Animal Man was a series written by Jeff Lemire, drawn by Travel Foreman, and published by DC Comics as part of their New 52 initiative. The series was a reboot of the classic Animal Man franchise.
After taking some time off from superheroing in order to film a movie, Buddy Baker is stepping back into the tights to protect his hometown. However, things take a rough turn when it appears that his daughter Maxine has inherited his abilities, and his attempts to guide and protect her lead him to some unpleasant revelations about the source of his powers.
Animal Man (2011) contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: When entering the Red in issue nine, Buddy Baker is misnamed by Shepherd as "Butter Baker".
- Adaptation Origin Connection: This comic finally makes canon the long standing theory that Animal Man was an avatar for a force similar to Swamp Thing's Green. Buddy now is a "minor agent" for the Red, previously the morphogenic field/life web, tying him with the aformentioned Swamp Thing, Black Orchid, Beast Boy, Frankenstein...
- Alien Fair Folk: Whereas previous series had Buddy gaining his powers from the Yellow Aliens, this series claimed that the aliens who gave the titular character his powers were actually mystical beings native to Earth who arrived in an illusionary spaceship because they figured that was something Buddy could more readily accept.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In the seventh issue, Cliff Baker tries to impress two girls by telling them his dad is Animal Man after he notices that one of them is wearing a T-shirt of his father. They don't believe him, with one snarking that her mother is Wonder Woman and the other claiming that her father is the Joker.
- Bittersweet Ending: The ending to the New 52 series. Cliff is still dead and so are most of the Totems of the Red. However, Brother Blood and the Splinterfolk are defeated. Shepherd and Socks become the new Totems of the Red. The Bakers repair their marriage. Buddy decides to become the Avatar of the Red in order to prevent his daughter Maxine from being put in danger, but will still be doomed to replace the Bridgewalker as mediator of the Green, Red and Rot of the Seed Planet when the current one dies, with no exception.
- Came Back Wrong: The first issue ends with Maxine summoning a whole lot of animals - dead animals.
- Continuity Nod: Buddy compares his journey in the Bone Orchard to the weirdest dream he's ever had, which includes meeting a skinny Scottish man who kept insisting that Buddy was a comic book character. This is a reference to the final issue of Grant Morrison's run, where Morrison has a metatextual conversation with Buddy before retconning the entire storyline into a dream.
- Darker and Edgier: While previous runs also dealt with dark themes and had many depressing moments, this might be the bleakest and most depressing iteration of Animal Man ever, featuring a lot more violence, death and gore. The infection spread by the Rot's avatars produces grotesque displays of Body Horror, Buddy's powers are changed so that his body bleeds and deforms instead of just letting him mimic other animals, and Cliff's death is permanent and nearly destroys the Bakers' marriage.
- Death of a Child: Cliff Baker, who is only 14 years old, dies at the end of the Rotworld arc, by pushing Buddy away from William and getting stabbed in his place. Subsequent stories deal with the heroes trying to cope with this event.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Parliament of Limbs, the Hunters Three and most of the Rot's avatars are living embodiments of the forces they represent (animal life in the case of the former, and death in the case of the latter two). As such, their shapes are unlike any other creatures, though they tend to amalgamate the physical attributes of many species into unsettling forms that defy ccomprehension.
- Eldritch Location: The Red is a dimension populated by Animalistic Abominations and made of blood, veins, tissue and bones, and serves as the link of all animal life, including alien one.
- Groin Attack: In the 25th issue, Ellen shuts up an underling of Brother Blood by kicking him in the crotch.
- Happily Married: Lemire puts Buddy and Ellen's marriage through the wringer with the death of Cliff, but they're back together again as a family as of the end of the series.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Rotworld arc ends with Cliff sacrificing himself to defend his father from William Arcane.
- Legacy Character: It's established in this series that there were previous champions of the Red known as Animal Man before Buddy obtained his powers and donned the mantle.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: In this iteration of Animal Man, Buddy becomes infused with more power from The Red (the metaphysical manifestation of the Animal Kingdom, and the animal equivalent to Swamp Thing's The Green), and his power to use animal abilities is morphed into actually physically manifesting animal characteristics. These transformations are visceral and not pleasant to look at.
- Muggle Born of Mages: As in the previous series, Buddy's son Cliff did not inherit his powers.
- Mythology Gag:
- The ninth issue begins with Buddy's internal narration mentioning that he once dreamed his family was killed and that he met a thin, Scottish person who claimed to have created him in a comic book, a nod to the events of Grant Morrison's run on the 1988 comic series.
- A flashback to the circumstances of Buddy Baker's origins shows him buying comics for his son Cliff's birthday. One of these is the Penalizer, an in-universe comic book that was featured in Tom Veitch's run and was a comic Cliff Baker happened to be a huge fan of.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The Rotworld arc ends with Buddy's son Cliff dying. Unlike the deaths of Buddy's family in Grant Morrison's run of the 1988 comic, Cliff's death stuck and was notably one of the few aspects of the post-Flashpoint canon to be retained in the Rebirth era in spite of the main purpose of the Rebirth initiative being to restore the DCU to how it was prior to Flashpoint.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: The more Buddy taps into the Red, the more powerful he gets, but also the uglier he gets.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: As the series goes on, Buddy starts to bleed profusely from his eyes, which turn red.
- Retcon: In this version, it's revealed that Buddy's powers may have come from Yellow Aliens, as in the previous series, but those aliens are stated to be agents of The Red, implying a mystical origin.
- Running Gag: A reporter asking an insensitive question asking if a tragedy Buddy or his family just suffered was staged getting assaulted in response.
- Show Within a Show: We see two of the movies Buddy has worked in: Thights and Chicken Thief. Tights actually wins him an Academy Award.
- Transformation Horror: As the series progresses, Buddy's powers make him increasingly monstrous.
