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Bernhard "Buddy" Baker/Animal Man
First appearance: Strange Adventures #180 (September 1965)
A family man who obtained the power to emulate the abilities of any animal he is in the vicinity of, later any animal at all by tapping into the morphogenic web, and is a devoted animal rights activist.
- Action Dad: As of the Post-Crisis canon, he's a superhero who happens to be a father.
- Alliterative Name: His given name, nickname and surname all begin with the letter B.
- Animal Lover: He really loves animals and is justifiably motivated to combat against all forms of animal cruelty he can.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In the alternate future miniseries The Last Days of Animal Man, he lashes out on the whale Green Lantern for expressing sympathy for his failing powers.
- Flipping the Bird: Surprisingly enough, his story in the Vertigo Jam one-shot ends with him giving the finger to a turkey he just had a conversation with, the context being that he was pissed off by the turkey's sentiment that Humans Are Bastards and that Buddy's vegetarianism didn't do enough to make up for that.
- Full-Frontal Assault: He fights naked in the 1993 Annual that tied in to The Children's Crusade (Vertigo).
- Happily Married: He loves and for the most part gets along well with his wife Ellen.
- Legacy Character: In the New 52 canon, it's established that, prior to the Red empowering him as their latest champion, there were many predecessors to Buddy who took the name of Animal Man.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The first arc of Jamie Delano's run has him die and come back as an amalgamated creature with the head of a tiger, ram horns and bat wings. He subsequently regains his human form by eating the severed fingers of his original corpse.
- Not Wearing Tights: The 1988 series had him gradually shift away from wearing a costume and stick to wearing regular clothing after the end of Grant Morrison's run, especially after the title moved to DC's Vertigo imprint.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: During the Vertigo era, he has a falling out with his wife Ellen and sleeps with Annie Cassidy, which gets Annie pregnant and has her later give birth to a baby girl by the end of the series. As the case was with many aspects of the Vertigo run, this was ignored after Buddy and his family were reinstated to the main DCU.
- Outliving One's Offspring:
- Grant Morrison's run has him outlive his children Cliff and Maxine when they and his wife Ellen were murdered. Morrison's Author Avatar later resurrected Buddy's family as a final favor at the end of their run.
- Buddy's son Cliff dies again in the New 52 series by Jeff Lemire. This time, Cliff's death stuck and was one of the few aspects of the post-Flashpoint DC Universe to be retained after DC Rebirth in spite of the primary purpose of the Rebirth initiative being to restore the DCU to how it was prior to the Flashpoint event that led to the New 52 reboot.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He hasn't been above killing whalers and land developers (or at least leaving them to die) in retribution for their crimes against the environment.
- Virtuous Vegetarianism: By Morrison's run, he quits eating meat and works harder at combating animal cruelty.
Ellen Baker
First appearance: Strange Adventures #180 (September 1965)
Buddy Baker's wife.
- Death Is Cheap: She is murdered during Grant Morrison's run, but is resurrected by Morrison as a final favor to Buddy at the end of their run.
- Groin Attack: A man named Mike tries to sleep with her during Jamie Delano's run. When he refuses to take no for an answer, she responds by hitting him in the crotch with her knee.
- Happily Married: Her relationship with her husband Buddy has been a loving one for the most part.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: She gets mistaken for a hooker by cops in the 58th issue.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She outlives her son Cliff in the New 52 series. Unlike the circumstance of Buddy's wife and children being killed in Grant Morrison's run, this was never undone.
Cliff Baker
First appearance: Animal Man volume 1 issue 1 (September 1988)
Buddy Baker's son and oldest child.
- Big Brother Bully: He likes to pick on his younger sister Maxine.
- Crusading Lawyer: The Last Days of Animal Man has him grow up to become an honest attorney who puts providing legal council for those who need it over his personal life.
- Death of a Child: He gets killed partway through Grant Morrison's run. While this was eventually undone at the end of Morrison's run, he was later killed off again in the New 52 series by Jeff Lemire, which stuck this time and remained in effect even after the Rebirth era in spite of the primary purpose of that initiative being to restore the canon of the DCU to the way it was before the New 52.
- Death Is Cheap: Was killed off in Grant Morrison's run only to be resurrected at the end. When he was killed off again in Jeff Lemire's series, he wasn't so lucky. In spite of other continuity-altering events that came afterwards, Cliff remained dead and is still deceased as of the 2023 Halloween anthology DC's Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun.
- Flipping the Bird: He extends both his middle fingers to the cops in the Annual issue that was part of The Children's Crusade (Vertigo) and also flips off the principal as they leave when Ellen pulls him and Maxine out of school in issue 64.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the New 52 series, he sacrifices himself to defend his father from William Arcane at the end of the Rotworld arc.
- Killed Off for Real: Unlike his previous death, Cliff’s Heroic Sacrifice in the New 52 has never been undone.
Maxine Baker
First appearance: Animal Man volume 1 issue 1 (September 1988)
Buddy Baker's daughter and youngest child.
- Affectionate Nickname: Buddy often refers to her as "Little Wing".
- Daddy's Girl: She has a very affectionate relationship with her father.
- Death of a Child: She gets murdered partway through Grant Morrison's run, but is brought back to life at the end of it.
- Death Is Cheap: She is killed off partway through Morrison's run, only to be resurrected at the end of it.
- Excrement Statement: Ellen mentions to Buddy in issue 66 that when she climbed up a tree to protest against it being chopped down, she responded to a worker trying to get her down by peeing on him.
- Innocent Inaccurate: In issue 61, she mistakes discarded condoms on the beach for "wiggly balloons".
- Queer Establishing Moment: In the alternate future miniseries The Last Days of Animal Man, she is revealed to have a girlfriend by the last issue.
- Skinny Dipping: She goes swimming naked in the 76th issue, inviting Ray to join her.
- Sleeps in the Nude: She is shown sleeping naked in the 81st issue.
The Writer
First appearance: Animal Man volume 1 issue 10 (April 1989)
An Author Avatar of Grant Morrison, whom Buddy encountered and interacted with at the end of Morrison's run.
See The Multiversity
President Eagleton
First appearance: Animal Man volume 1 issue 30 (December 1990)
President of the United States on Earth-Twenty-Seven.
- Arc Villain: He serves as the central antagonist of Peter Milligan's run.
- Child Hater: He secretly wants to kill all children, which he hides by publicly pretending to like them.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: The Angel triplets explain to Buddy that they know President Eagleton wants to kill children by reading his thoughts when he kissed a baby.
- President Evil: He turns out to be a dishonest and scummy dirtbag who secretly wants to murder all children.
