Something Rotten in the State of DC!

Something Rotten in the State of DC!

What? I love my puns. These things take time and creativity. But lets look at November's Rot Books. (And end of October.) So how do our heroes do in Part two of the Rot.

Oh look, Swamp Thing Annual. What does this have to do with Rotworld? Nothing much actually. It takes place during Swamp Thing #14, and does a look into the Past when Alec first met Abigail Arcane. Not much going on here, but it has Rotworld across the top, so...yes.

We rejoin Animal Man in the Red Zoo. Our heroes are stand against a new assault from the Rot, led by Felix Faust, who hasn't been turned Rot, but has sided with Anton, because Felix is weird like that. Eventually the gang beats back the rot and Felix does a maniacal taunt about Maxine Baker being in Anton's Castle, and he disappears, like the little magic bitch he is. And so our five band of merry men (and woman) head out. (Constantine, Steel, Beast Boy, Black Orchid, and Buddy himself, for those who are curious.)

Oh we get a brief flash back to the present (past?) Maxine is running from her newly rotted family. She comes to an abandoned diner, and finds a young man crying. Who can guess what happens? Come on, it's easy. The young man is William Arcane.

Our cliff hanger? Well as our fellowship sit by the fire, a new threat emerges. Grodd and his Gorillas!

Swampy! Aw, so you get to fight the Teen Titans. And beat their ever lovin' asses thanks to the power of the Green. We get caught up on that the Parliament believe Abigail is dead, Alec refuses to believe it and goes off after a weapon to defeat the rot. Which was being built in...wanna guess, I know you do. Well guess, and we'll come back to the answer momentarily.

While Swamp Thing is setting off on his journey, we get flashbacks to the present. Abigail survived the plane crash. (yay!) and we find her sneaking back into her home town, and ancient eastern European city, Blestemat. (See, I looked it up) She essentially gets to his castle, and is confronted with the old man himself. Back to Swamp Thing.

Well our hero is on his way to Gotham City. Of course Batman was making that weapon. So he makes a giant leaf boat and it's promptly eaten by a squid thing. And William Arcane stands atop it with the Trident of Aquaman. 

Do I have to? This book kinda sucks. Not just kinda, it does. Frankenstein and Velcoro fight some monsters looking for pieces of machine that Victor Frankenstein made to create things. That's what happens. Oh, and Velcoro dies. 

Why does this book suck? Well for one, it feels weirdly disjointed not only from the previous books (Which we falling apart for me anyway) but also from Rotworld as a whole. Frankie here feels like it's supposed to be a bridge of that year between when Animal Man and Swamp Thing disappear and the one year later bit. Now from just looking at this, we know that Animal Man and Swamp Thing have to stop the invasion of the Rot in the past, because the DCU would be destroyed, that's a given, no surprise there. They have a clear break, with the short bits of the present, and the adventure in the future. But Frankie here doesn't have that clear when would he be involved vs when he would start over vs who gives a flying F***!

Also it's boring. who would think three straight monster fights would be dull.

Let's wrap this up before i get too depressed. Both Animal Man and Swamp Thing seem to keep ending on the same cliff hangers. Last time it was "You're family/lover is/are dead." (Complicated sentence!) this time it's "I am William Arcane!"