Animal Man vol. 5: Evolve or Die!

After starting out as one of the “New 52’s” most distinctive titles, Jeff Lemire’s take on the adventures of Buddy Baker and his family cratered with the destructively unimaginative “Rotworld” crossover.  It was an event that played out exactly as you’d think a storyline that took the “Age of Apocalypse” as its inspiration would and demolished the status quo of the title in a terrible way by killing Buddy’s son Cliff and splintering the superhero off from the rest of his family.  As superhero comics are all about the “illusion of change” I am equal parts pleased and unsurprised by the fact that the last two volumes of the series are effectively about how this family unit comes back together in the wake of such tragedy.  I’d probably be more enthusiastic about Lemire’s wrap-up if there was more emphasis on character rather than punching.

Brother Blood is the new avatar of the Red all thanks to the efforts of one of its Totems — the one with the horns coming out of its eyesockets.  Before they can claim full dominance over this realm, they have to kill Maxine Baker, Buddy’s daughter and the current avatar.  She’s busy trying to find the soul of her brother and it’s her disappearance from the physical world that gets her mother to call Buddy to help find out what has happened to their daughter.  On Oscar night, when Buddy’s up for an Academy Award for his role in the superhero drama “Tights.”  It’s at this event that the Splinterfolk call out Animal Man for a showdown and the beginning of the end.

All of this involves a whole lot of fighting as the story kicks off at full speed and doesn’t slow down until the end.  Brother Blood and the Totem take control of the Red.  The Splinterfolk take the Academy Awards hostage.  Buddy gets taken to a strange planet and has to fight for his life.  Then he comes back to Earth to take on the Totem and Brother Blood.  While all this is going on, Maxine, Shepherd, and Socks have to fend off attacks from Brother Blood and his splinterfolk.  It’s fast-paced, chaotic and not really all that interesting to behold.

Most of the art in this volume is from “American Vampire” co-creator Rafael Albuquerque and his instincts for the look of the monsters and the Red itself are pretty spot-on.  Less impressive is the actual fighting, which usually just boils down to having the characters hit each other until they stop moving.  Unsurprisingly, he’s better with the quieter character moments which turn out to be the volume’s highlight.

Seeing Buddy and Ellen reconcile in the wake of their daughter’s disappearance, witnessing Maxine coming to terms with the loss of her brother, these things help elevate the series above the usual superhero conventions.  It does wrap up strongly with a final issue that does away with all the physical action and has everyone simply taking stock of their situation.  There’s also a very nice sequence illustrated by Lemire where Maxine effectively summarizes the events of the series in a story to help her dad go to sleep.  It even manages to make some of the most disturbing and questionable parts of the series come off as sweet and endearing and that’s no mean feat here.

However, between all of these issues is a digression that really falls under “What were they thinking?”  Remember how I mentioned that Buddy gets taken to another planet to fight for his life?  Yeah, I don’t know why Lemire thought it’d be a good idea to wedge such a thing into his final arc even if it is to have the title character ingest a deus ex machina to give him the power he needs to defeat the bad guys.  Though it also expands on the mythology of “Animal Man” with regards to the Red, it also sets up a plot point that I suspect will either be forgotten about or written away rather than be dealt with.  The issue does feature some appealing art from Cully Hamner, who does handle the action quite well, but it’s a deeply misguided diversion overall.

I wouldn’t say that I regret buying these five volumes of “Animal Man.”  I’m also not sure  how much my life has been enriched by reading them either.  The series certainly had its moments early on and after “Rotworld,” but it’s also largely defined by that particular (and particularly terrible) event.  Maybe, in a few years, I’ll give it a re-read to see if the passage of time does it any favors.  Before that, however, it’s more likely that I’ll go back and re-read Grant Morrison’s defining take on the character, which remains the gold standard for Buddy’s adventures even after all these years.