When a terrible tragedy befalls his family, an angry Animal Man embarks
on a journey to exact revenge on those responsible. Along the way he makes a
terrifying discovery about himself – that he is a fictional character living in
a comic book series.
Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina collects
Animal Man issues 18-26, written by
Grant Morrison.
Deus Ex Machina serves as the
final bow in Grant Morrison’s tenure on Animal
Man, becoming a culmination of all of the themes and concepts Morrison had
touched upon in preceding issues. While it may have started out as a
traditional superhero book, Animal Man abandons
all pretenses and becomes the ultimate in all things Meta. As such, there’s a
heck of a lot of dialogue regarding the nature of comic fiction and the
complications of writing for a serial medium. This includes engaging with
discussions regarding what happens to characters between panels, how large
scale events affect continuity, and the reality of what happens when characters
are not being used by a writer.
One of the most poignant sequences in this collection features Animal
Man venturing into limbo, where he encounters comic book characters that have
been discarded by their writers. It’s a humanistic approach to storytelling
that gets readers to think about the medium of fiction. When a character is not
currently being used by a writer, where do they go? Well, they remain in a kind
of hypothetical limbo until someone deems them worthy. A similar series of
events take place prior to this, where we see the many characters written out
of continuity due to Crisis on Infinite
Earths. There’s a sense of lamentation towards the Crisis and the loss that happens when change occurs.
The ultimate issue collected here, issue 26, features Animal Man coming
face to face with his writer. Grant Morrison’s insertion into the narrative
brings the series to the height of metafiction, which subsequently forces
readers to confront deep, existential subjects. Life and death become the
central themes within this collection, with Animal Man insisting that the fictional
death of his family was unfair and Morrison countering that with the real life loss
of his cat. Morrison also continues to tackle the very subject of writing. He
questions the effectiveness of writing about animal activism out of the fear
that it can become too preachy, much like he criticizes the gritty nature comic
book fiction had taken and how the return of Animal Man’s family may seem too
predictable.
As a whole, Deus Ex Machina tells
us more about Grant Morrison than it does Animal Man. Our titular hero flitters
about trying to put his life back together and find meaning in the loss of his
family, yet he’s merely a vehicle with which Morrison drives at a series of
difficult topics regarding life, death and fiction. Though this collection
pushes against the conventions of fiction and acknowledges the reader explicitly,
Morrison also shows he’s capable of crafting a story and smartly wrapping up an
impressive comic book run. Even at his most unconventional, Morrison (perhaps
unknowingly) wraps up the various loose ends present in the book, fills in all
of the plot holes and ultimately nails down who Animal Man is in this
Post-Crisis continuity.
RATING:
B
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