Last issue of this series was honestly the best I’ve read. The story has been a very fun, but horribly twisted, ride by Scott Snyder and the art is finally seeing the improvement I’ve been expecting for a few months. So I expected this series to just go further into greatness and it’ll finally be up there with some of the best DC 52 books like Batman or Wonder Woman. Well unfortunately I have to report that no, this series doesn’t see much of an improvement for this final issue of the first arc.

That’s not to say this issue is terrible by any means, it’s actually quite good. At the end of the day it’s another four star issue for me. But there are just some things that made me a little as usual with this book. As usual this book is twisted and Snyder writes one hell of a disturbing villain. But the twist in this to get Abby back to normal and Abby’s decent to be…..Miss Swamp Thing?….is really confusing. I know Abby has a history with Swamp Thing but I don’t remember having these powers until now. Is this just an side effect to being the queen of the rot or just a clever dues ex machina to get us to the next issue? Cause The Rot has been written for eight issues as such a powerful being and it looked pretty grim for humanity. But they easily get pushed aside by Swamp Thing and Abby I find it hard to believe The Rot was anything but a threat. I don’t know it just felt like a big set up for an epic confrontation and we barely get it in these two issues. Like a balloon deflating, that’s the best analogy I could think of with this issue.

The art in this is also pretty standard for this series. Once again Paquette can’t finish the issue so it’s split by Marco Rudy in half (or half-ish in this case). As usual the designs are great and The Rot is just going to haunt my nightmares for a long time. But the layouts once again are just rubbish. I got confused so many times on where to read next on both artist’s layouts it was really pissing me off. It’s been nine issues now guys I would think layouts would get easier at this point. What also bugs me is once again the dues ex machina powers for Abby. I have no idea what her powers are and her getting rid of The Rot puzzles me. Is she a telepath or what? Cause I don’t know how she got rid of the limbs of the creatures so easily. Also, if you’re going to make someone nude….how about we don’t do that? At least go the Poison Ivy route and make it somewhat tasteful.

I’m ragging on this book even though at the end of the day I did think it was good. Snyder’s writing is just as solid as the previous eight issues and the art is just as good. But the same mistakes I’ve seen for these nine issues now, especially on art, is what bugs me. The layouts have not improved and while I enjoy seeing Rudy’s pencils I would rather have one or the other at this point not split duty. Plus the whole battle with the Rot just feels anticlimactic and I find it hard to believe Abby is just this powerful. I don’t know, maybe I’m being too hard on this series because at the end of the day I’ll still buy it. But this series has been an uphill battle since inception and I would just once like to see some consistency with it on an issue by issue basis.