The Last Days of Animal Man #5

[superfan1.insanejournal.com]

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Comments

[hybrid2.insanejournal.com]

why do they keep talking as if being a super hero was the most importent part of animal man's life.

He is known for it coming after is family.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

because the writer came up with a plot, suggested it to the editors and Animal Man was the character he was allowed to use.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

What's sad is how easily the writer copped to it. God forbid that they personalize a plot!

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Yes, because clearly nothing at all in this plot is Animal Man-specific...

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Not so'd you'd notice, character wise. Alot of the plot is about how Buddy missed out on his family, wasn't there for them because of his hero career and can't give it up.

That hardly sounds like Animal Man to me, and by the writer's own admission, they threw the plot at a character.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Throwing a plot at a character and personalizing a plot aren't mutually exclusive.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

But they didn't accomplish it here.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

The plot is clearly personalized for Animal Man. How well the personalizing was handled is a separate matter, but some tailor-fitting's clearly gone on. Just looking at the scans here, we have Buddy Baker's stuntman career, hsi friendship with Starfire, and his history with Mirror Master each shaping the plot in important ways.

[box_in_the_box.insanejournal.com]

The fact remains that the plot itself is inherently wrong for the character. The entire DEFINITION of Buddy Baker's personality was "the guy who put his family ahead of being a superhero," and the entire POINT of this plot was "man regrets always putting his superhero career ahead of his family." The combination of character and plot in this case is INHERENTLY WRONG, no matter HOW much they try and tailor the plot to fit the character. The character should ALWAYS dictate the plot, and NEVER the other way around.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

I have no disagreement with any of that. (Well, at least not in principle. I can't judge how much it applies to this particularly series just from the scans.)

[jaybee3.insanejournal.com]

I'm actually glad that Conway said where the story came from and that it had nothing originally to do with Animal Man - it's honest at least. And it also hopes me ignore this story entirely knowing this out-of-continuity future Animal Man is not really Buddy Baker but a creature of Conway's invention.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

where did he say that?

[jaybee3.insanejournal.com]

In one of the interviews he gave to either CBR or Newsarama or one of those sites prior to the series coming out. He basically said he pitched DC a story about a super-hero with a family having a mid-life crisis (or something like that) but not with Animal Man in mind. DC then basically said he could use Buddy (one of the few true family men in the DCU) in an out-of-continuity story that takes place in the future (so it can be ignored by future writers) and Conway went with it. The main thrust was that Conway had the idea for this story he wanted to do which had nothing to do with Animal Man and they just shoe-horned him into it.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

honestly nothing about the plot works for Animal Man so I don't see how the could have personalized it. Not and have it be the story he pitched. Still, there's a muttiverse these days, so it's easy to just say it takes place on some other Earth.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

So I guess that whole Animal Man/Starfire relationship didn't work out. Glad to hear it.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

Gah! The art burns!

It's okay in some places, but the panel where Buddy's asking his kids about a ride and Ellen's all smiling at him... That is a creepy face.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Hey! Buddy's actually somewhat sort of starting to act like himself!

Just in time for only one more issue!

grmph

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Wow, this thing's already up to 5? I hadn't noticed.

But then, when Jamie Delano said Buddy was dead, I was fine with that.

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

I love that line about med students studying exobiology.