Animal Man: Home Improvements
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Warning for bullying.
From Animal Man #9 (Mar. 1989).
Cliff Baker has found that being a superhero's kid makes him the target of bullies.
Later, as Cliff continues his walk, the mysterious shadowed figure from the previous issue touches down from a tree and, from a distance, whispers Cliff's name.
Meanwhile, Buddy and Ellen receive a surprise visit from the Martian Manhunter, who's there to welcome Animal Man into the JLE. He's also brought along some workers to repair the Mirror Master's damage to the house, and to install a security system, all free of charge. ("We realize that not everyone is a millionaire playboy.") Buddy's delighted, but Ellen reminds him he has someting to tell J'onn. ("Thanks a bundle, Ellen!") He suggests J'onn fly with him to the desert so they can talk in private.
In the desert, Buddy explains that, apart from still being able to fly, his powers are all scrambled as a result of the gene bomb. When he tries to pick up one animal's abilities, he gets those of another species instead. J'onn, while advising his colleague that the League can't take on "passengers," says that nevertheless he admires Buddy's efforts for animal rights and the environment. So he's determined to help Buddy get his powers working and thus retain his membership, "whatever it takes."
Animal Man demonstrates what happens when he tries to use his power. He focuses on a nearby rabbit, but finds himself bombarded with the psychic presence of many animal species at once. This makes him puke violently. J'onn helps him sit down and asks what it felt like.
Cliff returns home and, as if he didn't have enough troubles, no sooner does he open the door than an alarm, laser-beam barrier and robots scare the crap out of him.
J'onn J'onzz: protector of children, unintentional humiliator of their dads.
The issue wraps up in Africa, where a shaman puts his ear to the ground and announces, "The gods are coming."
We'll meet these "gods" (a blast from the original Animal Man's past, so to speak) in the next post, from Secret Origins, which takes place in between Animal Man Issues 9 and 10 (and thus is collected in the second TPB from Morrison's run).
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Date: 2020-11-24 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-24 11:49 am (UTC)The Baker's are an interestingly straightforward family unit, almost cliché, but that make them unusual for a superhero comic.
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Date: 2020-11-24 02:47 pm (UTC)"Who are we gonna pick on today, Buckley? The special needs boy who walks funny? That nerdy guy who pronounced schedule like 'shlood' in class and everyone laughed?"
"How about the kid whose dad literally beats people up for a living, just helped save the planet, and got a cushy intercontinental salaried job out of it? And let's be sure we make fun of him for who his dad is, not anything else to do with his appearance, personality, or actions."
"Sure, sounds legit."
I mean, maybe word has leaked out that Buddy's performance is not up to snuff lately? Or maybe picking on a superhero's kid makes Buckley and the others feel like big shots? Or, most plausibly, have they picked up on the fact that Cliff is embarrassed by his dad, and that's what really counts?
But the way these kids seem unimpressed with the whole superhero idea ("Look out, Animal Boy! It's Sidewalk-Man!") seems more in character for Eighties kids in our world, sneering down at the "baby stuff" they enjoyed two years prior, than kids in a setting where Superman is actually a real person and Booster Gold is competing with Michael Jordan for shoe endorsements.
Of course, it's also in line with the sort of vague embarrassment that smart superhero writers of the time tended to express for their genre (Watchmen and Justice League International have little in common besides geopolitical awareness, superhero deconstruction, and some version of the Blue Beetle and Captain Atom). Morrison themself would be one of the first big names to break away from that and start doing unironic cape stories again, and arguably you see them drifting that way later on in this very series. But they're not there yet.
Interestingly, though, the Martian Manhunter is mostly played straight here, including his dignified sense of humor, and it reflects well on him that he takes the time to help Cliff. No case too big, no case too small. Maybe Morrison had some special affinity for this tall bald male-presenting but technically genderless fellow who has great concern for the world but always stands a little bit apart from it, who's to say.
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Date: 2020-11-24 05:41 pm (UTC)Granted, Animal Man does manage to build a rep fairly quickly by taking a stand against abuse of animals, even if his successes in this area are, for now, only alluded to rather than shown on-panel. Yet it's telling that, in the present issue, Buddy tries to entertain Maxine by talking "cat talk" to T.C.; Maxine's response is to roll her eyes, sulk, and ask for her cat back. So yeah, it seems both his kids are less than impressed with their superhero dad. Perhaps they both sense that, in the eyes of a few too many, he's still a third-rate "joke" hero, not a real one like Marshmallowhu-- I mean Martian Manhunter.
One minor nitpick: Morrison hadn't started shaving their head yet (recall their avatar in the finale has a full head of hair), so I doubt J'onn's baldness specifically (nor that of Rokara Soh in #6) was something they personally identified with. :-)
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Date: 2020-11-24 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-24 05:18 pm (UTC)Then again, even worse with Wonder Woman popping up for about two issues and then dropped as they had issues balancing what other books were doing at the time.
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Date: 2020-11-24 05:51 pm (UTC)Looking back, if I had to guess, I'd say that Perez wasn't keen to have his utopian-feminist icon subverted by a bunch of sexual-harassment jokes and fish-out-of-water comedy. You can get away with some of that, but again, Giffen and DeMatteis (and Gerard Jones) always seemed to go a few steps further than anyone with reverence for the characters would dare. It's a minor miracle they held on to Wally West.
In Buddy's case, at least, an earlyish exit from the League may have always been the plan. There's a key event in this run that the last couple of issues have already begun building to, and that event will more or less directly cause his departure.
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Date: 2020-11-24 07:11 pm (UTC)I half wonder if Perez was too busy to read JLI, thought it'd be classic Justice League then realized how poor it'd make Diana look. And Mark Waid needed to do some damage cleanup to Wally's character after JLI makes him more immature. And, of course, having to adjust Batman for this nutty place (and this was before he got darker in the '90s).