Admittedly, I am not much of an Animal Man fan. Which is ironic as I love animals to no end. I have studies zoology and taxonomy all my life. I am even a non-leather wearing vegetarian (don't worry, I don't care what other people choose to do) Beyond that, my favorite superheroes or sci-fi interests are always the ones that are heavily animal themed (i.e. Beast, Beast Boy, The Beast Wars, Ninja Turtles...) However there were always many things that kept me from liking Buddy.

Some were little things like his costume, his attitude his code name... All small things that even bundled together wouldn't be enough to really sour me on a character. What always bothered me most about Buddy was how his powers worked.

He would tap into a near by bird and this would give him the power to fly. However he would fly by zooming around Superman style. No animal has the ability to simply will themselves through space (I mean dimensional space, not outer space) all animals that fly achieve it through force of their limbs. Now some would say it would look silly to have him flapping his arms, but I argue that effortlessly zipping around and calling it bird flight is equally ridiculous. When he taps the speed of say a horse or a cheetah he runs only with his legs, tho neither animal has the strength in only their legs to achieve those speeds. I have even seen him him constrain enemies while using the power of a boa constrictor to help hold them. But he was using his arms. if he is tapping into a boa constrictor, his arms should in no way be more useful than they already were.

Then there are issues of when he borrows an animal's strength. Some times he uses big strong animals like gorillas or elephants, where the strength gained in direct to that animal. But other times I have seen him harness proportionate strength of animals who are strong for their size, but too small to be any human threat like say an ant or a turtle. This always frustrated me to know end as having both seemed far too convenient and convenient heroes never sold with me (If you think I'm being hard on Buddy, don't even ask me about Superman)

Anyway, I have come to understand that Buddy's powers now work in a different way and I'm quite curious to know if they have been changed in a manner hat would rectify my major grievance with his character. Like I said, I love animals ore than most, and for better or worse buddy has basically been made the poster child of all thing animal in the DCU (I personally believe such a title would better fit Beast Boy, but my opinion only means so much) so I would really like to like Animal Man. What can you guys tell me?

. the newest incarnation is a bit different and fits what DC is trying to establish , as there is 3 forces in the natural world that links the swamp thing and animal together. i do not want to ruin it with spoilers but buddy has recently shown what you are expecting , he morphs into the animal power he is tapping into. whether you wanna see how this happens (pick up first coupl issues or tpb) or jump in with the swamp thing / animal man crossover that starts this week.

its a good read (big fan of animal man) and like you is also a animal loving vegetarian. i would suggest reading his older stories like his vertigo run written by grant morrison , but thats up to you . hope this helped!

he's basically Beast Boy now but where Beast Boy completely changes into an animal...Buddy only half changes

Well I suppose the fact that he actually transforms is a step in the right direction. I'll admit, I don't care much for this "Red" business. I don't mind that they created a mystical force that ties the animal kingdom together, I just think it was a poor choice to name it after a color. I mean, red isn't really a blanket color for all animals. Something like brown or gray would have been a better fit is it were to represent all animals. i guess it's supposed to relate for blood, but then not all animal blood is red either. Technically not even human blood is red it only looks red when carrying oxygen.

@SoA: Please, go ahead and give me whatever spoilers you have to offer (not here of course, as I would hate it to be spoiled for others) the think g is I don't buy comics lightly and I won't be giving them a dime until I have some sort of confidence that I will be able to enjoy it.

As for Morrison's run, I did read some of it when I first learned of the character, but not even Grants genius could sell me on the character (same can be said for Superman). All the problems I mentioned earlier, particularly his powers, kept me from liking anything about the character. The main reason i am even considering trying to like him now is because i was told things with his powers had changed and with the book being such a hit, him stepping down from top animal-themed character in DC seems very unlikely.

Animal Man powers take time to work since he is a avatar of his body and helping Swamp Thing in the big new series of the ROT battle. His powers will take sometime since DC did the new 52 series.