admin
22 December 2023
Generally, the goal of comics (or movies, television, books, and most other types of entertainment media) is to give readers a temporary out from the bullshit we have to deal with every day in real life. Regardless of the genre, we’re transported to fanciful worlds full of a variety of characters performing feats that range from painfully ordinary to outrageously amazing to deeply disturbing, just to scratch the surface.
Sometimes fans even get lost in the worlds of their characters, debating whether Wolverine could take Batman, or if Superman could beat The Hulk. What most of us never even think about is that the character only exists because someone writes his actions on paper, and then interprets those actions in illustrations. In 1988, Grant Morrison began a 26-issue run on a series starring a C-list hero to remind us of just this.
DC Comics\' Animal Man was created in 1965. Bombarded by cosmic rays from a crashed alien spaceship, Buddy Baker received the ability to absorb the unique abilities of the animals in his general vicinity (i.e. strength of a gorilla, flight like a bird, tough skin like the shell of a turtle, a bat\'s sonic sight, etc.; c\'mon, just roll with it for now). Animal Man was never given any real acclaim until Morrison was allowed to pen him in his own series. And even then, Buddy was focused more on his feelings of insecurity being a third-string hero that no one took seriously as he tried fumblingly to relate to his wife and children.
Taking up the cause of animal activism, Buddy made enemies of powerful corporations. Through a series of strange and unfortunate events (I don’t want to spoil it for you), Buddy was led \"outside of the panel\" (issue #24 is a mind trip!) and into the realization that he was nothing more than a character in a book! In the final issue of Morrison’s story (#26), Animal Man meets his writer face-to-face. In a long dialogue, Morrison explains that Animal Man and all that has happened to him is nothing more than the creative therapy of Grant Morrison working through the issues in his own life!
These 26 issues are currently being released as three trade paperbacks through DC Comics. I highly recommend picking them up and reading this elegantly planned story. I can’t possibly do the series justice in this small space without revealing too many of the crazy plot twists.
I’d also recommend reading DC\'s Crisis On Infinite Earths beforehand to get a sense of where we’re picking up with Buddy and his family. Every single DC book was effected by Crisis... and its events play into Animal Man’s rebirth. It’s not completely necessary though, so don’t not read Animal Man if you haven’t read Crisis....
Enjoy!
artid
3094
Old Image
7_9_panels.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 09 (may 2005)
section
entertainmental