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Jerry Prosser Era (1994-1995) |
 With
Jamie Delano's
departure, DC / Vertigo handed over the scripting reigns on Animal Man to Jerry Prosser.
Prosser, who lacked Delano's pedigree, took the title in a decidedly different direction. If
Grant Morrison
had made the title postmodern and Delano had made the title horrific, Prosser would make the
title cosmic -- and confusing.
Buddy Baker, who Delano had killed off in his final issue, quickly was
reborn, now with hair striped white and black. Buddy became more peaceful as his friends
worked with the church he had helped found. On an existential search for truth, Buddy began
experiencing bizarre revelations of various higher powers. Finally battling the evil
Spider Queen, Buddy realized the cliché that the truth he sought was within him. In a mystical
experience, Buddy realized that everyone jointly formed the body of God -- and the Soul of the
World. Shortly after he defeated the Spider Queen, Annie gave birth to his second daughter,
never given a name but said to be the human incarnation of the collective World Soul.
Prosser's run concluded in late 1995 with #89, the title's last issue.
Its glory years long enough gone, few mourned its passing. Prosser's work had been seen as
confusing and as adding nothing to the title despite its inflated rhetoric.
Almost two years later, Animal Man reemerged -- this time in
Aquaman, a mainstream DC Universe title. Animal Man was appropriately returned to his
more conventional super-hero roots. In Auquaman #35, the villainous Gamesman kidnapped
Maxine, leading Animal Man and Aquaman to defeat him and rescue her. Along the way, Animal
Man helped Aquaman to realize that he too had elemental connections.
Vertigo in the early years had admonished the fact that a number of its
characters originated in -- and thus continued to exist within -- the DC Universe. Animal
Man, back with blond hair and in his old colorful costume, began a string of occasional
appearances in DC Universe titles. The Life Power Church of Maxine was altogether dropped.
While this might be seen as betraying his years at Vertigo, this transition back to
conventional super-heroics was approved of by none other than Grant Morrison, who featured
Animal Man in the relaunched and newly successful Justice League title,
JLA. This nostalgic reversal went so
far as to place Animal Man again with the Forgotten Heroes, not seen since
Crisis on Infinite Earths, in a storyline
running in Resurrection Man, a title with the Immortal Man -- Animal Man's teammate in
the Forgotten Heroes -- as its protagonist.
In the midst of these occasional appearances, Animal Man returned to
Vertigo in the one-shot special entitled
Totems.
There, he spent the last day of 1999 in the company of Vertigo's other DC Universe characters
-- including
Swamp Thing,
John Constantine,
Black Orchid,
Shade, the Changing Man,
and others.
Animal Man was last seen in the pages of
Hawkman, where he helped Hawkman,
Hawkgirl, and Hawkwoman in a story involving various animal avatars.
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