Animal Man #15

I have a secret for you guys.  You ready for it?  Animal Man, Jeff Lemire’s biggest DC title is, month to month, one of the company’s best titles.  Yup, this is with out question one of the most interesting and innovative books on the cape and tights end of the spectrum.  And this issue is, to my great joy, more of the same.

Jeff Lemire is writing an incredibly disturbing and yet and incredibly wonderful tale of Buddy Baker, Animal Man, and the perturbing, and often disgusting, misadventures he and his family find themselves in.  In this month’s issue, number 15, we see our hero continue his journey into the broken, spoiled Rotworld.  What stands out in the issue is not necessarily Buddy himself, but his motley cast of characters accompanying him on his mission.  Constantine, Black Orchid, Steel, Beast Boy, and with this issue, Frankenstein make an absolutely amazing ensemble cast for a character who has always been, more or less, on the periphery of the DC Universe.  Lemire writes not just Animal Man, but all of these heroes with authority and sincerity that speak volumes about the author’s talent.  The dialogue is terse, yet always sharp and on point.  The characterization for everyone who pops up in this book is very easy to pick up on.

Steve Pugh, who I have to admit, originally did not do it for me when he replaced Travel Foreman after his premature departure from the title, is achieving much more than I could have ever hoped for him on Animal Man.  He deftly maneuvers through the decaying infested Rotworld and presents the world taken over by the forces of death and decay as a place you would certainly not want to find yourself in.  Of course, Pugh is assisted by Timothy Green II handling the flashback sequence.  The scene matches perfectly with the feel and tone of the book while feeling distinctly different (thanks certainly to the coloring work of one Lovern Kindzierski) from the ongoing events of the present.  I have to add the Green draws perhaps one of the most disturbing children I have seen in the pages of a comic.  Seriously, go check it out.  Chills.

Animal Man is a book you need to be reading; there is no other way of putting that.  It is written by a man whose career is only going to get bigger from here.  It is penciled a solid industry vet, and is just a great book altogether.  We are certainly ramping up to something big with the Rotworld event, and I can only imagine that it is going to get better from here.  While I can’t say that it is the best thing I have ever read from DC Comics, I can without question say that is one the best things DC is currently publishing.