Animal Man
Animal Man is the title of a series of comic publications that the US publisher DC-Comics has been publishing since 1965.
The focus of the Animal Man comics, which go back to the Americans Dave Wood (or France Herron) and Carmine Infantino , is a man named Buddy Baker, who has the gift ( super power ), the abilities of all animals with which he is in Contact comes to imitate.
While the Animal Man comics were originally designed as entertaining science fiction / fantasy material, socially critical topics have been in the foreground since the late 1980s, when Animal Man was transformed into an "adult comic ". Naturally, the series mainly deals with problems that arise from the relationship between animals and humans. Recurring aspects are, for example, the theory of evolution or the question of the moral imperative of the vegetarian way of life and the portability of animal experiments. Furthermore, philosophical reflections are repeatedly interspersed in the Animal Man Comics, metaphysical discussions about the "basic questions of being" are made and the so-called fourth wall is broken in self-referential excursions , which the fictional plot within the comics from the reality of the (actually outside of fiction) separates makers and readers of it.
Release dates
The first Animal Man story was published in September 1965 in issue # 180 of Strange Adventures , a series called "Colorful Allies" with various series of different content. The author of this story and creator of Animal Man was either author Dave Wood or author France Herron , who wrote the stories for Strange Adventures at the time . Since the comic books of that time did not contain an information box listing the contributors, the author of this story could not be clearly identified to this day. The drawings of the story were meanwhile (secured) done by the pencil draftsman Carmine Infantino and the ink pen George Roussos, who also developed the visual appearance of Animal Man. In the years that followed, Animal Man stories appeared again and again in Strange Adventures, without the character receiving any particular response.
Until the 1980s, Animal Man appeared primarily as a "guest star" in series such as Wonder Woman .
In 1988 Scottish writer Grant Morrison was hired to overhaul the Animal Man character to put it at the center of a "mature" comic series aimed at adult audiences. The new concept developed by Morrison was eventually marketed in an eponymous series, Animal Man for short , published by DC from September 1988 to November 1995. The series, originally planned as a four-part mini-series, was converted into a regular, indefinitely running series due to surprisingly good sales, and eventually reached eighty-nine issues. To mark the more adult character of the series, it was published from issue # 57 of 1993 within DC's mature readers label Vertigo .
Morrison wrote the issues # 1 to 26 (1988–1990) of the Animal Man series he designed himself. He then handed the writing job over to the British Peter Milligan (# 27-32), Tom Veich (# 28-45), Jamie Delano (# 46-74) and Jerry Prosser followed. The visual implementation of the Morrison stories was done by the draftsman Chas Truog together with the Indian ink artists Doug Hazlewood and Tom Grummett . Later draftsmen were Steve Dillon (Veich-Run) and Steve Pugh (Delano-Run). Finally, the cover pictures of the series were designed by the British painter Brian Bolland .
After this series was discontinued, Animal Man was again incorporated as a guest character in the series of other characters such as Resurrection Man or JLA , before he became the focus of a feature of the anthology series in 2006 together with the science fiction hero Adam Strange and Starfire (a kind of space parrot) 52 was made. Animal Man is currently one of the three main characters in the Adam Beechen series '' Countdown to Adventure ''.
Plot and main character
The Animal Man stories begin with the American Bernhard "Buddy" Baker finding a crashed spaceship. Immediately afterwards he realizes that through contact with the extraterrestrial vehicle he has acquired the amazing ability to temporarily acquire and use the properties and abilities of every animal known to him through mere concentration. The animal skills he uses include the skills of dinosaurs (strength), skunks (stink), electric eels (electricity), worms (regrow lost body parts), birds (flies), fish (swimming ability), and snakes ( Agility).
The modern Animal Man created by Morrison differs noticeably from the "standard superhero" type: unlike most superheroes, who are childless singles, Buddy Baker at Morrison has a wife, Ellen, and two children, son Cliff and the daughter Maxine.
Very clearly, the plot of Animal Man was mixed with moral and political appeals to this. For example, Morrison lets the title hero propagate the vegetarian way of life and he takes very far - reaching steps as an advocate for animal rights: In a story, Animal Man helps a group of self - declared ecoterrorists to attack a dolphin hunter fleet and gives him a fisherman whose cruelty horrifies him Drown price what he only survives because he is saved by a dolphin of all things.
Reprints
Since 2001, DC Comics has reissued the Animal Man stories written by Grant Morrison as anthologies.
- Animal Man Book 1 - Animal Man , New York 2001. (includes Animal Man # 1-9)
- Animal Man Book 2 - Origin Of The Species , New York 2002. (contains Animal Man # 10-17 and a story from Secret Origins # 39)
- Animal Man Book 3 - Deus Ex Machina Animal Man , New York 2003. (includes Animal Man # 18-26)