This one came so close to a five star review! I had never even heard of Animal Man until I was browsing graphic novels/comics at our local library. Seeing an omnibus, or complete collection, of any comic is always a cause for excitement as I will supposedly get the full story. And that is really true here. You get some really neat stories that all tie together and come to a very interesting conclusion with great artwork supporting the whole thing. The ending was somewhat of a rub for me. While I...

My first exposure to Grant Morrison’s writing, and I’m now extremely hooked. The existential themes along with the incredibly meta narrative boggled my brain. This is a comic that will stick with me for a long time, I’d imagine. In a field of its own, beyond the typical super hero adventures, this one left me pondering life’s biggest questions. Morrison’s prose writing is colorfully refreshing and doesn’t hold back. Every character’s inner monologue when shown is brilliantly done, including and

Much easier to read and more enjoyable than his Doom Patrol. I also liked the the final issue were Buddy meets Grant Morrison and Buddy is begging for his family back and Grant Morrison couldn't give a shit because they're dead and it's just comics and it added drama. Poor Buddy.

I read the comic books Animal Man #1-26 and Secret Origins #39. This is one of the most well known runs in comic books… and yet another example of Grant Morrison creating ground-breaking storytelling. From the very first issue you know you are entering some alternate at times surreal DC Universe that somehow lives alongside the mainstream DC Universe! 8 out of 12

A giant collection of all twenty-six issues of Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run, this book is a testament to a kind of comic that may never again exist. DC Comics was willing to take chances with its established characters and to let upstart writers do what they wished with them. Morrison uses a B-list character to explore animal rights issues and to comment on the medium of comics itself, and it’s limitations in telling serious stories. He did similar metatextual things with his run on Doom Patr...

52 piqued my interest in several heroes, but the one that I found the most intriguing was Animal Man. So, I went looking for his best stories and found that this was a must read. This time, the internet was absolutely correct. I've gone on to read the current series by Jeff Lemire: Animal Man, Vol. 1: The Hunt, and it is also great.This book has a few different sections with the beginning establishing Buddy Baker as Animal Man dealing with being a superhero family man. The whole superhero having...

Grant Morrison, why do you make my life so hard!I love some of your stuff. Then you get cosmic and I can't love you anymore. It's like we're dating. You're a super hot Scottish lady (for readers here, Grant Morrison is Scottish. So I've decided to turn his work into a Scottish woman I'm dating. I kept the geography, lopped off the anatomy)and you're great, but every three days you drop acid and then I can't fucking stand hanging out with you because while you're still sort of sexy and interestin...

I really loved this insane series. As a longtime Morrison fan, I always kicked myself for never having read this, one of his most iconic runs, and basically the thing that started his mainstream comics career. But, at the same time, I'm kind of glad I waited until after I'd already lots of his other stuff. Knowing how his tastes and recurring themes evolved over the years, it's very cool to see them gestating here. What starts as a fairly straightforward, slightly eccentric series about a dude w...

With the daily terror going on against the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us, it's clear that the world needs an animal rights superhero. While the subject of animal rights has been tackled a few other times in the comics medium, it is still a rare subject to see, despite its timely nature.As with many of Morrison's comics, ANIMAL MAN eventually throws us into an existential crisis as the hero discovers he is nothing but a character and he meets his maker (literally). I do wish that Animal

It's terrific to have Morrison's amazing Animal Man run in a single volume with great reproduction of the original artwork.The storyline itself gets the most praise for its fun and very innovative look at creators, the created, and the fourth wall, something that Morrison sets up very early in The Coyote Gospel (#5) and continues through to the last issue (#26). In fact, I think those are the two best issues of the run. However, his "normal" superhero issues are quite good too. They're well writ...

*Spoilers*I can understand why so many people like this comic. It's by far one of the strangest and most unique comic I've read so far, even compared to Morrison's Doom Patrol.Morrison was definitely on something strong when he wrote this, but surprisingly it work really well.Buddy's (Animal Man) super powers come across as really lame at first and later on you realise how powerful he is. At one point he is captured and sealed in a room with no animals around him to replicate and he does somethi...

If you like meta, this is the comic to read. Grant Morrison began his mainstream career with this 26 issue run on a b-list DC character right after Crisis on Infinite Earths when the whole lineup was shaken up (before that was an annual occurrence like comics today). If you have ever read Grant, you know he is bonkers. Really, that's the best word for it. His writing is always mind bending and stretches outside the box, sometimes to a point where it becomes difficult to understand. Well, that is...

This was FANTASTIC! One of the best Grant Morrison books I've read in a long time. Usually Morrison can get very confusing at times, but this one is written clearly. You can also see all the influences other comic books had after this one was finished, especially with the entire fourth wall concept. I found it funny how the character in the book viewed us as the reader calling us "perverts" sometimes. If you like the fourth wall concept, this one is one of the good ones. Many comics try to attem...

Starts as an earnest and mostly successful attempt to recreate the successful "Brit author tackling an obscure DC characteer" formula of Moore's Swamp Thing and steadily evolves into a towering work of the genre. Seeing that evolution as Buddy's life comes apart at the seams is a great part of the thrill.

Middle ground Morrison, it’s meat-hating and metafictional, moderate and mumbling, then masticates a mittenful of molly to metamorphose and mystify our minds. A must!

So, how to talk about this without spoiling it? Basically, you need to read it.If you've ever read any of Morrison's stuff before, typically there are lots of off the wall ideas and out of the box thinking in a story that barely makes sense, but then at the end it all comes together. I've never figured out if Morrison has it planned out from the beginning or he's magically able to pull random concepts and story elements together and have them make sense.Either way the story comes to a conclusion...

I was sure I'd read this at some point over the years, but turns out I hadn't. This was one of the ground-breaking runs in comics in the late 80s and early 90s and one of the neatest things about it is that once the weird, "meta" things really start happening toward the end, you can go back to the earlier issues and see just how carefully Morrison had it all plotted-out from the very beginning. The artwork is a bit sketchy from our current perspective, but it does the story justice. Glad to fina...

What can I say, it was a 4 or 4.5 star book until the final 3 issues and finished with a bang that moved it to 5 stars and something I want to read again....like right now! I enjoyed the whole arc, but now I know re-reading will reveal a lot of subtleties. This was just fantastic and will be a contender for one of my favorite reads of the year.

A story that starts out exceptionally good, then falls a bit flat and delves into classic Morrison craziness with psychedelic trips, aliens and characters from parallel universes, but then completely redeems itself with a perfect ending. As a whole, I loved reading it (except not so much the crazy parts) and I believe that this is one of the best books Morrison's ever written. Great stuff.

Critically-acclaimed and influential 1988 revival/reimagining of a little-known Silver Age hero. Morrison's writing is angry and vital, and their plotlines add pathos to objectively silly premises. Infamous moments such as issue 5 ("The Coyote Gospel") and the final arc are immensely fun, even if their novelty has been watered down by three decades of imitators and derivations. Shame about the PETA shoutout, but hey, it was a different time. Definitely recommended to anyone as an introduction to...