My review of volume 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 
 I would highly suggest that you read volume 1 and the first part of Astro City, Vol. 3: Family Album before reading this story! 
 Though Astro City has been ongoing since 1996, this storyline is still considered one of if not the best of its run. Along with Kingdom Come it is considered a direct reaction against the "dark age" of comics which started with the release of Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and it may be one of the best comic book stories of the 1990s. 
 It builds from a (deceptively-little) plotline in the previous issues of Astro City (which you have to read in volume 3, remember) and looks at one of the 3 Batman stand-ins of Astro City: The Confessor. A solitary vigilante by trade, he reluctantly takes on a sidekick who is determined to fight crime along side him. Just as this is happening the little story line from vol. 3 blows-up in spectacular fashion. We see, for the first but not last time, the ugly side of Astro City when it gets really desperate. 
 I wish I could say more, but that would be a disservice. If you like Batman, the X-Men, or wondered what an earlier interpretation of Marvel's Civil War and Secret Invasion combined would look like, here is your comic.