Astro City

• Samaritan – an extremely powerful hero. A time-traveler, he appeared in this era in 1985, active as a hero since 1986 and is a current member of Honor Guard. He is sometimes referred to as "Big Red". Samaritan is the first hero in the series to receive an origin story.
• The Confessor – a mysterious vigilante detective, apparently active from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. His history is a blur of myths and assumptions, as dark as his crime fighting methods. In the Confession arc from the second volume of the series, even his new sidekick struggles to know more about his mentor.
• Crackerjack – an egocentric, reckless crime-fighter, with amazing agility and a staff weapon, active since 1991.
• The Hanged Man – a ghostly figure who protects Shadow Hill, appearing as a floating apparition with a burlap sack over his head and a noose around his neck. He is active in Astro City since the 19th century and is rumored to have existed since at least the Middle Ages.
• M.P.H. a.k.a. The Acceleration Ace – super-speedster and member of Honor Guard. Besides his membership duties with Honor Guard, he operates in his home city of Detroit.
• Jack-in-the-Box – a clown-themed vigilante with no known powers but agility and an arsenal of clown and toy-inspired weaponry.
• Silver Agent – an armored vigilante who suffers a tragic fate, hinted at for years. Active from 1956 through the early 1970s, and via time travel, sporadically throughout thousands of years into the future. He is a founding member of Honor Guard.
• Winged Victory – a feminist Greco-Roman themed superhero, controversial due to her habit of saving women before men regardless of the situation.
• Beautie – a sophisticated android modeled on a popular doll.

• Bridwell – an Enelsian spy who gathers intelligence on Earth's heroes; he is enamored of humanity's better instincts, but ultimately disgusted by mankind's baser ones.
• The Conquistador – a mysterious armored villain who hired villains from Kiefer Square as part of a grand scheme to gain back lost respect.
• The Deacon – a soft-spoken lord of "ordinary" organized crime in Astro City.
• Infidel – a slave who became an immortal mystic during the Middle Ages, and traveled through time to become a tyrant in the 36th century. Infidel became the arch-enemy of Samaritan after Samaritan's origin changed history, erasing Infidel's future empire, and Samaritan thwarting Infidel's attempts restore it. He is essentially a mad scientist who uses alchemy and magic to warp reality.
• The Junkman – an aged villain seeking vengeance on society for age discrimination. He recycles and enhances his weaponry from discarded trash.
• The Mock Turtle – a generally docile and polite man who grew up obsessed with fantasies, especially Alice in Wonderland. He eventually became a costumed criminal, employing a weaponized armor themed after the Alice character from which he drew his name.

• The Astro City Irregulars – a group of outcast heroes founded in the early to mid-1970s, but disbanded by the 2010s, at which time the second Goldenglove was hoping to get it going again.
• The Crossbreed – a group of religious themed heroes, consisting of Noah, Daniel, Peter, Mary, David, and Joshua. The group is stigmatized by society as "Jesus freaks".
• E.A.G.L.E. – a government agency charged with dealing with super-powered and other extraordinary threats to public safety.
• The Enelsians – a matriarchal alien race that invaded Earth, with Astro City as their focal point.
• The First Family – a family of interdimensional explorers and superheroes consisting of brothers Augustus and Julius Furst, Augustus' adopted children Nick and Natalie, Natalie's dinosaur-like husband Rex, and their daughter Astra.
• Honor Guard – the most prestigious superhero group. Founded in 1959, members came and went over the years. For much of its history it maintained seven active members; more recently, the group has expanded considerably. The roster as of 2017 consists of Samaritan (leader), Assemblyman (II), Beautie, Cleopatra (II), the Gentleman, Hummingbird (II), the Living Nightmare, M.P.H., N-Forcer (latest successor of the original), Winged Victory and Wolfspider, with American Chibi on detached duty.
• Pyramid – a criminal organization with an ancient Egyptian motif, led by the Sekhmet Stone, a living mystical artifact from the past.

• Looney Leo – a cartoon lion brought to life in 1946, he was briefly the Gentleman's sidekick, then a media star. When his fame faded, he was homeless for a while before becoming a pawn in a supervillain's plot. Afterwards, he was a recluse before becoming host of a nostalgic nightclub bearing his name in the entertainment district.
• Steeljack (Carl "Carlie" Donewicz) – a former supervillain and member of the villain group the Terrifying Three. He is a resident of Kiefer Square who attempts to reform after serving his time. He became active as a villain from about 1970 to 1978, then in prison from 1978–1998. He is later tapped by former associates to investigate the string of "Black Mask" murders and later became a licensed private investigator.
• Charles Raymond Williams and Royal James Williams – brothers whose parents are killed in 1959 during a superhero battle. They grew up following very different paths with Charles becoming a police officer and Royal a petty criminal. They are the focus of The Dark Age four-book maxiseries.

In 2003, Ben Barenholtz, Jonathan Alpers and Busiek hoped to develop an Astro City movie, with Barenholtz as producer and Alpers as lead scripter, but the plans did not take off,[4] whereupon Barenholtz subsequently took the project to Working Title Films.[5] In July 2010, Working Title acquired the rights to make a live-action feature film adaptation of Astro City.[5][6] Busiek was to write a script treatment, and also to executive-produce, along with Barenholtz and Alpers.[6] In May 2013, Kurt Busiek said that Working Title's option had lapsed but he was in negotiation with another party.[7]

In March 2018, FremantleMedia North America announced intentions to produce a live-action Astro City TV series with a pilot episode written by Busiek and Rick Alexander.[8]