It was reading this comic while walking along the sidewalk that made me walk into a lamp post face first, on a school trip to Barcelona, to the amusement of my class mates.
Yes, I was the kind of teenager that would buy a superhero comic in a language he doesn’t speak as a souvenir rather than something more appropriate. I didn’t even have the decency to buy an actual Spanish comic! That was the kind of nerd I was unfortunately. The rest of school trip was eventful. We saw the usual things you see in Barcelona: Sagrada Familia, the parks, some musea I don’t remember. Got food poisoning with half the class from the dodgy paella served on the first night in the bording house we stayed at, drank sangria with a couple of class mates in a McDonalds, nothing as interesting honestly as that issue of Animal Man was.
That was in 1990 and the first issue of Animal Man I ever “read”. I knew about the series already, from an interview Grant Morrison did with comics Scene, but my local comic shop didn’t carry it. Which meant the moment I saw that Brian Bolland cover on some newsstand I had to buy it (together with a copy of Invasion 3).
Fortunately, this is not one of the more complex issues Morrison ever wrote. It’s just the Martian Manhunter visiting Buddy Baker’s family home to install a new security system and teleport system now that Animal Man is a member of Justice League Europe, following on from the Invasion crossover series. As his son is being bullied and has his bike stolen, Buddy himself is struggling with his powers, which have been affected by what happened during Invasion, consluting with the Martian Manhunter about it. The Manhunter also helps his son get even with the bullies.
There are several subplots going on in the background that will tie in with the series overall story, but on the whole this is a very normal sort of superhero story, one that could’ve been published in any other superhero series. A typical sort of breather issue, where we look into the hero’s personal circumstances while they rest between adventures and the stage is set for the next big event.
The reason I was reminded of this comic was because I’ve spent today reading the Animal Man Omnibus, which collects Grant Morrison entire run on Animal Man. Because it was one of the founding series of the Vertigo imprint a few years later, I always tend to think of Animal Man as being much weirder and isolated from the bigger DC Universe than it ever actually was under Morrison. This issue is a good example of how it was still a part of that wider, much more traditional universe even when Morrison was doing their best to kick the legs from under it later on.
It also shows that Morrison’s Animal Man was never a series that would appeal to a non superhero comics reading audience, like e.g. Sandman was. You can read the series while never having read any other superhero series, but its appeal is still firmly to the sort of nerd who’d actually care for an obscure character like Animal Man in the first place.
No Comments