Animal Man Vol 1 5

From DC Database

"The Coyote Gospel"

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Animal Man Vol 1 #5
Winter, 1988

Art Young, Karen Berger

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Have you any kind of idea of the terrible conditions these animals live in before they get dragged down to the slaughterhouse and turned into somebody's 'groceries'?

-- Buddy Baker

Appearing in "The Coyote Gospel"

Featured Characters:

Animal Man

Supporting Characters:

Villains:

None

Other Characters:

Billy (Single appearance) (In flashback only)
Carrie (Single appearance)
Crafty (Single appearance)
God (Cameo)
Unnamed truck driver (Single appearance)

Locations:

California

San Diego
Death Valley

Items:

The Coyote Gospel

Vehicles:

None

Synopsis for "The Coyote Gospel"

A truck driver for the Ajax Trucking Co. picks up a hitchhiker named Carrie. During their journey through Death Valley, he tells Carrie about his close friend, Billy, who passed away a short time ago. As they drive, the truck runs down a bipedal coyote-man wandering in the desert.

At the Baker residence, Buddy begins throwing away all of the meat in the refrigerator. Ellen enters the kitchen and Buddy tells her that they should become vegetarians. Ellen is furious at him for making such a decision without even discussing it, and Buddy leaves.

In the desert, the truck driver discovers that the coyote-man is still alive. Determined to finish him off, he sets off several traps, but the Coyote manages to survive each pitfall, reconstituting his broken limbs in the process.

While soaring through the air, Animal Man takes note of this and sets down in front of the coyote. The coyote (whose name is Crafty), gives him a scroll which tells of his exodus from another world. Buddy is unable to decipher the foreign tongue however.

From a high bluff, the truck driver loads a silver shell into his rifle and fires it. The silver strikes Crafty and kills him once and for all. Afterwards, the driver slumps over into the dirt, presumably dead.

Notes

This issue is reprinted in Animal Man: Book One.

The canoncity of this storyline is subject to speculation.

Trivia

Crafty is an intentional lampoon of the Warner Bros. character Wile E. Coyote.

Links and References