This is my new comic of the week. Every now and then, I pick up a new comic series that I’ve never read before – without doing any research beforehand. . I evaluate it on both its quality and how easy it is for new readers to understand. Why this one? Because a commenter (Wwayne, Witchblade 158 review) recommended that I try it. Was it worth it? Sure! This comic was awesomely weird, just as the commenter said.
From what I gathered, Animal Man is an avatar for some sect of magically powered animals. He has the powers of different animals and stands up for them. Can he use more than one power at once? Don’t know, but that’s not important for this issue. He is very public with his identity, yet his family is safe as of the end of this issue.
This issue is just fun, from the beginning to the end. The chicken suit robbery at the movie set felt like it was right out of a B movie. The “Narration” scene where Buddy is turned into the animal man is mildly horrific yet funny at the same time. The two page spread of the newspaper articles is a great way to sum up the way he likes to use his powers as the “Animal Man Avatar”, or whatever you call it. While this comic doesn’t slow down much, there’s still enough time for a couple well written conversations between Buddy Baker (Animal Man) and his wife. It’s also nice that it takes place in a small town, unlike most superhero comics. I can’t think of anything bad to say about this issue.
The art isn’t as good as the story. On the panels with the magical animals, or whoever they are, it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s going on – they blend together with their similar shades of skin. Apart from that this comic looks good, but not great.
I’m not sure if long-time fans of Animal Man would enjoy this issue as it’s a retelling of his origin story. Since I’m a new reader, this was the perfect jumping on point. This comic is delightfully weird and if that sounds appealing to you, check this issue out.
healed1337 
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Thank you for keeping your promise and for talking about me as a source of inspiration.
What makes Animal Man so special is the way Lemire deconstructs the superhero mythology. For example:
1) Superheroes tend to monopolize the attention of the reader, while Animal Man is constantly upstaged by the supporting characters of the series.
2) Superhero comics usually don’t give much importance to the private life of their main character (they tend to focus only on the “costume on” part); in Animal Man, on the contrary, the private life of Buddy is the main theme of the series. In fact, it is rather infrequent to see Buddy with his costume on.
3) Buddy is not perfect, and is not perceived as perfect by other people: in fact, in the 11th issue, when he tells his wife “It’s going to be okay”, she replies “Don’t give me anything of that superhero crap, Buddy.” That cut and thrust perfectly enlightens the philosophy of the series.
Animal Man definitely is the best DC series right now (along with Blue Beetle).
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I’m always open for suggestions on comics I should try out. Thanks for the suggestion, it was definately worth reading.
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Thank you as well for your reply! : )
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