10 Awful DC Superheroes Who Were Successfully Reinvented

3. Animal Man

Why He Was Awful

Before the Crisis in 1986, Animal Man had a grand total of 11 appearances since his conception in 1965. He teamed up with Wonder Woman in the eighties, but other than that, was a D-list superhero at best. He had the power to take on the abilities of any animal, which is a conceivably very cool, if potentially poorly defined, ability.

While it may be impossible to prove that before his re-invention, the character was terrible, it's not that hard to demonstrate that evidently nobody cared about him.

How He Was Fixed

Nobody, that is, except for Grant Morrison.

After making a name for himself on independent British comics, the Scottish writer was asked to pitch for DC, and his pitches for Animal Man and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth were accepted. Morrison introduced Buddy Baker, Animal Man, as an everyman in a super-powered world who, despite having powers himself, cared most of all about his family and €“- surprise €“- environmentalism.

While you may think that taking even an unpopular character and making him a de facto PETA ambassador is a step backwards, you'd be wrong. There's a reason the title was part of the British Invasion of comics that redefined the DC universe. Morrison showed us an aspect of the DC universe which we found interesting because we could relate to it. While Baker's vegetarianism may not have been shared with all of the readers of his title, they could identify with the character and therefore accepted readily that a hero with such a close link to the animal world would have trouble turning around and eating the very same creatures he draws his strength from.