Animal Man

Template:Superherobox Animal Man is a superhero in the DC Universe.

Originally a typical spandex-clad superhero named Buddy Baker who, as the result of being in proximity to an exploding alien spaceship, had the power to borrow the abilities of animals--such as a bird's flight, or a bat's echolocation--Animal Man was one of the more obscure of DC's pantheon of heroes. He debuted in Strange Adventures #180 in 1965, with subsequent appearances being both sporadic and sparse -- for example, his main appearances in the 1980s were, appropriately enough, in the company of "The Forgotten Heroes", a team of also-rans that never received a book of their own.

This all changed in the late 1980s, when DC began employing innovative writers--mostly young and mostly British--to reinvent some of their old characters. In the period that saw Alan Moore reinventing Swamp Thing, and Neil Gaiman completely recreating The Sandman, Animal Man was startlingly re-launched by Scottish writer (and enfant terrible) Grant Morrison. With the aid of artists Chas Truog and Doug Hazlewood, and cover artist Brian Bolland, Morrison penned the first 26 issues of DC Comics' revival, published between 1988 and 1989.

Perhaps the series' most memorable moment, and greatest achievement, was Morrison's skillful manipulation and occasional destruction of the "fourth wall" - the barrier that separates the reader and the protagonist - thus resulting in some of the most extraordinary meta-fiction ever seen in the medium. (Morrison was to continue blurring the lines between fact and fiction with his most famous work The Invisibles, and later with the Vertigo series The Filth, among others)

His appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC's 1985 12-issue cross-over event that re-wrote 50 years of continuity, was widely overlooked at the time, but gave birth to many of the concepts that made Animal Man revolutionary. Morrison's exploration of the themes concerning the puppet/master relationship between protagonist and writer, have their roots in the arbitrary erasure and re-writing of comic book history that Crisis was symptomatic of. A recurring visual expression of this theme, was of characters in a state of partial erasure - often juxtaposing the artist's pencil drafts with the finished inked and colored art.

Morrison's Animal Man was initially conceived as a four issue mini-series, but was quickly upgraded into an on-going series. This prompted Morrison to begin laying the groundwork for some of the longest running plots in comics early on in his run -- introducing mysteries in the early issues, for revelation one or two years later was a relatively unusual tactic in the instant-gratification realm of monthly comics.

Fun as the first four issues were, Animal Man found its voice with #5: "The Coyote Gospel". This Gospel's Christ figure, "Crafty", was a thinly-disguised Wile E. Coyote, villain of the Road Runner cartoons. Weary of the endless cycle of violence to which he and his cartoon compatriots were subject to, Crafty appeals to his cartoonist creator. A bargain is struck, whereby he can end the violence only by willingly being condemned to leave his cartoon world, entering instead Animal Man's "comic" world. (An interesting maneuver, since Wile's Warner Bros. is also owned by Time Warner, the real-life parent company of DC) The issue concludes with a cinematic series of 'pull-back' shots moving from a close-up of Crafty's bleeding body (and curiously-white blood), to the immense cartoonist's hand, filling in Crafty's blood with red paint - a classic instance of "Fourth Wall" destruction. This theme of callous creators toying with the lives of their creations was to continue, particularly Morrison's seeming resistance to the re-writing of Animal Man's history in Crisis.

The series was also notable for championing vegetarianism and animal rights. In one memorable issue, Buddy helps a band of self-confessed eco-terrorists save a school of dolphins. Enraged at one fisherman's brutality, Buddy drops him into the ocean, intending for him to drown. The man is later saved by a dolphin, a nod to Morrison's view of humanity's place in the grander scheme of things, and the wider status quo.

The meta-fiction is brought to its logical conclusion in Morrison's final issue, with Morrison fittingly assuming the titular role in the final issue: "Deus Ex Machina", wherein Buddy actually gets to meet Mr. Morrison himself. Grant Morrison's run on the series is collected into three trade editions, entitled: Animal Man, Animal Man: Origin of the Species (which includes the Secret Origins #39 story) and Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina.

Largely due to Morrison's groundbreaking work, this series soon transcended its mundane DC Universe origins and the title was one of the six that DC transferred to its Vertigo imprint.

Animal Man continued for another sixty-three issues, under writers such as Peter Milligan and Jamie Delano, although some critics feel this run never managed to emerge from the colossal shadow cast by Morrison.

External links

• The Continuity Pages: Animal Man (http://www.continuitypages.com/animalman.htm)
• Animal Man @ GrantMorrison.com (http://www.grantmorrison.com/animal_man.htm)
• Animal Man profile page (http://www.dcuguide.com/profile.php?name=animalman)