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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Animal Man #12 Review

With any episodic story there inevitably comes the “recap” installment where the characters spend a majority of the issue reflecting on the past and little else. Luckily, Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder sidestep the painful parts of this necessary evil and add in just enough new content to set up for the long-brewing Rotworld storyline.

With so much build up to Buddy Baker finding Swamp Thing, their first meeting proves to be underwhelming. Both are some of the best written characters in DC’s current stable, but they wind up having a bland interaction that merely serves as a giant information dump. Where’s the friction and personality to these two heroes that have made their books so enthralling to read? The one highlight of their interaction comes when Swamp Thing lifts up a startled Buddy and leaps into the Rot-pond. The look on Buddy’s face is priceless.

Steve Pugh ups his game for this crossover issue and provides more minute details to the setting than ever before. Vines creep up a railing, haunting figures are showcased in front of an apocalyptic backdrop, and the first journey into the Rot has a sickening amount of bones, teeth, and flies. A montage detailing the interactions between the Green, the Red, and the Rot looks stunning with its veiny structure not unlike Yanick Paquette’s plant-paneling in Swamp Thing. With the marrying of both art style and story concepts, the Animal Man and Swamp Thing creative teams have set up a crossover that I can’t wait to read. Given general hate for crossovers, that is a strange feat indeed.

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where he is hell-bent on making sure you know his opinion about comic books.


Source : ign[dot]com

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