DC's NEW 52-ANIMAL MAN

Animal Man is a superhero alter ego of Buddy Baker who can temporarily borrow the abilities from animals, thus the name(DUH!). While he was around in the 1960's, his most famous run was the two year run by Grant Morrison, followed by stints by Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano and Tom Veitch that redefined the character and sent it into strange new places. Eventually, Animal Man died several times and was resurrected almost as many. ANIMAL MAN "retired" in the LAST DAYS OF ANIMAL MAN mini-series, but that was in the future and obviously NOT in this NEW 52 continuity.
 
So the new ANIMAL MAN begins with a one page text interview with "superhero/actor/activist" Buddy Baker. It's another day in the Baker household as wife Ellen is badgering him to go out and be super, daughter Maxine is begging for another pet to replace those that have passed on over the years and son Cliff, when Buddy is coerced to respond to a hostage taking at a hospital, begs to tag along and tape it as an audition tape for "those Justice League guys"(I guess we know when this is set-obviously at the beginning of the League). So Buddy dons his blue uniform and flies off the rescue the hostages.
 
Upon arrival, he discovers that the hostage taker recently lost his daughter to cancer and wants revenge on the doctors. Siphoning the abilities of an elephant, cheetah and a dog, he knocks out the distraught father and restores order. But at a price...as he begins bleeding from his eyes. Doctors check him out and come up with nothing conclusive. So Buddy goes home and goes to bed.
 
As he sleeps he dreams a pretty intense dream, in black and white no less(interesting concept).Cliff is opened up and his guts are tumbling out of his body(in color, no less) telling Buddy that Maxine was responsible. As he follows his daughter, Buddy devolves,  turning into a collection of nerves and tissues and misshapen monsters appear. One of them exclaims "we are rot in the Red", a definite nod to concepts laid forth by Morrison, Milligan and others.
 
He awakens from this nightmare and is immediately greeted by the voice of his wife. he races outside to find Maxine with a bunch of reanimated, half animals. "I'm sorry, daddy," she says. "I just wanted a pet of my own."
 
WOW! That's about all I can say about that ending!
 
Well, the book isn't Grant Morrison but it sure has the creepy qualities of most Vertigo books. And it's a Mainstream title, no less! Resurrected animals, a child with powers beyond those of her dad's...THE RED!!! This is such a weird title that it grabbed me from the first read and I must confess, I am a HUGE FAN of the work that came before this run as it truly redefined a "forgotten hero" for a new generation of fans.
 
Jeff Lemire has obviously done his homework and his story shows. Travel Foreman does his best homage(I hope it is else it's a shameless rip-off) of people like Bissette, Tottelbein and some of the horror genre's 80's and 90's heroes. It has a wonderfully nasty Gothic feel to it.

This is ONE STRANGE BOOK. If you're into the whole Vertigo without the bad words kind of comic, jump on this. I predict this will fast become a Cult Classic and you'll kick yourself later if you don't get in on the ground floor.

BTW: the mysterious hooded woman is in the last panel on page 12, behind a bunch of doctors.