Oh my dayum, this is a great comic book! Buddy Baker's nightmare continues as further details of the Rot's war against life come to light and the real nature of both his own superhero career and his daughter's future as Avatar of the Red are fleshed out. Same great art, same great story. One of the things that make this stand out is all the family shit. Baker's family gets dragged along through all the questy save-the-world bullshit, giving the war against the Rot an often awesomely funny and pretty much always gloomy perspective on what it'd mean to be married or the kid of a superhero. Even grandma tags along! If only they'd get to Swamp Thing already. The artwork stayed pretty consistent with the artwork of the first volume and the characterization and tone remained consistent as well. Where this volume lapses in comparison to the first is in concept.Lemire tries very hard to explain away all of the questionable aspects of the whole red/green/rot balance-of-nature scenario, and it kinda falls apart on him. There seems to be some grasping at straws going on. He tries to tie-in other characters from other titles, namely JLD, and you can see that the story is trying to build up to a major crossover with Swamp Thing.... Lemire even goes as far as making a major retcon alteration in the already established Animal Man origin story to help lend support to this new concept...and it just doesn't feel.... natural. He should have left it all conceptually wide-open instead of detailing an overly complicated mythos. At this stage in the story arch, I think readers simply wanted more forwarding action, and less explaining. Too much detail all at once feels Baroque, unnecessarily heavy. Such are the stakes with a high-concept series, though. It was the risk that Lemire was willing to take and in ways it is successful. I mean, there is not much out there to compare to the New 52 Animal Man. It truly stands alone. But it could still use some refinement going forward.Let's hope the script work tightens up a bit in the next volumes. Better dialogue would be nice, and not as much history lecturing. Focus on the core characters and what is happen in the now.3.5/5
What do You think about Animal Man, Tomo 2 (2013)?
Animal Man is becoming one of my favorite comic books. A must read for anyone.
—lenalol
I read the individual issues, not the collection, but it's the same content.
—marmag1
Lemire and Foreman keep the hits coming.
—hippielord773
