Story by Paul Witcover and Elizabeth Hand
Art by Malcolm Davis and Chris Ivy
Anima first appeared in the 90s during DC's big crossover called BLOODLINES. It happened in their annuals. All of them. Each one introduced a new character who received their powers after being infected with an alien parasite left behind when said aliens attacked them with the purpose of draining their spinal fluid. One such character was Courtney Mason, a usually homeless grunge rocker. Out of all the new characters, Courtney/Anima was my favorite, and I can say I didn't really like most of the others, to be honest. But I found Anima interesting because she was a bit unconventional. She was the epitome of grunge. She and her band wandered from place to place, seemingly never truly having any sort of home. And her powers were intriguing. Thanks to the parasite, Courtney was given the power to tap into something called the Animus, an archetype of sentient energy that embodied mankind's rage and masculine drive. With this power, Courtney could leech the spirit essences of the living and the dead to grant her great strength and other physical powers.
The first issue of her series finds her sleeping under newspapers in front of a church, only to be awakened by a police officer and instructed to move along. She is a runaway. Her family remain unaware of her whereabouts, and Courtney herself remains unaware her mother is institutionalized at the Tellus Institute in California, tinkered upon by the cruel Dr. Maxilla Yale. Her father, meanwhile, has hired a member of the ODD to locate his daughter and bring her home.
Courtney needs food, so she attends a rave, and this is where she meets her future band mates Slam, Alison, Judy, and Liv, of the band they call Boojam. They offer her a place to crash, but Courtney refuses and leaves, only to be assaulted by a gang called the Scorpions. She drains the essence of one member, but she is outnumbered and needs to be rescued by Slam and his friends. She then agrees to squat with them at some abandoned tenement. The Animus within taunts Courtney continuously as she rests, adding to the disgust she feels being connected to such a creature.
However, the Scorpions track the group down and attack them, concentrating on Liv, who used to be a member of the gang until they raped her. With the help of the Animus, Courtney defeats the gang, nearly killing one member after sending him out a window, and then she agrees to go on tour with the band.
And so starts the adventures of Anima, a.k.a. Courtney Mason, a most unconventional heroine for certain. The art by Malcolm Davis looks a bit messy, but it fits with the type of story being told here. Back streets, grunge rockers, gangbangers, and teenage runaways litter this series. But it won't be long before the rest of the DC Universe comes knocking. And the Animus isn't the only archetype that will appear as this series marches on. He has family, and they are mean.
