A review by gregbrown
The Animal Man Omnibus by Grant Morrison
4.0
Rad! Morrison takes an on-face goofy superhero and vests him with some real ethical force and struggles, in a way that feels deeply personal to Morrison and the character. Animal Man is a guy who can take on the abstracted abilities of nearby animals—such as flight from birds, disproportionate strength from ants, etc—but without their physical characteristics. Morrison asks how that would change your outlook, and arrives at a hero who becomes deeply involved in animal activism, even in ways outside the bounds of the law.
But outside of a few fights with agents of a shadowy Establishment conspiracy (and one deep loss), Morrison becomes more interested in turning the series into a piece of meta-fiction, asking what is the nature of the comics. Typically we see this done as comedy, lampshading tropes to take their edge off—but to Animal Man, learning the nature of his reality is a deeply-agonizing twist of the knife. That last portion loses some of its specificity and could play out similarly with any number of superheroes or even regular characters, but it's still gripping, great stuff.
As a whole it's kinda discursive and necessarily episodic, as required by an ongoing series, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good and final-feeling the ending was. Sure, the series continued on afterwards, but it felt like Morrison meaningfully resolved his concerns in a way that was very rad. After reading All-Star Superman and The Filth, I'm continuing to dig Morrison's work, to the point where my next comics read might be tackling the Invisibles Omnibus once I can afford it. Animal Man isn't quite as strong or unified as limited-run series or wholly-original characters, but really great given the limitations.
But outside of a few fights with agents of a shadowy Establishment conspiracy (and one deep loss), Morrison becomes more interested in turning the series into a piece of meta-fiction, asking what is the nature of the comics. Typically we see this done as comedy, lampshading tropes to take their edge off—but to Animal Man, learning the nature of his reality is a deeply-agonizing twist of the knife. That last portion loses some of its specificity and could play out similarly with any number of superheroes or even regular characters, but it's still gripping, great stuff.
As a whole it's kinda discursive and necessarily episodic, as required by an ongoing series, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good and final-feeling the ending was. Sure, the series continued on afterwards, but it felt like Morrison meaningfully resolved his concerns in a way that was very rad. After reading All-Star Superman and The Filth, I'm continuing to dig Morrison's work, to the point where my next comics read might be tackling the Invisibles Omnibus once I can afford it. Animal Man isn't quite as strong or unified as limited-run series or wholly-original characters, but really great given the limitations.