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Animal Man (1988-1995)
Animal Man, Vol. 4: Born to Be Wild
Continuing the surreal Animal Man adventures begun by Grant Morrison, this volume features stories never before reprinted from acclaimed writer Peter Milligan (JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER; RED LANTERNS). In these strange tales, Animal Man becomes trapped in a prehistoric jungle in his bathroom, saves his daughter from the villainous Notational Man, and
explores the mystery of the dead birds that seem to be everywhere.
Collects #27-37 of Animal Man, Vol 1.
explores the mystery of the dead birds that seem to be everywhere.
Collects #27-37 of Animal Man, Vol 1.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
18 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Peter Milligan
1,301 books391 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 11, 2022
This is actually 2 separate stories, the first by Peter Milligan. It's awful, it just confirms my theory that Milligan is just a poor man's Grant Morrison. The story felt like a stream of consciousness fever dream. The second story by Tom Veitch was much better. It was a more grounded super hero story but with a vertigo twist.
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April 17, 2017Chapters 1-6: PETER MILLIGAN
The Coma Kid / The Naked Afternoon Snack / Born to Be Wild / A Nice Day for a Weird Wedding / Rites of Passage / Schrodinger's Pizza
If there's one thing you know, it's that Red Hot Chili Peppers suck and only total tools like them, and cool people like Faith No More. This isn't just me being snarky; this is a fact of our culture. Back in the 80's, the story goes that Anthony Kiedis felt threatened by the possibility that FNM lead singer Mike Patton was borrowing his schtick, and proceeded to do everything he could to short-circuit the rival band's career -- getting them kicked off tours and festivals, and continuing to do so even as RHCP's fame grew and the move wasn't even necessary (if it ever was).
But the underlying argument is also that FNM was simply a more interesting and complex band, which may have threatened the dudebros of RHCP more than a little. Nowadays, RHCP still does their naked dudebro thing, except older and more poorly, while the white-guy-funk of the Peppers was ultimately only a blip for FNM, and only one of ten million genres Mike Patton would personally explore during a far stranger and more critically respected career.
I say all of this, mind you, as someone who was once a teenager who absolutely adored the Chili Peppers, and as someone who respects Faith No More / Mr. Bungle / Tomahawk and any of Patton's one hundred other avant garde projects, but probably couldn't sing any of them at karaoke. That's why I get to explain things this way to you.
Similarly, in case you didn't know, Grant Morrision is a hack and a schmuck and a narcissist, and only tools should like him. I say this having a lot of Grant Morrison on my shelf. Although he's practically a hippie compared to a world-conqueror like Anthony Kiedis, Morrison has a one-note schtick of BIG WEIRDO GENIUS COMIX that he has worked very hard to brand as his own, despite the fact that he stole most of his early licks from Alan Moore, and the rest from Peter Milligan. Check out The Best of Milligan and McCarthy, for example, and you'll see that Peter Milligan basically created a bag of tricks in the mid-80's that might as well have been the old baseball statbook in Back to the Future II, with Grant Morrison as some kind of bald sex god version of Biff Tannen. Morrison even went so far as to do "homages" to Milligan's characters using Milligan's collaborators, and then bragged about it afterward!
As Morrison often likes to say when he's accused of being too whackadoo -- all this stuff is real. Go look it up.
And while Faith No More never did a whole lot to retaliate against the juggernaut that was RHCP, there's little snubs recorded in rock history, such as the time that they played an entire show dressed as the Peppers, doing nothing but Peppers covers. That's the sort of thing that almost seems respectful, unless you know that it completely isn't. Like everything else about the band, FNM even entered into combat subversively.
I mention this because you can see Peter Milligan playing the same games with Grant Morrison in Animal Man. As you know, Grant Morrison's run on the series, along with his simultaneous run on the genre-bending Doom Patrol, was probably his first real creative coup, the throwing-of-the-gauntlet, pissing-in-fresh-snow act that launched the trademark meta-weirdness of his career. The final act of Animal Man, in which Morrison literally enters the page as the writer of the story, might also sort of be the first idea Morrison came up with that was really his own, instead of cribbing from the playbooks of Milligan and Moore.
And then Peter Milligan, still struggling to make a name for himself, gets hired to pick up Animal Man right after Morrison has written the character into this metatextual corner -- a virtually un-follow-uppable performance.
Peter Milligan's six-issue run on Animal Man is easily the least popular of the entire series, and this is because fanboys are tools who don't know their history. The thing about Grant Morrison is that he wants, famously, to be a punk -- to be thought of as dangerous and careening, which is entirely impossible when you are also trying very, very hard to be worshiped. Peter Milligan, on the other hand, is a fucking punk, absolutely willing to troll the audience without rewardnig them, to let the act of alienation be the art of the thing itself.
In Milligan's run on Animal Man, our hero wakes up from a coma. His family (the very soul of Morrison's run) inexplicably hates him, and he has become a horse-eating carnivore (after Morrison made the character a vegetarian activist). Animal Man finds himself allied with a nest of ridiculous D-list heroes with nonsensical powers, much like the ones Morrison was simultaneously inventing in Doom Patrol. The story explores the metatextuality of living a life that does not seem like your own, as well as the very limits of capes-n-tights weirdness. Like Faith No More playing an RHCP show, Milligan writes a single storyline that covers every single beat of Morrison's runs on the two series that had just laid the groundwork for Morrison's future career.
What's more, Milligan does this breezily, even lazily, before wrapping up every single thread in a way that Morrison, in the metatextuality of his own run on Animal Man had admitted (as a character in the comic) that he did not know how to do.
And at the end of Milligan's arc, after fitting every strange idea into a beautiful narrative box, a doctor explains that the coma which started all this was incited by "something so terrible, so repulsive, so utterly objectionable that your mind refused to accept it.." That is, Grant Morrison's writing.
Look, I'm not arguing that Milligan's run on the book is good. I can hardly even make it through Angel Dust. I'm just saying you've read it wrong.
Chapters 7 -11 - TOM VEITCH
"I am the man of deep and ungodly powers" / Requiem For a Bird of Prey / Dead Dogs on Ice! / The Call of the Wild / The Zoo at World's End
I don't actually know how much I have to say about this run (and frankly typing up the Milligan run drained most of my juice on this book), but I will say that while it starts off terribly, Veitch already seems more genuinely interested in fleshing out Animal Man's world, life, and superpowers more than Morrison or Milligan. He's basically the first writer that's able to write the title without winking, AND still maintain that Buddy Baker, AM's alter ego, is sort of a doof who is most interesting when he's being existentially pulled apart. Veitch seems more comfortable in this sandbox than his two forbears, and I'm interested to see what he does with the series in volume 5.
The Coma Kid / The Naked Afternoon Snack / Born to Be Wild / A Nice Day for a Weird Wedding / Rites of Passage / Schrodinger's Pizza
If there's one thing you know, it's that Red Hot Chili Peppers suck and only total tools like them, and cool people like Faith No More. This isn't just me being snarky; this is a fact of our culture. Back in the 80's, the story goes that Anthony Kiedis felt threatened by the possibility that FNM lead singer Mike Patton was borrowing his schtick, and proceeded to do everything he could to short-circuit the rival band's career -- getting them kicked off tours and festivals, and continuing to do so even as RHCP's fame grew and the move wasn't even necessary (if it ever was).
But the underlying argument is also that FNM was simply a more interesting and complex band, which may have threatened the dudebros of RHCP more than a little. Nowadays, RHCP still does their naked dudebro thing, except older and more poorly, while the white-guy-funk of the Peppers was ultimately only a blip for FNM, and only one of ten million genres Mike Patton would personally explore during a far stranger and more critically respected career.
I say all of this, mind you, as someone who was once a teenager who absolutely adored the Chili Peppers, and as someone who respects Faith No More / Mr. Bungle / Tomahawk and any of Patton's one hundred other avant garde projects, but probably couldn't sing any of them at karaoke. That's why I get to explain things this way to you.
Similarly, in case you didn't know, Grant Morrision is a hack and a schmuck and a narcissist, and only tools should like him. I say this having a lot of Grant Morrison on my shelf. Although he's practically a hippie compared to a world-conqueror like Anthony Kiedis, Morrison has a one-note schtick of BIG WEIRDO GENIUS COMIX that he has worked very hard to brand as his own, despite the fact that he stole most of his early licks from Alan Moore, and the rest from Peter Milligan. Check out The Best of Milligan and McCarthy, for example, and you'll see that Peter Milligan basically created a bag of tricks in the mid-80's that might as well have been the old baseball statbook in Back to the Future II, with Grant Morrison as some kind of bald sex god version of Biff Tannen. Morrison even went so far as to do "homages" to Milligan's characters using Milligan's collaborators, and then bragged about it afterward!
As Morrison often likes to say when he's accused of being too whackadoo -- all this stuff is real. Go look it up.
And while Faith No More never did a whole lot to retaliate against the juggernaut that was RHCP, there's little snubs recorded in rock history, such as the time that they played an entire show dressed as the Peppers, doing nothing but Peppers covers. That's the sort of thing that almost seems respectful, unless you know that it completely isn't. Like everything else about the band, FNM even entered into combat subversively.
I mention this because you can see Peter Milligan playing the same games with Grant Morrison in Animal Man. As you know, Grant Morrison's run on the series, along with his simultaneous run on the genre-bending Doom Patrol, was probably his first real creative coup, the throwing-of-the-gauntlet, pissing-in-fresh-snow act that launched the trademark meta-weirdness of his career. The final act of Animal Man, in which Morrison literally enters the page as the writer of the story, might also sort of be the first idea Morrison came up with that was really his own, instead of cribbing from the playbooks of Milligan and Moore.
And then Peter Milligan, still struggling to make a name for himself, gets hired to pick up Animal Man right after Morrison has written the character into this metatextual corner -- a virtually un-follow-uppable performance.
Peter Milligan's six-issue run on Animal Man is easily the least popular of the entire series, and this is because fanboys are tools who don't know their history. The thing about Grant Morrison is that he wants, famously, to be a punk -- to be thought of as dangerous and careening, which is entirely impossible when you are also trying very, very hard to be worshiped. Peter Milligan, on the other hand, is a fucking punk, absolutely willing to troll the audience without rewardnig them, to let the act of alienation be the art of the thing itself.
In Milligan's run on Animal Man, our hero wakes up from a coma. His family (the very soul of Morrison's run) inexplicably hates him, and he has become a horse-eating carnivore (after Morrison made the character a vegetarian activist). Animal Man finds himself allied with a nest of ridiculous D-list heroes with nonsensical powers, much like the ones Morrison was simultaneously inventing in Doom Patrol. The story explores the metatextuality of living a life that does not seem like your own, as well as the very limits of capes-n-tights weirdness. Like Faith No More playing an RHCP show, Milligan writes a single storyline that covers every single beat of Morrison's runs on the two series that had just laid the groundwork for Morrison's future career.
What's more, Milligan does this breezily, even lazily, before wrapping up every single thread in a way that Morrison, in the metatextuality of his own run on Animal Man had admitted (as a character in the comic) that he did not know how to do.
And at the end of Milligan's arc, after fitting every strange idea into a beautiful narrative box, a doctor explains that the coma which started all this was incited by "something so terrible, so repulsive, so utterly objectionable that your mind refused to accept it.." That is, Grant Morrison's writing.
Look, I'm not arguing that Milligan's run on the book is good. I can hardly even make it through Angel Dust. I'm just saying you've read it wrong.
Chapters 7 -11 - TOM VEITCH
"I am the man of deep and ungodly powers" / Requiem For a Bird of Prey / Dead Dogs on Ice! / The Call of the Wild / The Zoo at World's End
I don't actually know how much I have to say about this run (and frankly typing up the Milligan run drained most of my juice on this book), but I will say that while it starts off terribly, Veitch already seems more genuinely interested in fleshing out Animal Man's world, life, and superpowers more than Morrison or Milligan. He's basically the first writer that's able to write the title without winking, AND still maintain that Buddy Baker, AM's alter ego, is sort of a doof who is most interesting when he's being existentially pulled apart. Veitch seems more comfortable in this sandbox than his two forbears, and I'm interested to see what he does with the series in volume 5.
August 18, 2023
Sadly a huge step down from the excellent Morrison run. The first half is just a bore, Milligan trying very hard to be Morrison, but missing the heart and feel of Buddy. Luckily the second half is a lot stronger, with Buddy having to deal with the people who gave him powers while also trying to make a living doing stunts and working with animals. It of course goes wrong, and things get darker, and that part is enjoyable. A mix bagged but a 3 out of 5, worth it if you're a animal man fan.
January 30, 2014
The Coma Kid (27-32). I've read these Peter Milligan issues a few times, and I just can't love them. Part of it is the fact that Animal Man's main side kick, Nowhere Man, is intensely annoying due to his Burroughsian ramblings; part of it is that everything is so over-the-top crazy for crazy's sake; and part of it is that it's a totally consequence-free adventure. Milligan's explanation for everything in the last issue is interesting, but unfortunately offered up as a big expository dump. Overall, I would have skipped over this story if it'd been in its own trade paperback, which may be why DC packaged it with the start of the Veitch run. [5/10]
Crazy Powers (33-37). The Veitch issues are considerably more coherent, but they're also very decompressed. We get a much better foundation for Buddy, a look at his job, and a new supporting cast member ... but we also get five full issues about his powers not working. I enjoy reading these stories, and that's not always the case with Milligan's issues, but I wish more would happen ... [6/10].
Crazy Powers (33-37). The Veitch issues are considerably more coherent, but they're also very decompressed. We get a much better foundation for Buddy, a look at his job, and a new supporting cast member ... but we also get five full issues about his powers not working. I enjoy reading these stories, and that's not always the case with Milligan's issues, but I wish more would happen ... [6/10].
November 7, 2024
2 distinct arcs in this volume. The first, by Peter Milligan, gets off to a good start and has a good concept throughout, alas scuppered by its pompous and showy side - this pretentious and boring stream of consciousness bullshit, spare me!
The second arc, by Tom Veitch, does not end in this volume. More digestible than Milligan's and with some interesting concepts about Buddy and his powers, it remains nebulous for the moment as far as its endgame is concerned. As for the introduction of a comic relief via Travis the 2-bit hippy, let's just say it's probably not the idea of the century.
A small 3*, then, in the hope that the conclusion of Veitch's arc is up to scratch.
The second arc, by Tom Veitch, does not end in this volume. More digestible than Milligan's and with some interesting concepts about Buddy and his powers, it remains nebulous for the moment as far as its endgame is concerned. As for the introduction of a comic relief via Travis the 2-bit hippy, let's just say it's probably not the idea of the century.
A small 3*, then, in the hope that the conclusion of Veitch's arc is up to scratch.
January 29, 2016
Peter Milligan tries to pick up the ashes of Grant Morrison's meta-textual ending to keep Animal Man going as a Vertigo title. The results are convoluted, the Milligan arc has many interesting ideas (and a distrust of women in alternate reality) that feels like it out of a Philip K. Dick short story. That said, it feels like a lesser Dick short story where the ideas and uncanny paranoia get out of hands of the author's ability to maintain a coherent narrative. Nowhere Man as well as Nominal Man are increasing characters whose utter weirdness comes from taking a concept to its limits, and this is where Milligan seems to shine. However, the multiple alternate Buddy Bakers and many faux deaths seems forced as is the multi-verse Milligan tries to introduce back into Morrison. Furthermore, the violence here seems almost cartoony. The resolution though is moving and almost tries to the jumbled threads back together. Then exit Milligan for Tom Tom Veitch, and also exit the Morrison meta-commentary and mutli-verse for this run of Animal as well.
Tom Veitch grounds Animal Man back in the m-field and into family drama without losing some of the complexity of the character. It does seem that Buddy Baker's personality has changed, and Veitch's Baker is slightly less idealistic and more moody than Morrison's. Yet this grounding is welcome from the weirdness of the Milligan run. Milligan's read like a thought experiment without the heart of Morrison, and Veitch reads like complicated heart but without as much of the thought experiment. Depending on what element you liked in Morrison's, you may be disappointed in Veitch's take on Baker, but it obviously is building towards some very interesting story-arcs from the early and mid- 90s run of Animal Man. Veitch also hints at a mythology that may seem more familiar to reader's of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing or Jeff Lemire's New 52 version of Baker.
The art here is good for late 1980s and early 1990s comic art, but does feel of its time. The main conceits of Animal Man in the Veitch run still hint at the "world being off" and this feels like lazy writing after the Milligan botched attempt at this and Morrison's genre-bending success at it. Yet, this does seem to pay off in the next two Volumes of Animal Man where Veitch's more grounded style really takes off.
Tom Veitch grounds Animal Man back in the m-field and into family drama without losing some of the complexity of the character. It does seem that Buddy Baker's personality has changed, and Veitch's Baker is slightly less idealistic and more moody than Morrison's. Yet this grounding is welcome from the weirdness of the Milligan run. Milligan's read like a thought experiment without the heart of Morrison, and Veitch reads like complicated heart but without as much of the thought experiment. Depending on what element you liked in Morrison's, you may be disappointed in Veitch's take on Baker, but it obviously is building towards some very interesting story-arcs from the early and mid- 90s run of Animal Man. Veitch also hints at a mythology that may seem more familiar to reader's of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing or Jeff Lemire's New 52 version of Baker.
The art here is good for late 1980s and early 1990s comic art, but does feel of its time. The main conceits of Animal Man in the Veitch run still hint at the "world being off" and this feels like lazy writing after the Milligan botched attempt at this and Morrison's genre-bending success at it. Yet, this does seem to pay off in the next two Volumes of Animal Man where Veitch's more grounded style really takes off.
February 25, 2015
Si no me equivoco, me leí (parte de) el primer número de esta etapa hace años, justo después de terminar la etapa de Morrison, y me resultó curioso. Y después me olvidé de su existencia hasta varios años después, cuando vi que finalmente se recopilaba esta etapa.
Tanto los seis números escritos por Milligan como los 7 que le siguen de Tom Veitch (cuya etapa concluye en el tomo 5) me dejaron más que satisfechos, por más trampas narrativas y golpes de efecto que meta cada uno a su manera. Con suerte me pueda terminar el próximo tomo dentro de poco, a ver si finalmente me mando los numeritos de Zinco de Delano que tengo dando vueltas desde hace como diez años.
Tanto los seis números escritos por Milligan como los 7 que le siguen de Tom Veitch (cuya etapa concluye en el tomo 5) me dejaron más que satisfechos, por más trampas narrativas y golpes de efecto que meta cada uno a su manera. Con suerte me pueda terminar el próximo tomo dentro de poco, a ver si finalmente me mando los numeritos de Zinco de Delano que tengo dando vueltas desde hace como diez años.
August 26, 2019
It's often a poisoned chalice to take on a book after a celebrated run; think of the anxiety of influence regarding say, Swamp Thing.
Milligan does a book that while not as perhaps cheerful as Morrison's run--it's certainly more punk rock and experimental. Milligan is a writer whose undervalued and underrated. He and Brendan McCarthy influenced Grant a great deal.
Milligan continue the meta take on the character--and it's not really been until Lemire's run, did the character ever have some decent world building rather than these gonzo/"experimental" stories.
Milligan does a book that while not as perhaps cheerful as Morrison's run--it's certainly more punk rock and experimental. Milligan is a writer whose undervalued and underrated. He and Brendan McCarthy influenced Grant a great deal.
Milligan continue the meta take on the character--and it's not really been until Lemire's run, did the character ever have some decent world building rather than these gonzo/"experimental" stories.
August 24, 2019
Today seems to be bash Pete Milligan day, but it’s entirely accidental I swear. I like him as a creator, but the first half of this book very much feels like a 2000AD writer who doesn’t find the wide open vistas of new kinds of storytelling exhilarating but instead utterly terrifying. It feels reactive and too obviously trying to be wild and creative, but instead feels like it’s just trying to emulate the Grant Morrison run that went before. Thankfully Veitch has something different to say and genuinely feels like he’s relaxing into the possibilities of Animal Man and his powers. It may be more traditional than what had gone before, but it also feels considerably more self assured
January 4, 2022
I got halfway through this trade and really started to question why I didn't like it so much. I wasn't at all expecting it to be anything like the Grant Morrison run, I think that's well self contained and wouldn't even want that. After the cerebral nature of that story, though, I was honestly hoping for something fun, light, and undeniably Animal Man. That's not what this is.
That would have been okay if not for one big problem that I think I've found a way to put into words: the first 3/4 of this story could be about anyone. Besides a VERY unclear connection between Buddy and a human ancestor back in time, we're essentially stuck with some alternate universe quantum reality trap that the main character has to find his way out of. The problem isn't solved by Buddy charging like a rhino or flying like a bird, it's solved by him asking a tortured girl with psychic powers to help. This convoluted story felt like Milligan's attempt to write as much like Morrison as possible which is disappointing because it felt flat and I would have loved to see what he could have actually brought to the table.
In a superhero tale, it's important that an effective plot is the hero facing a problem only they are capable of solving. You could have plugged ANYONE into the story and it would have worked. I think of it this way: could the Long Halloween be about anyone other than Batman? Would Flashpoint have worked if the main character was Superman? No? Then those stories work really well.
The selection of the trade is way off too because the back quarter is the start of a totally different story (that does work as an Animal Man story) but is clearly not at all resolved and only feels like an afterthought. I can't imagine it was done to get people to buy the fifth trade, instead they were probably just looking for a place to put this part of the story.
TL;DR
Just stop with Morrison and move on to something more worth your time.
That would have been okay if not for one big problem that I think I've found a way to put into words: the first 3/4 of this story could be about anyone. Besides a VERY unclear connection between Buddy and a human ancestor back in time, we're essentially stuck with some alternate universe quantum reality trap that the main character has to find his way out of. The problem isn't solved by Buddy charging like a rhino or flying like a bird, it's solved by him asking a tortured girl with psychic powers to help. This convoluted story felt like Milligan's attempt to write as much like Morrison as possible which is disappointing because it felt flat and I would have loved to see what he could have actually brought to the table.
In a superhero tale, it's important that an effective plot is the hero facing a problem only they are capable of solving. You could have plugged ANYONE into the story and it would have worked. I think of it this way: could the Long Halloween be about anyone other than Batman? Would Flashpoint have worked if the main character was Superman? No? Then those stories work really well.
The selection of the trade is way off too because the back quarter is the start of a totally different story (that does work as an Animal Man story) but is clearly not at all resolved and only feels like an afterthought. I can't imagine it was done to get people to buy the fifth trade, instead they were probably just looking for a place to put this part of the story.
TL;DR
Just stop with Morrison and move on to something more worth your time.
November 20, 2022
This is a weird book to rate and review because it is really two books: collecting as it does DC / Vertigo’s 1990s Animal Man issues 27-37, we find a six issue run by writer Peter Milligan followed by the rest of the Graphic Novel written by Tom Veitch.
Peter and I have a complicated history. I like some of his work on Batman and Detective Comics, but really did not like his work on Shade the Changing Man. I have mixed feelings about his work on Hellblazer but concede that title is a better vehicle for his imaginative talent.
Here, Milligan has Buddy teamed up with some surrealistic characters, Nowhere Man the most notable. I did not hate it, and actually liked parts of this as fantasy writing in the peripheral, it just never really took off for me and I don’t think Milligan and AM is a good fit.
Tom Veitch (brother of Swamp Thing writer Rich Veitch) takes over on issue 33 and we have a much more grounded Animal Man story arc. Veitch seems to understand the character much better and this ended well with some twenty year foreshadowing of what Jeff Lemire and team would do in the New 52 universe.
All good, especially Veitch’s story and I’m off to find more Buddy Baker stories.
Peter and I have a complicated history. I like some of his work on Batman and Detective Comics, but really did not like his work on Shade the Changing Man. I have mixed feelings about his work on Hellblazer but concede that title is a better vehicle for his imaginative talent.
Here, Milligan has Buddy teamed up with some surrealistic characters, Nowhere Man the most notable. I did not hate it, and actually liked parts of this as fantasy writing in the peripheral, it just never really took off for me and I don’t think Milligan and AM is a good fit.
Tom Veitch (brother of Swamp Thing writer Rich Veitch) takes over on issue 33 and we have a much more grounded Animal Man story arc. Veitch seems to understand the character much better and this ended well with some twenty year foreshadowing of what Jeff Lemire and team would do in the New 52 universe.
All good, especially Veitch’s story and I’m off to find more Buddy Baker stories.
August 13, 2025
the Veitch and Dillon run would have been four stars. great art abd the story of buddy killing the birds, giving a second chance to trvais after shooting cliff was really good. leaning into his stuntman career is fun.
the milligan run starts with okay art but goes downhill. the story with nowhere man talking like William Burroughs sucked. I skipped that half of the dialogue. two pages to explain Schrödinger's cat.
buddy is in a different reality from after awakening from a coma. the Lucindale child was the best bit. her heartbreaking sacrifice was good.
the milligan run starts with okay art but goes downhill. the story with nowhere man talking like William Burroughs sucked. I skipped that half of the dialogue. two pages to explain Schrödinger's cat.
buddy is in a different reality from after awakening from a coma. the Lucindale child was the best bit. her heartbreaking sacrifice was good.
June 5, 2017
So this is awesome. Animal man takes away the glamour of the super-hero gender and puts him on a realistic manner. A man that doesn't have full control of his power and must constantly control it. But like any super hero, he has enemy. An enemy that does not wish to take over the world, but to destroy Animal-Man. I really like this comic and cannot wait until i get my hands on the next one compilation
June 24, 2017
Milligan and Veitch didn't get enough credit following Morrison's run, which was groundbreaking but in a way left them nowhere to go. To their credit, they come up with something interesting. Milligan does his specialty where he messes with the minds of his characters and thus his readers, and Veitch does his thing where he tries his best to figure out what makes his characters (and their powers) tick. Glad these stories are finally getting reprinted.
December 15, 2025
I usually really like Peter Milligan, but his run with Animal Man was a swing and a miss. The Tom Veitch chapters were better, but they still fall short of Grant Morrison's run. Also, it seems like each time a new writer takes the helm, the first trope they turn to with Animal Man is his powers go haywire, and they use that to spin his new character direction. Obviously, I'll continue reading on, but this volume was a bit of a mess.
January 29, 2022
The first half of this book is very Morrison but isn't actually by Morrison. However, it's all wrapped up in a very quick issue mostly of dialogue--definitely feels as if something interrupted the plan. The second half is solid, but definitely continues into the next volume, so has no real resolution.
May 6, 2022
It's a weird dichotomy...I like the Milligan issues' story, but prefer Steve Dillon's art (even though its paired with Veitch, who doesnt seem to have a handle on the character.) So this collection is a weird, unsatisfying mix of things that work for me paired with things that dont.
Hence, three stars.
Hence, three stars.
September 3, 2024
Normally i like Milligan, but not on this title. A bit too confusing, Like they brought him in to pick up the pieces from Morrison's end to bring Buddy back to the main stream and pulled it off half heartedly.
Vietch fished the rest of the book with a more engaging story though that seemed to do a better job of cementing Buddy back in reality.
Vietch fished the rest of the book with a more engaging story though that seemed to do a better job of cementing Buddy back in reality.
October 8, 2024
The Peter Milligan story would be 5 stars - he does the impossible job of following up Grant Morrison's run with substance, style, fun and more ideas together than in 10 years of modern superhero comics.
The Tom Veitch stories that come after offer some interesting ideas but come off as rather dull and uneventful.
The Tom Veitch stories that come after offer some interesting ideas but come off as rather dull and uneventful.
December 27, 2018
Cuarto recopilatorio USA. Tomo que a la fuerza ignora el final de la etapa anterior y comienza de cero, aunque respetando cierto metajuego en el camino. Este recopilatorio incluye íntegra la etapa de Peter Milligan y varios números de la etapa de Tom Veitch.
February 6, 2024
2.5
huge downgrade from the morrison run and also just pretty boring overall
huge downgrade from the morrison run and also just pretty boring overall
June 24, 2024
Once números que se alejan lo más posible de lo que venía antes y no tanto de lo que viene después.
Read
May 8, 2025Picked this up for Steve Dillon and ended up enjoying the Peter Milligan stuff. Tapped out cus Tom Veitch’s dialogue was so uneven, not sure if it’s a style thing but didn’t stick around to find out.
August 11, 2015
Very unsettling and overloaded with complex ideas. Growing pains were to be expected. The series is still good but I didn't love Milligan's arc, but it was definitely very funny and definitely very bizarre and a huge tonal shift. This largely had a surrealist bent that shied away from the dense critique of the structures of fiction and writer-character relationships that Morrison did so successfully. Veitch writes a more "traditional" superhero story for Buddy but it is very subversive at the same time. Really looking forward to where this goes as Buddy deals with getting his powers in check. just don't ruin him and Ellen. Please.
August 14, 2015
If you like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol (I don't), you'll probably like Peter Milligan's six-issue story that makes up the first half of this volume (I didn't). It's uses the same Burroughs "cut-up" technique and is similarly weird (and incoherent). Two stars.
The second half of this volume starts the run by Tom Veitch (writer) and Steve Dillon (penciller, doing some of his earliest American work). It holds together much better and is much more interesting and compelling as a story. Four stars.
The second half of this volume starts the run by Tom Veitch (writer) and Steve Dillon (penciller, doing some of his earliest American work). It holds together much better and is much more interesting and compelling as a story. Four stars.
November 22, 2016
Was alright though nothing spectacular. Took some interesting ideas of multiple realities and versions due to an ape ancestor caught in a time door. Spot of cut up Burroughs character and a villain made of up front page newspaper articles. This collection seemed as if creators were deciding where to go with character. Stop start flaws and troubles. Appreciated the little touches of relationship with family. As much as wanted to like where stories were going it just fell a bit flat or forced. Suppose the conflicts felt too pressured and not "naturally" brought about.
February 22, 2017
It starts weird because of Peter Milligan and I'm not the biggest fan of it's start. Some of it is a cool story, but some of it is just Milligan being too weird. He writes real weird, man.
Then Tom Veitch takes over and it still has some of that Animal Man strange powers/weirdness, but doesn't have a guy who is in pieces for no reason. The second half of this trade is great!
Then Tom Veitch takes over and it still has some of that Animal Man strange powers/weirdness, but doesn't have a guy who is in pieces for no reason. The second half of this trade is great!
September 28, 2012
This was disappointing. Very dark and disturbing. Animal man wakes up from a coma in an alternative universe to find his powers going haywire. I wanted this to be good but it was a bit too dark and depressing for me.
Want to read
February 25, 2015Cuarto tomo recopilatorio en inglés de Animal Man. Recopila los números 27 a 37. Esto incluye toda la etapa escrita por Peter Milligan y los primeros capítulos de Tom Veitch.
January 3, 2020
Relanzamiento de Animal Man inmediatamente posterior a la etapa de Morrison, donde se baraja prácticamente de cero.
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