This has been a real, frustrating series for me since day one. Swamp Thing is a character I only know from Alan Moore’s run so hearing that DC is going to give the character another shot really excited me. Add in one of my favorite writers today in Scott Snyder writing this series and I really thought this series had potential to be one of the best comics at DC. But this series has been struggling thanks to uneven art and bouts of chronic exposition. With issue #10 being ‘Pick of the Week’ worthy I really thought this series was finally going somewhere. But I was wrong…..dead wrong. (Or would that be ‘Rot’ wrong?)

First let me get this out of the way: I bought Animal Man #12 because I thought it would be essential to this new arc. Jeff Lemire and Snyder have clearly worked together for a long time to get to the point where Buddy and Alec needed to come together. Unfortunately ‘Animal Man #12’ is nothing but a huge exposition dump and very little happens other then the two jumping into the Rotworld portal. That’s all you need to know coming into this issue of Swamp Thing and I can’t really recommend reading the issue.

Back to this series and I have to say that I’m not so much annoyed by this issue as I am bored about it. I just don’t care about The Rot, The Green, and The Red. I know this has been the focal point of the series since the relaunch but after twelve issues I just have to state I don’t care about this story. The mythology doesn’t interest me and the countless ‘The Green must be preserved’ mindset bugs me. Also, Snyder has just made The Rot so overpowered I find it hard to believe ANYONE can stop them. So I’m sure, like how he wrote himself away from Sethe, he’ll find some ‘dues ex machina’ to get out of this mess.

One thing that bugs me is that Marco Rudy’s art is inconsistent. It doesn’t help that he has three inkers (himself included) working on these pages. So you get ten pages of consistency and all of the sudden everyone looks different. The one page Dan Green helped in inking doesn’t even look finished. The pages Andy Owens does are actually quite beautiful but again it’s very inconsistent then what Rudy did before. Also, for a world that is supposedly disturbing and some sort of hell; Rotworld is mighty empty looking at those backgrounds.

It has been a year on this book and I hate to say it but I am throwing in the towel. This series isn’t bad, I would call it more disappointing then anything else. I don’t care about the mythology on either title and this build up to Rotworld doesn’t interest me after reading this issue. The inconsistent art is also a pretty telling sign that this series isn’t bring its ‘A’ game. Maybe once this whole Rotworld stuff is over I’ll give the book another shot. As for now, I regret to say that this series is dropped for the immediate future.