the Last Days of Animal Man #2 - DC

I always liked Buddy Baker. I've always thought he was a great character. It makes me sad to see what he's going through in this series . . actually, what he's been going through for the last few years, really. This issue he's saved . . after his powers fritz-ed out on him at the end of last issue . . by Green Lantern. But this Blue Whale is no Green Lantern that I've ever seen. He claims that Buddy is a friend, of friends. That's why he came to his rescue. But Buddy is more upset about the possibility of losing his powers, and feeling sorry for himself, than actually realizing that, even though he's a Green Lantern, this Blue Whale is someone who cares. And someone who may be able to help. But Buddy pushes him away before that can be explored. And then he's attacked by the Mirror Master's daughter. Who? Well, we get a little retroactive continuity here and are introduced to Evan McCulloch's daughter. She calls herself Prisimatik. She goes after Buddy because she wants to make a name for herself and she thought she'd start with someone she was pretty sure she could beat. The problem is . . Buddy's pissed. And he realizes that his powers work when he's in close proximity of other animals. So . . he heads for the zoo. Of course she follows him there, and he's lead her right to the Silverback Gorilla cage. He almost beats her to death . . until the Justice League steps in. "Your wife called us. Ellen thought you might be in trouble when you didn't take her call. Looks like she was right." Actually, I really like the story that Gerry Conway and Chris Batista are presenting here. I didn't really expect much, but . . I like what we've gotten so far. It says it's the Last Days of Animal Man, but . . it doesn't say it's the last days of Buddy Baker. So, I'm assuming, Buddy is going to lose his powers, or . . they're going to change. He may not be Animal Man anymore, but . . that doesn't mean that he still won't be a hero. Again, we're only on issue #2 of 6, so we're really just at the beginning of our story. There's a whole lot of places that this could go, still. There's some fantastic potential here. If Gerry and Chris are daring enough.