This month the Rotworld crossover between Animal Man and Swamp Thing finally begins with a couple of prologue chapters in both series. Lemire and Snyder join forces to bring us everything we’ve been waiting all year for, and so far it seems like it’ll be worth the build-up. 

Read on for my review!

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First let me just mention that this review is for part one of the two part prologue to Rotworld, while the actual event begins in October. That said, this is a review for one half of the beginning of a story. 

Last month we saw the initial meeting of Buddy and Alec and here we get to see how Buddy found Swamp Thing and how they begin their fight against the forces of the Rot. What we get here is a good amount of Buddy outlining everything that happened in the first eleven issues of the series and a good amount of conversation leading into the crossover. 

I know some people will be turned off by the fact that we have a lot of exposition here, but it makes sense that we would have an outline of what’s been happening thus far given that many people may not have been following both titles up to this point, and with Buddy and Alec joining forces readers are going to want to fill in the blanks of everything that brought our heroes to this point. 

My favorite part about this story, and about the character of Animal Man as a whole, is that he’s always been much more concerned with the wellbeing of his own family rather than being a superhero, or anything else. Through every issue and every run with the character it’s always about Buddy, his wife, and their two children, and it’s the same here as the driving force behind Buddy’s conflict with the Rot is that his family is being attacked head on by the forces of the Rot and it’s up to him to defend them by taking on the Rot at the source.

What’s important here, and in the second part of this prologue, is that the issues effectively show us what we’re in for as we go forth into the actual event. The threats are there, and the goal is there, and after a years worth of lead in it’s safe to say that anyone who’s been reading along in either of these titles is completely ready to see the culmination of all of this. 

Steve Pugh rejoins the series for the art and his work seems to get better as he goes forth with each issue. He’s starting to effectively be able to illustrate the visceral scenes displaying Buddy’s powers, as well as he and Swamp Things journey into the realm of the Rot. However, what makes Pugh’s art stand in unison with the other artists who have worked on this series are the colors from Lovern Kindzierski, which help there not to be a jarring different between Pugh’s work and the art of Travel Foreman which preceded it. 

Next month we get all of DC’s #0 issues, so the event won’t effectively start until October, but I can say now that I’m sure this story will be worth all the wait and build up and I can’t wait where it leaves both of our heroes as we move forth into the second year of stories from the New 52.

GO Rating: 4/5