Animal Man

Synopsis: This was originally printed as Animal Man #1-9

We meet Buddy Baker, a.k.a. the superhero known as Animal Man, who is considering a return to active adventuring, for the purpose of joining the Justice League and getting a stipend. He encounters and fights against Bwana Beast, another animal themed hero attempting to rescue his chimpanzee friend from an animal testing facility at S.T.A.R. labs.

Afterwards, Animal Man has a run in with an odd looking coyote from another world that wants to die.

After that, he runs afoul of a pair of Thanagarian invaders, one of whom is an “art martyr” that detonates a special bomb causing massive hallucinations. It also screws up Animal Man’s powers.

Next, Animal Man runs into an aged super villain who’s released a large number of inept killing robots on Miami. He wants to kill himself, but Animal Man talks him out of it. However, while Animal Man is attempting to deal with the chaos, the villain—the Red Mask—decides to kill himself.

Animal Man returns home, and finds his home invaded by the Mirror Master, who gives him a warning to stay out of animal rights issues.

Finally, having been inducted into the Justice League, Buddy and his family get a visit from Martian Manhunter who has a crew install defensive devices in Buddy’s home. Buddy tells him that his powers are screwed up, and J’onn tries to help. Later, we find out that Buddy’s son is being bullied at school, and Martian Manhunter helps him out with that problem.

Good Stuff: This is fairly interesting. The adventures of Animal Man aren’t the same as most DC superheroes, and there’s a decided edge of menace in all of the ones that aren’t weird. More interesting is how Morrison takes concepts like Wile E. Coyote and stands them on their ear.

The best of these stories are the ones where there’s a little more menace than fantasy, but most of them are quite interesting. I have to say my favorite may be the one with the suicidal Red Mask, or possibly the one with Martian Manhunter, but I like both of those because they have a good sense of humor.

Not so Good Stuff: Well, I do think the Bwana Beast story runs a little long, and I thought the story with the Thanagarians wasn’t as interesting as I’m sure Morrison thought it was.

I give this book 8/10.