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Becuase there are so many versions of the Astro Boy story, his origins, abilties and family are vary somewhat from version to version. This page reviews the few traits which Astro retains in all versions, and discusses the variations between different versions.

ASTRO'S ORIGINS

There are at least five different versions of the creation of Astro Boy told in different versions of the series, but they all have some basic elements in common. Astro was the creation of the genius roboticist Dr. Tenma (shown below), then head of the Japanese Ministry of Science, whose young son Tobio was killed in an accident in his robotic car. Tenma was determined to recreate Tobio, and marshaled all the resources of the Ministry of Science to create the world's most advanced robot, one capable of thinking and feeling like a human.

After his creation, Astro lived peacefully with Dr. Tenma sometime, but then the two were separated. The reason for the separation varies: in the manga Dr. Tenma became enraged as Astro failed to grow like a normal boy, and drove Astro out in a fit of madness. In the 1980s series, Astro was stolen. In the 2003 series, based largely on a later section of the manga, Tenma destroyed his lab and disappeared as part of a complicated plan to guide Astro toward leading a robot revolution.

Whatever the case, Astro usually spends a little while as a slave in a robot circus, abused by a harsh taskmaster who has no idea that he has acquired the world' most sophisticated robot, until Astro is found and rescued by Dr. Ochanomizu (shown below), the new Minister of Science who replaced Dr. Tenma as the latter fled the police who were pursuing him for abusing his power in creating Astro. Dr. Ochanomizu rebuilt and restored Astro, and became his new father, but Dr. Tenma continues nonetheless to consider Astro to be his, and believes that the robots will inevitably rise up against the humans, with Astro as their leader.

It should be noted that both Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanomizu appear frequently in other works by Tezuka, far more frequently than Astro does. Both are usually mad scientists or doctors, Ochanomizu inevitably the wise and trustworthy one. In fact, Ochanomizu has become such a classic icon of the trusted scientist in Japan that in 2005 the government used him as the spokes-character in a public service sex education video.

DR. OCHANOMIZU, also called Dr. Elefun or Dr. Oshay:

DR. TENMA, also called Dr. Boynton:

ASTRO'S ABILITIES
Astro Boy has seven special powers. Usually these powers were created in him by Dr. Tenma, but sometimes they are added or enhanced by Dr. Ochanomizu. Confusingly, the list of what exactly these seven special powers are varies, and in some series he has different powers than he did before, or attributes are counted as powers which were not before. One invariable power is Astro’s ability to fly, using jets which shoot out of his arms and legs. Another is his ability to magnify his hearing to pick up sounds 10,000 or 100,000 times quieter than would be audible to a human ear. A third power is the laser blast, which usually shoots out of his fingertip. Astro always has a forth power involving his eyes, but it varies whether this is the power to magnify his vision 100,000 times as he does his hearing, or to project light beams out of his eyes to see in the dark, or both. Two other abilities which Astro always contained in the original manga but lacks in the most recent TV series are the ability to sense whether someone is good or evil, and the ability to shoot machine guns out of his buttocks, a mechanism which seems silly at first, but is extremely useful when he is pinned by a giant opponent, needs to use all four limbs as jets for difficult flight, or has his arms ripped off in combat, which is not uncommon. In the original lists, Astro’s Engine, 100,000 horsepower at first but then upgraded half-way through the manga to 1,000,000 horsepower, is often counted as one of his powers, as is his sophisticated computer brain which can do amazing calculations in a fraction of a second (note, this makes eight powers). The most recent TV series and GBA game have also given Astro a very powerful arm cannon far more destructive than his laser blaster, which was intended to bring Astro more in line with the high-powered robots common in recent anime.

ASTRO'S FAMILY
This section contains plot spoilers
Besides his two mad scientist fathers, Dr. Tenma and Dr. Ochanimizu, Astro has a robotic sister Uran (also called Zoran; shown above) who was created for him by Dr. Ochanomizu in order to help Astro learn about family, human relationships, and responsibility. Uran is basically a copy of Astro, but less sophisticated because Dr. Ochanomizu is not as skilled as Dr. Tenma. In appearance, she is a tomboyish little girl a few years younger than Astro. In effect, she has almost as powerful an engine as he does, but lacks his seven special powers, though she has one of her own: the ability to communicate with animals. Ochanomizu also created a brother Cobalt for Astro, though he sacrificed himself to save the world. Ochanomizu made robotic parents for Astro, to try to help him learn about normal human life, though their relationship was always ironic, because Astro, like a good boy, tried to obey his parents, but the parents were newer and knew less about the world than Astro – indeed, he was several grades ahead of them in school. Eventually Dr. Tenma, who did not like to see Astro recognize any family beside himself, had them destroyed.

Astro's most important relative is not one of Ochanomizu's creations, but his brother Atlas (shown below), created by Dr. Tenma, almost as sophisticated and powerful as Astro but not bound by the robot laws which make Astro obey humans. Atlas was created by Tenma to lead the robots in an uprising against the humans, and/or to goad Astro into doing so, depending on the version. Atlas is sometimes a child robot about Astro's size, sometimes a teenager, and sometimes his child form is destroyed and Tenma rebuilds him as an adult, but he remains Astro’s closest technological match in design, power and psyche, and is a recurring adversary in all versions of the story.