Animal Man: Difference between revisions

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: The title of Morrison's last issue. Played with brilliantly.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Buddy almost offs himself when his family is killed.}}

* [[Enfant Terrible]]: Peter Milligan's run had three of them. The Angel Mob, made up of Matt, Mark, and Lucinda Angel, were fraternal triplets with psychic powers who had it out for the President. They turned out to be [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|well-intentioned]], as one of them read the President's mind and discovered that he really hated children and wished he could've rounded them all up and have them shot. {{spoiler|After they've formed a deal with Animal Man and the government, the President turns on them and has them captured for dissection. So this turns out to be a [[Justified Trope]] as they had ''very'' good reason to not like the President.}}

* [[Foreshadowing]]: During his peyote trip, Buddy sees an image from the [[Crisis On Infinite Earths|Crisis]], then another one that tells of a second Crisis. Whether it is foreshadowing the events in the comic (with the Psycho Pirate), [[Zero Hour]], ''or'' [[Infinite Crisis]] is your own guess.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: After Buddy's {{spoiler|wife and children are killed}}.

* [[Heroic Dolphin|Heroic Dolphins]]: One story features Animal Man saving dolphins from murderous Scandinavian townsfolk who kill them for fun. At the end, one of the dolphins saves an evil townsperson from drowning.

* [[Justice League of America]]: Well, technically, Buddy joins [[West Coast Team|Justice League Europe]].

** He's also their unofficial consultant on weird stuff to do with animals, for instance in ''JLApe'' ("[[Medium Awareness|Oh God, I'm important to the plot...]]") and the end of Morrison's [[Justice League of America|JLA]] run.

* {{spoiler|[[Rage Against the Author]]}}

* [[Reality Ensues]]: Played with. When Crafty, an antropomorphic cartoon coyote, comes to the "real world" (the comic books world, actually), he retains his ability his ability to regenerate himself from every mortal wound. But instead of being innocent and bloodless, like on his cartoons, well... let's just say how Morrison describes, and SHOWS it, it goes just [[Body Horror|gross]].

* [[Red Herring]]: In Dwayne McDuffie's run on [[Justice League of America]], Anansi (the spirit who gave similarly powered hero Vixen her powers) tried to state that Buddy got his powers from ''it'', saying that it was always the yellow aliens. However, not only is Anansi an [[Unreliable Narrator]], he retroactively rewrites himself out of the event, restoring Buddy's connection with the '''real''' yellow aliens.

** As well, the yellow aliens have stated that ''they'' posed as Anansi to make the totem that gives Vixen her power. Which means that either the yellow aliens impersonated Anansi, Anansi impersonated the yellow aliens...[[No Fourth Wall|or there is simply a man with a typewriter in a room]].

** Animal Man and Rip Hunter meet for the first time. Apparently their pre-Crisis team-ups were no longer canon. Though they seem to wonder if they ever met before.

*** In the latest New 52 reboot of the series it's revealed that his powers may have come from Yellow Aliens, but those aliens are stated to be agents of The Red, implying a mystical origin.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: See above, [[Break the Cutie]].

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: {{spoiler|Morrison himself, ending his run with both Buddy and Morrison's [[Author Avatar]] criticizing his writing.}}

** In issue 16 a tyrannosaurus goes on a rampage in Paris. When we first see it, it's standing next to a street sign that reads "Rue de [[Ray Harryhausen|Harryhausen]]".

* [[Show Within a Show]]: The Penalizer, a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[The Punisher]], during Tom Veitch's run of the comic.