4 crampons out of 5

I’ll admit I cared little about Animal Man outside of Grant Morrison’s run.  He would float in and out of continuity as a cool character (probably because he was made a “cool” reference by Grant) and then (again, probably thanks to Grant’s influence) he popped up for a major and rather overwrought portion of 52.  Though all of 52 was overwrought.  Anyhow, I didn’t buy this series for A-Man, I bought it ’cause of Gerry Conway.  Conway’s my timeless standby from the golden age of comic writers – out of all the folks who’ve stayed around for the long run, he seems to maintain the most modern voice, mostly because he doesn’t try to be modern – he just likes comics, knows what good comics read like, and so writes a good comic story.  “Last Days” is Conway at some of his best – blending the pop soap that can make or break some of his work with a veteran’s view of a lived life.

So Buddy Baker is getting up there in years but still dons the suit, still fights the bad guys.  When he runs up against someone that gives him a run for his money, his powers suddenly fluctuate… and he’s then told that whatever alien gift granted him his powers, it’s now going away.  Baker takes a look at his life – the toll its taken on his son and daughter, now both grown and with different views of their father’s heroism, and the wear on his wife, who constantly has to worry about each fight being the last (where Conway can smartly tie the series into 52, which sent Baker on a space trip for a while) – and begins to wonder what it means that he’s losing his abilities.  Is he still a hero?  Is he still a man?

We’ve read stories of this nature before, reconciling the life with being human, and the struggle when one goes from being super to being normal, but there’s a wonderful feeling of weight and reality here, something that can be better brought to the tale by someone who’s actually had a fair share of years on the planet.  Artist Chris Batista also helps – a keen balance between realistic, formalized characters and flashy and flat comic book colors really pitches the story into the right realm of super-reality.  This makes the whole package of the series appealing, as Brian Bolland does his normally stellar cover job.  But it’s not just the cover, and it’s not just the art, and it’s not just the writing, it’s the way they all work in concert, which doesn’t get to happen with too many comics out there.

The humor and insightfulness of this somber story lose a little traction prior to the conclusion, as there’s some unnecessary confusion with adding extra villains and letting them wax on in comic fashion for a little too long, feeling, overall, like an extra issue of filler, but despite this, these are the kind of mature tales we wish we could point people to as evidence of the maturity in major publisher’s comics.