How Buddy Baker Became Animal Man

SUPERFUNNIES

"Who is our new champion?"

~Animal Man #0 (2012)

Now that the DC "0" Month has begun, we're getting a look at some of the strange and somewhat...disturbing origins of their heroes. In this shapshot, we're being reintroduced to Buddy Baker, the Avatar of The Red, and the man who will be known as Animal Man.

Still. You have to admit a guy running across the rooftops in a chicken suit is a great intro. Bawk! Bawk!

Are heroes and villains smart? Naw. #SuperFunnies updates every week (usually Thursday) on The Superheroes List. Here are the bloopers, flip-flops, and all-together moments of levity during exchanges of humor and snapshots of utterly ridiculous decisions in comic books.

Red, Green, and Rot!

~Animal Man #7 (2012)

One of the more interesting concepts metastasizing in the DC Universe is The Rot, the antithetical, anti-natural power that seeks to corrupt and overwhelm The Red and The Green. In Animal Man #1-7, Buddy Baker and his daughter have been on an adventure to halt the rise of this infection spreading across the land.

This is also a simultaneous threat in Swamp Thing #1-7, where Dr. Alec Holland, thought to put his green, monstrous counterpart to rest, has returned to the very roots that created his superhuman origin. The Rot is also appearing in the everglades and spreading through plant life, seeking to put an end to The Green and The Parliament of Trees.

Here, Buddy aka Animal Man is getting an up close look at the disgusting energies infiltrating all life; it's nothing less than a twisting blasphemy of the living into a decayed malformed existence.

Also Recommended: Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt (The New 52)

As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics - The New 52 event of September 2011, Animal Man Buddy Baker, has gone from "super" man to family man - but is he strong enough to hold his family together when Maxine, his young daughter, starts to manifest her own dangerous powers? As these new abilities continue to terrify Buddy and his wife Ellen, things take a turn for the worse as Buddy begins a startling transformation of his own that will lead him on a journey into the heart of The Red.

Collected here are the first 6 issues of this dramatic new series from writer Jeff Lemire (SWEET TOOTH) and artist Travel Foreman (The Immortal Iron Fist)!

This volume collect issues 1-6 of Animal Man, part of the DC Comics - The New 52 event.

Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Raise Them Bones (The New 52)

In the 40-years since its debut, Swamp Thing has been graced with some of the best writers in comics from Len Wein to Alan Moore and now, as part of the DC Comics - The New 52, 'American Vampire' scribe Scott Snyder brings his talents to an all new Swamp Thing series set in the DC Universe.

Following the events of 'Brightest Day,' Alec Holland has his life back...but the "Green" has plans for it. A monstrous evil is rising in the desert, and it'll take a monster of another kind to defend life as we know it!

This hardcover collection includes issues 1-7 of the monthly series.

Villainous Moments is a column from of The Superheroes List, updated weekly (usually Tuesday). What are the bad guys doing this week? Macabre and unthinkable, grotesque and unbearable; here's your answer! Look for #VillainousMoments on Twitter.