| Few people have lived such a varied life as
Buddy Baker. The super-hero. The family man. The animal rights activist.
The scourge of human society. The religious symbol. The cosmic philosopher.
All parts of what he is first and foremost: the Animal Man. Even the origin of his powers is uncertain after all
these years. Was it an alien spaceship that exploded in his face, imbuing
him with radioactivity? Or a spell of an ancient animal master shaman,
connecting him with the Lifeweb? Or was it an even greater force behind
all this? Buddy's memories have been obscured by various events in his
life, periods of amnesia, periods in coma, transformations, deaths and
rebirths, encounters so strange he has not been able to grasp the
proportions of them... What is known is that, in his late teens, Buddy was a
happy hell raising punk rocker. One fall afternoon he went hunting in the
Adirondack Mountains... and when he returned home, he had changed.
Whatever it was, something in the woods had connected him to what is
variously referred to as the Red, the Lifeweb, or the Morphogenetic Field
- the force that binds together every living animal on Earth. Encountering
some escaped animals from a nearby zoo, Buddy discovered that in the
presence of an animal, he was able to absorb its special abilities. He was
now the Man With Animal Powers. At the suggestion of his best friend, Roger Denning,
Buddy donned an orange-and-blue costume (and on occasion, a black one)
starting a minor career as the super-hero Animal Man. Partly for kicks,
partly as a way to promote their rock band, Buddy actually managed to do
several heroic deeds, ranging from foiling a few robberies at the local
pet store, to battling actual space aliens and odd crooks such as the Mod
Gorilla Boss. After a few years of adventuring, Buddy retired his
Animal Man identity, married his high-school girlfriend, Ellen Frazier,
and moved to San Diego. Living on the salary from Ellen's work as an
illustrator and Buddy's newly-started career as a movie stuntman, the
couple mortgaged a house in the suburbs and raised two children, Cliff
and Maxine. Buddy thought his super-hero days over, but that was to
change. After stumbling on an ancient golden pyramid, he was contacted by
the mysterious Immortal Man. Joining up with other has-been adventurers -
including Cave Carson, Dane Dorrance, and Dolphin - who had encountered
similar pyramids around the world, Animal Man became part of the
organization called the Forgotten Heroes. Under Immortal Man's direction,
the group were able to destroy the pyramids, saving the world in the
process. For a time, the group stayed together, opposing threats such as
Vandal Savage and the Forgotten Villains. During the world-shattering
event known as the Crisis, Immortal Man (seemingly) sacrificed his life,
and soon after, the Forgotten Heroes disbanded. Buddy returned to his family life, although the thought
of superheroics was still nagging in his head. He wanted to make a
difference, but had to support his family as well. Convinced that there
was still a place for Animal Man in this world, Buddy resumed his
full-time superhero career, battling villains such as the new Mirror
Master and a delirious B'wana Beast. He also assisted in foiling the
Invasion of Earth by the Dominators. Still not satisfied, Buddy made the
decision to become a protector of animal life on Earth. He sabotaged
foxhunting in England, dolphin slaughter on the Faroe Islands, and animal
experiments all over the USA. He worked with Vixen to overthrow the
government of M'Changa, and with the Freedom Beast to oppose the apartheid
powers of South Africa. About this time, he learned from a scientist named
James Highwater that his powers were greater than he initially had
believed, due to his previously unknown contact with the Morphogenetic
Field. Becoming a member in good standing of the European
branch of Justice League International (which he could access via a
teleporter in his basement), he was also able to draw a monthly salary. As
part of the JLE, he battled the Queen Bee, the Time Commander, and the
wrath of Dr. Irwin Teasdale. The media wrote lots about him and his
popularity increased. Everything was going his way... ...And then it wasn't anymore. After a fireman had
accidentally been killed in a fire started by his animal activist group, a
shocked Buddy began to reconsider the path he had chosen. Though still a
convinced vegetarian, environmentalist and animal rights activist, he
asked himself if superheroics and illegal sabotage activities were the
right ways to go. Refusing to become a role model, he quit the Justice
League and the activist group, attempting to hang away his super-hero
costume for good. Then, when a corporate organization (worried about the
popularity of the left-wing Animal Man) threatened to kill his family if
he did not stop doing his deed, Buddy teamed up with the Mirror Master to
oppose them. Suddenly, he found himself in the role of a hero once again,
getting tangled up in saving the world from a second Crisis at the hands
of the Psycho-Pirate, and ultimately, believe it or not, learning the fact
that he was a comic book character. He even got to meet his writer, Grant
Morrison, in person. Naturally, Buddy was not allowed to remember such
revelations for long. Some time after these events, he woke up from a coma
with amnesia. This would have been his return to normal life, had it not
been for the fact that the world he woke up in was that of an alternate
Buddy Baker. In this world, Ellen had divorced him, America was controlled
by a right-extremist corrupt government, and Buddy himself had no control
over his powers. After a series of weird adventures, Buddy could finally
return to "his" world. Once again a movie stuntman, Buddy continued as a
part-time superhero, but his life was to get weirder still. His powers
continued to malfunction; birds died when he was flying, he absorbed
animal behavior and appearance unexpectedly, and animals around him acted
strange. After his powers accidentally had killed every animal on the San
Diego Zoo, Buddy and his family moved to Ellen's mother's farm in Pownal,
Vermont. Later, it was revealed that the reason for this "animal
weirdness" was the coming of a hostile Animal Antagon, a.k.a. the
Shining Man. During this course of events, Buddy encountered a Native
American shaman named "Stone That Cracked Open the Earth Like an
Egg", who revealed that Buddy was one of a group of chosen called the
Animal Masters, destined to be the guardians of nature. Together with
fellow Animal Masters Vixen and Tristess, Animal Man was able to defeat
the Shining Man, who had already corrupted, possessed, and killed B'wana
Beast, still another Animal Master. He also learned that his daughter
Maxine was an Animal Master as well, developing powers similar to his own. Settling down at the farm in Vermont, Buddy's next
mission was to fetch back his son Cliff, who had been kidnapped by Ellen's
insane uncle Dudley. While looking for his son, Buddy was run over by
Dudley's car and actually died. His life-force survived, however, and
after many months living in the bodies of various animals, he was reborn
as a hybrid animal and saved Cliff. Later, he was able to re-create his
original body. Still, Buddy was now legally deceased, which he did not
really mind. He had tired of city life and superheroics, being content to
live in peace on the farm with his reunited family. Fearing that nature
would inevitably get rid of the vermins called humans, he started thinking
of ways to make them understand what they were doing to their planet.
Ellen's mother's farm became something of an "ark", a refuge for
outcasts who did not fit in anywhere. Among them were a woman named Annie
Cassidy, who also stood in contact with the Red, and her daughter Lucy,
who started a relationship with Cliff. More and more, Buddy felt the animal instincts in him
taking over. Overwhelmed by the power of the Red, Buddy and Annie made
love to each other. The strengthened connection to the Red made Buddy step
over the line, and once again adopt the appearance of a hybrid animal.
Flying in rage to Washington D.C., he plagued the city with all kinds of
animals, threatening humanity to change their ways or go under. At the
end, the authorities captured him, but he was released soon after, partly
due to a lot of compassion from many Americans, who believed this
"Animal Man" had a point. Then, Annie came up with an idea; Buddy wanted to change
the ways of humanity, they all wanted to make a difference, and they
already had many followers. Why not start a cult, or a religion, with
Buddy as an "enraged prophet" and Maxine as the savior -
the Life Power Church of Maxine? Though they met a lot of resistance from
the authorities, the Church immediately grew in popularity, especially
among young people. Ellen could not cope with all this, especially not
after Buddy revealed that he had had kind of an "affair" with
Annie. Alienated by their community, and the forces she did not
understand, she finally broke up with Buddy - at least temporarily. Buddy,
Maxine, Cliff, Annie, Lucy, and their followers traveled across the state,
picking up countless new "disciples" and rebelling animals in a
wild caravan on Route 66. Dubbed "the Red Plague" by the media,
they finally settled down as a Church in Montana. After this, Buddy entered what we can refer to as his
"cosmic phase". Once again, he died and was reborn, this time
with a white-and-black-striped hair. While his friends worked with the
Church's activities on Earth, Buddy became less aggressive, making an
odyssey through various realms in search for universal truth. He had many
revelations from agents of higher power, among them a spiritual bulldog
named Mister Cow (!) Ultimately battling an evil called the Spider Queen,
Buddy finally realized that the truth was inside him. Just as diamonds and
coal are the same substance, so is the divine and the human. Buddy, as
well as anybody else, was the Body of God and the Soul of the World. With
this knowledge, he easily defeated the Spider Queen. Shortly after, Annie
gave birth to his second daughter, supposedly a human incarnation of the
World Soul. The next time Buddy appeared, a competitive supervillain
called the Gamesman had kidnapped Maxine, just for playing a hunting game
with Buddy. With the help of Aquaman,
Buddy was able to defeat the Gamesman and save Maxine. In the process, he
guided the temporarily blind Aquaman, making him realize he had elemental
connections. Maybe this adventure was the spark that Buddy needed to
return to his super-hero life, because a few months later, Animal Man
appeared in public again, dressed in his old colorful garb, and once again
with blond hair. He has assisted the JLA on several occasions, even
helping them saving the universe in their battle against Mageddon. At the
start of the new millennium, Buddy attended a party together with the
Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man, Black Orchid, and other fringe
heroes. Together they helped stopping the coming of a new strange world as
envisioned by a Bernie Madden. He has also rejoined the Forgotten Heroes,
joining the Immortal Man and Resurrection
Man in battle against Vandal Savage and the Millennium Creature. Buddy
remains a semi-active member of the Forgotten Heroes, joining up with
other members when the need arises. It seems as if Buddy Baker is trying to turn his back on
weirdness, attempting to resume a "normal" super-hero life. But
if history is any evidence, weirdness will inevitably find its way back
into Buddy's existence. The current whereabouts of his family and his
friends, as well as the status of the Life Power Church, are unknown. |
