Rotworld Finale: Animal Man & Swamp Thing #17
Rotworld finally comes to a close this month with the two part finale split between the #17 issues of both Animal Man and Swamp Thing. The story began similarly in the #12 issues of both series, showing the promise of a thrilling journey as Buddy Baker and Alec Holland followed Anton Arcane into the Rot and found a world that had been destroyed and put both of their loved ones in danger. And a thrilling journey it was, with many highpoints and at least one of my favorite issues of Snyder's run so far (#14), but they say the journey is usually better than the destination and that is somewhat true here.
Animal Man #17 begins the finale in fine form. Starting right where the last issues of both series' left off, Buddy and Alec have arrived (on opposite sides) at Anton's castle and are doing battle with the Rotworld versions of the Justice League. The battle is pretty cool and features some awesome moments such as battle-mode Swamp Thing fighting Rotworld Superman and Frankenstein becoming a Green Lantern. As great as this is though, it could have been better. Timothy Green III's pencilling on the Swamp Thing-centric pages are good, but his style is not one that brings out the best in Swamp Thing. It is a bit too cartoony and takes away from the potential awesomeness a bit. As for GL Frankenstein, I mean, COME ON LEMIRE! You can't give us something as awesome as Frank being a Lantern and then only show us a couple small panels of him utilizing his ring. Don't be a tease! Other than those complaints Animal Man is a very solid issue and opens the finale two-parter with a bang.
This brings us to Swamp Thing. Let's just get one major complaint out of the way: the art. Alright, so Andrew Belanger has done art for Swamp Thing in the past (the non-flashback pages of the Annual issue) and it was pretty good. A lot of this issue is great too. When it's bad though, it's really bad. First of all, Belanger doesn't draw Buddy Baker very well at any point in the book. Sometimes it's bad, and other times it's REALLY bad. He also seems to have trouble with Frankenstein's face in at least a couple panels. Apart from that it isn't that bad at all - the larger panels dealing with the Bat-bot and Swampy are particularly good. The real fail here is EX's editorial department allowing the schedule to be such that the series main artist is not drawing the finale of the 5+ issue arc of one of their major titles. How does this happen?
Ok, complaints aside, Snyder wrote a good issue. Not mindblowingly amazing, but good. I don't want to say that I suspect he perhaps is too obsessed with his work on Batman and could have written a better issue if he had been half as focused on Swamp Thing but...well yeah I do want to say that, actually.He even went so far as to bring Swamp Thing to Gotham for two full issues, which I can't say is a bad thing but still furthers my point. As much as I love Snyder, I am kind of glad that he is being replaced with someone who I feel will be more focused on giving his all to the character. The fact that Snyder still does pretty good work while not fully committed to a series any longer speaks to his abilities as a writer, but I love Swamp Thing and feel it deserves more attention than that. This finale may be a decent conclusion, but it is also my least favorite of the whole Rotworld arc.
Next month, the epilogue of Rotworld! Both Animal Man and Swamp Thing will deal with the fallout from Rotworld and things apparently will change for both of them. Where these issues were taken up with physical battles, those seem to promise more psychological and emotional drama. Yanick Paquette is back on Swamp Thing for Snyder's final issue as well, I think that one is going to be a must read.
Animal Man #17 begins the finale in fine form. Starting right where the last issues of both series' left off, Buddy and Alec have arrived (on opposite sides) at Anton's castle and are doing battle with the Rotworld versions of the Justice League. The battle is pretty cool and features some awesome moments such as battle-mode Swamp Thing fighting Rotworld Superman and Frankenstein becoming a Green Lantern. As great as this is though, it could have been better. Timothy Green III's pencilling on the Swamp Thing-centric pages are good, but his style is not one that brings out the best in Swamp Thing. It is a bit too cartoony and takes away from the potential awesomeness a bit. As for GL Frankenstein, I mean, COME ON LEMIRE! You can't give us something as awesome as Frank being a Lantern and then only show us a couple small panels of him utilizing his ring. Don't be a tease! Other than those complaints Animal Man is a very solid issue and opens the finale two-parter with a bang.
This brings us to Swamp Thing. Let's just get one major complaint out of the way: the art. Alright, so Andrew Belanger has done art for Swamp Thing in the past (the non-flashback pages of the Annual issue) and it was pretty good. A lot of this issue is great too. When it's bad though, it's really bad. First of all, Belanger doesn't draw Buddy Baker very well at any point in the book. Sometimes it's bad, and other times it's REALLY bad. He also seems to have trouble with Frankenstein's face in at least a couple panels. Apart from that it isn't that bad at all - the larger panels dealing with the Bat-bot and Swampy are particularly good. The real fail here is EX's editorial department allowing the schedule to be such that the series main artist is not drawing the finale of the 5+ issue arc of one of their major titles. How does this happen?
Ok, complaints aside, Snyder wrote a good issue. Not mindblowingly amazing, but good. I don't want to say that I suspect he perhaps is too obsessed with his work on Batman and could have written a better issue if he had been half as focused on Swamp Thing but...well yeah I do want to say that, actually.He even went so far as to bring Swamp Thing to Gotham for two full issues, which I can't say is a bad thing but still furthers my point. As much as I love Snyder, I am kind of glad that he is being replaced with someone who I feel will be more focused on giving his all to the character. The fact that Snyder still does pretty good work while not fully committed to a series any longer speaks to his abilities as a writer, but I love Swamp Thing and feel it deserves more attention than that. This finale may be a decent conclusion, but it is also my least favorite of the whole Rotworld arc.
Next month, the epilogue of Rotworld! Both Animal Man and Swamp Thing will deal with the fallout from Rotworld and things apparently will change for both of them. Where these issues were taken up with physical battles, those seem to promise more psychological and emotional drama. Yanick Paquette is back on Swamp Thing for Snyder's final issue as well, I think that one is going to be a must read.
A Look Inside
