First off, I'd like to thank friend of the site Kristine Chester for the Shakespeare pun for this title, since my knowledge of the Bard is limited. (For the record, I thought of a really cool one to end this series on, then looked at the list she sent and it's on there...so...I feel less cool now) But this is the third week, not counting the prequel before the issue zeros, how are things going? Will our heroes prevail? Is Frankenstein still shit? We will see. As always, Spoilers ahead, so if you don't wish to know, please turn back.
Quick check on Rotworld. In Animal Man, the Red Kingdom, Buddy Baker found allies with Steel, Black Orchid, Beast Boy and John Constantine. They encountered Felix Faust who was working for Anton, and taunted Buddy about his "Little Wing" in their capture. The troupe went off and where ambushed by Gorilla Grodd. Oh, and in the past the Bakers (And Buddy's mother-in-law) are taken over by the rot, leaving Maxine to run off where she encounters William Arcane.
And that is where we find out heroes, under the mental assault of Gorilla Grodd. And the Doom Patrol villain Brain helping them. (Who knew) Since Steel is uneffect, he lets loose. Buddy manages to summon the strength of Grodd, and clocks him a good one. And while all this goes on, Frankenstein arrives and skewers Brain through the...brain...well...he's dead. The battle goes on for a few short pages. and all is well. Seems Frankie has a clock work army of sorts. (I say clockwork, because it sounds cooler than undead Frankenstein Monster army.)
Beast Boy steals a beret and bandolier from a dead ape. I find that funny. And they march on to Metropolis. Let's take a moment to check on Maxine. Seems she's gonna trust William. I wouldn't though, I saw the end of Swamp Thing #14. So turns out he lied about saving Maxine's mother, and now our lovely little girl is screwed.
Back to the future. So after long hard traveling, the humans of the group sack out in a caravan, where Buddy has prophetic dreams...again. This time, Cliff is found in the back yard with his guts torn out claiming to be a hero like pops. Creepy. We getting visions of the next story arc, I kinda hope so. We arrive at Metropolis, where a powerful being is locked down below. Who can it be? SUPERMAN! Green Lantern?? And...Alan Scott Green Lantern? Wait...What?
And that is where Animal Man leaves us.
Ohh Swamp Thing. Yay. My Second favorite book of this cross over. So when we lest left Frankie he was with Deadman heading towards Gotham City where super weapon to fight the Rot, so Swamp Thing can go to Anton Arcane and beat his ass. So of course, things don't go well. And William Arcane attacks from the sea, with Aquaman's Trident. (So yeah, foolish Maxine for trusting this kid.)
Well, Swamp Thing is struggling to survive being swallowed. He eventually bursts out, and William starts taunting him about the fate of Abigail. (We get far more of the past here than we did in Animal Man) I'll talk about Abigail at the end. Deadman sacrifices himself by possessing William. See this is moving Frankenstein, a character who has a build up of a book or two and does the right thing. I know it'll all be reset in the end, but damn it...it's touching. Deadman succeeds and Swamp Thing gets away. He arrives at Gotham pretty much unharmed and finds the Bat Cave, which I'm pretty willing to believe Swampy knows about. He finds Batman(?) who has been turned into a rotling. He's attacked and saved by Man-Bat! (Not really...but I like it) When the Bat thing with a shotgun transform we see Barbara Gordon offering our hero a welcome. And as a fan of a good pun the "Next: Asylum in Arkham" gives me a good giggle.
So Abigail. Well she got back to the homeland the previous issue, and was captured by Anton. And we join her tied up and Anton boasting, like the ego-maniacal supervillain he is. And considering he essentially took over the world and defeated Earth's greatest heroes, he deserves it. Let's be honest here, He pretty much won. Well turns out that Anton doesn't really need Abby anymore, cause he's gone and cloned her, a good several times. Seems he took a bite out of her a few issues ago and kept the meat...creepy. Abigail goes into creepy dream territory and freaks out, activating her Rot Powers and kills Anton. (Kinda...he'll come back) She does the smart thing and kills her clones, and runs off down further into the darkness. It seems that the "other" parliment is down there, and have been begging for help from Abigail since she was a little girl. She arrives there and finds the door opened, and proclaims. "I'm too late" Things are gonna get messed up soon.
F*** Off No! This book has gone down hill and is a horrible tie in. Horrible as hell. And I can see why from the front of this book. If you look at the covers above this issue you will see Part Three attached to their respective subtitles. And here we have Part Two. Now...there have been THREE Frankie Rotworlds. THREE! For F***'s Sake! For reference, the previous two issues had no "PART" anything. and Secrets of the Dead was also the subtitle for the Swamp Thing Annual. But, moving on. This is just the tip of the iceberg of I don't give a shit.
So where were we? Right Everyone had sacrificed themselves for Frankie so he could kill a leviathan to build Victor's death machine that made our hero here. We get introduced to a group of women who made themselves machines, and their island paradise was the home of one of the leviathan things. Are they supposed to be Amazonians? Don't know, don't really give any hint besides their all women and on an island paradise. Oh, and they all sacrifice themselves to help Frankie. (Sensing a pattern here...)
So they collect the pieces and build the machine. Victor Arrives on an army, and what's left of people to fight for Frankie go off an die. The machine is finished and Frankie shoves Victor through it, killing him. Oh and Mina's there. She goes through with them, and she's turned into a Frankstein's Monster. We end on a "And our baby" moment, and get told to read about them in Animal Man. (Note, Mina isn't in Animal Man, will she be in next months issue, who knows. But Frankie's book ends here, and next month is his going away party. Which has nothing to do with the Rot or Rot World so the question is, is the story a prequel to this, or just a, when all is set right again type thing. Who knows...who cares...I'm not sure I'm gonna buy it.
Animal Man = 5 out of 5
Swamp Thing = 5 out of 5
Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. = F*** off book.
That's because I'm awesome. :)
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