Something Rotten this Way Comes

First off, that is not a Shakespeare reference, it's a Bradbury reference, which is a Shakespeare reference, so maybe the title of the post is a highbrow reference, instead of an obscure sci-fi reference. But moving on.

Two months ago, I reviewed Animal Man and Swamp Thing #12 with mixed results. I spent most the time geeking out and going on overly long rants about how awesome Animal Man is. (It is.) I'll try to avoid that this week. Oh, and I hate myself for the ending joke. I had to wait two months...not one. Damn you, DC!

For those who are asking why the image above the break, because we needed an image there. Moving on. We'll start with Animal #13. A year has passed for the real world while out hero Buddy Baker was in the Rot. And it's gone down hill, and hard. Most life is dead, and the heroes of the world succumbed to the Rot. Hawkman appears in his zombified glory to try and kill Buddy.Times like this make me wonder if there was any part of Blackest Night that Buddy showed up, cause he has technically died, and so has his family. It's complicated. 

Buddy is saved by Black Orchid, Beast Boy, and Steel. I think I understand in some strange way now why BB is red now, because of the implication he is tied to the red some how. But that's still kind of stupid to make him big and burly. I liked the bean poll. Also Steel is just a robot now. After some talky they arrive at the Red's sanctuary, where Constantine stands and tells Baker he gone and screwed up, his families dead.

All through out this they cut back to one year earlier where Cliff has wandered off and Ellen, Maxine, and Socks are tracking him down. Dire things occur.

Swamp Thing now. Same set up for Buddy as for Alec. He wakes up to a wooden sword at his throat, created by Poison Ivy. She occupied by Dead Man. For the hell of it I think, don't think he's tied to the Green, Ivy makes sense. The only issue I have with either of these books is that they both have to cover the same ground. Our heroes need to learn that the world is destroyed, the worlds mightiest are slain and puppets of the Rot. And all hell's broken loose. It's a little dull reading it twice. But neither here nor there. Back on track. 

Alec finds the parliament of Trees, he tries and convinces them that he hasn't run away for a year, but been stuck in the Rot, and goes off to fight the Rotlings that come to the parliament. All the while, you guessed it, we get flash backs to the past with Abigail Arcane and the horrors she goes through. Wanna bet she's dead too?

Frankenstein had a previous run in with the Rot in a one shot back in issue 9 if I recall, and don't care to look it up, it was a mediocre issue. And the weakest of the Rotworld Specials. Frankie is confronted by his creator, who through some mumbo jumbo is still alive. He's abucted by vultures to go to Metropolis. It's been taken over, nearly destroyed. The Ant Farm, the safe house for S.H.A.D.E. is destroyed. And well, all is not well.

In case it isn't obvious not my favorite issue of the bunch. 

So we come to the end, and I'm going to make predictions. Some how, they go back in time and stop the spread of the Rot. Why do I say this? Because you can't kill off all the major characters in the DCU in a year's time. The editors would have a fit. 

So it's october. And the Family Event books are hitting off. We have Death of the Family, with Batman, Rise of the Third Army for GL, Rotworld for our Dark Friends, and H'el on Earth, a Super Family Cross over.

So get out those pocket books fans, this is gonna be a bumpy few months for mini events. All of course leading up into the Mega Event of DC "Trinity War" Spring next year.