Astro City Heroes / Characters

Heroes

These are the selfless folks who voluntarily serve to protect the innocent and the ordinary from the myriad abnormalities that occur in Astro City and beyond. Whether it's a planet-shattering overlord, a cross-dimensional breach, or a gang of thematically-dressed bank robbers — if there's trouble, the heroes are there.

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Samaritan

"There's no time. There's never any time."

Civilian alias: Asa Martin

The very first superhero of the very first Astro City story, Samaritan lives up to his name by endlessly devoting himself to helping others.

Affectionate Nickname: Close friends such as Confessor II and Winged Victory call him 'Sam'.
Appropriated Appellation: He got his name after he first appeared on the scene and identified himself solely as "a good Samaritan." The name stuck.
Arch-Enemy: Infidel.
Barrier Warrior: Samaritan can manipulate an "Empyrean field", which is strong enough to repulse a tidal wave.
Big Good: The world's greatest superhero and their leader. Whenever he needs a break, like going on a date or getting a medical checkup, it takes every available superhero, even the retired ones, even some reformed villains who are currently civilians, to cover for him.
Blessed with Suck: He has a computer that alerts him to trouble, the ability to arrive at the scene in seconds, and the powers to deal with almost anything. This adds up to a miserable life of perpetually saving the day, with no time for himself.
The Cape: He's noble and humble and always willing to lend a helping hand.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's an Expy of Superman and it shows, he's one of the first heroes with his level of superpowers, and he works himself to the bone to use them to their utmost, because he can't live with himself if someone dies or gets hurt when he could prevent it. If he's lucky, he can maybe find a single minute to have fun and relax.
- Later on when his colleagues force him to take a break, they have to call upon every reserve/retired member and a few ex-villains to take over his duties, mostly so that he'll stop worrying about work for a minute and relax enough to enjoy himself.
Commonality Connection: He goes out of his way, twice, to offer help to characters who have superpowers and don't want to fight crime.
Deus Exit Machina: He is keenly aware that being unavailable for hours is this, and makes a lot of arrangements to try to cover. Turns out well; many criminals are flushed out by their attempts to take advantage of it.
Dreams of Flying: Though he can fly, he occasionally has flight dreams because it is the one thing he loves doing the most. Due to Chronic Hero Syndrome, he's so busy that he can't find time to fly just for enjoyment.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Samaritan is a time-traveler who averted the Challenger disaster, but rewrote his history so that his future no longer exists.
Flying Brick: He's got a variety of powers, but most notably super strength and durability as well as flight.
A Friend in Need: In general. But in particular to people with superpowers but no desire to fight or commit crime.
God Couple: Gets into a long-term relationship with Winged Victory over the course of the series.
Go-Karting with Bowser: This is Samaritan's relationship with Infidel, since the both of them have literally destroyed and remade history/reality multiple times trying to defeat each other to no effect, and they have since realized the futility of their feud and come to a truce. Instead, they set up a yearly dinner just to compare notes and talk. (Talk... in hopes of secretly influencing the other to their own morality, something both characters feel uncertain about who's truly winning.)
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Starting with the name, acquired when he tried to slough off credit for saving the shuttle.
Hope Bringer: When did the Dark Age end? When he arrived.
Humble Hero: Samaritan attends tribute dinners and accepts awards only because he doesn't want to hurt the feelings of the people who give them to him.
I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: How he got his name. Samaritan's first public appearance came after he prevented the Challenger Space Shuttle from exploding. After landing the shuttle safely, he was mobbed by reporters, and he declared "I'm not a hero, I'm just a good samaritan." Which makes sense, since he wasn't intended to be a superhero but gained his powers by pure chance on his trip back in time. Originally, his mission was to avert the Challenger disaster by working within the system.
Intrepid Reporter: Samaritan's civilian identity is a fact checker at Current, a weekly magazine. Unlike Clark Kent, he doesn't really do his job that much (though he knows how to) but leaves some of his future-tech to do it for him while he's busy with superheroing.
Locked into Strangeness: Samaritan's hair turned blue after the Time Travel incident that gives him his powers. He can change it to white at will, but not to its original black.
Married to the Job: Samaritan is so devoted to helping others that he barely has time to sleep or maintain a civilian identity. His idea of a good day is one where he manages to get nearly a minute of flight time.
Mission Control: A handy AI which he brought from the future, the zyxometer constantly scans television, emergency and police radio wavelengths, and other electronic media in order to prioritize emergencies for him to attend to.
No Name Given: His real name isn't known; his civilian "identity" Asa Martin is just an anagram for his superhero name, and he hardly uses it at all.
Phantom Zone: Samaritan has access to such a dimension, using it as a storage closet to hold all the awards and plaques he receives. (They extend to the horizon.)
Ret-Gone: Samaritan eliminated the Bad Future he came from, along with all of his loved ones and his original timeline. There's now an automated taco stand where he was born.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Or rather, Ripple-Effect-Proof Body. When Infidel tried changing history to rid himself of his nemesis, he found that Samaritan, being a temporal paradox himself, was completely unaffected by the changes in the timestream. Even destroying reality itself didn't faze Samaritan.
Samaritan Syndrome: Trope Namer. He spends as much time as he possibly can flying around the world saving people. Not because he's being forced to, but because he can't stand the idea of so much as taking a break when he has the power to help.
Sdrawkcab Name: Variant: it's an anagram.
Secret-Identity Identity: Samaritan uses "Asa Martin" as an alias for his civilian life, but that is not his "real" identity — that got erased when he altered history.
Slave to PR: Unwillingly. He used to avoid making public appearances and accepting awards, because those are seconds that could be used rescuing people. But he started getting a bad reputation for 'snubbing' people, so now he makes the time. Not just for awards either, he'll make brief stops to humanize himself for the people he helps, so they won't see him as some otherwordly power. In one story, he saves a Cat Up a Tree, and pauses briefly to let both the kitten he just saved and the kid who owned it see who he was, just to make sure they weren't scared.
Superpower Lottery: Unsurprising since he's a Superman Substitute, he's one of the strongest heroes in his world. In fact, considering that he's never displayed any kind of Kryptonite Factor, and his Day in the Limelight with Infidel suggests he was able to survive the destruction of the universe and aided in recreating it, he may actually be far more powerful than most incarnations of the Big Blue Boyscout.
Superman Substitute: He's this world's equivalent to Superman: his origin is different but he's got a similar personality and role, and partial overlap of his power set. In effect, he's essentially a Superman who devoted himself full-time to heroism.
Tragic Time Traveler: He was sent back in time from the 35th century in order to prevent the Challenger disaster, which was the cause of said bad future in the first place. However, while he managed to avert the disaster, he ends up wiping out his future, and by proxy his family, out of existence, leaving him trapped in the past with no real home to go back to.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Played straight and deconstructed to the most benevolent if harmful extreme. Samaritan is one of the first heroes with his level of superpowers and feels responsible to do the most good he can with them. To that end, he's constantly working himself to the bone every day because he can't live with himself if someone dies or gets hurt when he could prevent it. Despite being a beloved paragon of good, he's personally miserable, lonely, world weary, has a very abysmal personal life, constantly guilt ridden for the lives he couldn't save, and often wishes he could have a day free of danger.
You Can't Go Home Again: His home no longer exists, as he originated from a Bad Future (the same timeline that Infidel used as a headquarters, though that was even further into the future as humanity was extinct by then), which was erased as a result of Samaritan saving the Challenger. Samaritan was perfectly aware this would happen, but changing the future was more important. As shown in the Infidel one-shot, Samaritans post-apocalyptic home is replaced by a high-tech human civilization.

Winged Victory

"What message should I send? That men and women can be equals? Or that women must stand alone to be strong?"

Real name: Lauren Freed

A prominent female superhero who often draws attention and controversy for her advocacy of women's rights. She is appointed — and empowered — by the Council of Nike, a spectral group of women who watch over and judge her actions.

Arch-Enemy: Quite a few, but the ones who have gotten the most screentime are Ladykiller/Goldenboy and Karnazon. This is actually intentional on her part, specifically targeting baddies who prey on women to send a message of female empowerment.
Clear My Name: The "Victory" story has Winged Victory being falsely accused of masterminding villainous activities to promote a pro-feminism agenda. The perpetrator is Karnazon, a He-Man Woman Hater who's obsessed with making Victory "submit" to him.
Conditional Powers: The Council of Nike can weaken her powers or even remove them entirely if her actions displease them.
Dark and Troubled Past: In her past life, Lauren Freed was often taunted and mocked by others, from insensitive classmates to selfish boyfriends, and was constantly running away as a result. After her cheating boyfriend tossed her out of their apartment, she traveled to Europe, where she was drawn to the Greek island of Samothrace and appointed by the Council of Nike. She spends almost all of her time as the super-powered Winged Victory, and only grudgingly admits it's because she's afraid of going back to what she was before.
Flying Brick: She's as strong and tough as Samaritan and can fly at immense speeds.
God Couple: Gets into a long-term relationship with Samaritan over the course of the series.
I Just Want to Be Special: She IS special now, but was once a timid, scrawny young woman who had been treated like dirt pretty much her entire life one way or another. She rarely switches back to her original identity now because she's afraid of losing her powers. It's not until she briefly faces the very real chance of losing the Council's favor after she's targeted by a massive bad PR campaign (orchestrated by one of her arch-enemies) that she comes to terms with this.
Lady of War: Winged Victory flies into battle in full armor wielding a sword.
Married to the Job: Winged Victory prefers to stay in her transformed superpowered form all the time, possibly because it's a refuge from her original frail, cowardly past life. She can't even recall the last time she visited her mother, noting only that it's been years.
Mind Hive: The Council of Nike, a worldwide psychic network of thousands of women. Their unified goal is to help women everywhere, with Winged Victory being a vessel for their collective power. She becomes considerably weakened when they question her devotion to the cause.
Never Be Hurt Again: She hated how abused and meek her past self was and focused a dedication towards women's rights and strength in the hope of never being vulnerable again.
Statuesque Stunner: When she stands next to Samaritan, she appears to be almost as tall as him.^note
Strawman Political: Some citizens view Winged Victory in a distinctively negative light because of her strong advocacy for women's rights and independence over equal treatment and fair attention.
Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Her medallion lets her see images of women in danger.
Transformation Trinket: In her civilian identity, Winged Victory wears a necklace with an amulet shaped like her logo. She touches it to transform into her Lady of War form.
Warts and All: Winged Victory champions women's rights, but recognizes that she's not the be all end all solution to society's gender divide, and is ultimately just a normal woman trying to do the best she can and lead by example.
Winged Humanoid: As per her name, Winged Victory has a large pair of feathered wings in her superpowered form.
Wonder Woman Wannabe: She is her world's equivalent to Wonder Woman.

The Black Rapier

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_rapier.jpg

A longtime leader of Honor Guard, this black-clad fencer is considered one of the world's foremost detectives.

Badass Normal: The only unusual thing about him is the youth serum.
Dating Catwoman: With the crime lord known as Bamboo in the 70s.
Disposable Superhero Maker: The rejuvenation serum's only ever worked on him, and no one's sure why. One scientist mentions that it altered his body to make him compatible with it, but for some reason that's never happened with anyone else.
Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Wields an electric rapier.
Fountain of Youth: The Black Rapier has his life extended due to a rejuvenation serum.
Gadgeteer Genius: Repaired Beautie once when she was badly damaged.
Mythology Gag: He is a combination of Batman and Zorro, and Batman was inspired by Zorro.
Old Superhero: The Black Rapier retires in a 2014 story, lampshading his 45-year-long crimefighting career.

The Silver Agent

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silveragent.jpg

"Your army's not going anywhere except the stockade, chum!"

Real name: Alan Jay Craig

A mainstay of Astro City in The '60s and The '70s, the Silver Agent was a beloved hero, with his sterling career marred by a shameful controversy. There is a prominent statue of him in Memorial Park, with the legend "To Our Eternal Shame."

Allegorical Character: He serves as an embodiment of the Silver Age of Superheroes - it's right in his name, Silver Agent.
All-Loving Hero: Even after he had been found guilty of murder and executed, the Silver Agent still uses time travel to repeatedly return to Astro City and save it through several major crises, and his selfless sacrifice shames the citizenry for decades.
The Casanova: Downplayed, but he admits that he has left and hurt a lot of women.
Cryptic Background Reference: For quite some time, the Silver Agent's fall was shrouded in vague terms, leaving readers to speculate as to what actually happened. "The Dark Age" eventually revealed that he was framed for murder by the Mad Maharajah, and the government executed him to show they still had control over superheroes. Using time travel, he saved the entire city mere minutes after his death, and then returned again to save the world several times afterward, illustrating that he was a hero to the last.
Expy: In his earliest mentions, came across as a Captain America Expy (especially Silver Age Captain America), but has evolved beyond that.
Heroic Sacrifice: Despite possessing immense power, the Silver Agent goes to his execution by the city without any resistance to avoid possibly altering the future and undoing the valiant efforts of all of the other heroes who will come after him.
Humble Hero: When one hero praises the Silver Agent by saying they could not have won without him, the Agent assures him they would have found a way.
Ideal Hero: More than anyone else in the Astro City mythos, the Silver Agent is the paragon of the heroic ideal that all other heroes strive to achieve. The Agent's heroic influence is so powerful that it inspires others millennia after his passing. Not for nothing is the Silver Agent called "the best and the brightest."
Inspirational Martyr: The Silver Centurions are the greatest heroes of the forty-third century, with beings from over a hundred worlds all inspired by the Agent.
Inter Species Romance: During his stay in the 43rd century, Silver Agent hooked up with the alien woman Merilandra of the Silver Centurions, a group of human and alien warriors who work to preserve galactic peace after being inspired by the stories of the Silver Agent.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After a medical exam reveals that he is sterile, Craig gives up his dreams of marrying his longtime sweetheart, allowing her to eventually marry his brother and have the family she's always wanted.
Meaningful Name: The Silver Agent was active during The Silver Age of Comic Books, which ended when he was executed for a crime that he didn't commit.
Miscarriage of Justice: He was executed for murdering a former-villain-cum-diplomat while being mind controlled. Turns out said villain/diplomat just faked his death.
Silent Scapegoat: The Silver Agent makes no effort to defend himself in his murder trial, and makes no appeal or request for clemency.
Stable Time Loop: Implied to be the Silver Agent's ultimate fate in his character special. In death, he releases the energy he picked up during his time traveling back from the future, creating, or manifesting, or becoming, the artifact that empowered him in the first place, leading him to become a hero, in turn leading him to his death.

Max O'Millions

A hero operating in the late 60s/early 70s, and the founder of the Honor Guard. Despite his importance to Astro City, not much is known about him.

Founder of the Kingdom: Or rather, of the Superteam. Max was the first person to organize and fund the Honor Guard, back when there were no teams in the world.
Punny Name: His name is definitely a play on the name 'Maximillian', but also to indicate his wealth.
Sizeshifter: Grew to giant size to fight crime.

The First Family

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/first_family.jpg

Augustus: "We're very proud of you, Astra. All of us."
Julius: "Yeah, what he said. But all salt-of-the-earth-y and nicer."

From adventurers to heroes, the First Family is Astro City's premiere superhero clan, joined together by blood and duty to venture into the unknown and stop trouble whenever it appears. The team started with adventuring brothers Julius and Augustus Furst, but has grown to include Augustus' stepchildren Nick and Natalie, Natalie's husband Rex, their daughter Astra, and Nick's children Sasha and Karl Furst.

Animorphism: Sasha Furst, Nick and Darcy's daughter, can change into various types of animals.
Archnemesis Mom: Rex's mother, Madame Majestrix, is the queen of Monstro City, and has threatened the world many times over, to the point she proved to be worthy of a Crisis Crossover after her son was adopted by the Fursts.
Badass Adorable: Rex looks like a giant orange dinosaur monster with rocky scales (and that's because that's what he is), but he's a level-headed and reasonable person by all accounts.
- Astra as well, when she was a kid.
Badass Bookworm: Augustus Furst is the brains of the team, but he's not afraid of doing thinking in the middle of battle.
Badass Family: The Furst Family is Astro City's second greatest superhero team after Honor Guard, but unlike their colleagues, the Fursts have a smaller roster and their power sets are not planet-breakingly powerful like Samaritan or Winged Victory. They still, however, are able to casually plough through supervillain armies, and their reputation spans across multiple dimensions.
- When Astra goes missing, the entire Family tears apart a number of villainous legions across time and space to find her.
- Of course, the people they fight with the most are each other, but that doesn't mean that their bond isn't stronger than titanium.
Badass Normal: Julius gets by with nothing more than brawn and determination. Augustus is also a normal human, but gets by with his brains.
Beast and Beauty/Interspecies Romance: Rex and Natalie.
The Big Guy: Natalie, the giantess of the team. Rex is smaller, but also the punchy guy.
Boisterous Bruiser: Julius.
Brains and Brawn: The elder brother Augustus as the brains, and younger brother Julius as the brawn when they were first starting out.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: One story arc is told from the perspective of an alien whose entire civilization is built around the propaganda of the First Family being an evil existential threat, and every member of their race is raised from birth to hate and eventually fight the Fursts... who then show up and blast through the aliens' armies like a blowtorch through wet tissue paper, just like they have been doing with every other hostile civilization they've encountered.
Childhood Friend Romance: Rex was about 14 years old when he first met the Fursts before being adopted by them, and Natalie was presumably in her teens as well at that time. They both ended up marrying each other later in life.
Child Prodigy: Astra received an extensive education in science (including computer programming) by the age of ten and caught up socially with her other peers very quickly when she started attending school. Being the child of two pretty smart cookies helps.
Cigar Chomper: Julius Furst.
Cultured Badass: While Rex enjoys a good beer with Augustus, it's a fine wine that really soothes his soul.
Cute Monster Girl: After hitting puberty, Sasha Furst started developing lupine traits like her grandfather, Prince Kaspian of the Beastmen.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: The "That Was Then" one-shot suggests Augustus has died by 2022. (Of course, this isn't too surprising, given that he started doing his thing in the 50s; he would be at least 90 years old or so by that point.)
Energy Beings: Nick, Natalie, and Astra are these, though they manifest their powers in different ways. Natalie internalizes hers to become a Sizeshifter, Nick channels his, and Astra is the purest example between them as she can turn herself into an all-energy form.
False Friend: In her college years, Astra dated a normal young man. The relationship began as a chance for her to feel 'normal' for once... but he was so eager for celebrity status that he started taking money to provide tabloids with gossip. When he took to wearing hidden recording devices in hopes of getting racy footage for them, she caught him by detecting the batteries.
Fangirl: Julie was a big admirer of Glamorax back in the 70's, even asking them for an autograph when they asked the First Family for help.
The Fantastic Faux: Even the initials are the same. Kurt has noted that the team are inspired by the Jack Kirby and Gardner Fox type science heroes of the 50s and 60s in general, showing how such adventurers would naturally develop into an FF style super-team... then beyond, as they're allowed to age and change. (He tried to find another name just so the "FF" connection wouldn't be quite so explicit, but couldn't figure out a better one than "First Family.")
- Rex is one for Fantastic Four's Ben Grimm/Thing. (Funnily, Ben Grimm's rough-and-tumble working-class personality is closer to Julius; Rex, being a former prince, is a lot more formal and eloquent.)
- Natalie is one for Elasti-Girl/Elasti-Woman, from another family-like superhero group, the Doom Patrol.
- Astra looks like a mix of Fantastic Four's Valeria Richards (who she predates) and Doom Patrol's Negative Man.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking:
- Played straight with Julius Furst, a Cigar Chomper of the old school.
- Subverted with Augustus Furst; Word of God is that the pipe he keeps in his mouth is actually a portable energy source, which is simply pipe-shaped for portability and habit. Considering that it glows in some panels, this may most certainly be true.
Half-Human Hybrid: Most of the family — Nick and Natalie, Astra, and Nick's twins Karl and Sasha definitely qualify.
Hand Blast: Nick can fire energy from his hands.
Happily Adopted: Nick and Natalie, with their mother Nadia having disappeared and their father Kaspian (the prince of the animal-men) being incarcerated in 1961, they were placed in the care of Augustus Furst (Nadia's previous husband) who raised them as his own. In the modern age they have come into conflict with their mercurial birth father on many occasions, but even he has noted that they are happier as Fursts than they would have been with the beast-people.
Happily Married: Natalie to Rex, and Nick to Darcy. Also, although Augustus was separated from his third wife Nadia, he remained on good terms with her, and did not hesitate to adopt her children Nick and Natalie.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Astra has a variation — she enjoys being a world-saving powerful Energy Being, but she wants to be treated as if she were normal, hanging out with her peers from time to time.
It Tastes Like Feet: Astra says her energy breakfast tastes "manganese-flavor" after her mother tells her it is supposed to be grape-flavored.
Monster Modesty: Rex typically wears nothing but a pair of shorts, though he did get dressed up in ceremonial armor for his wedding.
Naturalized Name: Nick and Natalie Furst were born Nikolai and Natalia, but adopted more American names when Julius adopted them.
Older Than They Look: Julius and Augustus absorbed some vitalons in the crossworlds that have allowed them to be active decades longer than they normally would, but age is starting to catch up to them.
Old Superhero: Augustus and Julius have been operating since the 1950s and they're still leading the family on all sorts of wacky adventures.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Augustus.
Papa Wolf: All the male Fursts, but especially Astra's father Rex, who once rampaged through three super-villain armies just to find out which one of them had kidnapped her. None of them did.
Rex: Where... IS... MY DAUGHTER?!
Parental Neglect: Natalie tended to leave most of Astra's childhood education to a computer program, and was often too busy super-heroing to notice her daughter's growing discontent and social isolation. Natalie realizes after Astra's running away that she herself had nothing resembling a normal childhood and very much needed to give her daughter a chance to taste one, so made arrangements for her to continue attending a real school and associate with non-super friends.
Phlebotinum Muncher: Due to her unusual physiology, when Astra was very young she needed to eat a special food of unknown nature, which glowed, in order to maintain her energy flux. When she ran away from home and attended school at around the age of about ten, she ate various normal types of food (mostly corn dogs) for the first time without a problem, having apparently grown out of her condition.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Basically. Nick and Natalie are the children of Kaspian, Prince of the Beast-men.
Rubber Man: Karl Furst, son of Nick and Darcy.
Science Hero: Augustus. While the rest of the team charges into battle with their super-powers, Gus will hang back and analyze the enemy's weakness to six decimal places, then whip up some Applied Phlebotinum to finish it off.
Shout-Out: Julius Furst is named for and modeled after legendary DC Comics creator Julius Schwartz.
Sizeshifter: Natalie can channel the strange energies inside her body and grow to gigantic size.
Social Services Does Not Exist: In the first series, when Astra's a preteen, no-one sees anything odd about bringing a little girl to fight supervillains. Possibly justified in that she can fly and is made of pure energy, but still...
Super Family Team: The eldest Fursts are brothers, but Natalie and Nick were adopted, Rex married Natalie, and the third generation members are Natalie and Nick's children. Despite a few breaks in actual blood relations, they're all still one asskicking family.
Superhero Trophy Shelf: The Family has a lot of odds and ends lying around, but how many are actual trophies is unclear.
Swiss-Army Superpower: Besides shifting into an energy form, Astra's powers allow her to project and manipulate energy in various ways, including flight and Mind over Matter.

Jack-In-The-Box

"If you and your little friends can't play nice, your toys are going to be taken away from you!"

Real name: Jack Johnson (Jack-In-The-Box I), Zachary Johnson (Jack-In-The-Box II), Roscoe James (Jack-In-The-Box III)

The Crimefighting Clown of Astro City, Jack-In-The-Box combines bad jokes and dazzling stunts with entangling confetti streamers, electric clown noses, and his rooftop-vaulting Footapults.

Alternate Self: Zachary meets three alternate versions of his unborn son; two of them became ruthless vigilantes after his death, the third was willing to throw away a successful scientific career just to see his father for a few minutes, and this causes him to realize that he might leave his son to grow up without a father just as he had.
Anti-Hero Substitute: Zachary's two bad-future possible sons are perfect examples of this trope — one is a Sabertooth expy, the other is a cyborg killer with a spring-loaded head for an arm, and both are absolutely convinced that they are entitled to kill anyone they want because they are the good guys. Zachary moves heaven and earth to make sure they never come into existence.
Badass Normal: Jack-In-The-Box has no powers other than his arsenal of gadgets and a quick wit.
Cool Uncle: Ike Johnson looks up to Roscoe James, and even tried to become his sidekick.
Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: Technically, Roscoe qualifies as this — Zachary paid him to be Jack-In-The-Box so Roscoe could make his way through college without requiring a handout.
Disappeared Dad: Jack Johnson, the first Jack-In-The-Box, as his family didn't know he was a superhero who died in battle. No one made the connection until Zachary stumbled across his father's gear, and even then, no one knew what actually happened to him until Mr. Drama's granddaughter got involved years later. Zachary went out of his way to NOT end up as this, retiring shortly after Ike's birth.
Extendable Arms: Jack-In-The-Box's costume includes Footapults (spring-like boots) and Handsprings (extendable gloves). They effectively enable him make extraordinary leaps and extend his arms for grabbing and punching opponents.
Gadgeteer Genius: Jack Johnson invented an incredible amount of strange devices, then found out his bosses were misusing them, so he began using his inventions to fight crime. Zachary Johnson is the CEO and lead inventor at a toy company, and whose weapons are enhanced versions of his various products. He's also smart enough to cobble together a quick-freeze spray from leftover car parts in a junkyard.
Happily Married: Zachary Johnson is married to Tamra Dixon, a local television news anchor.
The Hero Dies: Happens to the first Jack-In-The-Box (Jack Johnson), leaving his son and wife behind.
Honorary Uncle: Roscoe has this relationship with Ike Johnson, Zachary's son.
Legacy Character: The Jack-In-The-Box of The '90s is Zachary Johnson, the son of the original (Jack Johnson). The current one is his protege, Roscoe James, with Zach serving as Mission Control.
Le Parkour: This is Jack-In-The-Box's preferred fighting style, aided by his Footapults.
Literal Surveillance Bug: Zachary uses a "doodle bug" to serve as Mission Control to Roscoe.
Mission Control: Zachary takes this role after he passes the mantle to Roscoe James.
Monster Clown: Not in the minds of the populace at large, but whenever he appears in a story told from the perspective of one of the city's thugs, he tends to give off this vibe, between the stretching limbs, the spiderweb-like confetti, shock-noses, and the constant laughter.
Non-Ironic Clown: While very few villains enter into the spirit of the thing, Jack-in-the-Box does go for laughs.
Spider-Man Send-Up: He's clearly meant as the local equivalent to Spider-Man at first glance: an acrobatic, wise-cracking street-level vigilante who fights using string as an equivalent to webbing. In fact, according to Busiek, his first appearance (where a crook sees his true identity without him knowing) was based on a pitch for a Spider-Man story, but the editors shot it down on the basis that they'd have to bring the crook back eventually. Aside from that, a lot of his other traits are homages to Steve Ditko's other street-level vigilantes, such as The Creeper or Blue Beetle.
This Means War!: Played for drama in "Serpent's Teeth", when an alternate-timeline version of Jack-in-the-Box's son uses Jack's "Of course you realize, this means war" as motivation to become a Knight Templar on criminals... without realizing that his dad was quoting Bugs Bunny.

Quarrel II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/quarrel.jpg

"Take that, you jumped-up dust-busters!"

Real name: Jessica "Jess" Darlene Taggart

The second character with the name and the costume, the heroic Quarrel is the daughter of the original, out to erase her father's villainous past by surpassing him in deed and valor.

Amicable Exes: With MPH.
Badass Normal: Deconstructed. She constantly realizes that she's a Badass Normal in a world of super-powered beings, armored villains, aliens, and gods, and compensates for it with lots of training — to the point where she cannot sustain any sort of normal relationship because of the commitments required. She's only with Crackerjack because she doesn't care that he Really Gets Around, and he doesn't care if she forgets his birthday.
"But I don't have alien DNA or a super bio-serum or the power of the gods or Empyrean Fire or... or whatever! I've just got me. I've got to put all my effort into it. All my concentration, all my focus."
Birds of a Feather: Being the only normals on the team, she and Crackerjack kept coming back to each other because they know each other's fears and drives.
Broken Pedestal: Despite their hardships, she was close to her father, and was heartbroken when he was arrested and exposed as a supervillain.
Brought to You by the Letter "S": Or "Q" in this case.
Clothes Make the Superman: Received a suit of Powered Armor that let her do incredible things, but proved instrumental to her retirement as she felt that it was basically doing her job for her.
Commonality Connection: When MPH bitterly assumes that her rejection of him means All Girls Want Bad Guys, she retorts that she's herself and not any other woman, and since he's a Nice Guy, he should find a Nice Girl; she's with Crackerjack because they are both jerks (and understand how seriously you have to train to be a superhero without powers).
Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: For a while, Quarrel received financial support from Honor Guard so she could continue to support her family.
Empowered Badass Normal: Played more negatively than most examples. For most of her life, she had fairly nonintrusive equipment, but when she started getting older, she was given increasingly strong and increasingly ugly-looking Powered Armor, which Crackerjack referred to as "lobster suits." She really didn't like this, as it was a continual reminder of her declining skill, to the point that she started asking them to tone the armor down so she could at least somewhat contribute to her job.
Farm Boy: Jess and her brothers grew up in the hills near a small town.
Honorary Aunt: To M.P.H.'s children. Also to Hummingbird.
Legacy Character: The heroic Quarrel is the successor to her father, a small-time crook with the same name and outfit.
Promoted to Parent: Thanks to her dad's constant arrests and her mom's drunkenness, she had to raise her three brothers. They all turned out very well.
Rags to Riches: She grew up virtually destitute in the Appalachian mountains, since her father spent almost everything he actually managed to steal on upgrading his gear, and her mother was an alcoholic. Once she struck out on her own as Quarrel II, she did pretty good through bounty hunting, and eventually working with Honor Guard, but she really hit this trope when she won the lottery, making her independently wealthy. Crackerjack, true to form, immediately remarked he had no problem being a "kept man".
Redeeming Replacement: Her father, the previous Quarrel, was a villain. Steeljack tells her that he would be proud to see her as a hero, and a later story bears this out.
Retired Badass: By 2022, she's retired from active superheroing.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Has this relationship with Crackerjack, and it's exactly what she wants. She'd rather have someone push her to her limits than someone who constantly wants to take care of her (like M.P.H.).
Tomboy: Jessica grew up with a burly dad and three brothers, and quickly learned to shoot and wrassle with the best of them.
Trick Arrow: Part of Quarrel's arsenal.

Crackerjack

"Another daring triumph for Crackerjack — the acme of adventurers! And not bad work, if I do say so myself..."

The Crimefighting Clod of Astro City, Crackerjack combines bad jokes and acrobatic skill with an ego the size of the Astrobank Tower and twice the flamboyance.

Attention Whore: He is easily Astro City's pre-eminent example of this, glorifying his most inane accomplisments to everyone, even himself. An alien spying on him is flummoxed when he sees Crackerjack congratulating himself for a win that was purely by luck.
Badass Normal: He has no powers other than a superhuman ego, but he's still a great hero.
Clark Kenting: Even in Astro City, his original secret identity is pretty obvious on second glance, especially given his access to theatrical makeup. The real reason he gets away with it so long is that nobody'd ever believe the Attention Whore Crackerjack would duck the spotlight in his civilian identity.
Crazy-Prepared: He hid a tracer in his boot, which helps the rest of Honor Guard find him and the Black Lab during "The End of the Trail". Unfortunately for him, it took a week to actually work.
Dented Iron: In his later years, both age and a lifetime of injuries start catching up to him. We see a bit of how he looks under the costume on the cover of Vol 3 #18, and his back is positively covered in old scars.
Expy: One could assume he borrows elements from the Silver Age Daredevil with a dose of Hawkeye in terms of cocky attitude.
Fountain of Youth: Crackerjack looks for something to restore his youthful physique once he starts becoming incapacitated due to his advancing age.
Game-Breaking Injury: Courtesy of the Black Lab who he attempted to swindle a mind transplant into a younger cloned version of his body out of. Instead of giving him what he wanted, the crooks took what they needed from him (including a few organs) to create a small army of Crackerjack thugs and then tossed his broken, brutalized person into the garbage to die.
Hidden Depths: After he accidentally reveals his secret identity in public, evidence is recovered suggesting that said secret identity isn't his original one.
- After Quarrel broke her leg he suggested a type of therapy geared toward athletes that the Honor Guard's doctor hadn't even considered.
- He repeatedly breaks into places and systems with ease, suggesting some skills at hacking, stealth, or other related fields.
I Resemble That Remark!: Crackerjack laments that Quarrel is mad at him for flirting with other women even as he flirts with Nightingale.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be a boastful, obnoxious, annoying loudmouth who loves to butt into other people's business and claim the credit, but he is ultimately a hero who unfailingly saves people from danger, and while he may talk a big bunch, he's never abusive or callous.
Miles Gloriosus: Subverted; an alien assumes his arrogance and bragging indicate his true character, and even when seeing his heroism wrestles with the idea that he might really be The Hero. The subversion is that while Crackerjack may not be as good as he thinks he is, he's still genuinely heroic and highly effective.
Multiple-Choice Past: Crackerjack has given many stories about his origins, none of which have been verified or even consistent. His longtime lover Quarrel has given up trying to figure it out.
Never My Fault: Any time someone points out the sloppiness of his crime-fighting style, Crackerjack's quick to brush them off. And then there's the moment under I Resemble That Remark!
Nice Guy: While his superhero persona may be irritating, in his secret identity Crackerjack is friendly to everyone and takes his failures with aplomb. Apparently he keeps his ego and resentment in his tights.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The one time we see him absolutely serious and without any jokes is when Quarrel breaks her leg and he insists that she get out of bedrest and onto rehab immediately, against the advice of the rest of the Honor Guard (who are not normals like he and Quarrel are).
Playful Hacker: Has a real gift for getting past security systems, even managing to sneak into Honor Guard HQ without being detected.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Has this dynamic with Quarrel. She likes being driven, he has no filter, and together they have a pretty healthy relationship.
Small Name, Big Ego: Crackerjack is a fantastic physical specimen and often shows himself to be a true hero, but his grandiosity is too much for any amount of skill to back up.
Stealth Expert: It's really hard to keep him out of places he's not supposed to be.

Cleopatra

"You will surrender, Demolitia! Cleopatra commands it — and she will not be defied this day!"

Real name: Sarah Brandeis (Cleopatra II)

A magical heroine whose primary weapon is a mystical staff. She guards the innocent and gives no quarter to wrongdoers. She was a founding member of Honor Guard and continues to serve with them.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: The first Cleopatra was a blonde white woman; the second one is Sarah Brandeis, who has dark skin and tight black curls.
Emergency Transformation: Throwing the Gem around Sarah's neck was the best way to keep it from Hellsignor. In a rare moment of guilt, the Point Man does apologize for it, saying she should have had some choice in the matter.
Expy: Her golden Egyptomania-fueled attire, magical powerset, and link to a mystic artifact give her a lot of commonality with Doctor Fate.
Fad Super: Busiek has implied that her initial incarnation was linked to the renewed interest in Cleopatra's story that resulted in the 1963 film.
Flying Brick: Notable that she has strength to go with her flight, wheras her predecessor only had the flight part.
Force Field Cage: Cleopatra can create energy pyramids to trap opponents.
It Began with a Twist of Fate/Kidnapped by the Call: Sarah Brandeis was a lab technician when she was kidnapped by the sinister Hellsignor during his attack on Earth. To foil his plans, the Point Man stole the Gem of Thebis from him, then tossed it around Sarah's neck. She instantly turned into the new Cleopatra and banished Hellsignor to another dimension.
Legacy Character: There have been two women so far who have taken up the mantle of Cleopatra.
Magic Staff: Her primary weapon is the Sun-Staff of Ra. It can create floating platforms, cage enemies, and fire energy blasts.
Magic Versus Science: Cleopatra has a preference for magic over technology.
Monochromatic Eyes: Cleopatra's eyes are entirely white. Usually.
Royal "We": Played with; the second Cleopatra spoke more formally and used the Royal "We" during The '90s, but later adapted to more conventional speech patterns.
Statuesque Stunner: Implied; when Sarah Brandeis becomes the new Cleopatra, it is mentioned that the first Cleopatra was 5'4", and Sarah is implied to be much taller than that.
Super-Strength: Cleopatra II has super strength, although her predecessor did not.

M.P.H.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mph.jpg

"Whichever way you run — you can't escape me!"

Real name: Michael Hendrie

Astro City's most prominent speedster, the Acceleration Ace of Detroit and a longtime member of Honor Guard.

A Friend in Need: Toward Beautie.
Amicable Exes: With Quarrel II.
Half-Human Hybrid: Apparently has 85% human DNA with a 15% alien overlay.
Happily Married: To his wife Sally.
Nice Guy: He serves breakfast in bed to his girlfriends just because.
Steven Ulysses Perhero: Played with; it's suggested that his codename "M.P.H." are the initials of his real name (Michael Hendrie), but his middle name is currently unknown.
Super-Speed: His primary power.

Beautie

"My skin is ferro-styrene over an omnitanium frame. My breasts and buttocks are rigid. And I have no genitalia."

An adult-sized robot replica of a popular children's toy, Beautie appeared in Astro City one day to rescue a kidnapped heiress. She soon joined up with Honor Guard and became a full-time hero, which helps distract her from questions about her origins and her purpose.

Amnesia Loop: She always finds a lead to her past, discovers a connection to a gadgeteer supervillain, finds her creator, who is the daughter whose genius was shunned by her father the aforementioned supervillain, is ordered to leave and forget everything by said creator. According to her creator she keeps coming back no matter how many times she is ordered to forget.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Literally, considering she's a robot based on a Brand X Barbie doll.
Brand X: Is based on a doll that's a parody of Barbie.
Can't Have Sex, Ever: The above quote is a response to being hit on—apparently a rote response by this point.
Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: She's the corporate symbol for Tip-Top Toys.
Dude Magnet: Being to all appearances a statuesque woman with perfect features, very much so.
Expy: To The Vision, another robot superhero struggling to connect with humans, although her problems are quite different.
Fag Hag: Beautie has an apartment above a gay bar and is friends to the local gay community because they understand what it's like to feel separate from the norm (if in a different way). It also helps that they don't try to proposition her.
The Fashionista: As a living Barb-er, Beautie doll she was programmed with the desire to be one of these and owns many outfits.
Flying Brick: Beautie has super-strength, enhanced hearing, flight, and a ferro-styrene skin that's resistant to a lot of damage.
Frozen Face: Even when her voice is clearly conveying emotion.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Anything about her origin. In fact, when she finds out something, she often forgets it moments later.
Literal-Minded: Has some difficulty with the nuances of speech. For example, upon hearing that Hummingbird II was looking for a guy who wasn't just interested in sex, Beautie mentions that she knows several men who aren't interested in sex with women at all—not exactly what Hummingbird was looking for.
Loss of Identity: Beautie feels hollow because she does not know where she comes from.
Nice Girl: When she's not scrupulously polite and kind-hearted, it's a sign that something's very wrong.
Photographic Memory: One of her powers.
Quest for Identity: She tries. The amnesia keeps coming back.
Ridiculously Human Robot: Beautie can pass for human at first glance, but soon reveals her artificial nature by her mannerisms.
Robosexual: It's implied she'd like a relationship, but she finds the men who aren't troubled by her lack of genitalia worse than the ones who are.
Robot Girl: She's a robot.
Spock Speak: Beautie speaks in a rigid and stilted manner.
Statuesque Stunner: Puns aside, she's about six feet tall and gets lots of male (and sometimes female) attention.
Super-Senses: Can apparently "turn up her audio protocols", giving herself enhanced hearing.
Uncanny Valley: Beautie's proportions and appearance are borrowed from a fashion doll, to rather offputting effect. She's unnervingly thin and long-necked, her expression never changes, she has visible joints in places, and her clothes have a tendency to rumple and not fit in the same way a doll's clothes do. Even the way she moves and poses is deliberately stiff, as if it takes her effort to bend her knees and elbows.

The Hanged Man

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hanged_man_2.jpg

The mysterious spectral guardian of the neighborhood known as Shadow Hill, the Hanged Man stands forever vigilant, protecting the city from dangers beyond human understanding. He is immediately recognizable by the burlap bag and frayed noose he wears.

Badass Armfold: His default pose most of the time. Combined with Power Floats.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: One of his victories against what's implied to be agents of the Oubor cost him a little.
Character Witness: At the very end of the Vertigo series, when the people at Michael's support group are uncertain about the story about his wife, in pops the Hanged Man. He doesn't even say anything, but the message gets across.
Dark and Troubled Past: Heavily implied.
Horrifying Hero: The people of Astro City recognize that he/it is a hero, but if he appears, you're generally in a lot of trouble.
I Have Many Names: The Dancing Master refers to him by quite a few, making clear that "The Hanged Man" is but the most recent one.
Living Shadow: Aside from his burlap hood and rope, the Hanged Man's body is a featureless silhouette of a man.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Hanged Man's shown telepathy, size control, and time travel abilities over his appearances, without any clear limit to his abilities.
Painting the Fourth Wall: The Hanged Man never actually speaks; you simply understand what he's communicating to you. When he "talks", it's depicted as rough-edged yellow-brown narration boxes with shadows, with a different font to everybody else, evoking the impression of old parchment (although the font's changed between appearances).
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Aware of the changes to the timeline caused by a Time Crash Crisis Crossover, perhaps because he was one of those who repaired the crash.
Sizeshifter: As a spectre, the Hanged Man's height varies from human-sized to hundreds of feet tall.
Take Our Word for It: A lot of the Hanged Man's work takes place behind the scenes, handling threats of the Eldritch Abomination type. There was a brief glimpse of this to resolve one of the sub-plots of 'Confession,' and the implication is that he guards Shadow Hill because it's a kind of... threshold.
Willing Channeler: There's something of this going on; should the Hanged Man lose his current body, then he'll find someone who'll volunteer to be his new host. The one time it's happened on screen, he found someone being hanged who wanted to redeem himself. No-one wants to find out what happens if they're not willing.
You Shall Not Pass!: When the Enelsian invasion force is assaulting Astro City, the Hanged Man looms over Shadow Hill, his arms crossed. The aliens do not engage.

The Gentleman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gentleman.jpg

"Not so fast, big fella! You don't want to scare these nice people!"

Ever since he first appeared in The '40s, the Gentleman has been a mainstay of Astro City, despite apparently not aging a day. Immaculately dressed in his tuxedo and unfailingly polite, the Gentleman's charming personality, impeccable manners, and wholesome sensibilities make him the quintessential Nice Guy.

The Ageless: Thanks to his secret origin.
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Fred MacMurray, a similarity he shares with Earth's Mightiest Mortal. His young, brief sidekick, the Young Gentleman, is drawn to look like Elvis Presley, who was the biggest fan of Captain Marvel's sidekick Captain Marvel Jr.
Dream People: He isn't actually "real". He's the idealized version of the late father of a grieving little girl named Tillie who wills him into existence whenever the world needs him. The same applies to his sidekick, the Young Gentleman, who Tillie created to serve as the ideal big brother.
Expy: To the original Captain Marvel.
Flying Brick: He's super strong and can fly.
Good Is Not Dumb: Implied. The Gentleman was smart enough to avoid capture by alien infiltrators who had rounded up nearly all of the other heroes. His secret origin explains how.
Good Parents: To Tillie, his daughter.
Nice Guy: The Gentleman is Astro City's Trope Codifier; no matter how dire the situation, he will always be completely and unflappably polite. For example, after rescuing a news helicopter that endangered itself during a battle against a storm elemental, he simply smiled to the crew and politely suggested that they might want to get to safety and not endanger any of the bystanders on the streets below.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his fight with Professor Borzoi, he managed to ensure Loony Leo would stay alive through Clap Your Hands If You Believe. Unfortunately, this also created massive problems for poor Leo, who was never meant to be alive.
Sharp-Dressed Man: The Gentleman has never been seen wearing anything other than his impressively elegant tuxedo, complete with sash and buttonhole rose.
Sidekick: He partnered with Loony Leo for a while, and in the 1950s worked with a teen sidekick named The Young Gentleman.

The Crossbreed

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/91698_117884_crossbreed.jpg

A team of Christianity-themed superheroes who believe their powers are a gift from God; they spend their time proselytizing when not fighting super-villains.

Badass Preacher: When not fighting crime, they're usually street preachers.
Beast Man: Daniel is half-human, half-lion.
Blood Knight: Daniel may be one of these as he protests a firm reminder from Noah not to kill.
The Cavalry: They arrive in time to save Altar Boy if not the Confessor from the aliens.
Combat Medic: Daniel.
Dishing Out Dirt: Peter's power is to manipulate and control rock and soil as if it were dough.
A Friend in Need: They alert Brian to the pickpocket who took his wallet on his arrival.
Hidden Depths: Initially, they come across as obnoxious Evangelical-types, but it quickly becomes apparent that they're genuinely decent people and entirely competent heroes.
Killed Offscreen: The elderly Noah is eventually revealed to have died some time between the "Confessions" arc and issue 18 of the ongoing. Without him, the rest of the Crossbreed ended up going their separate ways.
Meaningful Name: The Crossbreed all wear red robes with white surplices. Their codenames are Biblical allusions to their powers:
- Noah: The team leader. He is a bearded man with power over rain and lightning. ^noteFrom the story of Noah's Ark, natch.
- Mary: A woman who flies with large feathery wings. ^note
- Peter: A grey-skinned man with the power to manipulate rock.^note
- Daniel: A half-man, half-lion Beast Man ^note
- Joshua: A blonde man who can create a destructive sonic scream. ^note
- David: A man who can immediately grow to giant size. ^noteDavid v Goliath
Natural Weapon: Daniel's main "power" are his claws and teeth. He never kills, however, at Noah's insistence.
Old Superhero: Noah looks to be in his sixties at least. At some point after the "Confessions" arc, he passed away, presumably from old age.
Sizeshifter: David can grow to gigantic size.
Super-Scream: Joshua can unleash sonic screams for various uses.
Weather Manipulation: Noah has been seen summoning rain and lightning; it is unclear if he has control over any other types of weather.
We Were Your Team: They break up after Noah dies.
Winged Humanoid: Mary is an adult woman with large feathery wings.

The Confessor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/confessor.jpg

"And is that why we do what we do? For public approval, for fame? Do we help people because they will be appropriately grateful — or merely because they need help?”

Real name: Jeremiah Parrish

First appearing on the scene in The '50s, The Confessor is Astro City's dark guardian, a merciless protector who fights those seeking to prey on the weak and helpless. But what shameful secret does he hide beneath his robes? Spoilers follow.

The Atoner: The Confessor is purposefully torturing himself by using a cross as his costume theme, as a form of mortification in penance for his killings and his self-loathing as a vampire.
Bad Powers, Good People: He's a vampire but also a devout man and a genuine hero.
Clarke's Third Law: Confessor II uses technological equipment to replicate (some of) the original's abilities.
The Cowl: Unlike most examples, he's not part of a larger team and seldom associates with other heroes at all.
Dark Is Not Evil: Though he operates at night and is a Terror Hero, he's not a bad guy, and is in fact an ordained Catholic priest before being made into a vampire.
Deliberately Painful Clothing: Being a vampire, the cross on the chest of his costume hurts him, but he uses that pain to help control his bloodlust.
Despair Event Horizon: After Brian uncovers his secret, he drops all subtlety and goes directly after The Deacon, apparently feeling he has nothing left to lose and perhaps planning to get himself killed. Fortunately Brian talks him down.
Expy: To Batman, as a caped, cowled Terror Hero with a penchant for the Stealth Hi/Bye and perching dramatically on rooftops.
Foreshadowing: Well before the 'Confession' arc, we get a glimpse at the secret files being built up about Earth's superhumans in preparation for the invasion. There are pretty comprehensive write-ups on other heroes, but for the Confessor: "No image available, civilian identity unknown, powers: possible super strength, others unknown." His image can't be captured on film, he's never around in the daytime, and he tries to keep anybody from noticing the pattern that his powers fit.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: His powers, elusiveness, terrifying presence, and tendency to operate at night — they're all the result of his vampire's curse. He uses them to fight crime as a self-inflicted penance, struggling against the hunger and darker impulses.
Hypnotic Eyes: One of his powers as a vampire. Very useful for interrogations.
Legacy Character: The Confessor is succeeded by Brian Kinney at the end of the "Confession" arc.
Legacy Immortality: After his death, Altar Boy takes over as the next Confessor, and doesn't bother to inform anyone that he's not the same guy, because it makes it easier to take advantage of their fear.
Missing Reflection: The Confessor is famous enough that newspapers actively try to photograph him after his every appearance, but he's not easily found. This also applies to his powers as a vampire, which account for how difficult it is to find him — he doesn't show up in mirrors, like cameras.
Non-Answer: When asked if he's ever killed anyone, his response is "Don't... don't ask me that."
Really 700 Years Old: Jeremiah Parrish arrived in North America in 1869.
Religious Vampire: Confessor is a vampire who was a Catholic priest and now acts a superhero. The cross her wears on the front of his costume constantly burns him, which he regards as form of penance.
Shrouded in Myth: The Confessor originally existed as little more than a legend because no video footage or photos of him had ever been taken. This is because he's a vampire.
Sinister Minister: Subverted in that while the Confessor is actually a priest, he's heroic to the innocent. Then subverted again when he is outed as a vampire.
Stealth Hi/Bye: You turn around and there he is. Or isn't.
Unwitting Pawn: The Broken Man mentions he used the Confessor for his own ends a few times.
Walking Spoiler: His true identity or rather his true nature as a vampire is treated as a major reveal in the storyline, and is obfuscated mainly by the format and his being an obvious Batman Expy.

Altar Boy/Confessor II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/altar_boy.jpg

"This isn’t what I thought it would be like. It isn’t what I thought at all. It looked simple… but it’s not."

Real name: Brian Kinney

After his parents died and left him an orphan, Brian Kinney left his small town to make a successful name for himself in Astro City's super-hero community. He soon joins the Confessor as his sidekick Altar Boy, and learns the true power of faith and sacrifice.

Ascended Fanboy: He was a fan of superheroes and now he is one.
Atrocious Alias: Brian doesn't care for "Altar Boy," but doesn't get a vote in the matter.
Confessor: Altar Boy or busboy. Your choice.
Badass Normal: He originally had no powers.
Dramatic Irony: Brian contemplates a superhero in action while thinking how they get respect. The hero in question is Crackerjack, who gets less respect than his heroism and skills merit, because his Glory Hound ways mar them.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Altar Boy's motive for superheroing is to get respect. He learns better.
Empowered Badass Normal: After becoming Confessor, he augments his abilities with magic.
Expy: Of Robin, particularly of Dick Grayson (popularity with women and detective skills).
- He later inherits his mentor's mantle, much like Dick (temporarily) did with Bruce.
Glory Seeker: He wants the fame and glory, though he's willing to earn it.
Kid Hero All Grown-Up: He starts off as a teenager/young adult, but graduates into his own independent hero after taking over his mentor's mantle. 20 years later he's still operating as The Confessor, with his own group of sidekick heroes.
Legacy Character: When he takes up the mantle of the Confessor at the end of the "Confession" story arc.
- After the 20 year timeskip, he has a band of sidekicks named the Choir Boys.
Loser Son of Loser Dad: Brian wants to be a superhero to avoid this trope.
Removed Achilles' Heel: As far as the bad guys know, he's still a vampire but is now immune to crosses, garlic, etc.
Welcome to the Big City: Brian gets one soon after arriving in Astro City.

Supersonic

^{Click here to see Dale Enright.}

"I was never at a loss for a plan, no matter how convoluted. I tried not to repeat myself, tried to top my last save — and I had the energy and brains and speed and ingenuity to do it."

Real name: Dale Enright

The high-flying hero of Arizona, Supersonic was a sterling sight in The '60s and Seventies, battling America's enemies with style and aplomb. He eventually retired to a life of quiet tranquility, but gets pulled into action one more time...

Are These Wires Important?: Ultimately used by Supersonic to stop the fight against Ominuss' robot.
Back from the Dead: After a battle with Lady Lethal, Supersonic suffered massive blood loss and extensive organ damage and was declared legally dead, yet managed to recover while on the autopsy table. His recovery was later cited by a defense attorney in a murder trial.
Call to Agriculture: Dale spends his retirement tending to his rose garden.
Dented Iron: Either one too many bumps to the head or simply the onset of senility have dulled his once brilliant strategic mind.
Flying Brick: He's super strong and can fly.
Genius Bruiser: He was an engineer before he became a superhero, and despite the fact that he could take on most opponents through simply punching them, he prefers clever tactics and applications of comic-book science. Him becoming a regular ol' Bruiser was the reason he quit.
Got Volunteered: After retiring, Dale moved to Astro City and tended to his garden, but was badgered out of retirement to battle a rampaging robot at a time when the city's other superheroes were unavailable.
Heroic Vow: In his heyday, Supersonic pledged to always use a new and original method to defeat each of his opponents, and is proud of never having to repeat a tactic twice. He is shamed when his impending senility has reduced him to simply battering a rampaging robot into submission.
Hero Insurance: He observes, in the end, that Astro City is really good at disaster relief, so they will be able to cope with his collateral damage.
Old Superhero: He's retired from superheroing.
The Strategist: Supersonic was this in his golden days, and enjoyed using his intellect to devise new ways to defeat his opponents. Likely a call back to early Silver Age comics where the hero's defeating the villain often was treated as a puzzle.
Superdickery: After an adventure that temporarily gave him 16 exact doubles, Dale took his girlfriend Caroleen to a dance as Supersonic, and had one of his doubles attend in his secret identity of Dale Enright — just to mess with her.
Violence is the Only Option: Enforced; Supersonic fights Ominuss’ rampaging robot by battering it into submission, as he is too old to think of a clever, original, or non-violent way to stop it otherwise.
- Then subverted where he does find a way of being able to stop Ominuss' robot.

Roustabout

"Howdy, boys. You're rousted."

Real name: Calvin Arnold Rory (presumed); alias Rick

A non-Astro City superhero, from the first story set outside the city. Presumed (on Herocopia) to be a man who claimed to have suffered involuntary experiments at the hands of TransGene International, but was unable to prove it and was convicted of breaking and entering on their property. He escaped jail.

He is now living in secret in the Arcadian countryside, acting as a superhero, working as a roustabout at a carnival, and being protected by the country folk, who act as Secret Keepers for him.

Arrested for Heroism: Capture two executives performing lethal experiments (which he was aware of because he was one of the test subjects), get convicted yourself of breaking and entering.
Brought to You by the Letter "S": His costume includes a large belt with crossed "R"s.
Cover-Blowing Superpower: Saving a life from a falling crane would be this, if he weren't surrounded by people who pretend not to notice.
Disposable Superhero Maker: Team Carnivore announces, when trying to capture him, that their bosses need to take him apart and figure out how he works to fix them.
Disposable Vagrant: The victims of the experiments were all drifters or people who worked in rural regions.
Flawed Prototype: Team Carnivore seems to be a more successful experiment in the company's eyes.
Flying Brick: Camille characterizes his powers as "vanilla."
LEGO Genetics: The presumed source of his powers.
Hero of Another Story: The story is actually about a City Mouse adjusting to country life, and learning to become Roustabout's Secret-Keeper.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Subverted. The 'official' story, along with a legally-set quarter-million dollar bounty, paints him as a fugitive that just plays hero in small communities as part of a power fantasy. Judging by the trust that Caplinville places in him, and the vigor with which they protect his identity, it hasn't worked.
Immune to Bullets: One of his powers.
Miscarriage of Justice: His first appearance as a superhero was landing outside a police station with two executives from the genetic research company he claimed had conducted the experiments that led to his powers. It ended with him being sent to jail for B&E of that same company because he couldn't prove anything in court. The ongoing quarter-million dollar bounty that TransGene keeps on him (and the mutated Team Carnivore hunting him) seems to indicate that he was telling the truth.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Claims to have escaped the experiments because the sedation failed. Team Carnivore backs up the story with their insistence on taking him back to their bosses to be taken apart so they can figure out how he worked.
Secret Relationship: He and his girlfriend naturally keep it quiet.
Shooting Superman: Introduced taking down bank robbers he has clashed with before. They haven't learned. He lampshades it with humor.
Sole Survivor: Of the experiments.
Stern Chase: He has to keep moving, whenever caught.
Super Prototype: He's better than all of Team Carnivore, who want him because they think it means they can work out what went wrong with them.
You Fight Like a Cow: Roustabout is full of down-on-the-farm wit when taking down a gang of bank robbers.
"Sheriff's got the lockup cleaned out by now, I'll bet. You do this for the cafe meals, don't you?"

Starfighter

Real name: Duncan Keller

Duncan Keller was serving in Vietnam when he started seeing a temple no-one else could. The symbol, the shape, he saw on the temple gave him clarity and a sense of purpose, and he started trying to fix it in his mind. When he finally succeeded, he found himself transformed into the hero Starfighter, in which role he would serve for many years. As time passed, he found he was called on less and less, effectively entering semi-retirement, giving him the opportunity to start a family and pursue his dream of writing.

Combo Platter Powers: The Lorus can give someone a super-powered form, be used to open portals from place to place and wipe memories, among other things.
Expy: Of Captain Marvel , right down to a near identical costume.
Geometric Magic: The Lorus is called upon by drawing shapes in the air.
Half-Human Hybrid: His children.
Happily Married: To Illula, Seven-Fold Empress of Jarranatha.
Inadequate Inheritor: His short-lived sidekick Quark was a hothead with anger-management issues.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: His wife and kids walk around wearing nothing except strategically-placed leaves, although his daughter Trill wears a costume when she's on patrol.
Interspecies Romance: See Happily Married.
I Should Write a Book About This: And he has.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: One of his powers.
Kid Sidekick: Tried to teach one, and failed. Had to use the amnesia powers on him.
Non-Idle Rich: He's a writer, though he doesn't need the money.
Planetary Romance: A lot of his adventures.
Retired Badass: He discovers he's this after a time and makes his peace with it.
Rich Boredom: he's aware of the danger, hence the writing.
Sentient Cosmic Force: The Lorus, the source of his powers. Also, he discovers, the force that decides it's time for him to retire.

Hummingbird

Real name: Barbara Hammcher

An early member of Honor Guard, Hummingbird fought crime with her uncanny aim, buzz-ray, and luminescent flight suit. After an adventure in Peru, she discovered she was pregnant, and soon retired from super-heroics to raise her child as a single parent.

Animal-Themed Superbeing: Animal Alias form.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Aside from her flight suit and equipment, Hummingbird's most formidable skill is her marksmanship.
Rescue Romance: She rescued her daughter's father against attackers and was thus drawn into helping his people.
Retired Badass: When her daughter is born, she stops the superheroics.
Reunion Kiss: When a Cool Gate lets her reunite with her beloved, years after their separation.
Star-Crossed Lovers: When she went to tell her daughter's father about the baby, she learned that he was magically bringing his people into another world — and had to go with them. She could not bring herself to leave her own.

Hummingbird II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hummingbird_2.jpg

"When I finally started my career as the new Hummingbird, it felt SO GOOD!"

Real name: Amanda Hammcher

The daughter of the original Hummingbird, Amanda grew up relatively normal, though raised by a cadre of super-powered honorary aunts and uncles. When she was old enough, she leaped into superheroics without pause, and became ecstatic when her meta-abilities manifested — at least, until the price of those powers became known...

Alien Hair: It's starting to turn into feathers.
Animal-Themed Superbeing: She acquires hummingbird powers, then finds that she is being turned into a bird.
Cursed with Awesome: In "Lucky Girl," she discovers that her gods-granted powers are tainted with a curse that will eventually turn her into a real bird. She rejects an offer to be cured by having her powers removed, choosing instead to deal with her fate with the help of her Honorary Aunts.
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He took his people into another world for safety, and the spell required him to go with them.
Dangerous Twelfth Birthday: It does not seem so at the time, but her wings are the first sign of something dangerous.
Disappeared Dad: Her father vanished into another world before her birth.
Flight: On her twelfth birthday, she sprouts wings.
Forced Transformation: She finds herself slowly metamorphosing.
Honorary Aunt: She observes that the male members of Honor Guard were always ready to help when needed, but her real connection was with the female ones — the aunts.
Jumped at the Call: Amanda goes into super-heroics even before her powers appeared.
Legacy Character: Daughter of the first Hummingbird.
Monochromatic Eyes: Solid black eyes are what convinces her that she's got a problem.
Plucky Girl: Isn't going to let her curse get her down.
Revenge by Proxy: She is cursed by a being her mother defeated.

Greymalkin (formerly Kitkat)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tabitha_grey.jpg

Real name: Tabitha Grey

Tabitha Grey started her crime-fighting career as Kitkat, the teen sidekick to Leopardman and a founding member of Honor Guard. After Leopardman retired, she pursued a solo career as the heroine Greymalkin, then changed from acrobatics to the arcane by mastering the mystic arts. Today, Greymalkin mostly keeps to herself, earning spooky whispers while serving as a magical consultant to other heroes.

All Witches Have Cats: And she has a lot.
The Archmage: She apparently learned magic after becoming Greymalkin, and she's the person Hummingbird consults about her Forced Transformation.
Crazy Cat Lady: Lives in a spooky Victorian mansion studying the mystic arts with an army of cats.
Creepy Good: Lives in a spooky mansion with a bunch of spooky cats and looks like she's going to hiss and drink your blood, but she's clearly a good person.
Expy: A rare one at that - as Kitkat, she was one of Kitten, the sidekick of the Batman-like Catman (not to be confused with the DC character of the same name), a minor comics hero from The '40s ^note(and more recently a revival in The '90s by Americomics). Indirectly (and more obviously), she's one of Robin.
- As Greymalkin, she's a bit of an Expy to Agatha Harkness, occasional ally of the Fantastic Four and mentor to the Scarlet Witch.
Kid Sidekick: To Leopardman.
Meaningful Rename: She not only ceased to be a sidekick, but learned magic in the course of becoming Greymalkin.
Retired Badass: Hummingbird goes to consult her after her retirement. The Silver Adept also regularly calls her as a backup for various mystical malfeasance.

Atomicus

"If this is humanity, I don't want it, you hear me? I don't want ANY of it!"

"Real name": Adam Peterson

A mysterious being who formed within a nuclear reactor in 1961 and became one of Astro City's premier heroes, only to leave Earth forever a short time later.

Artificial Human: Generated mysteriously within the core of a nuclear reactor.
Born as an Adult: Was born from a nuclear reactor as he is. Deconstructed since it means that despite his adult appearance, he is actually pretty young mentally.
Bat Signal: Irene had earring-signals that could call him, and also shone a light of some sort into the sky on at least one occasion.
The Cape: One of the first things he saw was a sign that said: "Better Living Through Atomic Power" and that became his credo.
Expy: An alien being with powers beyond those of mortal men, fending off the advances of a woman who's trying to reveal his secret identity.
Flaming Hair: His hair looks like blue fire.
Flying Brick: Among his more mundane powers.
Manchild: Played With. On the one hand, he has a bit of a childish flair to him and naivety. On the other hand, his mysterious birth and circumstances heavily imply that he was Born as an Adult physically.
Mysterious Past: There are plenty of theories about what he is and where he came from, but no one knows for certain. Not even Atomicus.
No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Tried to keep Irene at a distance, romantically, as he was literally emotionally incapable of handling it at the time. However, he did care for her and was trying to become a proper human for her.
- When she exposed his identity, he finally cracked and left Earth.
Noodle Incident: It's mentioned in more recent comics that at one point that he was "rebuilt by the Nuclear Empire", whoever they are.
Poor Communication Kills: What Irene misinterpreted as challenges to get her to prove herself worthy of him by exposing his identity were actually desperate attempts to get her to stop pursuing him while he tried to learn how to be a proper human.
Power Glows: Blue.
Rage Breaking Point: After Irene gave up all pretense and deliberately exposed his true identity in front of everyone, he finally snapped and left Earth.
Self-Duplication: When Irene discovers that this is how he appeared as himself and his secret identity at the same time, it's the final straw for her.
Single-Target Sexuality: Took on a human identity specifically for the purpose of learning how to be a man for Irene.
Superdickery: Subverted. The "dickery" came as a result of not yet having the life experience to distinguish between cruelty and cleverness, and from being unable to tell Irene directly that he wants her to stop pursuing his secret identity for fear of driving her away.
Superman Substitute: He's specifically one to the Silver Age Superman, with his early-60s career, massive assortment of powers, and oddly childish personality, with his relationship with Irene being specifically a takedown of Superman and Lois's relationship in that era.
Symbol Motif Clothing: Bears an atomic symbol on his chest and has a blue glow like Cherenkov radiation.
Walking the Earth: Quite the opposite, actually, as he's been reported as wandering around in space.
Younger Than They Look: Played for Drama. Despite looking like a human adult, he appears to be more emotionally like a kid and Irene's aggressive advances frighten him, especially as he tries to get her to stop.

The N-Forcer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/n_forcer.jpg

Real name: Unknown

Barrier Warrior: Can create force fields.
Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: The corporate symbol of N.R.-gistics Inc (and formerly that of Nicholls-Royce Electronics).
Costume Evolution: Having been around since the 50s, the N-Forcer armor has naturally gone through a few changes over the years.
Energy Beings: His suit turns his body into "N-force".
Expy: Of Iron Man, sort of.
Legacy Character: Dialogue indicates that the current N-Forcer isn't the first one to wear the suit.
Power Armor: The N-Forcer suit.
Shrouded in Myth: As he's been active since 1959, in-universe speculation is that the suit is piloted by a single long-lived individual or an elite group of successors.
Super-Strength: It's unclear if this is a side-effect of being an energy being or the suit itself.

El Hombre

"Have no fear, citizens of Los Angeles! El Hombre is here — and your salvation is at hand!"

Real name: Esteban Rodrigo Suarez Hidalgo

Once a great hero, now a broken old man trapped in his memories.

Accidental Murder: People died as a result of the giant robot he commissioned, and he'd have faced charges if his true identity were known.
Armor-Piercing Question: "So your message, Estaban, is simple: Work hard, stay out of trouble—then inherit two hundred million dollars and everything will be fine?" This inspired him to become El Hombre as a role model.
Badass Cape: With metal plates to deflect attacks and weapon fire.
Badass Normal: His skills and tools are all he has.
Braids of Barbarism: El Hombre's mask has a fake braid down the back.
Broken Ace: Handsome, rich, talented, and respected for his actions in and out of costume...but not nearly as much as he craved.
Carpet of Virility: Specifically mentioned in the character design notes.
Culture Equals Costume: His design is modeled after a very streamlined matador.
Despair Event Horizon: Crossed it when the woman he loved married a fiery rival political activist. As he'd already been feeling irrelevant and ineffective in both identities, this pushed him over the edge.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Felt this in both his civilian and hero identities. As Hidalgo, he never felt accepted by the Latino community no matter how much money and time he spent improving the neighborhood. Even after he decided to become an activist to win them over, he quickly found himself overshadowed by a more charismatic leader. As El Hombre, he was disappointed to learn that he was the least popular of the Honor Guard and disgusted with himself to realize that he actually cared about that. Instead of overcoming his Glory Hound tendencies, Hidalgo decided to arrange some Engineered Heroics in order to get the attention he craved. Twice.
Engineered Heroics: Made a deal with The Assemblyman to create a robot that he could defeat, winning the adulation of the public. The Assemblyman backstabbed him—the remote he thought would shut down the rampaging robot was a fake—and revealed everything when captured by the Honor Guard.
Exact Words: When he talks about how the worst part of his scheme was knowing how close it came to working perfectly and how that all that mattered was what people saw on the surface, he's not lamenting about how he would have ended up living a lie.
Expy: He contains elements reminiscent of Green Arrow. Mainly as a rich guy who later developed a social conscience and wanted to better his community while maintaining some showboating qualities and taking in a young sidekick. Hidalgo's fall from grace shows what would've happened if Green Arrow's ego got the better of him, and his falling out with Bravo can be considered a parallel to how Green Arrow's falling out with Speedy happened due to his failures as a mentor and how they affected the young man.
Fallen Hero: After his deal with The Assemblyman is revealed.
Glory Hound: Although he did have a genuine desire to improve the fortunes of Astro City's Latino community, he also came to realize that he had a thirst for respect and prestige equal to if not greater than that desire, whether as an activist or a hero, or both. He hasn't grown out of it.
Idiot Ball: Sure, why not trust the mad scientist who you've busted numerous times to willingly participate in a scheme to make you popular?
Lantern Jaw of Justice: Specifically mentioned in the character design notes.
Motive Rant: Although neither Steeljack nor the reader are aware of it when he does, Hidalgo talking about his backstory amounts to this.
Old Shame: In-universe. Hidalgo despises himself for his past actions. But the knowledge that he almost managed to pull off his Engineered Heroics has led him to believe that he might succeed at a second try, so he could do something about everyone else hating him.
Parental Substitute: For Bravo/Ruiz. In fact, he moved from L.A. to Astro City in order to proudly watch over his protégé's career.
Parrying Bullets: Could do this with his whip.
The Power of Legacy: Why the details of his turn as the Conquistador are never revealed to the public.
Race Traitor: Gets accused of this by one of the criminals he busts. He knows it's a baseless insult, but it still stings.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: The eye-holes of his mask seen to have red plastic over them, and he turns out to be far less of a hero than he appears.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: As Hidalgo, he was a community organizer who aimed to establish equality for the Latino community of Astro City. Unfortunately, there was another activist with a great deal of passion and a more aggressive platform whose charisma managed to steal away not only a large portion of Hidalgo's constituents but also the woman he loved.
Sidekick: Bravo.
Stealth Pun: Someone accuses "El Hombre" of working for "The Man".

Bravo

Real name: Ruiz (First name unrevealed)

An angry street kid brought in by El Hombre and trained as a sidekick. Managed to carry on after his mentor's disgrace, protecting a world that mistrusted and despised him. He eventually hung his bolas up and became a cop.

Arm Cannon: Fires his bolas from a wrist launcher as an adult.
Badass Cape: Metal-plated like his mentor's.
Badass Normal: Like his mentor, he uses training and gadgetry to fight crime.
Battle Bolas: Uses bolas as his weapon of choice.
Berserk Button: El Hombre and his past with the former hero bring out the worst in Ruiz, leading him to pull a stop-and-frisk on Steeljack after he learned the ex-villain had visited the former hero, and to have a brief outburst of violence in speech and action when Donewicz makes the connection and realizes out loud that he used to be Bravo. Apparently he thought Carl might try pull a blackmail scheme against himself or Hidalgo.
Broken Pedestal: Upon learning about El Hombre's scheme.
Expy: Of Roy Harper via comparing his fallout with Oliver Queen and Bravo's fallout with El Hombre. Ruiz later becoming a police detective is reminiscent of Roy's later career as a government agent and a private detective.
Friend on the Force: To the Irregulars, Goldenglove II, and Steeljack.
Hero with Bad Publicity: El Hombre's actions left a stain that tainted Bravo's heroic career as well, but he persisted until people respected him again.
Killer Yoyo: Wields bolas in combat, using them as melee and thrown weapons.
Misplaced Retribution: Both the public and the hero community spent some time despising Bravo, believing that he might have been complicit in his mentor's deadly Engineered Heroics. Ruiz eventually managed to more than redeem his soiled image.
Parental Abandonment: Lost his parents through unrevealed circumstances, and all his brothers died due to gang violence.
Parental Substitute: His relationship with El Hombre. Even after everything that happened, it's shown he still cares about him.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Founded the Astro City Irregulars, a team of mistrusted outcasts like himself.
Reasonable Authority Figure: After a rocky start, Detective Ruiz turns out to be one of these.
Secret-Keeper: Chose not to reveal El Hombre's secret identity, sparing Hidalgo criminal charges.
Sidekick: Starts out as one of these to El Hombre, striking out on his own after his mentor falls.
Signature Headgear: Wore a toreador-style hat as a sidekick. After striking out on his own, he switches to a flat hat of the style favored by Latin street toughs in movies of the sixties (although Busiek isn't sure what that style is called). He apparently decides to ditch it as an adult.
Spiteful Spit: Gave one to Hidalgo.
Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Became a cop as an adult, and kept his job when he re-assumed his Bravo identity.
Superior Successor: By the end of his career, he had had a much greater impact than his mentor in both his identities. Forming the Irregulars alone has given all kinds of former villains and at-risk misfits a place to belong for almost forty years.
10-Minute Retirement: Retired as Bravo to become a police officer, but left retirement to lead the Omega Rangers. The second time he retired as a superhero, it stuck.

Blue Knight

...

Real name: Unknown, possibly Joshua Stone

One of the earliest and most prominent of Astro City's killer vigilantes. Possibly a spirit of vengeance brought back from the dead, possibly an ex-cop with way too much time and tech on his hands. Either way, he is a specter that stalks the streets, a ghost story shared among the criminal underground, and a bogeyman who leaves no witnesses.

Anti-Hero: The poster child in Astro City.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A giant version of him appears briefly near the end of the Dark Age. The audience never learns what that was about.
Becoming the Mask: Implied.
Bond One-Liner: Averted. It's part of his creep factor. He stalks and kills in utter silence.
Determinator: Seems to be his primary "power". When he's marked someone for death, whether they be a crime boss or a petty crook, he. Does. Not. Stop. Until they are dead.
Dream Spying: In one story, a lawyer begins to dream of the Blue Knight's killings. In the last one, the Blue Knight speaks to him.
Eldritch Abomination: Not literally, but symbolically. As one character notes in his introductory issue (paraphrased): society is a dance, a ritual performed by humanity to keep darker things at bay. The Blue Knight is implied to be one of those things. See the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane entry below.
Expy: Blue Knight is notably not an expy of The Punisher in general, but is rather closer to Gerry Conway's original version of the character, a broken man who has made himself a monster because society had failed him, and a symbol of that failure. He exists "because the dance failed. It's as simple and complex as that".
- Also sports elements of the early Ghost Rider stories as well, with the skull motif and claiming to be driven to vengeance by a spirit from beyond.
Hollywood Silencer: One set of crooks didn't even realize they were under attack until one turned to his buddy and saw the hole in his head.
Legacy Character: He inspires a whole crew of knockoffs.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's unclear if he's a vigilante with high-tech gadgets and a holographic skull mask, or a policeman empowered by the ghost of a police officer killed in the line of duty. Evidence suggests the former, but the latter is never actually disproven.
- Moreover, near the end of his debut appearance, he takes off his mask and talks to the viewpoint character. He claims that he isn't the Blue Knight, that it's the ghost of his son working through him. Whether it's just grief-fueled insanity or if he's onto something is not at all clear. Notably even in his civilian guise, his reflection is that of a skull.
Skull for a Head: Implied to be a holographic projection.
Shrouded in Myth: In-universe, there are a lot of stories about him, some of them blatantly false. Some criminals don't even believe he exists.
Superhero Packing Heat: They're implied to not be normal firearms, as it's stated that no ballistic material is ever found, even in the victim's wounds.
Symbiotic Possession: Claims to be possessed by the ghost of his dead son. At least, he thinks it's his son...
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The character implied to be him lost his child in a gang shootout, making his career basically one long, slow example of this. It's also implied that, literally or not, the Blue Knight is an Abstract Apotheosis of vengeance through vigilante justice.
The Voiceless: He talks maybe twice in his first appearance, and never says anything on-panel ever after that.
Vigilante Man: He kills because (in his mind) without his brand of justice, there is no justice.

Flying Fox II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flying_fox.jpg

Real name: Samantha Cronin

Daughter of the woman who drove Atomicus away from Earth, her mother's determination and perseverance inspired her to become a superhero.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: The original Flying Fox was male.
Animal-Themed Superbeing: A fox.
Badass Normal: It seems so.
Butch Lesbian: Fits this more closely in appearance than Lipstick Lesbian.
Combat Parkour: We don't actually see her in action, but the news describes her as an acrobatic vigilante.
Cool Bike: It flies.
Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Butch Lesbian superheroine Flying Fox's mother is a much more traditionally-feminine woman, albeit one who spent much of her career in politics.
Flying Car: Her aero-cycle.
Gadgeteer Genius: If she built her aero-cycle herself instead of getting it from someone else.
Generation Xerox: It's hard to get much of a handle on her motivation given the paucity of her on-panel time, but her convention appearances and willingness to do interviews seem to indicate that she's inherited her mother's desire to distinguish herself.
I Should Write a Book About This: She'd had an interview with a writer from Bulldog Comics about being a beginner superhero and was about to get a series published about her when Bulldog Comics, uh, went out of production.
Legacy Character: Might be one to the original Flying Fox. Their connection, if there is one at all, is unclear.
Satellite Character: What little we know about her so far mostly comes from her conversations with her mother.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tells her mother so.

Goldenglove II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goldenglove.jpg

Goldenglove in 1998.

^{Click here to see her in 2016.}

"You're a loser — so you think everyone's a loser! Well I'm not! I'm different! I'm special! I got what it takes! No more macaroni! No more sweaty boys' hands! No more hand-me-downs!"

Real name: Yolanda Costello

The daughter of blue-collar supervillain Goldenglove, Yolanda is determined to rise above her circumstances by any means possible. She was originally tempted by a life of crime, but the intervention of some well-meaning interlopers eventually set her on the path of heroes.

Bratty Half-Pint: Grows out of—well, no actually. As an adult, she's still got a mouth on her.
Civvie Spandex: Wears a jacket over her uniform as an adult. Given that she started out in the late 90's it's justified.
Compensated Dating: There's a mild implication (seen above) that she's done this.
Delinquents: Growing up in Kiefer Square doesn't give you a lot of other options. Fortunately Steeljack and Detective Ruiz straighten her out.
Friend on the Force: Detective Ruiz.
Gadgeteer Genius: Her father just used the gloves for Super-Strength. Yolanda managed to suss out all kinds of other functions.
Goggles Do Nothing: Her homemade costume has a visor, an element she keeps as an adult.
Heel–Face Turn: As a kid she wanted to be a villain, but she got the intervention she needed to become a hero instead.
Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Her father found the gloves on an alien skeleton in a crashed spaceship. Given that the non-Super-Strength options appear to favor sneaking about, it's possible that they were intended for reconnaissance or stealth missions.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Still has some mild rough edges as an adult.
Loser Daughter of Loser Dad: She has no intention of turning out this way.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Takes out her frustration on an unresisting Steeljack.
Power Fist: Her father used the gloves like this, but they're actually tricked out.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Joins the Irregulars in the late 90's/early 2000s, and plans to restart the team as an adult.
Redeeming Replacement: For her father.
Rummage Sale Reject: Tries to update her father's look on a shoestring budget. She does a bit better as an adult.
Superior Successor: As mentioned above, her father never knew what the gloves were really capable of.
Tricked-Out Gloves: Super-Strength, Flight, Deflector Shields, Frickin' Laser Beams, inaudibility, smoke screens and more.
Wrench Wench: Ruiz mentions getting her engineering classes.

Starbright I

"Just because people look at you and see something they don't understand, it doesn't mean you have to be whatever they see. It's all up to you. All you have to do is just be yourself. Figure out who you really are and be that. Just as much as you possibly can. Light up the world with it."

Real name: Chet Markham

All-Loving Hero: Never gave up on Simon Says no matter what he did, and treated other criminals the same way.
Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: He probably could have defused the bomb that killed him in time, but he insisted on getting a bunch of henchmen to safety first.
Energy Beings: Could shift into one of these.
Expy: Of Firestorm, with a little bit of Silver Age Superboy in there as well.
Flying Brick: As Starbright.
Friendly Enemy: With Simon Says, from his perspective at least. And, it turns out, from Simon's.
Heroic Sacrifice: Died apparently trying to deactivate an explosive device too powerful for even him to survive.
Irony: Wishes Simon Says many more birthdays. Neither "Simon" nor Chet would get them.
Kid Hero: Was still in high school when he died.
Lovable Jock: A star quarterback who treats everyone with decency and compassion.
Mysterious Past: How he got his powers has yet to be revealed.
Nice Guy: As himself and as Starbright.
Power Glows: Orangish-pink.
Super-Strength: In energy form.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tells Simon Says so, numerous times. The last one sticks.

Starbright II

"I just hope—I don't really believe in destiny, but if I've got one, I hope it's something worthwhile."

Real name: "S", formerly Simon Siezmanski

Affirmative-Action Legacy: Starbright I was a heterosexual white male, Starbright II is a transwoman.
Break the Haughty: Simon was a full out mad scientist filled with bitterness toward humanity and delusions of superiority. Starbright's death and the reveal of his identity as Chet utterly crushed Simon and changed all of that.
Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": Simon's way of thanking Starbright for her birthday party was setting a death trap that was really easy to escape. Starbright understands anyway.
Easy Sex Change: If you consider extensively researching Starbright's energy powers and figuring out how to give them to yourself, then using them to accurately alter the sex of your baseline human form (a process that appears to be agonizing in whole or in part) "easy", then sure. Simon still undergoes counseling and hormone treatments first, though.
Energy Beings: Can shift into one, like Starbright I. As she's shown using energy blasts, unlike him, it's possible that Simon made some improvements.
Expy: Of Clifford Carmicheal.
Flying Brick: Presumably. She hasn't really had a chance to show her stuff.
Friendless Background: Averted. Simon actually had some friends among the geeks and outsiders at school. Enough to throw a party, at least.
Friendly Enemy: Simon Says arrogantly mocks Starbright, and thinks his heroism is foolish, but it's made clear later that she regarded Starbright as one of the only people who truly understood and cared about her.
Gender Bender: Though originally believed to be male, after her Heel–Face Turn she decided to take the plunge and transition, using her Energy Powers to rewrite her body's anatomy to female.
Heel–Face Turn: Moved by Starbright's aka Chet's kindness and belief, Simon Says transitions into the second Starbright (and becomes a young woman as well).
I Just Want to Have Friends: Simon Says's price for putting her vast intellect at Starbright's disposal for twenty-four hours? Taking all of Simon's old friends to her sixteenth birthday party.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: As Simon Says.
Inelegant Blubbering: Simon is reduced to this upon Starbright's death.
Irony: After being bullied her whole life, Simon's own prejudice blinded her to Starbright's true identity.
Jerkass Woobie: invokedSimon Says claimed superiority over the "morons and throwbacks" that made up most of humanity, but was clearly damaged and bitterly lonely.
Kid Hero: Her former classmate and friend Rick recently graduated high school, implying that she's the same age.
Legacy Character: To the first Starbright.
Mad Scientist: As Simon Says.
Meaningful Rename: Like many transgender people, she stops going by her old name, but hasn't decided on a new one yet so simply goes by "S".
Mistaken Identity: Simon believed that a compassionate soul like Starbright could only be a misunderstood outsider of some sort, and so thought that his secret identity was her crippled black friend Rick. Finding out (posthumously) that Starbright had been a straight rich white quarterback blew Simon's mind.
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: A variant. At her party, Simon has a friendly conversation with Rick about her motivations and going straight, and mentions that she truly likes him. At the time, Simon thinks that she's talking to Starbright's secret identity.
Platonic Life-Partners: With Rick, possibly. Put it this way, if it turns out they are romantically involved, it wouldn't be much of a shock.
Power Glows: Orangish-pink.
Superior Successor: "S" might not agree, but Simon has amply demonstrated what her intellect wedded to Starbright's power could accomplish.
Sobriquet Sex Switch: Defied; she doesn't want to use Simone as her new name, because she doesn't perceive authentically living as a woman as simply "Simon but a woman".
Super-Strength: Assumedly, although she doesn't demonstrate it in-story.
Tears of Remorse: Simon is crushed upon realizing how horribly she'd misjudged Chet Markham... aka Starbright.
Teen Genius: In criminal deduction as well as science.
That Man Is Dead: "S" wants to make a complete break from her former life.
Then Let Me Be Evil: A lifetime of bullying caused Simon to turn her back on society and become a mad scientist.

The Assemblyman II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/assemblyman_ii.jpg

Real name: Ken (Surname unknown)

One of the newer members of the Honor Guard, little has been revealed about him as yet.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: The original Assemblyman was white, this one's black.
Gadgeteer Genius: Like his namesake.
Legacy Character: Might be one to the original Assemblyman, might just be In Name Only. Notably, they seem to have the same barber.
Nanotechnology: Uses this.
Redeeming Replacement: The original Assemblyman was a Mad Scientist and frequent foe of the Honor Guard.

The Point Man

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/point_man_1.jpg

Real name: Unrevealed

A superhero and member of the Omega Rangers during the 80's, The Point Man inadvertently became responsible for a great deal of the misery of the latter Dark Age.

Didn't Think This Through: Shooting the Innocent Gun when their mystical allies were warning him that would be dire consequences ended up going very badly.
Expy: Of the Guy Gardner Green Lantern. A brash, headstrong, Jerk with a Heart of Gold who manipulates a form of green energy.
Hand Blast: Creates triangle-shaped "points" of energy in his hands that he flings or launches at foes.
Flechette Storm: Can use his energy "points" like this.
Flight: One of his powers.
Hidden Depths:
- Seems to be much smarter than you'd expect, figuring out that Hellsignor's dominance was basically a death sentence for his followers and sussing out how to fire the Innocent Gun rather quickly.
- His apologetic speech to Sarah Brandeis/Cleopatra implies that he hates the things he's been forced to do as a hero.
I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies his actions.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In spite of everything, it's shown that he does have a decent heart under the arrogance, and that he regards super-heroism as a burden that no one should be forced into.
Meaningful Name: His energy attack takes the form of triangle points, and his powers and impetuous attitude often have him at the forefront of situations.
Never My Fault: Ignored the people warning him not to fire the Innocent Gun, then blamed them for not putting some indication on the gun that firing it was dangerous. Still, a Mr. Yuk sticker or something might have been a good idea.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sometimes a gun is more than "just" a gun.
Shoot the Dog: Tends to take it upon himself to shoot a lot of dogs he may not necessarily have to.
Small Steps Hero: Point Man's M.O. is to take swift, decisive actions to solve the problem in front of him immediately. Sometimes this works out, sometimes it really, really doesn't.
Teleportation: Another of his powers.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Averted. He has no qualms about using potentially-lethal force against his foes or killing Hellsignor's thralls, who were going to die when he was defeated anyway. Also killed the plant-soldiers of E.N.G.I.N.E, though they were still developing. (They sure felt pain, though. Brr.)
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Innocent Gun was meant to be fired by a pure soul, at the right foe, at the right time. The Point Man using it to shoot Kerresh was none of those things, and it opened a rift in reality, killing hundreds, and causing dark, corrupting energy to seep into Astro City and its people, as well as allowing The Pale Horseman to enter our world. Finally, the Innocent Gun can only be fired once, so it won't be available to use against whatever it was supposed to kill.

American Chibi

"SPLAMMO! Did you see that? Did you see that? Came up through the street from the subway tunnels! You didn't even see me coming!"

Real name: Inapplicable. Her successor is Marguerite Li.

An exuberant young heroine resembling an anime character come to life, small skinny body with a disproportionately large head. Revealed to have been brought to life by The Unbodied in a bid to gain a foothold in the real world, using the subconscious mind of video game designer Marguerite Li.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: Chibi passes the legacy onto Marguerite, making her Earthside's new Chibi.
Ascended Fangirl: When Samaritan offers her membership in the Honor Guard, she's over the moon.
Badass Adorable: She literally looks like a Funko Pop, but she's also a powerful buttkicker, and she's an official member of the Honor Guard.
Clothes Make the Superman: In Chibi's case, accessories. According to Marguerite, Chibi gains her powers from her mystic hair scrunchies.
- Later on, Marguerite gains Chibi's powers by putting on a pair of scrunchies.
Declaration of Protection / Badass Creed: Makes a truly epic one in the end of Astro City #27:
"Ha! Let's go, King-in-Chains! Let's do this! The Ubbows are under Honor Guard protection, you hear me? HONOR GUARD PROTECTION!"
Dream People: Chibi is Marguerite's idea, brought to life by the Unbodied.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: She's a living breathing anime character with a stars-and-stripes motif incorporated in her costume. An American Chibi.
Expy: Of Astro Boy.
Flying Brick: Basically.
Genki Girl: Boy Howdy!
Girlish Pigtails: Held in place by magic hair scrunchies. Seriously.
God Needs Prayer Badly: The Unbodied are described by Cleopatra as "myths whose believers have died out. They linger, seeking new forms, new ways back into the world."
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blonde hair held back in Girlish Pigtails, and is one of the most dedicated heroines in all of Astro City.
I Choose to Stay: Recognizing that she is the center focus of the King-in-Chains' plan to break through to the living world, American Chibi decides to remain in their world to take the fight to him and his forces and to protect the native Ubbows from his tyranny.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Literally squees when she first meets Samaritan.
Leeroy Jenkins: Tends to plunge into situations head-first.
Lovecraft Lite: The Unbodied and the King-in-Chains.
No Indoor Voice: She shouts a lot.
Taking Up the Mantle: While Chibi remains in the Unbodied's world to prevent them from invading the real world again, she leaves a pair of her mystic scrunchies behind for Marguerite Li. She puts them on and transforms into the new (albeit more normally proportioned) American Chibi.
Theory of Narrative Causality: The Unbodied used Marguerite's game designs to create new forms in which they could invade the real world. But in doing so, they ended up creating their own enemy, American Chibi.
"But making it a game...that was their mistake. Because they're imposing a story, a shape, on themselves. Creating a mythology they all fit into. I'm a part of that mythology too. I'm the part that stops them."
Uncanny Valley: What with the oversized head and the tiny body. Even more so when drawn in Alex Ross's photorealistic style.

Silver Adept

"...the Silver Adept, Champion of the Light. Renowned across countless realities. The savior of more living souls than you can possibly imagine. And yaddita yaddita yaddita..."

Real name: Kimberly To

One of the most powerful mages in the world, her role is to protect this dimension from supernatural threats.

Expy: Her position of Champion of the Light makes her an expy of Doctor Strange.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Tends to do that when celebrating her victories.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Her personal assistant Raitha McCann handles the day-to-day operations, leaving Kim free to fight the major threats.
- Later, after Marta Dobrescu defends her successfully in a cosmic court, Kim hires her as her personal attorney.
Red Baron: "The Champion of the Light".
Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Tends to go through a lot of alarm clocks:
Silver Adept: I set the alarm, I swear I set the alarm!
Raitha (noticing an alarm clock embedded in the wall above the door frame): I don't doubt it.
Weird World, Weird Food: Implied on at least one occasion:
"I was in one of the Enfolded dimensions. I calmed an ifrit. There was a celebration, it went late. But there was sushi. Amazing, fantastic sushi. At least I think it was sushi..."
Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Orb of Ebon Stillness allows the wielder access to a pocket dimension where time goes much slower than in our world. Kim enters this dimension to allow herself time to prepare a series of wards to protect an interdimensional world from demons. Normally the wards would take days to prepare but with the Orb she can complete the wards in a matter of hours.

Wolfspider

Real name: Ben Colstone

A size-shifting hero hailing from Australia.

Determinator: Bitten by an incredibly venomous spider, he managed to stay clear-headed enough to capture it and take it back to his mother before finally passing out. He was also six years old.
Expy: Of Ant-Man.
Fake Weakness: Channels his venom-blasts through his Skyflyer, so people don't realize he's doing it himself.
Flying Car: His Skyflyer.
Gadgeteer Genius: He gets it from his mother.
Genre Blind: As he himself notes, he probably should have questioned the sudden appearance of his favorite childhood cartoon heroes a little more instead of eagerly offering to join their team.
Incredible Shrinking Man: A side-effect of the spider venom and the serum that cured him.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Part of his mutation allows his brain to be able to control four extra limbs, which are provided by his arm-harness.
Multi-Armed Multitasking: Helpful when building things.
Saturday-Morning Cartoon: As a youth, he was particularly obsessed with a superhero cartoon called "Queenslaw".
Shock and Awe: Has the ability to fire "venom-blasts" from his body that can destroy objects and have an effect on enemies similar to being tasered.
Sizeshifter: The cure his mother spent sixteen years developing to counter the effects of the venom allowed him to grow to normal size and shrink at will.

Reflex 6

Astro City's super-teen team for the 21st century, Reflex 6 fights crime with style, panache, and all of the social awareness of today's ever-connected generation.

Amicable Exes: Asta and Skysweeper, though apparently they were never that serious to begin with.
Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: Reflex 6 has corporate sponsors, and benefits include a stipend for members, branding research, and a genre-saavy marketing department.
Emotion Control: This is the primary power for Medulla.
Energy Beings: Astra Furst of the First Family is a member.
Intangibility: Jimmy Shade can render all or part of himself intangible at will.
Power Armor: Team Leader Skyraker wears an armored flying suit that can interface with various computer systems.
Super-Speed: Tearaway is the obligatory team speedster.
Word Salad Title: Good luck figuring out what "Reflex 6" refers to.
Crackerjack: I mean, 'Reflex 6'? What does that even mean?

The Astro-Naut

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astronaut.jpg

Real name: Roy Virgil

Before Samaritan, before the Silver Agent, there was Roy Virgil, the Astro-Naut, the man who inaugurated the first age of superheroes in the 1930s/40s. A genius engineer and inventor, he fought evil on Earth and many other worlds, ultimately putting his life on the line to save his home city of Romeyn Falls from an alien invasion before disappearing forever. In his honor, they renamed Romeyn Falls Astro City.

Ambiguous Ending: His ultimate fate. Did he survive his Heroic Sacrifice? Did he ever find Xalzana? It's left open, but his friend Joe liked to think he did, that he earned his happy ending.
Badass Normal: No powers, just a once-in-a-lifetime mind.
Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: A straight example of space adventure heroes.
The Casanova: Said to have been a ladies' man.
Chest Insignia: Which became the Astro City logo.
Gadgeteer Genius: Emphasis on "genius" - he came up with inventions in the 40s that allowed him to travel through space and fight intergalactic despots. He kept many of his designs secret so that the government wouldn't abuse them, but it is rumored that a lot of the tech subsequent heroes like Augustus Furst and the N-Forcer would discover decades later are partly based on his inventions.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Partly the era, partly badass.
Heroic Sacrifice: Stopped the Mrevani invasion by blowing up their flying base, but was badly injured in the process. Whatever happened to him afterwards, he never returned to Earth.
Hero with Bad Publicity: His refusal to share his inventions with the US government left the public feeling shocked and betrayed. His shell-shock likely played a large part in why he didn't explain his reasons for not sharing. People still believed in him, they just didn't like talking about him.
Howard Hughes Homage: A man who grew rich off his advancements in aeronautics, with a dashing mustachioed appearance, who became a reclusive weirdo in his twilight years. Though he is far more heroic than most examples—essentially, Howard Hughes through the lens of a space adventurer.
Non-Idle Rich: A millionaire inventor and hero.
The One That Got Away: Xalzana, a Green-Skinned Space Babe he met during his adventures, who went missing after an attack on the night he'd meant to propose.
Planetary Romance: A good part of his adventures.
Reed Richards Is Useless: A later plot point has the Astro-Naut refuse to share his super-genius technology with the government and the rest of the world despite the countless possibilities. It's revealed this is because he fears that humanity is not ready to be entrusted with such inventions, based on his experiences with the Mrevani. It's a subtle example of one compared to others, but it's not implied that he discovered the Mrevani to be no different from humans.
Science Hero: Appears to have preferred using his inventions to fight evil.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Following his first encounter with the warlike Mrevani, he withdrew from society, becoming a recluse.
Took a Level in Cynic: After meeting the Mrevani, he went from a man who saw the limitless possibilities that awaited humanity out in the universe to a man concerned that humanity wasn't responsible enough to be out there yet.
The World Is Not Ready: His motive for not sharing his technology with the US government; he couldn't trust humanity would use his inventions responsibly, that they wouldn't end up following in the Mrevani's footsteps.

The Living Nightmare

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/living_nightmare.jpg

The Living Nightmare was the product of an early '60s experiment Gone Horribly Wrong - an attempt to eliminate fear instead resulted in it being externalized, manifesting as a monster. Over the subsequent decades, the Nightmare was controlled by both villains and heroes, used to serve their ends... until it finally asserted its independence.

Anthropomorphic Personification: It's a manifestation of human fear, and that fear shapes and sustains it. If need be, it can draw on that fear to bolster its determination.
Appropriated Appellation: Described as "some kind of living nightmare" by one of the heroes who first fought it, and it stuck.
As Long as There Is Evil: In the Nightmare's case, it's 'as long as there is fear'.
Belly Mouth: Its mouth is situated on its chest. Its configuration as of "Nightmare Life" also adds a pair of eyes and a nose above it, so it now has a face there.
Dark Is Not Evil: Zigzagged with Dark Is Evil. The Nightmare isn't evil left to itself, but it's been used for evil by others.
Dream Spying: During "Nightmare Life", dreamers share in what the Nightmare's thinking and experiencing.
Emotion Control: Able to absorb fear and return it amplified.
The Empath: Can sense what others are feeling, particularly fear.
Energy Absorption: Able to absorb the energy of the heroes who fight it.
Expy: Of the Hulk - a violent, destructive creature of great strength that lashed out at anything that threatened it, created by an experiment with unintended consequences. Also like the Hulk, if you take the time and just not fight it, it has a heroic spirit underneath that scary exterior.
Extra Eyes: A ring of eyes on its head-equivalent, plus a pair on its chest in its "Nightmare Life" configuration, all of which glow.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Forced on the Nightmare. As control of it switched from user to user, it went from villain to hero to villain again, until it finally broke free, deciding to become a hero.
Horrifying Hero: Has been before, as piloted by Peter Carney, and seeks to be again.
Hulk Speak: When it finally speaks. Its version seems to be of the 'more intelligent than it sounds' type.
I Control My Minions Through...: Historically, villains controlled the Nightmare through the use of pain and fear to compel its obedience - until it overcame its fear of the pain.
Involuntary Shapeshifting: When it was first created, it reconfigured itself based on what it saw in people's minds, eventually ending up with the main form it has in the series. It still has at least some of that mutability, both involuntarily, the details of its form shifting over time, and voluntarily, growing temporary wings to allow it to fly.
Living Weapon: What the Nightmare was chiefly used for by others.
Logical Weakness: Being dependent on human fear to sustain and empower it, if it's far enough away from anyone, it temporarily dies - although said distance is somewhere between Earth orbit and the Sun.
Meat Puppet: A heroic version, oddly enough; for a while, the Nightmare was mentally piloted by Lieutenant Peter Carney through a Mind-Control Device, directing it to fight for justice.
Mind Virus: Traces of it were once used to inflict bad dreams on Samaritan. When it was extracted, the mini-Nightmares began recombining into a single Nightmare.
No Biological Sex: No sexual characteristics, and no apparent gender identification, though one or two people have used "him".
No-Sell: It's able to punch through Samaritan's Empyrean Web as if it's not there.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Inspired by Honor Guard's example in "Nightmare Life", the Nightmare overcomes the fear and pain being used to control it, and follows the commands back to their origin to confront its current master, Doctor Dominax.
Quest for Identity: Its goal as of the end of "Nightmare Life", seeking to learn how to be a person and a hero.
Reluctant Monster: When it started out, it was naive, curious, and unwittingly dangerous.
Resurrective Immortality: Even if killed, it will reform, for fear never ends.
Shadow Walker: Able to walk between shadows in a form of short-range teleportation.
Super-Strength: Smashes walls and floors easily.
Throat Light: In the Nightmare's case, it's as much a sign of something to fear as it is a sign of power, especially given its mouth is in its chest.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: It can grow temporary wings to allow it to fly.
You Can Talk?: Honor Guard's reaction when the Nightmare finally speaks in "Nightmare Life".

Mister Cakewalk

In the early years of the 20th century, the roguish Mister Cakewalk embarrassed and humiliated the wealthy and privileged of Romeyn Falls, standing up for the poor and oppressed.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Gold and black skin, giving his face the appearance of a golden mask.
Anthropomorphic Personification: He is the personification of counterculture music, "whatever's new, and moving young people to feel, to move, to act".
Disco Stu: He was regarded as this towards the end of his run, when ragtime went out of style and Bakerville's population starting viewing him as a walking stereotype.
Fad Super: Embodying ragtime, and the spirit of cakewalk it came from.
Foe Romance Subtext: He and Dame Progress have something that might be a rivalry, might be a romance, or perhaps even both.
Gentleman Thief: Dresses to fit the part, though he doesn't quite talk like it.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Unlike his later incarnations, he was actually popular with the public early on when he was standing up for the people of Bakerville. But he fell out of favor when his antics kept scaring away investment in the city.
Just Like Robin Hood: Steals from the rich and gives to the needy.
No-Sell: He's unaffected by Dame Progress's pneumo-tranquilizing shells, though he does admit they sting.
The Nth Doctor: The first incarnation of living counterculture music.
Sharp-Dressed Man: A light-colored suit, black-and-red waistcoat, red bowtie, top hat and cane.
Super-Reflexes: Agile, nimble, and quick on his feet, jumping around with superhuman agility.
Totally Radical: Described as talking like something out of a minstrel show.

Jazzbaby

Civilian alias: Harmony Chord

A Jazz Age heroine who threw down with the underworld of Romeyn Falls, both human and otherworldly.

'20s Bob Haircut: Has bobbed hair, as is befitting a flapper.
Amazing Technicolor Population: Gold skin.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Like Mr Cakewalk, she was the latest personification of counterculture music.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Goes around bare-chested, but has no visible nipples.
Combat Stilettos: Actually just how her feet naturally are.
Fad Super: Jazz, naturally.
Flight: Can turn her stole into wings.
Glowing Eyes: Glowing gold.
Intangibility: Able to pass through ceilings.
Line-of-Sight Name: Inspired to choose her civilian name after seeing a place called Harmony House.
The Nth Doctor: The second incarnation of living counterculture music.
Past-Life Memories: She retains a few hazy memories of being Mister Cakewalk.
Super-Reflexes: Agile enough to dodge bullets.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Able to make herself look like an ordinary woman.

Zootsuit

A hero of whom little is known, first appearing with the zoot suit riots of the Forties.

All There in the Manual: His name's given in the solicit for issue #41, but not the actual comic, finally showing up in issue #45. As it turns out, his name actually was supposed to be revealed in #41, but an editing error removed the thought box mentioning him. It was later restored in the trade collection.
Amazing Technicolor Population: Gold skin, like his predecessors.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Like Mr Cakewalk and Jazzbaby, he was the latest personification of counterculture music.
Bouncing Battler: From the little we see of him, this is how he fights.
Fad Super: Representing zoot suits, and the riots named for them.
Hero with Bad Publicity: His reputation got off to a bad start when the first time anyone had really heard of him was over how he beat up a couple of soldiers. What most people didn't know was said soldiers were actually serpent men in disguise trying to kill a young woman.
Never Got to Say Goodbye: This happened between him and a woman named Carlotta Valdez. When she meets Glamorax a couple of decades later and Glamorax finally remembers Glamorax’s past as Zootsuit, Glamorax apologizes, saying Glamorax hated leaving Carlotta without saying goodbye to her.
The Nth Doctor: The third incarnation of counterculture music.
Sharp-Dressed Man: A zoot suit, what else?
Totally Radical: Not much to go on, but he seems to speak like mid-century Latinx stereotypes.

The Bouncing Beatnik

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bouncing_beatnik.jpg

A hero for the 50s, the Bouncing Beatnik was always ready to jam whenever crime reared its ugly mug. Unfortunately, the squares of Astro City weren't so appreciative of his attempts to help.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Like his precursors, the Beatnik's skin is gold.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Like Mr Cakewalk, Jazzbaby and Zootsuit, he was the latest personification of counterculture music.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: He's got impressively bushy-looking black ones that seem to frame his face.
Bouncing Battler: Fights by bouncing all over the place.
Early-Bird Cameo: The first personification of counterculture music to appear in the series, way back in the second issue.
Expy: His Hero with Bad Publicity status, along with his incredibly athletic skills, calls to mind the certified Trope Codifier, Spider-Man.
Fad Super: He's a living representation of the beatnik craze that kicked up in the fifties.
Hero with Bad Publicity: The minute he shows up to stop an attack on a museum, the bystanders assume he's somehow responsible, or grumbling about what happened to respectable heroes.
The Nth Doctor: He's the fourth incarnation of living counterculture music.
Totally Radical: Speaks in Haney-esque fifties slang, daddy-o.

The Halcyon Hippie

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/154723_57514_halcyon_hippie.jpg

He represents the counterculture of the late 1960s. Little else is known about him. Notably, he appeared around the same time the Old Soldier did.

Fad Super: He's a super-powered hippie.
Higher Understanding Through Drugs: He realized his true nature while getting stoned one time. This realization triggered his transformation into Glamorax, though the knowledge didn't carry over.
New-Age Retro Hippie: He's played it affectionately straight.
Stronger Than They Look: Despite being a hero of peace and love, he's got some pretty strong magic. He was actually one of the four superheroes called upon to help repair the timeline, which meant he had some pretty far-out powers, man.
The Nth Doctor: He’s the fifth incarnation of living counterculture music.
Totally Radical: Not much was seen though given his nature, he speaks in the groovy style of the 1960s.

Glamorax

"Oh, don't talk about me like I'm other people, baby. Who says I can't be wherever I damn well please?"

A superhero in the 1970s, who tended to operate around Shelton Square.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Glam’s skin is a shining white color.
Ambiguous Gender: Despite appearing outwardly female, Glamorax refuses to identify as any gender.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Like Mr Cakewalk, Jazzbaby, Zootsuit, the Bouncing Beatnik and the Halcyon Hippie, Glamorax was the latest personification of counterculture music.
Even the Guys Want Him/Even the Girls Want Her: Glamorax’s ambiguous gender earned Glam a lot of admirers of different genders, including Thomas O'Brien and Natalie Furst.
Fad Super: Glam rock, this time.
Light 'em Up: Glamorax can create disorienting light shows.
The Nth Doctor: Glam's the sixth incarnation of living counterculture music. Glam is the second to actually realize this and is unnerved by the thought, but thrilled by the idea of changing into something new, knowing Glam is going to go soon, feeling the change coming on, and even speeding up the process. Unfortunately, things don't go very well...
Past-Life Memories: With some help from Thomas O'Brien, Glam learns of Glam’s past lives.
Stripperiffic: Glamorax wears boots, gloves, and pasties over the chest and crotch areas. The rest is all Glam.

The Putrid Punk / The Peerless Punk

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/putrid_punk.jpg

"y-you— you putrid, self-satisfied, smug, useless bags of—"

The abortive last incarnation of the Spirit of Counterculture Music. Even his name (or rather, what he would have chosen to call himself) is just a guess.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Punk's skin is a glowing yellow color, with black patches that resemble punk band-aids or tattoos.
Ambiguous Gender: Heavily averted. His predecessor was completely androgynous, and beautiful to both sexes. He is aggressively male.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Had he survived, he would have been the latest personification of counterculture music.
The Nth Doctor: Punk is - or rather should have been - the seventh incarnation of living counterculture music. Punk is the only one whose change was witnessed by others, which proved to be a disastrous miscalculation on his predecessor's part...
Token Evil Teammate: He probably would not have been strictly evil, but it is clear that the elderly admirers, well-wishers and former lovers who gathered to witness the fundamentally kind and joyful Glamorax's transformation would have been in for a seriously rude awakening once the transformation into the angry and rather terrifying Punk was complete. The character quote above was in fact directed at them, and not the snake cult that disrupted the ritual (he was not yet aware of their presence).

Nightingale and Sunshrike (later Sunbird)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/insideastrocity3.jpg

A pair of bird-themed female heroes with the powers of shadow and light respectively.

Action Girl: All (possible) incarnations are women.
Because Destiny Says So: It's a whole "destiny thingummy" as Sunshrike puts it. Sunshrike, for her part, was totally fine with this.
Legacy Character: While we don't get to see much of them, since Sunshrike later becomes Sunbird, and Nightingale was the younger of the two in the 80s, but the elder in her appearance in the 90s, it can be theorized that there are different generations of women under those masks. There is even implication that there is a family connection in those who get to pick up the legacy. The "That Was Then..." one-shot confirms it's a legacy thing; there's always a Bird of Night and a Bird of Light, until one retires, then the other seeks out their replacement, and so on. Sunshrike used to be partnered with Nightflyer, then partnered with Nightingale.
Mistaken for Gay: Nightingale wanted to throw Manny Monkton out the window when he printed rumors that she and Sunshrike were a lesbian couple.
Night and Day Duo: It's right in their names, one as a 'bird of light' and the other as a 'bird of shadow'
Theme Naming: The identities change, but they keep the "Night" and "Sun" parts of the name.
Working-Class Hero: They're shown to be living together in a small apartment, and have a stronger camaraderie with street-level heroes, like Crackerjack, Jack-in-the-Box, and Quarrel.

"Kittyhawk"

Nightingale and Sunshrike's pet cat, a stray they adopted in the early '80s after an accident during one of their adventures.

Animal Superheroes: It's a cat that has superpowers.
Cats Are Snarkers: According to G-Dog she has a "sardonic reserve".
Flight: Can unfurl a pair of functional wings from her back and make them disappear when not in use.
Freak Lab Accident: Got covered in mind-control goop, which somehow gave her superpowers.
Insistent Terminology: Inverted, as Sunshrike insists they're not calling her Kittyhawk.
Intangibility: Walks through barriers like there's nothing there.
Intellectual Animal: Though she can't talk, she's smart enough to decide to find a kidnapped girl and get Rocket Dog's assistance in tracking her down. That said, she's still enough of a cat to play around with things she really shouldn't.
Living a Double Life: Her new humans don't know she has superpowers and fights crime, though Nightingale has her suspicions...
Locked into Strangeness: Originally, she was grey and white with black stripes, but after getting covered in the goop, all her grey fur turned black.
Shout-Out: To Kitty Pryde a.k.a. Shadowcat, a member of the X-Men who could also walk through walls.

Stormhawk

Real name: Christopher "Topher" Martin

Animal-Themed Superbeing: Hawks.
Black and Nerdy: He's mentioned as being a genetics whiz, and as having gotten a big research grant.
The Chosen One: The amulet that gave him his powers apparently chooses its wearers, seeking out those with the potential to be heroes, if given the right push.
Expy: Of The Falcon, being a black superhero with the abilities of a bird of prey.
Flight
Heroic Sacrifice: Died stopping Krigari Ironhand.
Legacy Character: Bearing the amulet's legacy.
Posthumous Character: We learn about him from others after his death.
Power Copying: Where he got his Shock and Awe powers; a creature that'd previously been linked to the amulet had lightning powers, and the amulet copied them for later wearers to use.
Psychic Link: From what Marcy said later, Topher experienced what Lightning was feeling, and attributed him with being the hero of the pair.
Shock and Awe: Could fire bolts of lightning from his head.
Super-Strength: According to Marcy.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Able to turn into a half-human, half-bird form. It subsequently turns out he could merge with his pet hawk Lightning thanks to the amulet.

G-Dog

Real names: Andy Merton and Hank

Half-man. Half-corgi. Mostly hero. Utterly adorable.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: Inverted. Topher, who'd been the human partner in Stormhawk, was African-American, while Andy is Caucasian.
Animal-Themed Superbeing: A dog, natch.
Atrocious Alias: Andy was rather unfond of the name at first, as it was the first thing that popped into his mind thanks to Hank's influence (it's short for "Good Dog").
Badass Adorable: As far as most Astro City residents were concerned, being a humanoid corgi who fought crime.
Brought to You by the Letter "S": "G", for "G-Dog".
The Chosen One: As with Topher, he was chosen by the amulet.
Combo Platter Powers: Courtesy of the amulet and its Power Copying abilities. Beyond Super-Senses, Super-Strength, Wall Crawling, and understanding animals, G-Dog also manifested Flight and Shock and Awe.
Fusion Dance: Secretly the fusion of Andy, a human, and Hank, a corgi, courtesy of a mysterious amulet. Andy's consciousness was dominant, influenced by Hank's emotions. They could separate again at will.
Half-Human Hybrid: Humanoid corgi.
Heel–Face Turn: Andy was a petty criminal before becoming part of G-Dog, but went straight afterwards, thanks to his Psychic Link with Hank, who had a very strong sense of right and wrong.
Heroic Dog: As far as Andy was concerned, Hank was the real hero of the pair, and it carried over to G-Dog.
Legacy Character: To Stormhawk, and to the heroes who wore the amulet before him. It's implied that after Hank dies, a new hero, possibly hawk-based, will soon follow him.
Mayfly–December Friendship: The amulet doesn't affect the aging process, so Hank grows old while Andy is still relatively young.
Morality Pet: Quite literally. Andy was a petty thief who wanted to use his powers to steal and pay his debts, but fusing with Hank and feeling the dog's goodnatured, protective instincts, Andy slowly learns to be a better person.
Odd Couple: One of them is just a regular human guy, the other is a corgi. They're each other's best friends.
Passing the Torch: After Hank died, Andy gave up the amulet, leaving it in the mountains to find someone new, where it was picked up by a bird.
Power Copying: The amulet copies the abilities of its wearer and who/whatever they bond with into itself. If someone gives the amulet up, they apparently keep whatever abilities they unlocked from it, aside from Fusion Dance.
Psychic Link: Andy could feel Hank's thoughts and feelings, and as time passed it extended to being able to understand what other animals were saying.
Respected by the Respected: He captures a villain while Honor Guard is cleaning up the chaos he'd created; when they arrive, Samaritan shakes G-Dog's hand and tells him, "We've been hearing good things about you."
Super-Senses: A dog's hearing and sense of smell.
Super-Strength: More than the proportionate strength of a dog, at least.
Wall Crawl: G-Dog could use his claws to scale walls.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Spent several months avoiding a mob boss he owed money to before he remembered he was a superhero and he could just beat him up.

The Jayhawks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rco010_1663894262_1.jpg

A group of teenaged superheroes who operated during the 60s, until they were (apparently) killed in action. Their lineup included Kid Corsair, Buster, Teen Genie, Beachboy and Rally.

Ambiguously Human: Despite being depicted with green skin and pointed ears, it’s never explained if Teen Genie was an actual genie, or a human girl with the powers of one.
And I Must Scream: They've been stuck in a ghost-like state for sixty years, able to watch the goings-on but unable to interact, and given there's no shortage of magic-wielding beings around Astro City, unable to get anyone's attention either.
Blow You Away: Teen Genie had the ability to summon and manipulate strong air channels, that she referred to as “desert winds”.
Boxing Battler: Buster was a boxing-themed superhero and used his fighting skills to take down enemies.
Expy: For the 60s-era Teen Titans, being a team of adolescent former sidekicks.
Killed Mid-Sentence: Teen Genie died just as she was yelling how she was going to throw the Master's attack right back at him.
Loved by All: Everyone loved them. Their funeral and wake was attended by superheroes from all over the world.
Making a Splash: Beachboy could create huge waves of water, which he used to fight villains and travel on via surfboard.
Magic Carpet: The Jayhawks were based in Kansas City, but used Teen Genie’s magic carpet to teleport and then fly to wherever they needed to go.
Sole Survivor: Rally was the only one left, because the others sent him to get back-up. He only got there just as the others died.
Working the Same Case: They initially came together when they working the same mission and decided they liked teaming up.

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