their own agents of vengeance, the Williams brothers keep themselves supplied by stealing money and equipment from the various Pyramid bases they've raided.
- Worth Living For: Charles recovers from the brink of death after Royal tells him that he's discovered the person who killed their parents.
- You Are What You Hate: Lampshaded when Royal realizes that while he and Charles didn't care for superheroes and villains, by the mid-eighties they had almost become a vigilante team of their own, to the point where there was virtually no difference between themselves, Aubrey, and other Nineties Anti-Heroes like Stonecold, the Blue Knights, and the Street Angel.
Mitch Goodman (The Crimson Cougar)
"This is what you do! You get up on the bull and ride it as long as you can!"
A stuntman and actor, Mitch Goodman plays the superhero character "Crimson Cougar" in the Tomorrow's Dawn soap opera. After thwarting a robbery at a convenience store, Mitch became an overnight celebrity as a Real Life superhero — and then his troubles began.- Action Survivor: As a former stuntman who keeps in good shape, he's pretty tough and agile.
- Actor/Role Confusion: After Mitch begins to consider himself seriously as a hero, several villains decide to make sure he doesn't decide to do it for real.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: He plays one on TV.
- Ascended Extra: In-universe. He's not the main character of the show he features in, which is a character-driven soap opera taking place in Astro City—having a superhero in your cast there is really no more significant than having a cop in a show set in New York. He implies that most of the acting he does is basically glorified stunt work, and he rarely even gets to take his mask off. However, after his stunt at the convenience store, it draws a lot of attention to the series, and he starts playing a more significant onscreen role and featuring in the show's advertisements.
- Badass Normal: Plays one on TV.
- Cool, but Inefficient: The Crimson Cougar suit was designed to look badass, not be fought in. The teeth on the midsection dig into his gut when he tries to be acrobatic, and the claws are plastic.
- Glory Seeker: He's gone from a simple rancher to the rodeo to stunt work to acting by taking every opportunity he could get, and the Crimson Cougar turns out to be his big chance.
- He Really Can Act: Invoked. After realizing this about himself, he decides to try acting for its own sake instead of just as a means of getting ahead.
- Mistaken for Badass: After he foils a convenience store robbery while still in his Crimson Cougar outfit (they were filming an episode nearby), he gets attacked by several villains trying to discourage him from pursuing life as a superhero.
- Not Worth Killing: Happens to Mitch when he gets attacked in public by the brand-new villain Dark Centurion, who easily pummels him into the ground. When Mitch begs for mercy, the Centurion sneers and leaves. It was a ruse set up by Mitch and his friends so he would stop being a high-profile target.
- Right Man in the Wrong Place: Ends up in three of these situations over the course of the story, and each one makes him more famous.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: After he completely wimps out on camera while being manhandled by the Black Centurion, his career as the Crimson Cougar goes up in smoke instantly. He does plan to start over in LA, though.
Marella Cowper
"Spot a super-villain in your area? An alien incursion? People inexplicably turning into statues or robots? You call us, we alert them."
A woman in her early twenties, who works for Humano-Global, secretly a call-service for The Honor Guard, answering emergency calls for the superhero team.- The Atoner: When a girl named Esme calls to report a man beating her mother, Marella sends the call to Social Services. When this leads to an attack by the Skull-Crushers, Marella goes to extremes to help find the girl and her mother.
- Fun with Acronyms: "Humano Global" is actually a false name for Honor Guard's Emergency Contact Service, used as a cover to protect the company from Honor Guard's enemies. Other employees have ID cards with different cover names for the service, all sporting the initials "H.G.". The same initials as Honor Guard.
- Good Feels Good: One of the reasons Marella enjoys her job at Humano-Global is because she likes helping people
- Infraction Distraction: Downplayed. When she figures out that the relief staff think she has black market connections, she lets it stand; it will hide that she uses portals.
- Portal Door: Humano-Global employees can access a network of portal doors via their employee ID cards, allowing Honor Guard to keep Humano-Global's headquarters a secret. Marella uses these portals in her efforts to save Esme and her mother.
- Tracking Device: Honor Guard is able to break into the Skull-Crushers' HQ by homing in on a tracking device in Marella's Humano-Global ID badge when the Skull-Crushers capture her.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: While Marella's convinced she'll be fired for screwing up the Esme case, Cleopatra assures her that she's the kind of person Honor Guard wants working for them, since even if she did make a mistake, she was willing to do what she could to make it right.
Martha "Sully" Sullivan
"I had a good job. I was using my powers, and I didn't have to get into any fights."
A middle-aged woman with modest telekinetic abilities, Sully works in the entertainment industry, using her powers to manipulate models and aid in stunt work.- Action Survivor: Just having powers has gotten her dragged into enough crazy situations to develop into one of these.
- Ambiguously Gay: Mentions that she's living with someone named Jen, although whether their relationship is friendly, familial or romantic isn't made clear.
- Ascended Extra: She initially appeared as a supporting character in Mitch Goodman/Crimson Cougar's story, but got a few issues focusing on her own adventures.
- Atrocious Alias: Her brief flirtation with superheroism had her going by "Mind-Over-Mattie", which she recalls ruefully.
- Badass Crew: She and her colleagues unofficially call themselves the Sideliners, people with superpowers but use them for mundane purposes and want to stay away from superheroics. But if you think just because they're passive and unremarkable that they're also stupid and ineffectual, think again. They've been threatened before, and they look out for each other so well they can be just as effective a fighting force as the Honor Guard.
- Beware the Nice Ones: People seem to think that just because she and her fellow "Sideliners" want to live quiet lives, using their powers for mundane purposes, that they're pushovers. Nope.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Spent her youth wondering what she was meant to do with her powers, if she couldn't bear being a hero or villain, before figuring out she didn't have to be either.
- Heroic Neutral: She and her Sideliner friends don't really want to be a part of that superhero gig, but if you threaten her and her kind, you'll regret real quick when she decides she's Neutral No Longer.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She and her friends don't want to be heroes, they don't want to be villains, and they don't want any attention. They just want to live humble lives and use their powers to make a decent living.
- I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Her superhero outfit of a tie-dye shirt, a black-and-red vest, mid-shin bellbottoms, moccassins, and a domino mask. She only notes "it was the late sixties."
- Lampshade Hanging: Points out what a hoary old cliché gassing someone is even as she's passing out from it.
- Mind over Matter: Lampshaded when she admits that she considered becoming a super-heroine with the codename "Mind Over Mattie".
- Mundane Utility: Makes a great living using her powers for special effects. She also has a first-place bowling trophy on her shelf.
- Murder by Inaction: Wasn't particularly fussed if the Majordomo's crew died after they left them, since a) they came after the sideliners, and b) she doesn't claim to be any sort of hero.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Her brief flirtation with superheroism ended when she screwed up and nearly killed a man.
- Her brief flirtation with villainy lasted mere seconds, when she was immediately stricken with horror and remorse after forcing a slot machine to pay out.
- My Greatest Failure: As "Mind Over Mattie" she stopped a carjacker by locking his brakes. To her horror, he swerved, crashed into a pole and very nearly died. That's what made her realize she wasn't cut out for the superhero life.
- Underestimating Badassery: Some supervillains seem to think that just because she and her friends don't use their powers for fighting that means that they're weaklings who can be coerced or tempted into becoming henchmen. It turns out that the Sideliners are incredibly competent, coordinated, and powerful enough to defend themselves, to the point that even Samaritan is impressed.
Irene Cronin (née Merryweather)
"I was going to have it all. And I almost did."
Inspired by her grandmother, who'd worked in a factory during World War II, Irene became determined to find the perfect career and the perfect man and carve her name into the world. As a mayoral aide, she encountered Atomicus, and seemed to be well on her way to getting everything she wanted...- Determinator: Played with. Her determination gets her a job many 1960s women wouldn't be able to, costs both her and the world Atomicus, and then helps her rebuild arguably a much more fulfilling life from the ashes.
- Expy: Of Lois Lane.
- Innocent Bigot: Downplayed. She's not mean or pushy about it and it's wonderful that young ladies have so many more options these days, really, but it sure would be nice if her daughter would break it off with that girl she's seeing and find a nice young man before it's too late.
- Intrepid Reporter: Although not actually a reporter, she takes on a similar role, investigating crimes and reporting them to Atomicus. Unsurprising, given her inspiration.
- Irony: Driving Atomicus away and torpedoing her old career helped her find a man who could truly reciprocate her feelings and gain even greater success than before. Doubly ironic in that she doesn't seem to realize this.
- Loving a Shadow: She was honestly under that impression that Atomicus was a fully-mature adult who was merely toying with her affections rather than the terrified, awkward Manchild he really was.
- The Man Behind the Man: A positive example. Without her influence Morton wouldn't have been elected mayor, and Cronin would have stayed an obscure alderman instead of becoming a state senator.
- My Greatest Failure: When Atomicus needed a friend/love and mentor to gently usher him into humanity, she instead became an unintentional antagonist who made his life hell, eventually driving him away from Earth.
- Plucky Girl: Resourceful, clever, and determined to make her mark.
- Poor Communication Kills: Misinterpreted Atomicus' attempts to get her to back off as a challenge to prove herself worthy of him by revealing his identity.
- Rage Breaking Point: Realizing that Atomicus tricked her again (after she accepted that he and Adam were separate people) causes her to march right up to him and rip open his shirt in front of everyone, finally exposing his identity, while angrily accusing him of messing with her for fun.
- Second Love: With Senator Cronin. She worries that he went to the grave thinking he was second best, though her daughter assures her otherwise.
- Secret Chaser: Becomes this for Atomicus, much to their mutual regret in the end.
- Trauma Conga Line: After she drives Atomicus away, she's fired, reviled by the public, falls into the bottle for a while, and gets mocked when she tries to find work again. That doesn't stop her.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: As part of the deconstruction at work. She thought that her and Atomicus worked like the romances in old Silver Age comics, where the hero and love interest's disputes over his identity were an odd cat-and-mouse game and uncovering the truth would in some sense prove her worthy. Unfortunately, all it does is antagonize him and drive a wedge between them.
Ismiri Dvi-Zaralkh (Cutlass)
"When I say open the vault door and we're on a tight timeline, I expect action!"
A fugitive from the inter-dimensional City of Uld, she became a supervillainess on Earth in the 1960s and worked with Steeljack and Quarrel as the Terrifying Three. After the Three broke up, she made it big in real estate and put the past behind her, or so she thought.- Dark and Troubled Past: Whatever happened in the City of Uld, she doesn't talk about it, and people from there occasionally track her down and try to imprison her.
- December–December Romance: She and Steeljack are in their sixties.
- Drama Queen: Seems to have a streak of this.
- Fiery Redhead: She always had a nasty temper.
- First-Name Basis: With Steeljack.
- Human Alien: She appears to be a typical human, if rather tall and well-built, but she's actually from another dimension.
- Laser Blade: Her favored weapons are a pair of bracers with these.
- Never Mess with Granny: She's still a heck of a fighter.
- Pirate: Had this theme as a supervillainess.
- Retired Outlaw: Though she's not above appropriating and selling another villain's ill-gotten goods.
- Super-Strength: Has some degree of this.
- Super-Toughness: Able to have a relationship with a 800-pound metal man, and like it.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The Terrifying Three spent more time bickering with each other than fighting heroes.
Marta Dobrescu
"Though it is not without its dangers — though it has never been without danger — I love my home."
Marta grew up in the eerie Shadow Hill district of Astro City, and adapted to the various supernatural menaces in her neighborhood. As a young adult, she sought independence from her immigrant parents and considered joining the city proper, only to realize that what she was looking for wasn't necessarily what she wanted. She eventually ends up running one of the biggest law offices in Shadow Hill, with clients both mundane and otherwise — even by the Hill's standards.- Action Survivor: Despite being a normal human being, she has lived in Shadow Hill (an eldritch location most people from the city dare not enter because it's full of hidden monsters) for a very long time and not been eaten or worse.
- Attempted Rape: Suffered this at the hands of Slamburger, but Nick Furst saved her.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: A few hours with a pile of dubiously-translated spells allowed Marta to accurately deduce the personality and motivations of one of the most powerful entities in the universe.
- Better the Devil You Know: Sure, Shadow Hill may be so chock-full of supernatural nasties that it might as well be an Eldritch Location, but as long as one is careful and has the right protections even an ordinary person can keep themselves safe from them. You can't do that with supervillains, who are usually just powerful (and dangerous) humans.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: A positive example. Everyone else thinks Shadow Hill is a nightmarish realm out of Lovecraft or Hammer, but Marta grew up there and knows that it's a place like anywhere else as long as you know how to take care of yourself. At least the monsters there have rules that never change, as opposed to supervillains, who are capricious and consciously malicious.
- Country Mouse: Although Shadow Hill is technically part of Astro City, it's rather independent and isolated, with most of its citizens clinging to old customs and culture out of necessity, because it helps to protect them against the other inhabitants. Due to its geographic location, even some TV and radio stations had difficulty reaching the area in the '90s.
- Cutting the Knot: Her suggestion to have Tzammath's cult just summon the lady herself and see what she wanted turned out to be the right thing to do.
- Dead Person Conversation: Knows a ritual that allows this. She uses this for work, such as helping settle inheritance dispute by simply calling up the dead to make the decision. The one time it's shown on panel, said soul is not happy about his adult children squabbling over their mother's jewels.
- Functional Magic: Although not a mage, like most people in Shadow Hill she knows some rituals and methods to protect herself from evil beings, as well as a few other small magics.
- Guile Hero: So competent a lawyer is she that no less than the freakin' Hanged Man (an eldritch being with the ability to survive and possibly combat a retcon event) and Silver Adept (one of, if not the most powerful sorceror in the universe who has singlehandedly saved worlds) call upon her to handle their legal affairs.
- Hello, Attorney!: Slamburger gave a favorable opinion of her looks. Granted, that's not an endorsement you'd want...
- I Want Grandkids: Since ghosts tend to fixate on what mattered to them when they died, Marta's mother's been bugging her from beyond the grave, even though she's in her forties.
- Mundane Utility: Summoning ghosts is pretty handy for settling all sorts of legal problems, particularly wills.
- Pals with Jesus: The Hanged Man has taken an interest in her and trusts her to help him. He even seems to genuinely like her.
- Protective Charm: Marta is well-versed in these, having learned them from a young age.
- Seen It All: After spending her whole life living in Shadow Hill and becoming a successful attorney for supernatural legal cases, Marta isn't the least bit perturbed when she has to present before a court of interdimensional beings for the fate of the known universe.
- Together in Death: Her mother's spirit still lingers in the mortal world, awaiting her husband who's still alive and cared for by Marta.
- Unfazed Everyman: Normal people tend to be shocked at how casual she is about Shadow Hill.
Charlie Provost (Quark)
"I'll remember! I'll remember—an' I'll be back! Damn you Starfighter, I'LL BE BACK!"
Charlie was recruited as a teenager to be the sidekick of the superhero Starfighter; unfortunately, he became drunk with power over time, requiring his mentor to intervene — but leaving Charlie emotionally shattered as a result.- The Alcoholic: He can't let go of his glory days, and drinks to cope.
- Blood Knight: He proved even more brutal than the criminals he fought, so Starfighter ultimately had to wipe his memory of how to use the Lorus.
- Combo Platter Powers: Like Starfighter.
- Geometric Magic: Like Starfighter.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Starfighter wiped his memory of the shapes of the Lorus, effectively de-powering him.
- Psychic Powers: Could sense the presence of the Lorus, but not actually see it. Starfighter thought this qualified him to be his sidekick, but soon realized that he'd made a mistake.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Once Starfighter's sidekick, now survives off of occasional acting gigs and signing things at conventions.
Jerome Isaac "Ike" Johnson
- Alternate Self: Three of his have shown up in the past, though it seems his parents haven't told him about them.
- Atrocious Alias: He's the only one who liked the name "Jackie Justice".
- Call-Back: The name "Jackie Justice" is just like "Justice Jacky", and judging from Zachary's reaction, he definitely made the connection.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Found one by the end of his spotlight story.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Although he downplays his intellect, he did find and fix a problem with one of his father's devices that had left him stumped.
- Game-Breaking Injury: On his first sojourn as Jackie Justice he broke his leg and messed up his knee badly enough to curtail any further acrobatics, though at least he can still walk.
- Legacy Character: Felt an obligation to try to be one of these, in the light of his father and grandfather's deeds. Roscoe and his father make certain he understands that it's not necessary to have a Jack-in-the-Box in the world, probably to forestall any chance of some form of The Jackson/The Box coming to be.
- The Medic: Has been taking a sports medicine class at high school and doing independent study with the intention of becoming a doctor, and used his knowledge to save Drama Queen's life.
- Muggle Born of Mages: According to him, he's not the genius his father and grandfather were, though he's perfectly intelligent in his own right.
- The Shrink: After saving Drama Queen, he's taken an interest in helping heal people's emotional scars, and has tentative plans to become a psychiatrist.
- Sidekick: Had intentions of becoming one and tried to do it without his father or the current Jack-in-the-Box's knowledge or permission. It went badly.
Stekk (Sticks, Tuxedo Gorilla)
"It was sound and noise and rhythm and beauty. It was emotion and release and control. It was joy and creation. Making something together. And just like that — I felt like I'd come home."
A talking gorilla from Gorilla Mountain, a pocket of subtropical forest in Antarctica, who jumped ship to become a musician in the outside world.- Aliens Steal Cable: How Sticks learned about human music; some of the gorillas on Gorilla Mountain tapped into human radio, and subsequently the Internet.
- All Drummers Are Animals: Played with. Sticks is a gorilla, but he prefers to create music rather than break things.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He may look like a regular talking gorilla with a sardonic sense of humor, but he's also a trained and experienced fighter from a race of warrior gorillas. If you want to catch him, you might want to bring more than a small army.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He may be through with Gorilla Mountain, but at least one faction of Gorilla Mountain isn't through with him.
- Deadpan Snarker: His go-to response to people who gawk at him being a gorilla.
- Defector from Decadence: Rejected his people's Forever War and consequent militaristic lifestyle in favor of humanity and its music. Part of it was his awareness he wasn't cut out for a soldier's life.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Sticks just wants to play the drums. Unfortunately for him, a lot of supervillains and a few superhero teams want to convince him to be a soldier, a superhero, or a crimefighter, and he hates all of that. He ends up recruiting a bunch of music-based superheroes and forming a band with them.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Had one of these back on Gorilla Mountain.
- Everyone Is a Super: By the standards of Gorilla Mountain, Sticks is basically just another grunt. By the standards of the outside world, Sticks is an intelligent talking gorilla with enhanced strength and combat training.
- Fun with Homophones: When he very briefly joined Reflex 6, their sponsors suggested he change his code name, since focus groups were confusing it with "Styx", as in the river.
- Hellgate: Gorilla Mountain's situated over a dimensional rift, which accesses a lot of other worlds.
- Lead Drummer: Forms a Five-Man Band of superpowered musicians, with crimefighting as a sideline.
- Mandatory Unretirement: Spent his introduction trying to avoid this, as he didn't want to be pulled back into a life of combat, willingly or not.
- Martial Pacifist: As he puts it, he would rather create than break things, but he's still a powerful gorilla with military training, so if you threaten him, he's going to break a lot of things.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Sticks is a pun on his real name, Stekk.
- The Perils of Being the Best: He's not really "the best", at least by his people's standards, but every supervillain wants to get their hands on a super-strong talking gorilla. Who wouldn't?
- Roof Hopping / Wall Crawl: How he gets around.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: As Tuxedo Gorilla.
- Small, Secluded World: Gorilla Mountain. Enforced by the Pack Council, who don't want any outsiders tainting the purity of their culture, despite the fact Gorilla Mountain society is still around thanks to outside influence. They don't like having that pointed out.
- Super-Strength: Sticks and his people are stronger than ordinary gorillas.
- Take a Third Option: He couldn't be part of a normal band, since just being who and what he was, put his normal bandmates at risk, and he couldn't join a super-team since he couldn't stomach the life... so he split the difference.
- Underestimating Badassery: A bunch of supervillains think they can capture a silly-looking talking gorilla so they can experiment on or sell him off later. Unfortunately for them, he's a lot more trouble than they they imagine.
Silverstring
It was said he could play magic on that guitar, magic that kept darkness and demons away, that he used that magic to save lives and defend people.
It's said that he died somewhere round Romeyn Falls, Astro City as was, and his guitar destroyed itself with him... but he left behind a most unusual legacy.
- Ambiguously Brown: No-one knows what ethnicity he was - he was identified as black, white, Mexican, half-Indian, Chinese...
- Death by Origin Story: His death sets in motion a legacy of heroes that stretches over the 20th century, living incarnations of counterculture music, beginning with Mister Cakewalk.
- Expy: Of Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John.
- The Faceless: His face is never shown clearly, always kept in shadow by his hat.
- Magic Music: Used his silver-stringed guitar to play magic that warded off darkness and demons.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Known only as Silverstring; no-one had any other name for him.
- Shrouded in Myth: No-one knows much of anything about him for certain: what his origin was, where he came from, the circumstances of his death...
- Walking the Earth: What he did, living as a travelling musician, walking this world and perhaps lands beyond, refusing any offer to settle down.
The Broken Man
- You, out there with the face. *sigh* Yes, I can see you. Get over it.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: He's a very deep purple in his mental body. His physical body, however, is yellow.
- Astral Projection: His body's in an institution, but he can project his mind a sidestep away from reality, allowing him to wander the world and interact with us.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Has a marked resemblance to David Bowie, particularly on the cover of Vertigo issue #37.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's very sarcastic, especially when commenting on superheroes.
- Deaf Composer: He can't hear music anymore, only remember it, but nevertheless, he still plays.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: He directly addresses the reader from the get-go, even threatening to "not let you in again" after reading things they weren't supposed to.
- Medium Awareness: As mentioned, he's fully aware he's fictional. His first appearance has him snarking about the Dark Age miniseries, and saying that if he explained everything all at once "we'd be here for a dozen issues and your eyes would glaze over".
- Mysterious Past: He's forgotten who he might have been; however, it's implied that he's the latest personification of counterculture music, but the Oubor's agents interfered with his change, fracturing him into his current state. The trauma of the disruption appears to have made him forget who he is, constructing a new past for himself, and he refuses to accept he might be the spirit when it's suggested to him.
- Speech Bubbles: His are irregular purple polygons with white borders and white words.
Matilda "Tillie" Jane Armstrong
- The Ageless: One of a select few people who, for whatever reason, have stopped aging - in her case, as a child in the '40s.
- Ascended Extra: Every time the Gentleman is seen on the streets of Astro City, from his first appearance to her spotlight issue twenty-one years later, Tillie can be found in the crowd.
- Dream People: When Tillie's father died during a supervillain attack in The '40s, she manifested an idealized version of him, the Gentleman, to answer her grief - but because they were both fundamentally decent people, he also did his best to help others as well. However, she couldn't manifest him permanently, so she only calls on him when she, or the world, needs him. She believes that, if she wanted to, she could let go of her father and begin aging normally, but... the world needs heroes, and she needs her father. During the '50s, feeling that it was selfish of her to hold onto him, and that it'd be selfish to let go of him, she decided to indulge herself and created the Young Gentleman as a big brother for herself.
- Expy: If the Gentleman is an expy of the original Captain Marvel, Tillie is an expy of Billy Batson, being a fundamentally decent, good-hearted kid with her feet on the ground and a talent for encountering weirdness.
- Her design is most likely based on a young Judy Garland, as was Mary Marvel.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: The Broken Man discovers she's this, much to his consternation, when he introduces her spotlight issue - she's aware of him, she can see the audience reading the future comic she's appearing in, and she knows what she must look like to any Astro City resident who can't see the fourth wall. That said, she doesn't see as much as the Broken Man can, wondering what he means by "We're on page twenty-three, 'Til. There really isn't any room left."
- Her confusion about the reference to "page 23" might be a case of Fridge Brilliance - comic books in the forties were much longer than modern ones.
- Her confusion about the reference to "page 23" might be a case of
- Girlish Pigtails: In keeping with being a Forties-era nice girl.
- Inconspicuous Immortal: Tillie stopped aging when her Reality Warper powers kicked in during World War II. Because her powers make her a Weirdness Magnet, she has to keep a low profile, and thus works in whatever menial jobs she can get as an apparent child, sometimes bartering for food and board.
- Nice Girl: You can see where she came by it.
- Parental Abandonment: Her mother died when she was born, and her father died during a supervillain attack during the war.
- Walking the Earth: How she apparently lives.
- Weirdness Magnet: Ever since her father died, she seems to have developed a knack for stumbling upon weird situations - discovering her headmistress was training an all-girl pickpocket ring, having trouble with counterfeiters, going on a school trip to a museum right about the time a serpent cult launched a raid...
The Dancing Master
"I do no harm," The Dancing Master said, "I bring pleasure and awakening, a joy in life long missed by these stunted ones. No one acts against their nature, or against their heart."
A mysterious entity from "The Old Lands" that brings a life affirming "plague" of romance.- The Ageless: If one trusts the claim that he "taught the stars to dance".
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the concept of dance and romance.
- Emotion Bomb: Romance. Primarily the traditional idea of 'romantic love' but it's implied he brings a general romantic air to the world overall and inspires people to love and live fully.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: A rather unique example; as a Humanoid Abomination, time holds virtually no meaning for him, but since he's still connected to mankind, he doesn't understand how much the world has changed in his absence. He's surprised at the sheer population of Astro City, which is a large city, but not abnormally so for the modern world.Were these all the Men in the world?
- Great Gazoo: Well-intentioned, weird, and frighteningly powerful.
- Humanoid Abomination: Of the benevolent variety, but nonetheless the Hanged Man insists he leave our dimension for fear he'll drive the populace mad.
- I Have Many Names: Goes through quite a list but says he thinks of himself as "The Dancing Master".
- Shipper on Deck: For all mankind...
Prince Kaspian
- Animal Themed Super Being: Inspired by a fox.
- Anti-Villain: He seems to hold this position in the overall rogues gallery, given their willingness to work with him.
- Expy: For Sub-Mariner, both in general appearance (just swap out his red hair for black), his status as the leader of a maligned and misunderstood inhuman nation that often makes incursions on humanity AND in that he is the third point in a love triangle with the Mister Fantastic expy and blonde woman to whom they both love.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's very aggressive and combative, which is the main reason he's an adversary.
- Little Bit Beastly: Sharp teeth, pointy ears, red hair, and vaguely vulpine features.
- Papa Wolf: Downplayed. He sneers at Rex for supposedly not being good enough for his daughter but given his apathy to her upbringing and the language he used when doing so, it came off way more as Fantastic Racism.
- Pointy Ears: Unsurprisingly, as a Namor Expy.
- Super-Strength: Enough to knock super-strong Rex off his feet DESPITE his rock hard skin.
- Warrior Prince: Between his superpowers and his aggressiveness, he'd be a joke if he wasn't.
