If you think you have problems with your family, then you need to look at the life of a young man called Osiris. He started out as the brother of Adrianna Tomaz, but then he was captured by the mutated anthropomorphic minions of Whisper A’daire. He was beaten so brutally that his legs were destroyed, and then he was saved by the magic of Shazam.
Now he is magically super powered, and he believes that he has not only gained the powers of Black Adam, but he has also gained his thirst for blood. So where’s a young sidekick with the powers of Shazam to go besides the Rock of Eternity? Black Adam has some issues in his family, and I don’t think they can be resolved within a half hour, like some network TV sitcom. Unlike Isis, Osiris was not a willing subject to be transformed by the powers of Shazam.
Enough quality family time. What really needs to be talked about is a man named Buddy Baker. By now, you know buddy Baker by another name: Animal Man. Left for dead (because they thought he was) by his fellow heroes in the depths of space, Buddy thought he was all alone. So he might really die this time! However, the man who wrote the Animal Man miniseries for Vertigo, Grant Morrison, is one of the writers at the helm of 52. So I‘m betting that Animal Man will survive at least until the end of this missing year. We’ll have to wait an issue or two to see if Animal Man can make it back home to his wife and kids.
Like the cover of this issue, I may have acted as if this issue’s all about Animal Man, but it’s more about Black Adam and his new family, especially Osiris. This issue is a shocking one, not only because of the last two or three pages, but because of the return of a powerful villain the space heroes previously encountered. This villain’s return wasn’t very surprising, but in the last couple pages I knew I should have seen it coming, but I didn‘t think it would actually happen. I honestly didn’t know DC could go that far with its violent content, but I’m glad they didn’t hold back. As we get closer to the end of 52, the series continues to be my favorite read out of my stack of comics.
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