Review: Animal Man #1 - #5
I spent last Tuesday writing a love letter to Jeff Lemire for his work on Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. but I'm afraid I can't do the same for his reboot of Animal Man. It isn't some fanboy loyalty to Grant Morrison, either, because I've never read his run on the character despite having read about it. For whatever reason, devoid of other context, when I read Animal Man I just don't find myself very engaged. I was really excited to try this title when it first appeared and I liked the first issue but since then it's been more and more of a chore to keep reading. Last week I gave it the axe from my personal pull list because I just didn't care to try anymore.
I wish I could point at some aspect of this book and say, "That, in particular, is what turned me off," but I can't. Instead, it's a combination of this book failing to make it over the bar by just inches in multiple ways.
For one thing, to be blunt, I don't like the art. There's something about it that's too sparse or too simplistic or something. I like art that's either extremely realistic (Batwoman) or very slick and cartoony (Wonder Woman) and this art isn't really either of those. It's a little abstract, and I like abstract, but it just never has clicked for me. I don't get excited about the idea of sitting back and looking at this book and isn't that part of the point?
Another problem I have is the characterization. Animal Man himself is interesting enough. I can get behind the idea of a guy who thinks he's a little washed up and maybe never was that big a deal to begin with who finds himself called upon to do great things. That sounds interesting enough to keep reading, anyway, and that's what kept me coming back this long, but the other characters are at best irksome and at worst flat as a cardboard cutout. The wife struck me right away as being a little too much the harpy for my tastes and her mother, in the one appearance of her that I actually read, was nothing but a stereotype holding a cup of coffee. One of the kids is annoying and the other is creepy. Normally I would see a creepy kid as a draw but this one didn't work for me for some reason I can't quite explain.
Overall, the story never grabbed me, either. It's mostly driven by the main guy - see, he's my favorite character and I literally cannot remember his real name - being freaked out by his daughter's manifestation of the necrotic reflection of his powers of life and this world-threatening force called The Rot and then there's some stuff in, like, the rot dimension? or something? and then the pages are basically just red and brown and start looking like storyboards for a movie about a bad acid trip.
Yawn.
There are a lot of things about this book that are executed with skill and Lemire has become an instant favorite of mine with Frankenstein but I only read the first three or four issues of Animal Man before buying the fifth and then saying with a weary sigh, "I'm sorry, but I need to take this off my subscription list." I gave it several issues and it wasn't worth more of my time than that. I wish I liked it more than I do... but I don't.
Klarion
Posted to Comics, Review on 21 February 2012
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: Animal Man, DCnU, Jeff Lemire
Heh... Like I think I mentioned on your Frankenstein post, I actually really enjoy the art on Animal Man. You described it perfectly as an "acid trip". I just don't think it's a bad acid trip. I find myself fascinated by what's being drawn, even if I don't totally understand what the hell it is!
I'll be curious how the art change in issue 7 will affect the look and feel of the book. Hopefully, Lemire's writing will continue to shine through as it does on Frankenstein where I'm not a big fan of the art.
If the art changes significantly in #7 then I might come back to it, though probably only in trades and even then only in used trades. It just doesn't twist my knob. When I dropped it from my bag the staff at my local shop asked why and I said, "Apparently I just don't care enough about the children of other people."