Animal Man #3

It turns out Animal Man has his own Parliament of Trees. Except they're not trees. They're Totems. Oh, and Animal Man isn't an as yet to be retired Totem the way Swamp Thing is an unretired Tree of Parliament. His daughter, Maxine, is the next Avatar of The Red. And she knows all the things I was annoyed with her knowing because she dreams about The Red all the time and visits the Totems there. Like I suggested would be the explanation for her knowing too much. Boy, comic books are easy to write!

While Buddy Baker and Maxine wander around The Red, these weirdos are hunting down Baker's family.

Not judging weirdos. I hate when I use a term like freak or weirdo to describe someone who is a freak or a weirdo and the freaks and weirdos freak out because they can only hear those words in a negative connotation. I also hate when someone with tattoos or piercings gets annoyed with me for staring. Fuck you! If you call it body art, you have to enjoy being stared at. The Mona Lisa never threatened to punch me in the mouth!

Is it okay if I reference my captions in the main body of the text? I was just going to continue by calling these guys freaks which made me think of a co-worker I had when I worked at Ellington Leather in Portland. Her name was Karen Von Klezie. She had her name legally changed to add the 'Von' because it just sounded cooler. Or more Transylvanian. I don't know. Anyway, some music awards show had been on and I mentioned that Beck had been acting freaky. And she got all huffy and told me she thought freaky people were creative and more interesting and that she just loved them. If the conversation had gone there, I also would have mentioned David Lee Roth was acting freaky but I don't think she would have stepped up to defend him. Besides, Beck was acting freaky! Like he was terrified of some being just past the point of seeing that was hovering over his right shoulder and about to chomp down on his second turntable.

Speaking of unneeded and unwarranted defenses! I was once talking with some coworkers when I ran a warehouse on the Netscape Campus and they were talking about going to the shooting range. I mentioned I'd never shot a gun and they instantly jumped all over me about how guns don't kill people and guns are safe and it's ignorant to outlaw guns. When their extreme defensy-ness wore down, I was finally able to tell them to calm down. There was no explicit judgment in my not having fired a gun. I just hadn't had the fucking experience!

I did end up paying Magic The Gathering with those guys one time. Ugh. Just the one time. Here's a tip: if you enjoy playing a game, learn the fucking rules. Granted, Magic has a lot of bullshit rules. But still. A deck with 20 lightning bolts? Fuck you.

Animal Man learns some disappointing things from the Totems. Like how even though his name is on the cover of the comic, he's not the important one. And the fact that the aliens that gave him his powers weren't really awesome and cool beings from space.

The Totems plagiarized Green Lantern!

The Totems manipulated everything so that Buddy Baker could have the power to protect his daughter who is the next Swamp Thing of The Red. But her power to raise the dead animals seemed so much like The Rot. And the Hunters of The Rot declared she was actually their daughter. But then, this:

Perhaps The Red and The Rot have more overlap than The Rot and The Green.

Animal Man has a big fight with the other two Hunters in The Red. And while I've had my share of bitching about Jim Lee's overly shiny and AT THE SAME TIME grim and cross-hatched style, here's an example of why that style is a very, very good trend in comics:

Go get 'em, Animal, um, Monkey Man? More vague combat scenes where you can't quite be sure what is happening.

I'm sure Travel Foreman's style was a large reason for putting him on Animal Man. When he gets a panel right, it feels right. The style and slightly-off kilter anatomy and faces work in certain situations. And the comic is doing well skirting the line between horror and humor. His art can work for this particular genre. But it's also, much of the time, flat and boring, like Jesus Saiz's art in Birds of Prey. Here's an example just before Detective Krenshaw gets eaten by a Hunter (oh, that was a spoiler!):

I should assign just as much blame to the colorist, Lovern Kindzierski.

The issue ends with Animal Man on his knees about to be killed by one of The Hunters. Maxine is yelling, "NO!" which means she'll probably blast this Hunter into smithereens with her Red Avatar Powers next issue. And in the comic book version of the real world, Ellen and Cliff (Buddy's son, if I haven't mentioned him before) are now being approached by the last Hunter now in the skin of Detective Krenshaw!