The Nature of the Animal
And so ended the most memorable run in Animal Man history thus far. Grant Morrison tore down the 4th wall brick by brick with elegance and brilliance; so Peter Milligan has his work cut out for him following up to something like that. Thankfully Morrison, in a final (and almost contradictory) act of kindness has left the slate clean for Milligan to begin anew.
Things look promising from the start with an astoundingly interesting cover. It makes you wonder if it going to deal with the lingering aftermath of Morrison's finale, or completely ignore it; either one being a valid choice. But the image of this run beginning with Buddy in a coma is utterly genius. It's compelling because you don't know if this is a continuation or not. And then place it in the jungle with excellent details and a predator pouncing on prey behind him... it's one of the biggest reasons I decided to keep reading after Morrison.
I hate to keep comparing Milligan to Morrison here, but I kind of have to. So how do you follow up to turing the writer against the character? You turn the WORLD against the character. In fact, you turn the character against himself. You pit everything against Animal Man, including himself, and create an entire world that's fundamentally 'wrong.' So many details are inconsistent, and all of them seem to be ones that antagonize Animal Man on a psychological level. And even Buddy might not be himself if we choose to go by Maxine's behavior. Animal Man is behaving as a true animal, and treating the behavior as normal until someone points out what exactly was wrong with it. And as Buddy's thoughts start to keep blurring the line between what he thinks and what he does, the reader is questioning the validity of anyone's perspectives.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
Milligan was given a nearly impossible task, and damn if he's not off to a great start. He manages to use Morrison's epic finale to massively screw with the reader by screwing with the characters and the world. It's clear that this is a WHOLE different direction, and I'm totally on board to see how this weirdness unfolds.