Publication: August 1995
Cover: Alex Ross
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Brent Eric Anderson
Lettering: Comiccraft
Colouring: Electric Crayon.
“In Dreams”
Summary: A day in the life of Samaritan, a superhero whose
busy schedule leaves no time for himself.
Page 1
- Panel 1: The first appearance of Samaritan.
Page 4
- Panel 5: "Astro City (vol. 1) #6" will reveal, that Samaritan comes from the future, making his posters of “The World To Come” and “The Time Machine” very fitting.
Page 5
- Panel 5: First appearance of the Astrobank Tower.
Page 7-
- Panel 1: First mention of the Pyramid organisation.
- Panel 2: First appearance of the Astro City Rocket, the city’s most prominent newspaper.
- Panel 3: The edition Rich is carrying dates this story to the 8th August 1995. We can also make out the headline properly as “Jack-In-The-Box Captures Brass Monkey”. First mention of the superhero Jack-in-the-Box and the villain Brass Monkey. Jack-In-The-Box will appear properly in Astro City (vol. 1) #3. The Brass Monkey, also features in a flashback that issue, will make a proper debut in Astro City (vol. 2) #12.
Page 8
- Panel 1: First mention of the First Family. The article (Famous “Firsts”: 45 Years and Three Generations of Adventure) reads:
“FAMOUS "FIRSTS" 45 Years and Three Generations
of Adventure Dr. Augustus Furst arrived in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota,
this past May, to give the commencement address at the Harold Jordan Memorial
High School graduation exercises. There was a brass band, and a parade, and
throngs of admirers from as far away as Boston, Massachusetts and Fairbanks,
Alaska. But there were also people who know Dr. Furst personally, and who've
known him since he was a student at "H.J.'s," as the locals put it.
"He was a science nerd then, and he's a science nerd now," says Mamie
Didrickson, 64, Furst's date to his high-school senior prom. "But he's a
really, really famous science nerd." Indeed. In between high school and
today have come four wives, innumerable enemies, a pair of super- powered
adoptive children (born to an ex-wife and an exotic enemy), a marriage for one
of those children that shocked the world, the globe's most famous grandchild
and, of course, a lifetime of adventure and lasting fame as head of what the
world has come to know as "The First Family." It's been a heady ride
for Dr. Furst and his younger brother Julius, starting back in 1950 with what
was supposed to be a research field trip to Romania. "Some fancy
scientific muck-a-muck had been having trouble with something behind the Iron
Curtain," says Julius. "They thought is was some unreadable
energy-flux whatsit that was drainin' energy from one'a their manufacturin'
plants -- they didn't know it was Onggu the Omnivorous. Nobody knew about that
until Gus got there. "Anyway, they'd seen some stuff Gus wrote in one'a
those science journal things he used to clog up the livin' room with -- he was
only 14 when he wrote it, but they didn't know that -- they figgered he was the
only man for the job and”
- Panel 5: First mention of Dr Saturday. The remains of this robot (or one like it) will appear again in Astro City (vol. 2) #19.
- Panel 6: First appearance of Fox Brome University. It is named after Silver Age writers Gardner Fox (1911-1986) and John Broome (1913-1999).
Page 9
- Panel 1: First reference to the Irregulars, a band of teenage outcast superheroes.
- Panel 4: First mention of Honour Guard the premier superhero group, and the first appearance of their flying headquarters.
- Panel 5: First appearance of (from left to right) M.P.H, Black Rapier, Cleopatra II, Quarrel II, N-Forcer and Beauty.
Page 10
- Panel 1: First mention of supervillain crime boss The Deacon and the Gnomes. Both will appear in later issues.
- Panel 2: First appearance of Honour Guards alien detector, which will be important in Astro City (vol. 2) #4-9.
- Panel 3: We learn that M.P.H, nervous system has a 15% “alien overlay” on it. Presumably, this is the cause of his powers. And that’s really all the backstory we’ve gotten on the guy.
- Panel 4: Samaritan mentions Leavenworth, which according to Astro City (vol. 1) #4 seems to be a high security prison for supervillains. It may be a refence to/ intended to be the real-world UPS Leavenworth (which is located in Kansas). Or maybe Fort Leavenworth, I don’t know.
- Panel 5: First mention of The Tourist, who will appear in person in Astro City: The Dark Ages Book One #1.
Page 11:
- Panel 2: First appearance of the Menagerie Gang. They will make their next appearance in Astro City (vol. 3) #12.
Page 13
- Panel 4: First appearance of Winged Victory, as one of the women Samaritans is fantasying about.
Page 14
- Panel 1: First appearance of Biro Island, Astro City’s main prison. It’s named after Golden Age comic writer Charles Biro (1911-1972), likely as a reference to his work on the series Crime Does Not Pay (1942-1955).
- Panel 3: Cicero Street, references Cicero the Cat, from the newspaper strip Mutt and Jeff (1907-1983).
Page 16
- Panel 2: The date on the award, further reinforces that this issue takes place on the 8th August 1995.
Page 18
- First appearance of the Living Nightmare.
Page 19
- Panel 3: First mention of Samaritan’s Empyrean Fire. This will be fully explained in Astro City (vol. 1) #6.
- Panel 4: The origin of the Living Nightmare which Samaritan recounts here, will be shown in full in Astro City (vol. 3) #31.
Page 20
- Panel 1: The Marnie Pilot mentioned here will be named as Carney Pete in #31. His control of the Nightmare seems to have lasted intermediately from at least 1976 to 1990.
- Panel 4: So far, the only mention of Dr Prochnow. I guess their a scientist that Samaritan knows.
Well that's the first issue done. I hope it wasn't too redundant, but as the introductory issue it introduces a lot of major concepts and characters. I do hope I get through this.
