Issue Description

At the Baker house, James Highwater tries to explain the mysteries that he has been following. Does this have something to do with what Buddy saw when he encountered the aliens?

The issue begins with a series of panels from Buddy's POV. His friends Roger and Tricia are trying to comfort him; something horrible has obviously happened but we don't know what it was. Somewhere, someone is typing on a computer and the title of the issue, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord", appears on the monitor.

Two days earlier, Buddy Baker's wife Ellen is preparing a glass of water for their strange visitor. His daughter, Maxine, tells her brother, Cliff, that she doesn't like that man. He's going to take their father away and they won't ever see him again. Ellen enters the living room where the mysterious man is talking with Buddy. He thanks her for the glass of water and introduces himself as James Highwater. He tells Buddy that he thought he would be older, and pulls out a paper that is supposed to have images of Buddy on it from an old comic book. He is surprised to find that the paper has now become a map of Arizona with a particular mesa circled. Buddy asks him what's going on, but Highwater confesses that he doesn't know. He says that he keeps finding cryptic pieces of paper that led him to the Psycho Pirate at Arkham Asylum and eventually to Buddy's house. He feels something is drawing him towards Arizona.

Buddy excuses himself for a moment, and he and Ellen talk things over. He tells Ellen that he feels this is connected to all the weirdness that's been happening to them. He believes he has to go. Buddy prepares to leave and tells his family goodbye. As he and Highwater depart, Buddy takes one last look at his wife and kids.

In Arizona, Buddy and Highwater reach the top of the mesa. Highwater pulls out some peyote buttons, and the two prepare for a mystical experience. Things start out slow, but suddenly the sky opens. They see planets, molecules, vibrations. They hear a giant's eagle wings buried beneath the earth. A fox walks up to Buddy and tells him that he has a message from the world above. He introduces himself as Foxy; a totem. Highwater says that his totem is an eagle; Buddy asks why everyone has a totem but him. Foxy tells him that it's because he is special. Buddy is the Animal Man. Foxy shows Buddy a flashback of him receiving his powers from the aliens and how he is connected to the morphogenetic field. Highwater explains to Buddy about the morphogenetic field and how he is connected to every animal that has ever existed. Buddy's view changes and he is standing in front of something that Foxy calls the "prophecy rock". Buddy looks at the paintings on the rock and to his surprise understands that it's about the Crisis. And worse yet, a second Crisis is coming. Native American spirits surround Buddy and chant about a "Purification Day", with visions of a nuclear explosion. Meanwhile, in his own drug-induced visions, Highwater notices that the sun is missing. He looks up and sees a giant eagle filling the sky. Blood starts pouring from the eagle, and Highwater is drenched in a rain of eagle's blood. Finally, nighttime comes and the two believe that their visions are over. Instead, Foxy appears and asks them if they really thought it was going to be that easy. He tells them to look. Though the reader doesn't know what they see, Highwater and Buddy are clearly astonished.

Meanwhile, back at the Baker home, Ellen goes to answer the door. A sinister man named Lennox introduces himself...

Animal Man

Publisher

Vertigo

Volume Description

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Writer Grant Morrison was one of the" British Invasion" creators from the UK who were brought in to DC to revamp older and obscure properties after the success of Alan Moore 's Swamp Thing . Thus Morrison pitched the idea of Animal Man, originally as a four issue mini-series. Strong sales however, meant DC asked Morrison to continue his series an ongoing, which he did for 26 issues. During his run, Morison incorporated themes such as animal rights and vegetarianism as well as fourth-wall breaking story lines which ended in Morrison inserting himself into the comic and directly speaking to Animal Man and revealing his status as a fictional character. Morrison's series re-invented Buddy Baker as a suburban family man and "average Joe" character, he also introduced a new Mirror Master (McCulloch).

After Morrison's run ended, Peter Milligan took over briefly and then Tom Veitch, who focused on Baker's stuntman career. Writer Jamie Delano then came on board as writer, transforming the title into a horror book and lining Animal Man much closer to the Swamp Thing style character, by re-inventing him again as an avatar of "The red" a force of animal life similar to Moore's "The Green" in his Swamp Thing stories, something which Morrison was opposed to but became part of Baker's status quo, especially in Jeff Lemire's New 52 Animal Man series. it was during this time (issue #57) the book was placed under DC's new Vertigo imprint along side other mature readers titles at DC where it remained for the rest of its run. Between issues #66 and #67, Delano also wrote the Animal Man Annual #1, focusing on Buddy's daughter Maxine, the annual was the third part of Vertigo's crossover The Children's Crusade.

The series had never been fully collected though #1-26 (Morrison's run) have been collected in three trades so far, the first nine issues were collected soon after they had been printed back before Vertigo came around in Animal Man- through the art of reprinting the volume has been updated to Vertigo. Over a decade later, a second volume was released, Animal Man: Origin of the Species which collected the next eight issues as well as Animal Man's origin issue from the Secret Origins series. And finally, a year later the third volume was released, Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina which collected nine more issues though left the majority of the series (including all the issues that were printed after the Vertigo imprint got stamped onto the series) uncollected.

Peter Milligan's run on the book would eventually fill a fourth trade in 2013, possibly due to the revived interest in Animal Man after the New 52.

The Shifting Cast of Writers on the Title

Grant Morrison: # 1- 26Peter Milligan: # 27- 32Tom Veitch: # 33- 50Jamie Delano: # 51- 79Jerry Prosser: # 80- 89AnnualAnimal Man Annual #1 - MisfitCollected TradesVol. 1: Animal Man (#1-9)Vol. 2: Origin of the Species (#10-17)Vol. 3: Deus Ex Machina (#18-26)Vol. 4: Born to Be Wild (#27-37)Vol. 5: The Meaning of Flesh (#38-50)Vol. 6: Flesh and Blood (#51-63)Vol. 7: Red Plague (#64-79)OmnibusesAnimal Man Omnibus (#1-26 and Secret Origins #39)

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Status: Not in Collection