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I was just re-reading this and the one thing that bugs me is the fact that the American Indian character's skin is colored a bright RED. Ohh, that's cause he's a 'red man'!! Geez. Although one could make the argument that since Grant's ANIMAL MAN is about deconstructing (literally) comics, the stereotypical coloring of a Native American character might make sense - but I doubt that would have gone without complaint if it was an Asian character whose skin was colored yellow like in the 1940s comics.
This after I just read a thread on another comics board about people being annoyed about the coloring of 'minority' characters in comics - some new Warren Ellis/Amanda Conner series shows blue Indians in the future and another Oni book shows an Indian character as blue on the cover (and no, it's not Shiva).
But it was the late 80s and maybe we were less enlightened then.
Anyway, this paperback kicks so much ass. Funny how even thought Grant looks really wrong to me drawn with hair (I know he had hair then, but I doubt he had THAT much), Chas Troug seems to capture his face pretty well. Chas Troug is a simple artist but does a consistently nice job with this book.
Funny how after ANIMAL MAN, the whole sense of 'fun' superhero comics came back with Mark Waid's FLASH and Kurt Busiek's MARVELS, ASTRO CITY and THUNDERBOLTS. Also, many of the Golden Age DC characters Morrison uses in his Crisis Revisited storyline have since returned to the DCU big-time - even the Red Bee (showed up in James Robinson's brilliant STARMAN series, in an issue devoted to the dead JSA'ers) and Doiby Dickles. (well, Doiby hasn't returned but they make reference to him all the time in Alan Scott Green Lantern stories, even the recent Ed Brubaker-penned DETECTIVE COMICS story) Ditto Mr. Freeze, the Icicle (Flash villain) and many others. Grant's hypersigil magic at work? Or just Grant anticipating a trend before it happened (which he also seems to be rather good at)?
Nice bit where Grant makes fun of himself and has Highwater say "This can't be a story; who would write such awful dialogue?" after he says "It's over...it's REALLY over."
Where were the yellow aliens pulled from? I know Grant didn't create them but pulled them out of some obscure DC book. |
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