Buddy Baker

An ordinary man who survived a mysterious hunting accident in the woods, Bernhard "Buddy" Baker discovered he could tap into Earth's morphogenetic field—the "Red"—to temporarily borrow the abilities of any animal nearby, becoming the hero Animal Man.

Few characters in DC's library have grown quite so dramatically from their Silver Age roots as Buddy Baker, who first bounded onto the scene in Strange Adventures #190 in 1966, courtesy of the creative team of Dave Wood and Carmine Infantino. What began as a classic Silver Age curiosity has blossomed across nearly six decades into one of DC's most enduring and beloved cult figures, with 110 catalog appearances stretching all the way to 2025 and three key issues that any serious collector will want to track down. His own Animal Man series is the heart of his legend, but he's also turned up in Justice League Europe and Detective Comics, sharing pages with the very biggest names in the DC Universe — Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Batman himself. Buddy Baker is proof that the Silver Age could plant seeds that bloom into something genuinely special — a character who rewards readers willing to dig deeper into DC's rich, sprawling history.