- Angst Aversion: A common complaint of the book is that the Bakers are put through so much misery that eventually it becomes tiring.
- Awesome Art: Travel Foreman's art has been celebrated as some of (If not the) best of the New 52. Special mention goes to the Body Horror of the Red and Animal Man's transformations, which are absolutely nightmarish to look at.
- Broken Base: Cliff's death is either a poignant and heartbraking scene or a cheap attempt at angst. It doesn't help that Animal Man's Signature Series Arc denounced killing Buddy's kids as unnecessary and edgy.
- The fact that Cliff has stayed dead up to Dawn of DC. Some celebrate it as DC averting Death Is Cheap, but others claim that the reboot was a perfect opportunity to bring him back.
- Common Knowledge: Many are under the assumption that this is the first time Animal Man has been tied to the mystical side of DC, and also believe the Red debuted post-Flashpoint. Grant Morrison's run already tied him to the pseudo-science of morphogenetic fields, while Tom Veitch's run heavily drew from totemism. Finally, it was Jamie Delano's run that introduced the Red. That being said, Lemire's second volume makes it more explicitly part of the Swamp Thing's elemental realms, such as for example adding a counterpart to the Parliament of Trees, the Parliament of Limbs.
- Tear Jerker: Cliff's death, which also leads to the disintegration of Buddy's marriage.
- The Woobie: Buddy Baker. His daughter, Maxine, becomes the new Avatar of the Red; his son, Cliff, dies; his marriage disintegrates; and he temporarily loses his connection with the Red after demanding that the Totems leave his family alone. In the end, he manages to reconcile with the rest of his family, but he is still doomed to leave them eventually to take over for an overseer of a planet directly connected to the Red, Green and Rot, which could happen sooner or later.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/AnimalMan2011
Go To
