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Animal Man

Origin - When Buddy Baker was a teenager he went out hunting and came in contact with an energy referred to as "The Red", "The Lifeweb", or the "Morphogenic Field". This energy, it was explained, is a force that ties all of the living animals on Earth together. Buddy soon discovered he was able to absorb abilities from animals that were near him. Eventually Buddy would become a member of the Justice League Europe. Unlike other characters Animal Man actually discovered he was a comic book character when he exited the pages of a comic and met the writer, Grant Morrison. Later, to explain it away, he fell into a coma and lost all memory of his meeting with Grant. Although having died many times, he has been brought back from death each time. The last time he was resurrected it was by a group of aliens claiming to be responsible for creating "The Red".

Powers and Abilities - The Red Conduit allows Baker to not only adopt the ability of any animal that ever lived on the Earth but it expands to include an immeasurable amount of the universe. He has shown the ability to mimic animals from other planes as well as animals that have long been extinct on Earth. The level of Buddy's abilities are proportional to the size of the animal they are drawn from. Hence, drawing the jumping ability from a flea would allow him to cover great distances. Tapping into the Red, Animal Man can also fire powerful blasts of force or unidentified energy. He can even use the primordial energies to start a new universe. In addition to his mimic abilities, Animal Man can make contact with animals, empathize with, "talk" to, see their thoughts and memories and, to a lesser degree, control them, by entering their minds. He can also transfer his mind to living animals of any kind, using their bodies as long as he wants to. This ability to transfer his life essence has allowed him to survive even when his body has been killed. Among the "animal powers" Buddy has been known to use are:

The strength of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The flight of a bird.
The swimming ability of a fish.
The speed of an ant.
The wall-crawling of a spider.
The sonic blast of a pistol shrimp.
The sense of smell of a moth.
The stench of a skunk.
The color changing of a chameleon.
The agility of a snake.
The electricity of an electric eel.
A worm's ability to re-grow lost body parts.
The reproduction abilities of protozoa.
The durability of a cockroach.

Weaknesses and Limitations - Buddy has the same weaknesses and limitation of a normal man his age however he can make up for some of these by using his ability. Whichever animal power he uses, he also adopts that animals specific weakness and limits.