The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1275: Strange Adventures #184, January 1966

I just love Animal Man. I don't really know what it is about him. And I've thought about it. I think what it is is that when I started buying his eponymous title, I'd already read his first adventure in an old Blue Ribbon digest of secret origins that I had. I've since lost that comic, but I remember reading, over and over, "The Man with Animal Powers," amongst others (Hal Jordan was one, I think). He was also the first "mature" title that I ever bought - being a very mature 13 year old when the series came out - but that also meant it was one of the first really thoughtful comics I read.

Of course, there is the fact that Grant Morrison's writing is magic.

But these old Animal Man, even pre-Animal Man adventures, they're so strange. And not just because of the comic they inhabit. I can see Buddy and Ellen and Roger in these characters, but it's like they're caricatures of themselves. I'm reading this comic through the lens of the future.

Actually, let me adjust that. I can't see Ellen in the caricature in this story. She's literally there as a prop for Buddy.

Gil Kane's art is really great, unsurprisingly. His enlarged tiger/cat creature is quite uncanny, and the giant pink alien looks as natural as such a beast can. You can see why Gil Kane is revered, even in silly little stories like this one. The shots of Buddy flying are fantastic, and the tumble of his body when he's levitated with an entire lake is entirely believable. I don't have a lot of really nice examples of classic DC art, but I think this one definitely counts.

Speaking of, I actually only bought this comic today. I'd decided a little while back that I was going to start trying to get some more of the key issues I'm interested in, and I happened upon this one for a mere $38 today. And it's in lovely condition.

More to come...

(Oh, and the back-up was about a guy who flies into hurricanes for the weather service running afoul of modern-day sky pirates in a cloud-swathed dirigible - and he has some really real moments flashing back to flying in the Korean War. Weird, well, Strange, I suppose, story.)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 843: DC Comics Presents #78, February 1985

(A busy day today, so I'll get to blogging this tomorrow. But the coolest thing is that it's literally a direct prologue to Crisis on Infinite Earths. The last page basically starts off the Crisis series.)

So, as I say up there, this is quite literally the opening pages of Crisis. The story itself is a bit mediocre, though if we consider it in terms of what starts in the final pages, it's actually a bit of a tribute to characters that writer Marv Wolfman probably knows for sure are not going to survive the reboot of the DCU. The trouble is that I don't think the story takes advantage of the premise it sets up nearly enough. Basically we have three wizards, one in the past, one in the present, and one in the future (and the future one is a magic-using planet called Yggardis) to gain control of the universe (can anyone tell me what that would even look like - how do you control something infinite?). The time travel angle is not exploited to its utmost, and the fact that these three magicians are manipulating reality but not causing any paradoxes for one another is really interesting. It says something about the nature of time as a whole, as a 4th dimensional solid that exists all at once, but that can't be perceived in that way by humans.

This said, Mr. Wolfman was probably preoccupied by the twists and turns of the Crisis series he was navigating, and perhaps could not pay closer attention to the cool spacetime playground he established in this story.

The end of the issue, however, is a half-page dialogue between the Monitor and Lyla (soon to be Harbinger), a conversation that leads directing into the opening pages of Crisis and the destruction of Earth-3. I wonder if these little bits and pieces were reprinted in the Crisis collections that have come out. Probably not, though this one seems to be to be quite important.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 842: DC Comics Presents #77, January 1985

The Forgotten Heroes return, having held a press conference to announce their presence as a superhero team to the world. Sadly it seems the name they choose becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as this adventure, spanning this comic and the next, is the team's last appearance. There's a brief Crisis cameo by a few members, and then that's it.

It seems to me that the reason this kind of team fails ultimately, and why the characters themselves are not particularly memorable, is because they're very limited. Rick Flag is a typical Army special forces character. Cave Carson explores...well...caves (though I haven't read his current series, which sounds very weird). Dane Dorrance, the Sea Devil is even more water-bound than Aquaman, and lacks the powers. Congo Bill is kind of geographically limited. And Immortal Man can be killed. Remember Mr. I from the Great Lakes Avengers? This is an attempt at a serious take on him. Or Mr. I is a parodic take on Immortal Man. Anyway, the only two characters that have enough breadth of conception to carry a story are Dolphin and Animal Man. I'm pretty sure Dolphin becomes part of Aquaman's supporting cast, and we all know what happens with Animal Man. This breadth of conception is key for a superhero. Yes, Spider-Man has a limited set of powers based on his origin, but it doesn't limit the kinds of adventures he can get into. With a team like the Sea Devils, though, the audience is going to expect a particular kind of adventure, and then tire of it very quickly, I would think.

Once a character has this potential, it's simply a matter of exhausting all of the easy stories (i.e., stories to do with animals, or animal-based characters for Animal Man), and then take the character out of their comfort zone and start doing interesting things with them. The Animal Man series vacillates on this front, but for the most part steers away from telling easy stories.

Today's comic is good, and an interesting preceding piece for Morrison's final story in Animal Man, wherein he reunites Animal Man with some actually forgotten heroes in the realm of Limbo. This comic also features one of the many times Superman is transformed by a villain, this time becoming a fire-breathing dragon that is ultimately defeated by everyone's favourite orange-clad character with animal powers.

We'll finish up this story tomorrow, and then see where things go. To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 840: Action Comics #553, March 1984

This has been a very strange adventure (pun intended), in that there's very little action. A lot of this story has been people talking to one another about action, or about the problem facing the team and Superman, but the actual steps taken to stop the problem happen in literally 2-3 pages of this second issue.

And not much is really revealed or solved, aside from Superman no longer spreading prehistoric seeds across Metropolis.

In terms of Animal Man's development, we're beginning to see the limitations of his power set - in order to be useful, he's really only good if he's around animals that might have useful powers. Though "usefulness" is an aspect of the powers that is fully explored in his series, it's not really delved into here. Buddy is sent back to Brazil, where he by some random chance has seen a jaguar (and anyone who's walked around forests full of wild animals knows just how often you happen upon one by chance), and so can use those powers to defeat the government officials guarding the mysterious temple. The expansions his powers undergo in his eponymous series, from sensing animals around him to tapping into the morphogenetic field exponentially raise the level of his powers, making him into a remarkably powerful character in the end. And perhaps it's this overcoming of the limitations of his powers that finally allows Animal Man the shot at having his own series. Indeed, much of the early part of Morrison's run is about Animal Man discovering the true extent of his powers.

But we'll get there eventually. The end of today's story leaves the audience with the possibility of Superman not having survived his encounter at the beginning of time. We might take a quick detour into the next issue of Action Comics, just to see what happens, and then we'll pick up with Animal Man again in DC Comics Presents.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 839: Action Comics #552, February 1984

Four years pass between Animal Man's appearance in Wonder Woman and his next one in Action Comics. This is very much a set-up piece, gathering together a group that, briefly, come to be known as the Forgotten Heroes, who have all had adventures that have led them to a strange temple, the knowledge of which brings them into conflict with the American government. Concurrently, Vandal Savage unleashed a plan against Superman that, one can only imagine, is connected to the temple and the Forgotten Heroes' adventures.

Animal Man expresses some surprise here that someone else knows his secret identity. It's the first time I've seen reference to the secret identity issue from Animal Man, as his identity is, as far as I know, a public one through most of his self-titled series. His characterization is also a bit odd...his dialogue sounds to me like Hawkeye's from his early 60s Avengers appearances. Using words like "figger" and such. What I come to realize though is that I read every single Animal Man appearance through the lens of his own series, even those that come before that series happens. It's an odd phenomenon, and one that can really only occur in serialized fictions like these, though with the caveat that they are serialized fictions whose creative teams change regularly. Until someone defines a character like Animal Man, his personality is going to be in flux across his appearances. And then once he's been established, prior appearances might not gel with what is now canonical. Where things get interesting is with a group like the Doom Patrol, who I also read from a particular perspective, yet whose personalities were long ago established in their first series. In such a case, perhaps we can see the shifts in character as growth and development of those characters, rather than being a personality in flux.

The Forgotten Heroes do manage to get a few adventures in, even making a brief appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it's a scant four years until Animal Man gets his own series, and the DCU gets its first taste of the madness of Grant Morrison. Once this happens, Animal Man is no longer forgotten, and this motley crew of adventurers falls by the wayside.

Will the Forgotten Heroes and Superman actually meet up next issue? It seems likely, but you never know.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 838: Strange Adventures #201, June 1967

Just before we get to this comic, if you're interested on the brief thoughts I had about Animal Man's previous adventures, they're here:

"I Was the Man with the Animal Powers"
"Return of the Man with Animal Powers"
"A-Man, The Hero with Animal Powers" (Don't actually have this. Only one of the early adventures I've never read.
"Animal Man, Hero or Freak?"

So let's get on to the only one of his adventures not reprinted in the later Adventure Comics series.

Is it just me, or does that look like a very poorly put together Hank McCoy on the cover of that comic? Animal Man's early adventures were, to be blunt, pretty forgettable. Aside from his bizarre origin, which grows only more bizarre as Morrison gets his hands on Buddy, the stories are really pretty mediocre, which might explain the 13 year absence from comics following this story. (Well, not entirely true. His tales were reprinted in Adventure Comics, but when you're a back-up feature to Supergirl, who's going to notice anything else?)

Those reprints actually tell us all we need to know about today's A-Man story. It's so silly that they didn't even bother reprinting it, even though they'd reprinted every other Animal Story that had been written. Today's villain injects himself with...something that turns him into a gorilla with the brain of a human. Then he dresses in "mod" clothing and robs banks.

Can't wait for the gritty, Vertigo-esque reboot of the Mod Gorilla Boss - a grim tale of addiction to Quaaludes and going to too many The Who concerts.

The most interesting aspect of this story is the Carmine Infantino art. Infantino is famous for much of his work, and for me it's mostly his run on the later issues of the Barry Allen Flash series. But here we're seeing a much less-refined version of his art. Infantino has a very distinctive style, easily picked out from amongst his contemporaries. The art in today's comic isn't quite there yet, though the potential of what he was to accomplish shows through. There's some really great shots of Animal Man flying that speak to the draughtsman that Infantino would eventually become.

On to a couple more early adventures tomorrow. To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 836: Wonder Woman #267, May 1980

So I have a confession to make.

Much as I laud the Man of Steel, much as I find inspiration in his stories, he's not my favourite superhero.

Animal Man is.

I've written a few times about Animal Man. He's a character that is near and dear to my heart. He's the first superhero I ever read by Grant Morrison, whose work is also so dear to my heart.

(The first Morrison I ever read was The Doctor.)

Even in the strange, lost years in which I was not an obsessive comics fan, I recalled Animal Man's adventures fondly. And when I regained my senses and got into comics again, his were some of the earliest comics I started tracking down.

Today's comic is one of the few pre-Morrison Animal Man adventures that exist. Between his origin and Morrison's comic, there's probably less than 15 appearances. It's nice to see A-Man show up and hold his own against the Amazon Princess, especially given the limits of his powers at this point. Rather than his connection to a morphogenetic field in the later run, Buddy could only access the powers of animals he could see. Good thing for all those coincidentally useful creatures passing by.

There's one line in this issue that I think sums up Animal Man quite well. It's quite wise, which isn't surprising given its source. Wonder Woman, considering her new ally, thinks "A strange man. At first, he seems almost like a clown...but underneath that humorous exterior, I sense a driving purpose..." I noted in my very early entry on Animal Man #5 that the art on that run is very cartoon-y, but is meshed with a proto-Vertigo sensibility. Which is kind of what Wonder Woman says right there. Neat.

One last little bit of the Amazon tomorrow, and then I think we're going to follow Animal Man on his adventures after this little encounter.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 293: Adventure Comics #420, June 1972

What was that I was saying the other day about Supergirl being lured to alien worlds to fight battles for their inhabitants? This one's even stranger as we never actually learn why there's a war being fought, or between whom. Instead, we're told the story of a group of wizards who join their minds together to protect themselves and their people, and who manipulate Supergirl into attacking their enemies. Who those enemies are, we're never told - the story is more about the collateral damage of war. Togran, son of one of the wizards, tries to stop Supergirl from falling for the plot, only to be killed by his own father. Sometimes I think it would be best if Supergirl just stayed on Earth.

The Animal Man story in this issue is one of his earliest costumed appearances. It's not the greatest story, but what it does highlight is the difficulties associated with becoming a superhero. Animal Man (or "A-Man" as he's called in the story) pursues the same gang of crooks repeatedly in this story, always failing to capture them until the very end. Though he's enthusiastic, his experience with his powers is slight, and it's kind of fascinating seeing how he gets around the limitation of having to be around animals to absorb their powers. I'm glad that that aspect of his power set gets retired eventually, though having such limitations does force some creative thinking, both on the part of the hero and on the part of his creative team. Regardless, it was nice to see the old orange and blue again.

The other stories are typical 60s and 70s fare. The "Star-Men" story read like an old EC sci-fi story, and, according to the GCD, the second Supergirl story is actually a reprinted Superman story that's had his name replaced with hers to make her seem like the star. And, though it hardly bears repeating, Supergirl sports very different costumes in both stories. I wonder if anyone's ever collected the various fashions she's sported over the years into one place. It would be interesting to see where she's been.

Perhaps more Supergirl tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 292: Adventure Comics #412, November 1971

I'm reading these comics slightly out of order, I know, and I certainly don't have anything close to a complete run, but it really seems like Supergirl has a new costume every single issue. While I really loved Oksner's art yesterday, I think this version of the Supersuit is the one I like most - in a lot of ways it prefigures the contemporary Superman design, though the colours are much brighter, as they should be.

The story's okay, but not great. I think the best part is that the champion Supergirl is stolen away to combat on an alien world is also a woman, which makes a nice change to this kind of challenge story. When I was chatting with Bart a few months back, he was explaining to me how he noticed particular archetypes of stories in Archie comics over the decade he was writing about - I think we could make a similar argument for Supergirl stories. It seems she's often pulled away to some alien planet to stop a mad conqueror. Unfortunately this plays into the same kind of imperial rhetoric that's got the U.S. in so much trouble in the Middle East these days, so, as I've been telling my students all term, we see the culture reflected in the literature. Supergirl's trials, however, turn out to have a far more satisfying end (or, indeed, an end at all) than the current situation(s) in the Arab world.

Backing this one up, though, is the very first story of one of my favourite superheroes, Animal Man. When I did my one hundredth post on the Doom Patrol, I noted that even though the story is over 50 years old, it still holds up as very readable. Animal Man's inaugural adventure doesn't fare quite as well. It's very dated and, to be honest, not a great piece. One can see that it was originally intended as a on-shot science fiction story, not as a superhero origin piece. There's none of the hallmarks of such a story, and Buddy Baker, though he proves his heroism, is hardly superhero material. Which, perhaps, is why he makes such a good one.

I'm running out of Supergirl comics to read, but I'll keep going for a bit. It's nice to be dipping into the Superman and related titles portion of the collection. I have 4 short boxes of Super-stuff, and there's some really interesting comics in there. More tomorrow!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 291: Adventure Comics #414, January 1972

I don't want to make it sound like I've not been enjoying the comics I've been reading for almost the last 300 days, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed every story in this comic a great deal. Bob Oksner is now my absolute favourite Supergirl artist. And not just because of the hotpants! It's also cool to see some Len Wein stuff from around the same time that Swamp Thing is taking off - he writes a pretty decent superhero story as well as his more famous horror stuff.

Unlike yesterday's Adventure Comics, this issue takes up the anthology nature of the title that I think continues until the series ends. We've got a couple of gorgeous Supergirl stories, a Zatanna story by Gray Morrow and Wein, and the second Animal Man story with art by Gil Kane (and written by Dave Wood, about whom I can find almost no information except that he co-created Animal Man - I probably should have heard of him sooner). And all of them were excellent. There's definitely a EC Horror comics vibe to a couple of the Len Wein-scribed stories, which makes a pretty cool combination with the superheroes (SG and Zatanna) that he's playing with. The stories are also less-bombastic than what one might expect from 70s DC, and you can see the transition from goofy 60s television Batman-inspired shenanigans to writers who are thinking through the ramifications and ways of telling superhero stories. I'm definitely going to have to see if some of this old stuff has been collected so I can get a better idea.

Strangely, this comic was in my Supergirl section in the collection, even though it prominently features an Animal Man story. It's going to go back into the AM collection now. Animal Man's earliest adventures originally appeared in Strange Adventures, and were reprinted years later as back-ups to Supergirl's Adventure Comics run. They're not easy to come by, but as of this writing I'm only missing one of Animal Man's earliest adventures. What's interesting is the recolouring job that some of the stories undergo in the 6 or so years between publication. Such decisions, though, are best left to the mysteries of the universe.

A bit more Adventure tomorrow, I think. I'm enjoying the crap out of the Supergirl stuff, and it's great to revisit the early Animal Man adventures. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 30: Animal Man v.1 #5, 1988

This is my favourite single issue of all time.
Occasionally people will ask what my favourite comic is, and I'll say it's probably this one. But I'm going to take a stand and declare, officially, today, that Animal Man v.1, #5, is my favourite comic of all time.

I started reading Animal Man when he got his own series because his origin story showed up in a DC Blue Ribbon Digest that I owned when I was young, and I loved it. I had no idea who Grant Morrison was, and I was certainly not ready for the dark, yet somehow cartoon-y (thanks, Chas Truog) adventures that were to come. The first four issues are brutal and exciting, and I'll admit that they, in many ways, pushed me toward vegetarianism (though it took until I read the liner notes of Moby's "Everything is Wrong" before I took the plunge).

I don't know really what to say about this issue. It finally made me realize what comics are capable of. It made every Wile E. Coyote cartoon I've ever watched in the following 24 years horribly tragic. It started me on a semi-obsessive mission to read everything Morrison ever wrote. I'm pretty close, I think.

Animal Man himself doesn't really do much in this comic. And I think that's one of the many revelations that this issue showcased for me. To this point, I'd been reading mainly Marvel stuff, Claremont's X-Men, Roger Stern's Avengers, comics that, while good, were always centered around some grand action moment featuring the main characters. Animal Man flies into the middle of a story, and doesn't really understand what happens, and that's the end. Crafty Coyote is the star. Or maybe the trucker. Who, I'll note, was the first queer character I'd ever read in a comic book. It's the first metatextual comic I ever read, or at least the first one that I noticed was metatextual.

Truog's art, as I mentioned, is quite cartoony. One of the wonderful things about the series as a whole is that it is very, and I mean this as a compliment, simple art, very clean lines and colours, but it combines that aesthetic with a Vertigo-esque sensibility as far as the violence and strangeness of superheroic life. This makes for a really hallucinatory quality in the stories that meshes so very, very well with the eventual climax of Morrison's run.

I know, not a very critical look. I think this is a perfect comic. What more can I say?