In the year and a half since the New 52 launched, Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder have crafted a deep and compelling mythology between their respective books “Animal Man” and “Swamp Thing,” culminating in the ‘Rotworld’ crossover. In this special double review, we’ll take a crack at the two-part ‘Rotworld’ finale, which in all actuality is anything but.
Written by Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder
“Animal Man” Illustrated by Steve Pugh and Timothy Green II
“Swamp Thing” Illustrated by Andy Belanger• The epic climax of “ROTWORLD” starts here and continues into this month’s SWAMP THING #17!
• All hope seems lost! Can Buddy find a way to stop the Rot before it takes over the world?
• Before that can even happen, Buddy must confront the horrible truth about the fate of his family.• The epic finale of “ROTWORLD” continues from this month’s ANIMAL MAN #17!
• What will it cost our heroes to stop this apocalypse from happening? The answer will blow your mind.
Just as Snyder and Lemire teamed up to kick ‘Rotworld’ off, the duo comes together again, co-writing this two part “finale.” The good news? ‘Rotworld’ finally delivers on all the awesome horror-fied DC universe antics that fans have been waiting for.
In “Animal Man,” we finally see Buddy Baker and Alec Holland reunite against Anton Arcane. Animal Man’s rag-tag “Justice League,” consisting of Lemire darlings Black Orchid and Frankenstein, as well as Steel, Beast Boy, and the Green Lantern Medphyll, go up against the rot infested vestiges of the real Justice League. Surprisingly, each character gets a share of the spotlight, and some characters get more time to shine here than in the rest of the New 52 altogether. Steel and Frankenstein in particular have a few moments that are sure to please fans, and likely elicit an “Aw Yeah!” from most readers. At the same time, Swamp Thing, Batgirl (or would that be Girl-Bat now?), and the refugees of Arkham battle against the rot-Superman. Snyder and Lemire do a great job of balancing both sides of the battle, leading up to the eventual meeting of the two armies. Unfortunately, the tension and energy of this huge battle is tempered by the excess of expository dialogue. Due to the complicated nature of several character’s abilites, much time is devoted to explaining what exactly is going on. It’s not anywhere near the level of say, Claremont’s X-Men, but it still detracts from the story when you come to a small paragraph explaining how Buddy is able to run really fast, or how to defeat a rotted Superman.
Regular “Animal Man” artist Steve Pugh handles Buddy’s side of the fight, while Timothy Green II takes the Swamp Thing battle. Pugh turns in some of his best work on the title yet. Everything is dynamic and his pages are jam-packed with content, not wasting a single bit of panel space. Lovern Kindzierski’s colors still don’t suit Pugh’s pencils quite as well as they did Travel Foreman’s, but it works in depicting this disgusting, post-apocalyptic world. Enough can’t be said about how much work all the artists involved in ‘Rotworld’ have put into making the mutated inhabitants of the DC universe unique and interesting. Pugh’s design for the rotted Flash is one of the absolute best of all, and seeing that monstrosity zipping around, decapitating soldiers in Frankenstein’s army is, disturbingly enough, a delight.
Green, who previously worked on the “Animal Man” Annual issue, comes in with a splash page that serves as a macabre portrait of Swamp Thing’s side of the battle, and is easily the best page of the entire issue. His rendering of Snyder’s “Warrior King” Swamp Thing is absolutely fantastic. Green draws Superman’s heat vision streams of flame, a unique take on the character’s signature ability that works well in setting this version of Superman apart and as a great visual contrasted against the vegetation of Swamp Thing. Joseph Silver colors Green’s pages, and does a great job of meshing with the pallet that Kindzierski has set for the series. The various shades of green he uses for Swamp Thing really make the character “pop,” and act as a refresher from all the dingy neutrals of Rotworld.
Continued belowIn “Swamp Thing,” our heroic duo makes the final push against Arcane as the situation continues to move from bad to worse. Arcane unleashes his last gambit and we finally learn the fates of Buddy and Alec’s closest loved ones. Whereas “Animal Man’s” dialogue issues stemmed from heavy exposition, “Swamp Thing” suffers from melodrama. Much of this issue consists of the good guys exclaiming in disbelief over their current predicament, or the bad guys spouting discouraging and menacing taunts. What should have been a powerful and emotional revelation comes off flat and meaningless, and far below the caliber of both writers involved. The issue’s quality picks up once the plot moves forward to the final confrontation, but the way “Animal Man’s” cliffhanger is quickly brushed under the rug is extremely disappointing.
Handling art on “Swamp Thing” is Andy Belanger, who previously drew the framing sequence in “Swamp Thing” Annual #1. Belanger turns in some absolutely fantastic work on this issue, bringing a style very reminiscent of Brian Hurtt’s work on “The Sixth Gun.” In fact, the tone of this issue is very similar to the first arc of that series. His depiction of the latest evolution of Arcane is fantastic, and far more visually interesting than the character has been portrayed in the series so far. One panel in particular, featuring Arcane standing, arm outstretched and against a backdrop of swirling cloud and bolts of lightning, really captures the elemental ferocity of the villain, making him more than just a creepy crawly monster. One minor gripe is that, while Belanger’s characters look great close up, his characters in wide shots are far less detailed, sometimes little more than quick sketches. Belanger covers these flaws with a fantastic eye for perspective, showcased by a multi-page aerial battle aboard an out of control Bat-bot.
As good as it is, Belanger’s art will likely cause some derision among readers. In general, Belanger’s style isn’t the best fit for ‘Rotworld,’ at least not as fans have come to expect it. His characters are far more animated and less realistic than Pugh or Green’s, or even previous “Swamp Thing” artists Yanick Pacquette and Marco Rudy, making this issue feel like a bizarre, cartoon interlude. Under different circumstances there would be nothing but praise for this issue’s art, but after nearly six months of grim and gritty, Belanger’s style is more than a little jarring.
As you read through the second chapter of the story, and the remaining pages begin to dwindle as the odds continue to stack insurmountably, you begin to wonder how in the world Lemire and Snyder are going to wrap everything up. The short answer is, they don’t.
Don’t you just hate misleading solicitations?
Since these issues were billed as the “finale” and the issue #18’s as the “epilogue,” many fans were likely expecting a firm conclusion to ‘Rotworld’ in “Swamp Thing” #17, which they sadly will not find. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Lemire and Snyder needing more issues to wrap things up. It could have been the plan all along to have the true ‘Rotworld’ finale in issue #18 of the respective books, which was miscommunicated somewhere down the line. However, when you come into an issue expecting to get some closure on a story that has been going for over half a year, only to find a “come back next month!” advert, it’s very easy to come away more than a little dissatisfied.
This calls into question the way comics are consumed and produced. Since the start of the New 52, DC has been particularly guilty of taking stories that could easily be told in 3-4 issues, and stretching them out to 5 or 6 issues, the perfect trade paperback size. This is hardly a new problem for mainstream comics, but in a story like ‘Rotworld,’ which is stretched even further across two books, it’s far more noticeable. ‘Rotworld’ has had a lot of fantastic moments and will likely read extremely well as a collected edition, but as an episodic story it’s been wearing thin for a few months now.
With all that said, Snyder and Lemire have changed the name of the game once again by the end of “Swamp Thing” #17. Readers have only one more month to wait before all the cards are laid bare, and we see what this turn of events means for our heroes. Snyder and Lemire may have got us this time, but the next issues of “Animal Man” and “Swamp Thing” are set to deliver the answers fans are craving. They have to…right?
Final Verdict: “Animal Man” #17 – 8.5. “Swamp Thing #17” – 6.5. Almost there…
