I never knew I would love an Animal Man comic. But the plain and simple truth is I do. I really do.

What’s not to love? Jeff Lemire just has a talent for dialogue and character that is among the best in comics today. And that’s what makes this book so fantastic; the dynamics of this family as they are tossed in the middle of some rather terrifying circumstances. They are caught up in a web of horror (made real by the tag team artistry of Travel Foreman and Steve Pugh, with inks by Jeff Huey and colors by Lovern Kindzierski). Yet they interact like, well, a family.

Parents arguing about directions, siblings giving each other a hard time, trouble with the in-laws. It’s all so wonderfully normal that it makes the abnormal parts even more extraordinary.

For proof, look no further than young Cliff Baker. On one page, he’s a jealous brother griping to his dad. Then a couple of pages later, he’s making an awkward effort to impress some girls… Ad Dad gets back in the good books in a way most dads can’t but would if they could. That’s the magic here. The magic of family.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the artist team a bit further. Two artists on an issue often hurt it. Transitions can be jarring and take you out of the story. This might be expected in this issue because Foreman and Pugh both have very distinctive styles. But their styles compliment one another, particularly the way they broke the story up between them. It works, it works well and it prepares us for the full transition to Pugh in a way most books fail to do.

At turns horrific and hilarious with pitch-perfect dialogue and characters, Animal Man has risen to the top of the food chain (at least as far as my comics go).