Last Week’s Comics 9/14/2011

[wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=””]

Animal Man #1

(DC – writer: Jeff Lemire; art: Travel Foreman)

Jeff Lemire’s superhero writing is hit or miss for me. I love Sweet Tooth and I enjoyed parts of Superboy, but I didn’t find it to be too overwhelming. So I picked up Animal Man because I knew that I would at least react to it after I read it. Is it good? Eh, it has its moments. Does it offer much for the future of the character? Emphatically yes.

Lemire opens the issue with an interview between Buddy Baker and a magazine known as The Believer.

[/wpcol_1half] [wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=””]

Cleverly, this text gives a quick yet rich history of the character, as well as establishing him for readers. Buddy is an actor, superhero and activist. He’s cashed in his personality for fame, and he doesn’t seem to be reaping the rewards for it. There’s a bit of inconsistency with the writing in the first part of the issue, and this is what threw me off. Buddy’s wife is jabbing him for being in a movie without getting paid, not using his superpowers and for thinking of leaving to save a group of hostages trapped in a hospital. Yet he speaks about her like she’s the greatest wife on the face of the Earth.

She’s not. She’s a bitch. And this is a hard fact to overcome, considering that family plays such an important role in the story. The major action of the issue occurs when Buddy goes to the hospital to deal with a man whose daughter died, yet he thinks the hospital is keeping her from him.

This is like something you’d find on an episode of General Hospital or ER, and while the scene allows Buddy to use his powers (which are described in a very cool way), it feels like too much of a cliché. While it teases that Buddy may be in for some very serious issues, it could have been introduced in a much better way.

The last six pages of the issue are really where Lemire flourishes. We’re shown Buddy’s dream, but one where he’s reduced to a walking circulatory system (much like Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen). Travel Foreman draws the world in a beautifully illustrated black and white (save for some blood-red coloring), and we’re introduced to a group of three things that remind me of creatures from Stephen King’s short story “The Mist.” They offer a disturbing view of the future, but the real prize is the final page of the issue, which is worth the other twenty pages. The cliffhanger is creepy, and promises readers a much darker Animal Man than they’re used to (or in my case, introduced to).

I wasn’t too impressed with Animal Man #1, but there’s a lot to like about it and what the issue foreshadows. As an introduction, it’s okay. But I think the successive issues are going to be where Animal Man really shines.

[/wpcol_1half_end]