Rotworld. The mega cross over book of the year. Sure you can have your Court of Owls. Your Avengers vs X-Men. But none shall hold a candle to Rotworld, the Animal Man and Swamp Thing Cross over. (Featuring other books in the Dark family.)
For two reasons. One, every book that will be apart of this cross over will be good. (I'm looking at you Red Hood. And you...Avengers vs X-Men.) And two, more than two issues are written by Scott Snyder. Let us dive into Rotworld Prequel.
This is spoiler heavy, so If you want to read them, do not read this. I can't recommend these two enough, and they aren't bad jumping on points for new readers to either of these series.
Animal Man 1-11: Buddy Baker is an Animal Activist, and super hero. He also has a wife and two kids, that is important. Our story starts proper with Buddy have a dream about the Rot, and wakes to find his daughter able to bring dead animals back to life, all zombie like. We go on a marry ride where the Hunters Three (Rot creatures that take over human bodies), track down and attack Buddy and his family.
They head off to Buddy's mother-in-laws home, and of course she hates him. All the while Maxine, Buddy's Daughter, is developing better control of her powers. Buddy and Maxine go into the Red. (We'll talk about the Red, Green, and Black, later.) We learn that Maxine is the next Avatar, and Buddy must protect her. Also, one of the head people in the Red become a cat, and leaves the Red with them. His name is Socks. Moving on.
In the middle somewhere in here we get a beautiful one off issue about the movie Buddy stared in, but that isn't important. Back to the plot.
Buddy is killed allowing time for his family to escape (they don't know he's dead). The Rot takes his body, and his spirit is in the Red. He speaks with the Head bastards in the Red, and they trot out a reference to Grant Morrison, and rebuild him. While this goes on, The Rot buddy takes Cliff, Buddy's son, and does something or other to him. Buddy returns in time, and saves Cliff, but Cliff goes into a comma, and we launch into issue #12.
But wait, there's more. Swamp Thing 1-11
This will be shorter, since this was a bit more, arty, and slower. Alec Holland (Swamp Thing) is offered to be the Avatar of the Green, which he turns down. He meets Abigail Arcane, they have a weird romance, since we find out that she's apart of the Rot, answers forth coming. They go off to find her brother, who is also connected to the Rot. When they meet, the Rot consumes Abigail, making her it's queen. The Parliament of Trees is attacked and nearly destroyed. Alec is able to find what's left, and they bestow upon him the mantle of Swamp Thing, and die. (don't worry, they come back)
Swamp Thing goes in and beats the crap out of The Rot for a bit, and is badly beaten back. We arrive at an ancestral home of Abigail, and we meet her Uncle, Anton, who was an avatar for the Black. A brief confrontation, and he's beaten back. And we end with Animal Man, his wife and daughter showing up. See, that was shorter.
I am aware that both these series have a whole bunch of references to previous volumes, but I don't know them all, so I'm not going to reference any besides the quick Grant Morrison one. And now we can dive into Rotworld, after that long and dull introduction.
Issue 12 of Animal Man is the Part 1 on Rotworld.
We get a moment with Ellen Baker looking over Cliff, who is in a coma. One of the strongest traits for Animal Man is his family, and we get to see that in these first few pages. Ellen is starting to frazzle at the edges, you can tell she hates this, she loves her husband, but she hates what happens around him. We get a touching moment with the Mother-in-Law, who hates Buddy, but knows he loves Ellen, Maxine, and Cliff. It's a moment that works well.
Another plus to this book, the art. It's not for everyone, but I like it. We get a page of Socks teaching Buddy about more of how to use his powers, and Maxine's joy. We get to where Swamp Thing ended with Issue 11. We cut back to Mother-in-Law taking care of Cliff. She leaves for a moment and when she returns he's gone. Remember that long painful text summarizing what happened in 11 issues, well, the next two pages does that far better.
We get a vision of the future, dead heroes (Flash) and people on horseback (Frankenstein?) and the Rot with Anton Arcane. We get the obligatory fight between Ellen and Abigail when she learns Abigail is tied to the Rot, but it's dealt with quickly and thank the writers for that.
We have our sweet good byes, between Buddy and his wife and daughter. Alec and Abigail. So off we get into the Rot. Someone does the smart thing and Swamp Thing tethers himself to a tree before jumping in. Our heroes land in the Rot. Cliff is wondering the streets like a zombie going "Rotworld is coming." And The Rot comes pouring out of the portal, and we end there, But fear not. Part 2 came out the same week, so no wait!
Swamp Thing #12
Sweet, no month long wait.
Now anyone who has been reading these reviews, retellings, and ego trips of mine, know that I am horrible at describing fight scenes, mostly because I don't feel like going from panel to panel telling you what's happening. So this may go pretty quick. We have two fights going on at once, Animal Man and Swamp Thing's fight with their loved ones. In order to stop the flood of the Rot coming in, Socks informs Abigail to use her connection to it, to close the portal. She does so, leaving only enough for The tether to stay in place.
We join our other heroes as they fall deeper into the Rot, and find out that Buddy has lost his connection to the Red. Swamp Thing catches him and we get a moment of reflecting on how screwed they are. We cut back to the family up top, and they discuss Abigail's connection to the Rot. A good catch up of those plot points.
We're back to Swamp Thing and Animal Man as they are confronted by Anton Arcane, who gloats, about his master plan, and does the smart thing. He cuts the tether. Those up top notice this, and the Rot starts to poses Abigail, not to the horrible state she was before, but she can feel it's power surging in her. And we get one of the best panels in both these books.
The emotion in that drawing, I feel that Sock's pain. Moving on.
The party up top breaks up, with Ellen taking Maxine away, hoping to keep them safe. Abigail is able to tap into the Parliment of Decay that runs the Rot. And she vows to attack them at their heart.
We end with Anton Arcane explaining to our heroes how he has already won. He reveals that time works differently in the Rot, and that they have been gone a year. And they are dropped back into the real world, a year later. And we end with our two heroes totally boned.
Wait...now I gotta wait a month! DAMN!
Well, We are done with this double dose of reading. This has been longer than I expected, but I love these books, and I want this cross over now. Why do I have to wait damn it!
Ratings? Animal Man gets a full on 5. Swamp Thing a 4 1/2.
To me, Animal Man has been pitch perfect of a Horror/Thriller title. I may not get the creeps and chills, but I know that's just me, It's a wonderful book. Swamp Thing has been good, the art is beautiful, but I always feel like too little happens in them.
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