Issue Description

Buddy Baker must deal with the imaginable--his wife and two children are dead. Will a devastated Buddy be able to go on with his life?

Buddy wakes and begins to tell Ellen about the terrible dream that he just had. He then really comes to on his kitchen floor; his wife and children murdered. His friends Roger and Tricia are there trying to comfort him. Roger convinces Buddy to go upstairs to his room and lie down. As Roger goes back down to talk things over with Tricia, Buddy reminisces about his family.

Somewhere in Washington, Lennox(the murderer of Animal Man's family) is walking through a series of hallways. He enters through a giant metal door, into a darkened room. Three men sitting high atop what looks like a judge's bench. Lennox tells the men that the job is finished and he's a little concerned about possible retaliation. The men tell him not to worry about that and ask him to turn around. Lennox does so, and sees a giant, robotic suit of armor named "Bug-Man".

At Arkham Asylum, the Psycho Pirate is giving his guards cause for concern by becoming agitated and shouting out that "they're coming back! They're all coming back!".

Back at Buddy's house, days pass and various friends do their best to console him. At the funeral, he tells the Martian Manhunter that he's going to have to take a leave of absence from the Justice League Europe. Later, Buddy accompanies the detectives as they investigate the scene of the crime. The detective notices Buddy's JLE transporter tube and tells him ab out "surfers"- hackers who are able to access government and superhero transporters. The detective believes that this is how the killer gained access to the house.

Back in Washington, the men are showing off their "Bug-Man's" capabilities. These include napalm, flamethrowers, enhanced strength, enhanced vision, and hypodermic needles containing acid and nerve agents. According to the men, they have nothing to fear from Animal Man.

Meanwhile, Buddy sits on his stairs and sadly tells his dog that he can't take anymore. He walks into the bathroom and opens the medicine cabinet. He takes out a bottle of pills and pours them into his hand. He stares into the mirror, and in a final instance of helpless rage , he bashes his head into the mirror; shattering it. His phone begins ringing, though he doesn't realize it at first. Finally, he notices the ringing and answers it. A voice on the other line tells Buddy that he has some names he might be interested in hearing...

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