Animal Man, Family Man

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from ANIMAL MAN 1...



Since we last saw him, there have been some changes in Buddy Baker's life. Between his superhero and activist careers, he's turned into something of a icon for young hipsters in America. That position, in turn, has provided him the opportunity to begin a career as an actor in independent films. It's not something he actively sought out, but that's where he finds himself today nonetheless.

Oh, Maxine can't have pets because if Buddy spends too much time with an animal, he'll start bonding with it, which would negatively affect his connection to all other animals.

In sleep, Buddy has a disturbing dream, where he and Maxine are being chased by what she describes as "the bad things that dress as men. The hunters."





That's when he wakes up. It turns out things aren't peaceful in the waking world either, though. Ellen isn't in bed, and he hears her voice call him out onto the lawn; there's a situation.

Comments

Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[blue_bolt]

The Rot in the Red.
The Flesh Made Sickness.

Okay, so if Plant Thing is the Green, then these things are a corruption of Animal Man's morphogenic field concept. As for the Flesh Made Sickness, I don't quite get that - Sickness Made Flesh makes more sense to me.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[icon_uk]

The Red, as an animal based equivalent to the Green, has been around as a concept in Animal Man for quite a while.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[eightleggedbeast]

It annoys me a little, because blood isn't always red in animals. Most animals are insects :(

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[crabby_lioness]

It's his perception, and his blood is red.

If he were a biologist things might be different.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[eightleggedbeast]

No, no - not in the dream. The actual morphogenic field in canon for animal life is the red.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[icon_uk]

I think the Red has self-identified by that name.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[bruinsfan]

By number of species, but I believe various worms actually outdo them in terms of percentage of total biomass.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[eightleggedbeast]

'Worms' are very polyphyletic, with a great variation in anatomy and form - do you mean nematodes, annelids, other?

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[eightleggedbeast]

(IT SHOULD BE THE BEIGE)

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[sherkahn]

It's his version of the Grey.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[lonewolf23k]

"Flesh Made Sickness" implies a corruption of the Flesh.

Re: Names to Run Away from Really Fast

[kamino_neko]

Yeah, this.

'Sickness Made Flesh' is an incarnation of disease.

'Flesh Made Sickness' is a perversion of an incarnation of life.

[mrstatham]

Surprising that DC seem to be trying to pull out all the stops with their smaller characters. I'm actually really interested in this book now, especially after seeing these pages. Maybe one for getting in trade, though.

[akodo_rokku]

Well, they can pretty much rely on the big-name books selling fairly well regardless, so why not try to get some buzz going for the rest?

[crabby_lioness]

That's how comics used to be written. They would never have let Chris Claremont get away with taking as many chances as he did if they hadn't been about to cancel the X-Men anyway.

[drmcninja]

Its the best trend in the big two right now, the building up of smaller characters. Some great things have been done. Some terrible things, but mostly great things.

[mrstatham]

Here's hoping DC don't pull a Marvel and cancel some of these books if they don't immediately sell enough.

[maxisanacorn]

Great art. Very Vertigo ish.

[superfangirl1]

I really like the art. :)

[glprime]

HE-LLOOOOO NIGHTMARE FUEL!

[darkknightjrk]

I know, right?!

[aaron_bourque]

Wait, SUPPORT of marriage?

In a DCnU book?

Did someone miss a memo?

[eyz]

Ha! Exactly my thoughts!
Run, Bakers, Dan Didio's coming after your happiness!!!

[wizardru]

It's the just the set-up to allow the knockdown. Ellen should now be placed on a deathwatch list. She's either going to die in the next six months or separate from Buddy over the horrible craziness about to transpire.

[biod]

Don't worry, Morrisonman will save her!

[alexanderlucard]

Agreed with Biod. Morrison loved and indentified with Buddy Baker far too much for him to let anything happen to him. Besides, We've already seen his family and kids die once before and Morrison brought them back. Hell, we've seen Buddy die before and he was brought back too.

[tacitoz]

Wow, the art is gorgeous.
So, can Maxine make dead animals move now?

[espanolbot]

Well as long as she doesn't start melting people alive who irritate her like Swamp Thing's daughter does, I'm okay with it.

[mrstatham]

Lemire's on record as saying that the series is going to be as much about Maxine as it is Buddy. As such, gotta pull something big out of the bag to impress people.

[crinos]

OMG she's Xykon!

[biod]

Whaaaaat? An effective creepy child? A marriage that is treated with both respect and realism? What madness is this and when does the trade come out!?

[leikomgwtfbbq]

I'm sorely tempted to get this. I actually like the way this is sounding, because the characters haven't been so radically altered as everyone else. Buddy Baker's apparently almost the same as the one we've known and loved for years, his family is still there (one of the things that really made Animal Man), and it's not "zomg shock shock shock," it's "yeah, this is unnerving, but intriguing."

[crabby_lioness]

It's ironic to see how Swamp Thing has shed it's Alan Moore trappings only for Animal Man to pick them up.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, Swamp Thing really hasn't--all the stuff that Moore did is still part of Swamp Thing, it's just that Johns and now Snyder are taking those ideas and putting them in new directions.

[halloweenjack]

That's my reaction--although it's quite striking (that last shot of Maxine with the zombie animals is great), it still seems like DC is trying to catch up with what Moore, Bissette and Totleben did in the eighties.

[biod]

The Hunters Three vs. The Warriors Three. Bam! You're welcome.

[drmcninja]

Warriors, no contest.

"But Doctor, we have no idea what these hunters are capable of!"

I don't care. All that needs to be said is Volstagg.

[drmcninja]

The great thing is that these hunters three actually look like abominations. They aren't just generic evil or stereotype evil animals, these look like things that should not exist, a warping of the natural order. And that fits right in with the story.

[mas]

Didn't he have a son too?

[kamino_neko]

Cliff is on the opposite side to him on the last page in this post. The kid with the freaky mullet.

[star_of_airdrie]

At first I thought that was Ellen rockin a mullet... nope, just Cliff, so it's child abuse

[kamino_neko]

I think having to see your mother with hair like that would be at least as much child abuse as having to have it.

(Seriously, the damn mullet's my one and only complaint with the art.)

[star_of_airdrie]

it's such a horrifyingly well drawn mullet... the art is amazing, amazing; the book is/can be really, really be something.

I hope DC takes a long time to realize it before they come along and screw it up and/or cancel it.

[autohobbs]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the colors?

[gamerguy]

I really enjoyed the first issue.
Not really /loving/ the art yet, but it's not bad enough to turn me away from the book.
I really like the new costume.
I like how he uses his powers for the most mundane things.
I like that Ellen is supportive and not bitchy.
I like that Cliff is drawn differently than he was in the original series.
I have this feeling Maxine has connected to 'The Black' or something like that.