Animal Man 26 review

I will try to keep the spoilers to a minimum for this review, but some cannot be helped.

Buddy Baker is Animal Man, a human who has been giving power by the lifeforce that all living creatures are connected by aka the Red. He can absorb the abilities of animals, like the regeneration powers of a star fish, or the strength of an elephant. Pretty impressive in my opinion. But Buddy is a family man. He beats up supervillains and comes home to a wife and two kids. But life is never easy for a hero. Something...really bad happens to one of his kids, and Buddy's life comes crashing down over his head.And just when Buddy seems like he is getting his life together and messing up the bad guys, he gets teleported to an alien world.

I'm not going to lie, I raged at last issues ending. We are going through this emotional roller coaster, and then at the very top of the tracks, the cart suddenly stops. But this issue more than made up for it. One of my problems with the idea of a Red/Rot/Green trio of forces that govern the natural order is why does Earth seem to have the only connection to it? Spoiler alert, it isn't  and we get to see that there is more to the story what we've seen from the Red's perspective. Plus we get introduced to a new character that could be Buddy's new mentor, and someone would could make Buddy the most powerful person in the universe. No lie.

We do get a good bit of action where Buddy has to adapt to the strange creatures around him and fight a giant monster that looks a lot like Darkseid with Horns, but the way he takes him down is utterly hilarious. Most of the comic is world building and a conversation with Buddy's new ally.

Luckily next issue, Buddy will confront Brother Blood (from teen titans!) and end the arc, but this issue has set a lot of things in motion for the future, and decide whether Buddy chooses his family or the continued survival of the Red/Green/Rot triumvirate.

Honestly folks, I don't envy him.

7.5- awesome issue with decent art and some really cool ideas. Would have been higher, but I felt like this would have been better at the start of a new arc, though I understand its purpose.