Animal Man (Bernhard "Buddy" Baker) is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Comics Universe. As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals (such as a bird's flight or the proportionate strength of an ant). Using these powers, Baker fights crime as the costumed superhero Animal Man.
Created by writer Dave Wood and artist Carmine Infantino, Buddy Baker first appeared in Strange Adventures #180 (September 1965) and adopted the name Animal Man in issue #190. Animal Man was a minor character for his first twenty years, never gaining the popularity of other DC heroes such as Batman or Superman. He made only five, non-consecutive appearances in Strange Adventures (four of which were reprinted in Adventure Comics), followed by two appearances in Wonder Woman, two in Action Comics, and two in DC Comics Presents, appearing in consecutive issues of each. These eleven stories constitute the entirety of his pre-Crisis appearances. However, he became one of several DC properties, such as Shade, the Changing Man and Sandman, to be revived and revamped in the late 1980s for a more mature comics audience. As seen in Strange Adventures #195, he was billed as a "full time hero", an aspect that would be the most changed by the revamp.
Read more about Animal Man: Collected Editions, Powers and Abilities
Famous quotes containing the words animal and/or man:
“His reversed body gracefully curved, his brown legs hoisted like a Tarentine sail, his joined ankles tacking, Van gripped with splayed hands the brow of gravity, and moved to and fro, veering and sidestepping, opening his mouth the wrong way, and blinking in the odd bilboquet fashion peculiar to eyelids in his abnormal position. Even more extraordinary than the variety and velocity of the movements he made in imitation of animal hind legs was the effortlessness of his stance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)