Animal Man #6-9

Animal Man #6-9

Originally released in 1988

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by Chaz Truog (#6-8), Tom Grummett (#9)

Issue 6 starts off by dropping the series into the middle of a crossover, showing that the problem of tightly-plotted series being interrupted by line-wide events isn't a new one.  It seems as though Thanagar, the planet that Hawkman originates from, is invading Earth for reasons that aren't made particularly clear here, and Animal Man is caught up in having to stop a mad Thanagarian artist from detonating a bomb that will wipe out San Diego.

Issue 7 deals with a Golden Age villain named Red Mask, who kills anything that he touches after coming into contact with a meteor and, with seemingly no other options, became a supervillain.  Now that he has developed lung cancer, he's decided to commit an elaborate form of suicide in the middle of this alien invasion, setting barely-functioning robots on the city and preparing to jump off of a building.  Animal Man tries to talk him out of it, but he ultimately takes the leap, creating a disturbing trend in these past few issues where Animal Man is unsuccessful in saving the life of someone who's deeply troubled. (the coyote, the Thanagarian artist, Red Mask)

In issue 8, things seem to get back on track, with hints of what's to come as Animal Man battles Mirror Master, who had been hired by a mysterious group to discourage Animal Man from helping animal rights activists.  In the middle of all of this, there's a Native American man named J. Highwater who seems to be going through an existential crisis, feeling like he just appeared in the desert with no idea how he got here and feeling like he was created for some kind of specific purpose.  I know the series becomes extremely fourth-wall-aware as it goes on, and this seems to be the start of it.

Meanwhile, Animal Man and his family are being observed by a shadowy figure who closely resembles Animal Man.  I'm not sure if this is mean to be an alternate universe version of him, a version of him from the future, a shape-shifter, a clone, etc., but it's interesting to speculate about this.  He seems to know Animal Man's family personally, and wants to speak to them but can't bring himself to do so, so I'm guessing shape-shifter can be ruled out, at least.

Speaking of which, Animal Man's family plays a greater role in issues 8 and 9 - his wife does a better job at fighting off Mirror Master than he does (kicking Mirror Master in the groin), and his son is bullied, though the bullies are scared off by... Martian Manhunter.  Animal Man's powers are malfunctioning after being hit by a Gene Bomb during the invasion (I assume this happened in another book), which causes a rift between Animal Man and his son.

Animal Man might not be particularly successful when it comes to superheroics, but the family drama helps to drive this series forward.  Morrison does a good job at building up the mysteries surrounding Buddy's life, and it keeps me wanting to come back to this series to see how it progresses.