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6th out of 111 books
—
117 voters
Animal Man, Vol. 1: The Hunt (Animal Man Vol. II #1)
One of the breakout hits from DC Comics – The New 52! In these tales from issues #1-6 of the new series, Buddy Baker has gone from "super" man to family man – but is he strong enough to hold his family together when Maxine, his young daughter, starts to manifest her own dangerous powers? As these new abilities continue to terrify Buddy and his wife Ellen, things take a tur...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
May 8th 2012
by DC Comics
(first published November 2011)
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A darker, edgier Animal Man, combining the best of Grant Morrison's seminal run, with a new, comprehensive mythology, and some mind-twisting visuals…
The result is a most pleasant surprise. A smarter, more adult-orientated story that is my early choice for BEST of DC's New 52.
For this reboot, DC wisely chose to retain Morrison-created persona of Animal Man as a vegan, eco-friendly pacifist, and politically active champion of animal rights. To this foundation, writer Jeff Lemire added a terrifi...more
The result is a most pleasant surprise. A smarter, more adult-orientated story that is my early choice for BEST of DC's New 52.
For this reboot, DC wisely chose to retain Morrison-created persona of Animal Man as a vegan, eco-friendly pacifist, and politically active champion of animal rights. To this foundation, writer Jeff Lemire added a terrifi...more
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When I first heard about that some characters from vertigo comics will be added to the DC reboot, I wasn't sure how I felt about the idea. Sure, who wouldn't want to read new stories about Swamp Thing, Animal Man or Constantine but I wasn't quite sure if those new stories maintain the rawness and brutality that the original ones have. Then I've heard that Jeff Lemire was gonna write the story I was kinda pumped up because he's like one of my favorite writers of all time. As always Jeff Lemire pr...more
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Oct 27, 2012
Chris Beveridge
marked it as to-read
Animal Man is a character I have great love for based on the distant past of the character and is one that is entirely adaptable to new interpretations, especially as we see from his DC Nation animated appearances. With the first few issues of the New 52 as they came out, I liked where the story was going but really struggled with the artwork and always felt bad with that. While I didn’t keep up with it in that form, I did thoroughly enjoy this edition of it in reading all six issues in one sitt...more
I'm sure everyone can agree that the artwork is gorgeous. That alone would boost any rating I could give this. The story itself is really exciting. I've only dabbled in Animal Man before the 52, but I was never interested. This volume is so dark and has really surprising elements of horror that I didn't expect, but am glad for.
It's easy to dismiss Animal Man himself because his character seems relatively normal outside having powers. His family is loving and his wife is accepting, he has had re...more
It's easy to dismiss Animal Man himself because his character seems relatively normal outside having powers. His family is loving and his wife is accepting, he has had re...more
I was weary on ready this book when I was first informed of it publication. But was I ever surprised. Not only does this book have one of the most engaging stories if the new 52, it was also one of those perfect pairing of writer and artist. Sure it's not a standard superhero book but the darker tone that Jeff Lemire gave us with the idea of a family man hero giving us a look of other alter egos that do not hide from the world as Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent do. This mans whole identity is not Ani...more
Cuando arranqué con este título suponía que no me iba a encontrar a nada parecido a aquello que hizo Morrison un par de décadas atrás (y que yo leí hace casi una década, creo), pero que me iba a enganchar igual. Cuánta razón tuve. Después de comprobar que Lemire era un buen guionista "indie" al leerme su trilogía de Essex County quise ver si se portaba igual de bien con laburos por encargo. Y la verdad que sí. Claro que también ayudan muchísimo los tremebundos dibujos de Foreman, Pugh y Leon (en...more
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This book takes a dorky character to a scary place, and it does it really well. I'm not really familiar with who Animal Man was before the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe, but I hope he was presented as a comedy character - he has 8-year-old boy powers of, "Shweet, it would be cool if thish guy could.. be like animals! All of them!" In this book, Jeff Lemire plays that up for amusing moments (Animal Man sneaks home after a long night by drawing on the weight of a bumblebee, then when he has tro...more
Meh. Having Buddy Baker discover there's more to his powers than just using animal abilities, that he's tied into some global lifeforce has been done before (and done better). Having this storyline be the starting story for the comic seems too soon for me. When Grant Morrison first took Animal Man from being a typical superhero to being something else, something more, he was already well-established as a C-list superhero. It made the revelations that there was more too him than just being anothe...more
After reading the first volume of the new Animal Man Series now I know why everyone has been raving about Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth over at Vertigo and his independent work (which I have not gotten around to reading yet). Lemire builds upon the foundation laid by Grant Morrison during his run on the title (arguably the character's best ever) and if anything makes it better.
The last few years have seen Buddy Baker return to the C or D level character he was. Now he is restored to an important pla...more
The last few years have seen Buddy Baker return to the C or D level character he was. Now he is restored to an important pla...more
Even though Animal Man has been part of the DC Comics universe for a few years now, this is only his first ever solo title released by this publisher (he used to be part of Vertigo Comics before they became part of DC Comics). The story starts with Animal Man (Buddy Baker) having retired from his career as a superhero in order to spend more time with his family. But it is starting to look like his past just will not leave him alone and he is forced to become Animal Man once again. New details ab...more
I knew something was wrong when I saw the Clive Barker-esque cover art. All the qualities I liked about Animal Man, (Morrison's Animal Man) were absent in this re-invention. Gone is the naïveté, hopeful charm and everyday life appeal to the character. He doesn't fight bad guys with interesting use of his abilities, he fights some esoteric cancer "The Rot" against a life-web "The Red" mostly in a confusion shared by the reader. He fights The Rot with his daughter and her new found abilities, (ser...more
I don't think I get the concept of DC's "reboot" of the "New 52" - I thought it meant starting the characters from the beginning so you see how they become who they are and build up the world around them for a whole new audience. Because I expected that with a character I've never read before, "Animal Man", and discovered that this wasn't the case.
Buddy Baker is Animal Man, a guy with a crap costume who can channel animal powers (a la Marshal Bravestarr) through something called the Life Web. He...more
Buddy Baker is Animal Man, a guy with a crap costume who can channel animal powers (a la Marshal Bravestarr) through something called the Life Web. He...more
My encounters with Animal Man were limited to his metatextual runs (as written by Grant Morrison). The character popped in in a few DC crossovers or events, but rarely held any captivating interest. Stumbling across this volume at a local bookstore, I sat down to see what the DCnU had done to Buddy Baker - and I like it. Eschewing the cape and tights for natural horror turned this character on its ear. Buddy's daughter is exhibiting strange powers that are linked to the Red, a metaphysical plane...more
Whew, this is a weird one. Not really what I was expecting from a DC comic. This felt more like a Vertigo book. Vertigo is an imprint of DC that is meant for mature readers. Animal Man was actually part of DC, then moved to Vertigo and is now back to DC as part of the new 52.
As dark as Batman gets sometime, I felt that Animal was really dark. The art is full of twisted, distorted bodies which are disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I like disturbing as much as the next guy. But it has to be handled...more
As dark as Batman gets sometime, I felt that Animal was really dark. The art is full of twisted, distorted bodies which are disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I like disturbing as much as the next guy. But it has to be handled...more
This collection was my first exposure to Animal Man. While I have read comics off and on for years, I never encountered this character. I decided to give it a shot, as this was a relaunch of the franchise.
As a introduction to the character and Animal Man universe, this works well. It's clear there was some mythos that it was drawing on, but for the most part the writer makes everything understandable. It appears that some of the mythology is being rewritten a bit, which even Animal Man himself p...more
As a introduction to the character and Animal Man universe, this works well. It's clear there was some mythos that it was drawing on, but for the most part the writer makes everything understandable. It appears that some of the mythology is being rewritten a bit, which even Animal Man himself p...more
Issue # 1: Just to start off, let me clarify that I have no previous knowledge of Animal Man, and I haven’t read any issues from the line before, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to get aquainted with the whole Animal Man world and to give an unbiased opinion of the new issue of Animal Man #1 as a part of DC Comics’ New 52 relaunch. Being a DC Comics fan of the greatly known Batman and Wonder Woman titles, the unknown quantities of the new 52 relaunch had me the most curious. L...more
I read this because I read Sweet Tooth and Essex County and Underwater Welder and much of all the other fabulous stuff Jeff Lemire is doing. This is one of the New 52 DC Comics Series, and its interesting and well written, thanks to Lemire, and Travel Foreman, the primary artist on the first volume. The idea was invented by Grant Morrison, apparently riffing off Alan Moore's Swamp Thing revisioning. So Lemire reinvents him, creates more of an origin and direction for him. The idea is this: If Sw...more
So like a total dummy, I put this on my Christmas wishlist thinking, for some reason, that it was the adventures of the Dibnys (I know, I'm a moron.) Was super excited to unwrap the present from my brother and find it... then the ardor cooled when I realized I'd mischosen the book. Still, the back cover blurbs looked promising, so as soon as I had the space in my reading queue, I slotted it in.
And boy was I pleased with the result! I'm not sure what DC is doing nowadays with this New 52 business...more
And boy was I pleased with the result! I'm not sure what DC is doing nowadays with this New 52 business...more
Animal Man is one wild graphic novel. It features a washed-up superhero’s quest to rescue his super-powered daughter, Maxine, from the clutches of a trio of shape- shifting hell-beasts. This graphic novel is violent in a particularly outrageous way, and it features gruesome, psychedelic visions reminiscent of the special effects in the “Evil Dead” series.
Maxine was by far my favorite character. In a scene typical of the book’s horror-tinged humor, the girl decides to find herself a pet by resur...more
Maxine was by far my favorite character. In a scene typical of the book’s horror-tinged humor, the girl decides to find herself a pet by resur...more
**Read this in single issues as it was released, as opposed to the trade paperback**
Having no previous knowledge of Animal Man as a character prior to DC's reboot last September, I jumped into this with no expectations. Holy freaking God, this is one of the most insane comics I've ever read. It's amazing mix of brooding The Thing-style horror and superheroes have been keeping me in very high spirits on the first Wednesday of every month, when the new issues of this series comes out.
And don't eve...more
Having no previous knowledge of Animal Man as a character prior to DC's reboot last September, I jumped into this with no expectations. Holy freaking God, this is one of the most insane comics I've ever read. It's amazing mix of brooding The Thing-style horror and superheroes have been keeping me in very high spirits on the first Wednesday of every month, when the new issues of this series comes out.
And don't eve...more
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Review originally posted here.
Why I Read It: In my quest to read everything (well, at least the first volume) from the New 52. Also, I was drawn to this superhero in particular because: 1) I had never heard of Animal Man before and 2) I've been told that this reads more like a Vertigo comic than a DC one, and I LOVE Vertigo. So. Spoiler-free review ahead.
Guys, this series is DARK! When I said this supposedly reads more like a Vertigo comic than a DC one? Completely true.
What really sets this ti...more
http://philadelphiareviewofbooks.com/...
I’ve come late to the whole taking-comics-seriously-as-art party, but I’d just like to burst the bubbles of an old lion and a sacred cow and say, for the record, the following. Frank Miller’s 2002 Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the follow-up to his 1986 masterpiece of Cold War paranoia and moral panic, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, is a jumble of comic book clichés and poor, distracting storytelling techniques – not to mention amorphous and bori...more
I’ve come late to the whole taking-comics-seriously-as-art party, but I’d just like to burst the bubbles of an old lion and a sacred cow and say, for the record, the following. Frank Miller’s 2002 Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the follow-up to his 1986 masterpiece of Cold War paranoia and moral panic, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, is a jumble of comic book clichés and poor, distracting storytelling techniques – not to mention amorphous and bori...more
I thought that Animal Man: vol 1 was an interesting read for a graphic novel. I rarely read comics and I definitely do not go out and buy them every week or month or whenever they come out. I only buy them if they get good reviews (such as Watchmen and Batman: the Killing Joke). I think I have seen more comic book movies than I have read them.
Back on subject: the story/concept of the comic threw me off a bit: a hero who can take on the powers of various animals. I got the impression he actually...more
Back on subject: the story/concept of the comic threw me off a bit: a hero who can take on the powers of various animals. I got the impression he actually...more
First things first - I love when a comic lets a superhero be married and looks at like from that angle instead of making them endless bachelors or in on-again, off-again relationships that end up making revolutions over the same territory over and over again. Buddy Baker has a family, and he'll do anything to keep them safe, and that's pretty much the heart of this trade.
I am not a big fan of the fact that this series starts off by putting the focus largely on someone other than the title chara...more
I am not a big fan of the fact that this series starts off by putting the focus largely on someone other than the title chara...more
At 31, I came to comics relatively late. Yeah, I read some kiddie comics like Richie Rich and Lil' Devil when I was a kid, but real comics, with superheroes and bad language and what have you? That didn't come about until my mid-20s. My introduction to comics came from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 run, as I had just finished plowing through Buffy on DVD and wanted, nay needed, more. Then my friend told me to read Ultimate Spider-Man, and then I discovered Runaways, and then Watchmen, an...more
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Incredible.
Buddy Baker is a family man with a loving wife and two great kids, who gave up his career as a stunt-man to become a super-hero after discovering his ability to tap into something he calls "the web of life" and which scientists have called "the morphogenic field" -- this ability allows him to call upon the traits and abilities of various animals, but it also allows him to understand and relate to all animal life. This sympathetic connection to the animal kingdom eventually moves him...more
Buddy Baker is a family man with a loving wife and two great kids, who gave up his career as a stunt-man to become a super-hero after discovering his ability to tap into something he calls "the web of life" and which scientists have called "the morphogenic field" -- this ability allows him to call upon the traits and abilities of various animals, but it also allows him to understand and relate to all animal life. This sympathetic connection to the animal kingdom eventually moves him...more
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Wow. Now, I seem to remember really hating some Travel Forman art in a story in She Hulk vol.2, but this stuff is great! The way he draws family interactions is so spot on, he adds little details that make you relate and connect with this family as if it was a good friend or even your own. Just little things like Maxine's sunglasses, or the Mom's clothing or the way he runs his hand absentmindedly through his son's weird mohawk/rattail/mullet haircut. Not only is the mundane heightened, but the...more
When reinvesting into comics a couple of years back, I had all but given up on superheroes. The ideas, mythos, orgin stories, spandex, etc. that were the very keystones of the tired genre seemed like a weathered idea in need of a shot in the arm. Enter DC's "New 52" relaunch ploy. Since I'm a huge fan of Lemire's Vertigo "Sweet Tooth," I decided to check out his take of "Animal Man."
Suffice to say, it is well worth the read. Everything about this title is fantastic. Buddy Baker's vulnerability...more
Suffice to say, it is well worth the read. Everything about this title is fantastic. Buddy Baker's vulnerability...more
Jeff Lemire (along with Scott Snyder) is one of the more gripping artist/writers working today. Leave it to Lemire to take Grant Morrisson's 80's cult title and not just update it, but actually take it in dark, new interesting directions. The art by Travel Foreman is a little hard to follow at first, breaking typical comic-frame relationships and moving characters and dialogue around outside the norm. As the journey "into the red" deepens, the reason for this freestyle approach to composition be...more
For me, Animal Man as a character will forever be associated with Grant Morrison's strange and weird run (Vertigo, before Vertigo, as it were), so it was with some trepidation that I picked this up. Then again, I had heard good things about Lemire, and interesting things about links to Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing, so there was that.
Arguably, the concept of the Red is there already in Morrison's run (even though Morrison has apparently commented on Lemire's work as too derivative of Moore's Swamp...more
Arguably, the concept of the Red is there already in Morrison's run (even though Morrison has apparently commented on Lemire's work as too derivative of Moore's Swamp...more
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Jeff Lemire is an award-winning Canadian cartoonist, and the author of the Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth and The Nobody. Lemire is known for a his moody, humanistic stories and sketchy, cinematic, black-and-white art.
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