Welcome Back

[will44]

I love this book so much and I'm going to spoil the hell out of it now in an attempt to get more of you to buy it.

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So Cliff is in the clutches of evil Buddy, as Buddy was recently killed, his spirit sent to the red, and his body taken over by the Rot
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At the red, Buddy is told he will be remade, and who shows up but the Yellow Alien people!!! They are the Tailors of the red, and one is FEMALE! Who knew? The Tailors discuss how to rebuild Buddy this time, how to make him stronger. The result? They give his new body limited shape shifting abilities!

I love this. These aliens come back just enough to save Buddy, I loved their appearances in Morrison's Animal Man. The way they are seamlessly weaved into this new mythology is outstanding.

Buddy returns and battles the Rot in his old body, with the help of Socks the cat. Cliff is saved but scratched by the Rot, and reveals that Anton Arcane is coming before passing out.

Next month: Swamp Thing!

[will44]

Really? No one else bought this? Buddy Baker gets a new body that can shape shift and then he fights his old body, and no one bought it????

BOOO!!!!

[Jags]

I've been super busy lately. This is my favorite DC book, but I'm behind on it. I still have the last 2 issues and the annual to get to.

That's the one downside to going digital for me. Without the actual books sitting on the nightstand, I don't have the sense of urgency to read them. I've got some time tomorrow morning, will try to catch up then.

[NightFang]

I actaully saw that recently but I find it hard getting into comics that are already running just feels odd.

[will44]

well, the nice thing is that it's only 11 issues in. You can get the trade soon for the first 5 issues too. This book is crazy fun, it's worth checking out.

[Jags]

Just got caught up. Sorry about the wait.

I love, Love, LOVE this book. One of the problems of the old DCU was that these types of things were always so poorly characterized and explained. The elemental origins of characters like Swamp Thing and Black Orchid were extremely compelling, but unnecessarily segregated from the rest of the DCU.

The animal powers of Animal Man, B'wana Beast, Changeling, and Vixen, while all connected to the morphagenetic field, rarely brought those characters together in a cohesive way, and their origins kept changing.

If you're also reading JLD and SWAMP THING, then you know that these forces in the new DCU are connected. There's a shared, thematic continuity throughout that gives these stories more size and scope, and connections between the characters that can feed the narrative for years to come.

And it's being done no better than in ANIMAL MAN. Throughout its first year, Lemire has submerged this title in a story that runs so contrary to what many fans like (extremely decompressed and figurative), yet he does it so brilliantly that you just don't mind. The story has moved very little in these 11 issues, but story is so well-constructed. The backstory is sublimely vivid and complex, the orchestration and presentation of the Red/Green/Rot makes perfect sense while also seeming so malleable and complicated, and yet the very human characters at the center of the story do not waver.

As the book jumps from extreme to extreme like an acid trip, Maxine is still this spitfire little girl, Buddy is her guardian of a father still struggling with the same personal conflicts that always made his character sympathetic and engaging, Cliff is still the wiseass older brother, and Ellen is still perpetually on the verge of losing her patience (and mind).

Add to that a really entertainingly characterized cat named Socks and a beautiful art style that might require peyote, brilliantly begun by Travel Foreman (and reminiscent of the best of David Mack), but also captured well by the handful of artists that have followed.

The more recent developments with Buddy's new body have been amazing. I like how the new shapeshifting abilities aren't so cleanly realized (though we'd better cross our fingers that that remains the case when he appears in mainstream books); that the transformations are not pretty but make sense.

It appears that the best is yet to come. The only question I have is what the status quo will be like when this book finally settles down a bit (if it ever does), but I have to admit -- I'm excited to discover the answer to each question this book poses. It's so unique, and I'm digging every minute of it.