Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Travel Foreman
One of the unqualified successes of the first week of the new DC Universe has to be Jeff Lemire's reboot/launch of Animal Man. Lemire keeps a sliver of the Grant Morrison "Meta" Animal Man in the shape of an interview between Buddy Baker and Jeff Lemire. See what he did there? Lemire's story is very strong and does a fantastic job of setting the tone of what could be the creepiest and enthralling of all the new titles. It also creates the vibe set by Morrison's run on the title before the Vertigo imprint was created as a home for such types of stories.
Travel Foreman is a superstar in the making. His art previews for this book are what finally convinced me to jump onto this title. While Jeff Lemire has been a name in discussion for a couple of years now, I haven't really warmed to his storytelling. In Foreman, he has a perfect collaborator to drive his type of story forward. Foreman's art evokes many of the greats like Mignola, Keith, Sienkiewithhimer (Sorry, spelling Bill's last name is a nightmare. ) It is beautiful and unnerving.
I have read a review where the reviewer couldn't stand the story or the art, but based on her other reviews of the new 52, it became fairly obvious that she preferred standard, traditional superhero stories with standard, traditional superhero art. She gave it a 2.5 out of 5, whereas I call this one a masterpiece and the kind of book that DC needs to push hard as part of it's resolve to change the landscape of it's own universe.
Verdict: 5 out of 5.
