There seriously is a rant about the fact that Batman is a fascist in GD

This kind of Rod Serling-style twist ending was commonplace on Morrison’s ANIMAL MAN, which alternated between single-issue stories with well-crafted codas and longer, cliffhanger-style continued stories that moved forward the greater narrative. All of which kicked off in ANIMAL MAN #5, with “The Coyote Gospel.”

As the story opens, we see a strange wolflike creature run over by an 18-wheeler, then mysteriously, painfully regenerate and return to its feet.

As the creature is tormented by its continual deaths and excruciating resurrections, the reader starts to get it: It’s Wile E. Coyote. A passing Buddy notices the fracas between the creature and his attacker, and stops to check it out, where he’s given a document by the creature: The Gospel According to Crafty. Illustrated in a Looney Tunes style, the gospel tells of Crafty tiring of the continuous cycle of cartoon violence on his world, and offering to “bear any punishment that will bring peace to the world.” Crafty’s cartoonist Creator exiles Crafty to the world above, the “real world,” where he is made to suffer, in exchange for the peace of his own world.

Unfortunately, Buddy can’t read the scroll, and just then Crafty is downed by a bullet through the heart. In the final panels, Buddy stands confused by the dying Crafty, as the camera pulls back to reveal Crafty on the crossroads, crucified for his world’s sins, as his “Creator” uses a paintbrush to add the finishing touches to his suffering.

There’s a lot going on in this issue. The realistic approach to Crafty’s regeneration is wrenching, and makes it difficult to enjoy a Roadrunner cartoon for awhile afterward. We also have the first of many adventures for Buddy where he doesn’t quite know what’s going on, and feels like a bystander in his own life. The notion of Wile E. Coyote as a Christ figure is a startling one, and it plays directly into what would become the theme of the entire series: the tyranny of creation, as writers torment their fictional characters for our amusement, just as Crafty is tormented by his Creator, and as Buddy will eventually discover, just as he is tormented for ours.

And all of this comes under a stunning cover by Brian Bolland, who provided covers for the entire run, and who did a remarkable job of encapsulating not just the narrative of the story, but also the mood, in a single image.