Animal Man #1

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Travel Foreman and Dan Green
Cover by Travel Foreman
On sale September 7, 2011 - 32 pages for $2.99

My Rating: 5/5
Will this be in my pull list? Oh hell yes.

Previews Text: 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? find out in this dramatic new series from writer Jeff Lemire (SWEET TOOTH) and artist Travel Foreman (THE IMMORTAL IRON MAN).

I admit it, I'm a bad Vertigo fan. Animal Man isn't a title I'd read before. But that just meant I was able to go into the series with fresh eyes and few expectations aside from the fact that I know Jeff Lemire knows how to write a good story.

It may be in the DC universe now but Animal Man still manages to feel like a Vertigo book. And believe me, that's something I'm all for. I'm willing to give just about any title that comes out under the Vertigo brand name a shot.

In-story Animan Man hasn't been doing much heroing for the past few years. Mostly he's been a spokesman for various environmental and animal activist groups, and he recently took on his first acting hob, the lead in a movie we - the readers - know nothing about.

But one night he decides to put on his costume again to try to stop a hostage situation in the children's ward in a local hospital. He manages, but afterwards things started to go strange for him. I'm not going to say what went on in the second half of the issue, just that it threw me for a loop and introduced a new... I hesitate to say evil, but a new dark presence into the universe.

This was a great story all around, but that's no surprise considering Jeff Lemire wrote it (I'm a big fan of Sweet Tooth). Admittedly, the art took a minute to get used to, but once I did get used to it I felt like it fit perfectly with the type of story it was telling.