Review: Animal Man by Grant Morrison, Book 1

Animal Man by Grant Morrison, Book 1 by Grant Morrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Animal man by Grant Morrison takes one of DC's lesser known, C maybe borderline B tier characters in terms of importance, and weaves in Morrison's usual multiversal metaphysical narrative, tying into one of the most significant events in DC canonical history. 

Bernard 'buddy' Baker was your everyday guy, that is until he became acquainted with extraterrestrial life forms, in the form of an exploding spaceship. This incident had the additional effect of giving him superpowers, specifically, being able to borrow the strengths of animals in his vicinity for about 30 minutes. (Most heroes of the time got their powers from chemicals, aliens and magic, Morrison makes an in canon joke about the nature of several Golden and silver age characters). 

Animal man’s greatest weakness, seems to be his own existential crisis. When I went to his wiki page, they too seemed to agree with this assessment. Whether it's trying to make it big and join the JLA, or living up to his namesake by abandoning meat, or by trying to be a good role model for his children, his struggles have an everyman's vibe to it. 

What I found hilarious was how Buddy seems to be a spectator in his own adventures. His name might be in the title, and it might be his story, but more often than not, his allies, adversaries and even his non-powered family seem to take center stage, while Buddy is someplace shooting the wind. For Christ’s sake, the man is somehow the cosmic lynchpin which holds together reality after the events of Infinite Crisis, a nexus assigned by a group of omniscient all knowing alien watchers, and he just stumbles across the whole thing doing a whole lot of contributions. 

And what is this reality altering event which buddy is central to? Retcons. You see, in the gamut of comic book characters, not everyone is lucky enough to have the same backstory over their publication history. Not everyone can be Batman, with his riches, dead parents in an alley and fear of bats.

Most lower tier characters undergo quite a few changes in accordance with the era and the writer who handles them. Some, like hawk man, guy Gardner and Power girl go through multiple iterations until something sticks. 

Buddy's existential crisis ties into his very existence changing at a meta level, as, at a meta level his origin story and relationships change according to the whims of the writers. This translates into the pages as one would expect. The reality ending crisis is his Retcons over and over again while he himself stares on helpless as the very core of his being is changed, his loved ones simply erased or cease to exist in accordance to the dictates of an uncaring hand of God, which in this case is the literal hand of the comic artists. Chilling stuff. 

One of my favorite stories amongst the anthology, is one rooted in the Looney toons world, where in a bizarre twist, Wile E Coyote becomes something akin to the son of God, who has descended into our world from the realm of looney mayhem, and is sentences to experience gruesome deaths, as a penance for his people, and so that they can gain freedom from the unending cycle of violence. It made me bust my gut laughing, at the same time feeling for the character. 

I would recommend this book, if only for the zany retellings of the lesser known DC characters, which oftentimes break the metaphysical wall of existence, and maybe make you question your own.