DC's Young Animal was a "pop-up"[2]imprint ofDC Comics started in 2016.[3] It was developed in collaboration withGerard Way, an American musician and comic book writer, author ofThe Umbrella Academy. Its main focus was to relaunch characters and settings from theDC Universe in stories for mature readers, done with a more experimental approach than DC's primary line of superhero comics. The line was overseen byVertigo group editorJamie S. Rich and executive editor Mark Doyle.[4]
Gerard Way said that a shared theme of the Young Animal comics is "relationships between parents and children". Other themes he has cited are alienation, fame, change ("self-actualization and becoming something else"), as well as bullying, teenagers and drug use (inShade, the Changing Girl), and eventually "a lot of personal stuff for me inDoom Patrol that deals with mature themes".[5]
The imprint launched in late 2016 with four ongoing series:Doom Patrol,Shade the Changing Girl,Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, andMother Panic, followed in 2017 by a 6-issue limited seriesBug! The Adventures ofForager. In the middle of 2018 was a five-part crossover involving members of theJustice League, which was calledMilk Wars. Three of the series were then relaunched asShade the Changing Woman,Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye, andMother Panic: Gotham A.D., running for 6 issues under those names, along with the new titleEternity Girl, which also ran for 6 issues. The line was placed on hold in August 2018, with the 12th issue of the delayedDoom Patrol series going on sale the following October.[6]
One of the "Young Animal" titles,Doom Patrol resumed in July 2019, and was joined by two new titles,Far Sector andCollapser.[2]
Shade, the Changing Girl – byCecil Castellucci andMarley Zarcone[7] – is a continuation of the earlierVertigo seriesShade, the Changing Man. Here, an alien is obsessed with a discontinued line of missions to Earth undertaken with a "Madness Cloak". After taking the cloak, she becomes stuck on Earth in the body of a female high school bully who had been in a coma after nearly drowning in a lake.
Doom Patrol – byGerard Way and Nick Derington[10] – is another series from DC featuring freakish superheroes. The protagonist is Casey Brinke, an EMT who can only remember impossible things from her childhood. She is introduced intoDannyland, a seemingly impossible place that has the answers to her past and her future.
Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye – by Jon Rivera, Gerard Way, andMichael Avon Oeming[11] – is a revival of an obscure DC character, the underground explorerCave Carson. Twelve years after retirement, Carson joins his daughter Chloe in adventures, stealing his old digging machine and setting forth on a wacky adventure involving cults, mushrooms, and Superman.
Bug: The Adventures of Forager – miniseries by Lee Allred,Michael Allred, andLaura Allred[12] – is based on the 1970s Jack-Kirby-created characterForager.
Eternity Girl – miniseries by writerMagdalene Visaggio and artistSonny Liew[13] – began as a result of theMilk Wars crossover event. Caroline Sharp, a former super-spy, possesses the power of eternal life and seeks to end the universe in order to terminate her existence. Themes of depression and existentialism were explored throughout the 6-issue series.[14]
