Gerry Conway’s Last Days of Animal Man 2, Word Balloon Interview

Gerry Conway's Last Days of Animal Man #2 continues Buddy Baker's descent into old age.  His powers are failing when he needs them the most, and in the cliffhanger from the previous issue, he needs help.  Who shows up to save Buddy?  Green Lantern.  But not any Green Lantern you already know.  This is an undetermined future in the DC Universe, and a cetacean GL is now in charge of our space sector!  I found this creature to be the most intriguing Lantern since Mojo (the sentient planet GL).  He has a similar problem to Mojo: how does he wear a ring?  In this case, it's embedded in his belly.

Chris Batista continues to do a superb job on the artwork.  I think it was challenging for him to figure out how this creature would operate the ring and use his powers.  The Mirror Master's daughter Prismatik shows up to kill Buddy, and she's quite a twisted piece of work.

Gerry Conway fans are going to want to check out his recent podcast interview with John Siuntres on Word Balloon.  I've been dying to know why Conway has returned to comics after years working in television, and the answer seems to be that comics just allow more freedom.  When Conway left comics over 15 years ago, he felt somewhat burned out on the medium.  Now he's recharged, as Last Days proves, he still knows how to tell a good story.  Siuntres also asks Conway about working with Roy Thomas on the early Marvel monsters books and the Death of Gwen Stacy story in Amazing Spider-Man.  Great interview.  Nuff said.