Animal Man Volume 1 The Hunt TP Jeff Lemire NM 1st print DC Comics

Description

Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt (The New 52) [Paperback] Jeff Lemire (Author), Travel Foreman (Illustrator). Near mint, 1st print. A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The best thing to come out of the DC relaunch. Absolutely knocked it out of the park….Gold stars for the creative team.” –io9. As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Animal Man Buddy Baker, has gone from “super” man to family man–but is he strong enough to hold his family together when Maxine, his young daughter, starts to manifest her own dangerous powers? As these new abilities continue to terrify Buddy and his wife Ellen, things take a turn for the worse as Buddy begins a startling transformation of his own that will lead him on a journey into the heart of The Red. Collected here are the first 6 issues of this dramatic new series from writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and artist Travel Foreman (The Immortal Iron Fist)! Animal Man is Buddy Baker, a man given the power to take on the characteristics of any living animal on our planet. This trait gave him a unique perspective on the creatures of our planet leading him to giving up eating meat and being a vocal animal rights activist. Buddy lives in San Diego with his wife Ellen, and two kids, Cliff and Maxine. Buddy is semi-retired from the superhero business and was never really a big hitter like some of the icons of the DC universe (Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash just to name a few) and was a Hollywood stuntman and even started an acting career in independent films. One night, when Buddy decides to play superhero again, he has a very bizarre reaction. Also, his daughter Maxine starts to show signs that she is her father’s daughter with some disturbing powers of her own. This leads the Baker family on a journey into the Red, the source of Buddy and Maxine’s powers, as well as the embodiment of the life force for all living animal life on earth. The Red is being threatened by the Rot, the embodiment of un-life, the force that wants to feed on all life. Jeff Lemire does an amazing job at reintroducing Animal Man that old fans can appreciate and new fans can ease in to. He does take influence from previous writers and their great runs (Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano) but this is a fresh start for the Baker family and the Animal Man mythos and terrific one at that. Taking a “has-been” of a superhero and pitting him in a fight against the forces of life and death is monumental but Lemire does a great job of not making this battle too overwhelming and gives a great supporting cast to care, fear, and root for. Travel Foreman’s art is visceral, sometimes overly surreal, and above all fantastic! The content he draws can get pretty unnerving and seem too graphic for some. A lot of “flesh horror” where people’s and animal’s bodies and organs are twisted and contorted in ways that reminded me of 80’s style horror movies. David Cronenberg and Clive Barker come to mind. View at your own discretion. John Paul Leon’s art in the final chapter/issue is superb as well as a nice break in the action but reflects a subconscious concern of our protagonist. This volume collect issues 1-6 of Animal Man, part of the DC Comics—The New 52 event. Paperback: 144 pages.

978-1-4012-3507-9

Near mint, 1st print. Collects Animal Man 1-6 (2012). More pictures in description.