Swamp Thing #15

The Rotworld crossover rolls on this week in part three of The Green Kingdom as Alec and Boston Brand make their way towards Gotham City.  The story picks up with a confrontation between our two heroes and William Arcane's army of rotten fish.  With Swampy's powers fading, the boy proves to be a tougher adversary than in the past and it doesn't help that he seems to have some misplaced feelings towards his sister.  Speaking of Abigail, she gets a bigger role this month as we see her confrontation with Anton, who has a sick surprise in store for her.  In the last few pages, Swamp Thing arrives in Gotham and we find out just how ravaged it has been by the Rot.

Last month Swamp Thing fans were spoiled by two excellent issues back to back.  This month we get a single issue, but it's packed full of surprises and developments.  People die.  New characters are brought in.  More of what happened to Abigail is revealed.  And more questions are raised and intrigue is heightened.  You could almost say too much is packed into this issue, as some of the events are somber enough or important enough to possibly warrant spending more time on, but hey - some say Rotworld is going on forever as it is.  Either way, you'd have to agree Snyder has delivered another great chapter of his story.

Marco Ruby is back on this issue subbing for Yanick again.  I gave much thought to how to describe my feelings on him and it goes like this:  I can't draw to save my life, but I'd love to.  I might trade my non-dominant hand to draw like Bernie Wrightson.  I might give my left nut to have Yanick Paquette's skill.  To be as good as Marco I might sacrifice one of my lesser toes.  For good measure, to draw like Rob Liefeld I'd consider taking a community college course.  Marco Ruby is good - better than many out there.  However, few would fair well in comparision to Paquette.  Marco has been doing a good job filling in, but this may be his weakest effort.  The main problems are the depiction of action and Deadman's anatomy.  At some points, if the dialogue didn't clue you in, you'd have no idea what was happening.  Deadman's face and limbs in some panels are drawn so oddly it's as if you're viewing him through some sort of fun house mirror.  Those things aside, the art is good and does not distract from the story, which remains great.

This issue is one that harkens back to Swamp Thing's roots as a horror comic and that is a very good thing.  Next month promises a trip to Arkham and I can't wait to see a splash page of Rotworld Gotham as well as "rotten" Batman villians.  It will be the conclusion of the Green Kingdom and Yanick will be back, so I can't wait to see what happens.