On the recommendation of many at the forum, I just read Grant's Animal Man run for the first time. Despite not being a DC fan, and having a fairly slow start,
oh boy did it get good.
The last arc, where everything goes a bit
meta, is one of the most creative things I've ever read. The moments I felt really stood out were:
1) The death of Buddy's family. We're told in the issue that their lives are simply constructs for our entertainment and that, by association, they're killed for our pleasure. As bizarre as it seems, when you see them dead, it's hard not to feel a pang of guilty responsibility.
2) Ultraman breaking through the fourth wall, followed by Overman threatening to come through and destroy our world with the Doomsday Bomb. Somehow, it's genuinely intimidating.
3) I can see you!
So when did you people discover this? Does being a DC fan add much to the story? How was it received at the time? Do you think fourth-wall concepts can be taken any further in comics, or is this as far as it goes?
God bless you Grant Morrison, you twisted Scottish bastard.
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Later, in Crisis and 52, they reference the 'real world' a bit with Buddy and Superboy/Luthor as well.
I only have the first trade, but hot damn I love it. I'm going to pick up the others ASAP.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
It is ..... ok so far.
I'm not really hooked yet.
the first handful of issues was written with the idea it was only going to be a mini-series. Trust me, what this comic does and how it makes it work is borderline impossible.
In Grant We Trust
I felt the same after 10.
It picks up unimaginably.
It's awesome in the first trade. If you think about how it was written as monthly issues, at the end of issue #1
He starts reaching through the panels while looking at the reader.
Also, I love the ones he was just sort of an incidental character in. Coyote Gospel and that one with the Thanagaarians.
What I love about the Thanagarrian one is how, despite being a company-mandated tie-in, Grant does a great callback to it near the end of the series anyway:
It's a great little scene, and really strikes home how much Animal Man grew as a character over Morrison's run. Little touches like this really make the series in a lot of ways.
I felt weird when I read it. It's incredibly rare that a feel such strong emtions when reading stuff. I never thought I would feel something from a comic book.
What's really interesting trivia is that the whole Thanagarian scene somehow creates a gigantic fiasco for Hawkman continuity historians, because there is supposedly something inheriently incorrect with that entire scene.
I don't know what it is, but I remember reading people bitch about it.
Multiple people.
Loudly.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]