ABSTRACT
Grant Morrison was one of a number of authors who participated in the revisionist trend of the 1980s comic medium by reviving, both literally and fi guratively, a hero created in 1965 from the DC archives, “Animal Man,” who absorbs the abilities of nearby animals as his superpower. The character had been used only sporadically in the DC Universe until 1988, when he was given his own title, and the character became a springboard for discussions of identity construction and textual continuity, with author Morrison interjecting himself into the work and eventually revealing the intent of his own brushstrokes. However, despite any innovation that Morrison’s particular run on the series (19881990) may have shown, Animal Man remains relatively unnoticed and uninfl uential in critical treatments of comic books in the 1980s, or in general. One reason for this is the company that the series keeps. Morrison’s work on Animal Man took place when writers Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller were establishing themselves as the big guns of the comic industry, destroying stereotypes and radically revising the future of the genre1 with works that are frequently cited, such as Watchmen (1986-87), the Sandman series (1988-96), or Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1985-86). In comparison to such works, Animal Man languishes in obscurity. Morrison himself has referred to the text in a diminutive fashion as “trippy metatextual stuff,”2 and much of what the comic has to offer is not new. Comics with overt political messages have been a part of the superhero genre since its World War II propagandistic origins, which continues well into the contemporary era (the obvious standout is the acclaimed revelation of the heroin addiction of sidekick “Speedy” in the 1970s Green Lantern & Green Arrow). Nor is there much new in having characters plagued with self-doubt and ethical dilemmas. Spider-Man’s introspective anxieties, his constant wavering between following his own desires and serving the community, are enduring elements of his popularity, and the “reluctant hero” has easily become a structurally consistent element of many comics of the last several
decades. What aspects, if any, of Morrison’s Animal Man make it worth retrospective attention?
