Alright, by now, everyone must have heard about DC’s “Little-Comic-That-Could,” known as Animal Man. This off-brand 3rd-rate Superhero has found new success in DC’s relaunch. A lot of people, including myself, were very surprised by how well it performed. Personally, I loved the story and the art style, and I’d recommend it to any horror fan who is looking to get into books about “capes.” And that’s the thing. With most of the New DC, it would appear that the majority of the stories skew towards and older “mature” audience. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it makes things a little tougher to break newer and younger readers into the DC mix. But I’m not here to complain about that. After all, there really is something for everyone in this launch… But let’s get back to my point. Animal Man is a great horror story .

As you readers may or may not know, I’m a huge horror fan, but it’s a bit difficult to get that fix in the comics department. And sure, one might say that I’m just not looking hard enough, but at the same time, all horror isn’t created equal. There are some really bad ones out there… I used to work for a few video rental chains, and comics and movies are a lot alike in many ways. And when it comes to horror, they’re almost identical. I used to stock so much garbage back at those rental stores… And I’m not saying that every low-budget horror flick is garbage, but a lot of them tend to be. And the problem isn’t the budget, so much as it is the focus. Likewise, with horror comics, a book could be drawn very well, but it could lack the substance of a decent story… Or it could be a great story, but the art could be committing criminal acts on your eyes, which totally takes you out of the story. And sometimes, it’s just not good. But with Animal Man… Things are different.

[Dream a little dream...]

For starters, one of the few but consistent complaints that I’ve heard about the series is that folks don’t like the “muted” art direction that artist, Travel Foreman, has chosen to use for the comic. And hey, it might not be your cup of tea, but for the nature of the story, I think it works wonders for setting the tone. For example, in the first issue, our hero Animal Man (Buddy Baker), settles a hostage situation after not having used his powers for heroics for a while. When the dust settles, we find that his eyes are now crying blood. Now, there’s no real way to make crying blood look classy, but when compared to other attempts at showing this effect, Foreman’s art style certainly makes the scene unsettling. Other shining examples include the dream sequence near the end of issue #1 as well as the exploding hippopotamus that birth asymmetric horrors that eat a few dudes in issue #2, not to mention the undead animal pets. But that’s just the art, what about the story?

[You've got a little something on your face.]

It’s pretty cool. And yeah, I know that’s very lazy of me, but so far, I have nothing bad to say about Jeff Lemire’s writing on this book, and I hope that it remains that way. I didn’t particularly care for his run on Superboy, and I just can’t get into Sweet Tooth. But with Animal Man? The story focus is very tight on Buddy and his family. There hasn’t really been a lot of superheroics in the first 2 issues, and that’s fine, because at the very least, Lemire has me caring about all the featured characters in this book. And I felt bad for the minor characters that have died, something that I can’t really say for any of the other minor characters that have died in this relaunch… Except for maybe that dude in Birds of Prey #1. Anyway, the writing isn’t something that I feel I could explain in less than a few paragraphs, so I’m not going to attempt. Just know that it clicks with the horror side of my brain, and that’s all that really matters. As of writing this, I know that we still have a few 1st printing #1s in the store… Probably the only store in the St. Louis area… So come on down and check it out, and if you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but if you do, pick up #2.

-Fleet

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