Swamp Thing: Scott Snyder, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, Travis Lanham

Wow, a couple things right off the bat: I’m so glad Yanick Paquette is back on art, and I can’t believe how truly hopeless this issue made things seem. Reading Animal Man #13, I had a smidgen of faith that the world could be put right again. Somehow, the heroes were going to figure it out and set everything right, bring the world back to the way it was. But…the Parliament of Trees is right…how could it?

This is the way it is now. This is the world. This is no alternate timeline, no parallel dimension. This is time, as it sits. There’s no going back. I mean…just the way the Parliament, Poison Ivy, and Deadman made it sound absolutely crushed me. Oh, and then, Snyder the butthead, had to go and include Rot versions of the Teen Titans to attack Swampy and The Green. There’s Rot-Kid Flash, Rot-Red Robin, Rot-Solstice, Rot-Wonder Girl, and Rot-Superboy. I guess Bunker and Skitter didn’t make it as well. Maybe Solstice obliterated their bodies before dying herself.

This is terrifying, guys. This Rotworld thing, now having read both sides of it, is really defeating. I mean…I can’t believe how far they’re taking it. We’re watching these great heroes fight and fall to the Rot, and become monstrosities of grotesque proportions. I almost can’t take it, when matched with that hopeless feeling the Parliament contributed.

Abby, turns out, had it worse off. Remember how she said she knew where the Rot lay? That she could go there and try to stop the war before it began? Well…yeah. She was on a plane. The Rot found her, made its way onto the flight. Did terrible things to the passengers…the crew…the captains. The Parliament knows. The Parliament considers telling Swamp Thing…but should they? What would happen to him? Would he finally break?

Like I said, I am glad Yanick Paquette’s back. His art is so fantastic. It’s clean, yet at the same time, it’s so perfect for those disgusting Rot creatures. The Rot-versions of our heroes that we see are truly horrific, and could possibly give me nightmares. Imagine, for a moment, being one of the Teen Titans as your friends all succumb to the Rot invading their bodies. Invading your own body. UGH.

Yanick, along with Nathan and Travis, delivers a fantastic looking issue full of death and decay. It’s very fitting of the title, “Rotworld.”

Swamp Thing #13, the verdict: Well…I guess this is it. This is the future of the DC Universe. Pandora better do something quick to set it back the way it was preboot so we all don’t fall into the Rotworld and become death creatures. Good God, I would never want to try to live through that. Zombie apocalypse? Okay. Rotworld full of Un-Men? No thanks. So we’ll see how this turns out, and if our heroes don’t actually wind up in some sort of fake reality the Rot concocted in order to keep the avatars of The Red and The Green subdued for some time, locked in their worst nightmare.

(Photo Source: iFanBoy)