Animal Man: Wait, what?

So, way back when, Animal Man's origins were simple.

He was in the woods, alien space ship explodes, he gets powers. Yay.

Later it's revealed to be intentional on the aliens part, and this is all some sort of experiment or something. Whatever, cool.

Then, in Animal Man #50-ish, it's shown that it wasn't actually aliens, it was some medicine man with drugs. And stuff. And apparently, he's connected to nature and gave all the totem characters (Buddy, Vixen, etc) their powers. Ugh, retcon.

Then in 52, without addressing the medicine man (as far as I'm aware, I had to stop reading because it was so bad), the aliens return and fix up Buddy's powers so now he can tap the universal "red".

Then in JLA, Anansi claims that he's responsible for the totem powers, via manipulating the Earth's "red".

So... is there an official background for Animal Man? I know DCU website was claiming that it was aliens prior to JLA, and I am all muddled and confused.

Perhaps Anansi is one of the aliens? Otherwise I think the most recent history is assumed to be the canonical one.

Originally posted by Original Smurph
So, way back when, Animal Man's origins were simple.

He was in the woods, alien space ship explodes, he gets powers. Yay.

Later it's revealed to be intentional on the aliens part, and this is all some sort of experiment or something. Whatever, cool.

Then, in Animal Man #50-ish, it's shown that it wasn't actually aliens, it was some medicine man with drugs. And stuff. And apparently, he's connected to nature and gave all the totem characters (Buddy, Vixen, etc) their powers. Ugh, retcon.

Then in 52, without addressing the medicine man (as far as I'm aware, I had to stop reading because it was so bad), the aliens return and fix up Buddy's powers so now he can tap the universal "red".

Then in JLA, Anansi claims that he's responsible for the totem powers, via manipulating the Earth's "red".

So... is there an official background for Animal Man? I know DCU website was claiming that it was aliens prior to JLA, and I am all muddled and confused.

The alien space ship was just a public story.

The true nature of his powers is that he was a recipient of a spell cast by a shaman that made him connect with the lifeweb.

-Official news

We need another Crisis to patch this up.

😂

Originally posted by kgkg
The alien space ship was just a public story.

The true nature of his powers is that he was a recipient of a spell cast by a shaman that made him connect with the lifeweb.

-Official news

Originally posted by Original Smurph
ORLY?

Official Bio (2004-5)

Hope that answer some of your questions

Originally posted by kgkg

Official Bio (2004-5)

Hope that answer some of your questions

I knew that.

But then the aliens showed up in 52, and Anansi just appeared in JLA.

To further complicate things, Gerry Conway is making his big return to the comics writing scene with an "Animal Man, thirty years in the future story," which I'm both very nervous and very excited about- Buddy has always been a favorite of mine.

Originally posted by tjcoady
To further complicate things, Gerry Conway is making his big return to the comics writing scene with an "Animal Man, thirty years in the future story," which I'm both very nervous and very excited about- Buddy has always been a favorite of mine.

Hmmmm

I have trepidation. But it could be awesome.

Gerry Conway was pretty damn awesome back in the day; on the other hand, it's been like, what, two decades since he wrote a comic?

Meaning it's either going to be awesomely epic or awful. The interview on Newsarama makes it sound like Conway knows what's up, still, though. And that he has a handle on Buddy's character.

Originally posted by tjcoady
Gerry Conway was pretty damn awesome back in the day; on the other hand, it's been like, what, two decades since he wrote a comic?

Meaning it's either going to be awesomely epic or awful. The interview on Newsarama makes it sound like Conway knows what's up, still, though. And that he has a handle on Buddy's character.

Link to interview?