Last Days of Animal Man #1

This was a pretty strong debut. I don't know a whole lot about Animal Man other than what I've read in Justice League Europe and 52, but he seemed like a down-to-Earth hero who hadn't forgotten his roots. Gerry Conway writes him that way in this new series that picks up a few years down the road as Buddy is starting to get a bit older. AM's powers are starting to flicker on and off, which puts him at the mercy of a new villain named Bloodrage. That name is totally ridiculous, so I assumed Bloodrage would be a one-off, introductory villain, but at this point it looks like he may have some staying power in the series, at least until the next issue. The super-fights are pretty well done, the animal-overlay is very effective in showing which animal Buddy channels at any given time. I'm curious to see if Buddy interacts with the greater DCU in this series, since it does take place in the near future, who knows what the DCU will be like and I'm curious to see how much freedom Conway has in extrapolating it.

The series seems like it will place a lot of emphasis on Buddy's personal relationships in his civilian life too. His wife looks to figure in prominently and perhaps his stunt-company employees will also. I would be interested in seeing his adult kids during the series too. We don't often see super-hero parents with non-hero kids. It would be new ground.

Chris Batista's style is clean and dynamic. He's one of the most consistent super-hero artists around and I'm really pleased to see his stuff here. Batista gives the book a classic DCU feel that immediately made me view this through my 90s DC goggles. Since that is my favorite DCU era, that's a good thing!

Good