Florence has long been a living museum for the artworks of the Italian Renaissance, from Michelangelo's David to the treasures of the Uffizi Gallery. When young Federico Maglietta was assigned to the city he thought he was going to be inundated with tourist drama and the endless bureaucratic nonsense of warring museums and historians. Instead he found himself immediately thrust into a tense hostage drama in the Piazza della Signoria when a squad of the Red Brigade made a grab for a crowd of Canadian tourists which happened to include the wife of the Canadian Ambassador to Italy. The tense stand-off was eventually negotiated with the help of the Italian superhero Solar Centurion.

Maglietta was inspired by the young hero but soon found himself assigned to clean-up duty around the Piazza while the main attraction and celebration moved on. Duty his solitary duty he came across a section of the piazza which had been torn up, presumably by the Red Brigade. No one else had noticed the damage and Maglietta investigated. What seemed like a small crater revealed itself to be an access point to an underground passage which slipped under the Arno and deeper into the city. Maglietta had grown bored with his duty and followed the passage which had been seemingly undisturbed for centuries. Whilst underground he was secretly assessed by an alien probe which had lain dormant since the passage's construction sometime in the 1600s. When he arrived at a certain point the alien probe revealed itself and informed the young Polizia officer that he was now the host of the Astrum Force.

Bands of gold formed on his wrists from thin streams of liquid gold which shot out from both sides of the passage, and within seconds Maglietta could feel a strange energy course through his body. He pulled at the wristbands but they would not come off, and a voice inside his mind informed him of his new power. The Astrum Force was the collected psyches of a long lost race of space-faring beings which had been without a host for centuries even before coming to Earth. Possibly because of the long dormancy or perhaps because of Maglietta's unique brainwaves, the collected psyches were unable to fully regain sentience.

Presumably the Astrum Force intended to use Maglietta's body as a host, but because the psyches were so degraded Maglietta has access to their immense powers without having to submit himself to their will.

He left the hidden passage and sealed off its entrance point using the newly charged bands. No one has since entered the site, although Maglietta has returned on several occasions to ensure that the entrance is still sealed. He returned to his life as a member of the Polizia and quickly rose through the ranks with his new found confidence and his tenacity for hard work. While he succeeded quicker than he should have expected, he also gained the ire of his fellow officers. One such officer is his partner, Monica Cucinotta, who secretly hates him and wants to get a new partner. Maglietta, on the other hands, secretly adores her and goes to great lengths to gain her approval. To make matters more complicated, Monica Cucinotta has fallen in love with Astro: Maglietta's hero identity, although Maglietta doesn't realise her feelings for Astro do not extend to him as Federico Maglietta.

Astro spends most of his superhero time patrolling Florence and regularly assists the emergency services in and around the city. He has had little to do with other superheroes although he does plan to approach the Dawnstars or Solar Centurion one day - he just doesn't feel that he is ready for that level of intensity. Even though his first impression of Florence was close to the mark, in that there is little uberhuman crime, he does find plenty of crises to avert and damsels to rescue.

Maglietta is a career-oriented police officer who is striving to climb the professional ladder as quickly as he can, mostly to impress his parents back home in Bari, and to win the heart of Monica Cucinotta, whose father was a Commissario. He has nearly limitless confidence and his possession of the Astrum Force has given him the self-assurance to go after anything he wants - although he still finds it difficult to approach Monica directly.

As Astro, he is the dashing and daring super hero who always has time for the public and never puts a wrong foot forward. He has exchanged a handful of kisses with the object of his affection, Monica, but only as Astro. The media have caught one such embrace and Monica is widely known as being the girlfriend of Florence's only hero, something which tends to get her into trouble more often than not (and as long as it brings her into contact with her hero, Monica is not complaining).

"Put that statue down, carefully. This is not a super-market. And we do not allow withdrawals from the Uffizi Gallery."

Astro has been joined with the enigmatic Astrum Force which was once a repository for the psyches of a long-dead alien race. Upon joining with Maglietta, the psyches seem to have dissipated leaving Maglietta with unfettered access to the vast powers of the Astrum Force.

The bands are always attached to his wrists but they are made of a very amorphous material and can appear as thick golden bands in his Astro identity or thin bracelets in his civilian one. The bands can only be removed by depressing two diamond shapes. This has only happened once in his superhero career although the man who stole them was unable to use the bands and Astro soon had them returned to his wrists.

Some of the uses of the energy include projecting energy blasts, bands of energy which can bind opponents, intense blinding light, the ability to fly (even faster than the speed of light when out of the Earth's atmosphere) and a protective force field which provides protection from injury and harsh conditions. The wrist bands also grant the wearer enhanced strength (even if the wearer is not Maglietta) and reinforces his will power.

Federico Maglietta is a handsome man in his mid-twenties who appears very well put together, if not entirely at ease with himself. He always wears immaculate suits or his Polizia uniform, but often looks uncomfortable or perhaps a little young. This unease is the result of trying too hard to conform with what he believes is a successful man - probably because his father always wore suits to every occasion. His hair is cut every two weeks and he spends a lot of time on his appearance, something else which annoys his partner, Monica Cucinotta.

As Astro he appears as a strong, reliable superhero, outfitted in black pants and boots with a golden belt buckle and prominent gold wrist bands. He appears bare-chested to best show off his enhanced physique, but conceals his identity with a black mask.