The first ANIMAL MAN annual is, in fact, a fairly stand alone story from the ANIMAL MAN/SWAMP THING shared story of the Red, the Green, and the Rot. If the premise weren’t Socks telling Maxine of a previous struggle against the Rot, this could easily have been a SWAMP THING annual instead. Regardless, it’s not required reading for fans of either series, and indeed might try too hard to be “stand alone”, but it’s a well-written story and gives some glimpse of things to come.

Though “Animal Man” and “Swamp Thing” are both in this issue, sort of, they aren’t Buddy Baker and Alec Holland, but earlier avatars of the Red and the Green who found themselves forced to struggle against the Rot’s encroachment. This means that, in brief, these concepts have to be re-explained to the neophyte avatars, but that’s done rapidly enough, I suppose. Compared to the months of groundwork laid by the monthlies, I felt like this was more efficient in the telling, even if it is, at this point, redundant.

The art’s mostly good. Timothy Green II does a good job of emulating the overall creepy/gruesome look that the artists on the monthlies have cultivated, even if it isn’t quite so unsettling as much of what SWAMP THING’s served up. My only real gripe is that he draws Maxine very strangely. She has ginormous eyes that stare into your soul.

Basically, you can take it or leave it in the long run. I think it’s very good by itself, and I rate it on its own merits, though some of them will not seem as good to people coming from nine issues of ANIMAL MAN and/or SWAMP THING. If anything, I’d almost say that this would be a could starting point for anyone who’s curious what the fuss is about and wants to get the concept in a nutshell. It’s a prologue to the story the ongoing series have been telling and will continue to tell. This annual would give a new reader a pretty solid idea, I think, of what to expect, both issue by issue and in the long term, from ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING. But how many new readers are going to start with an annual?