PROS:

-While I’m not familiar with Anton Arcane I must say that he is perfect for Scott Snyder. He’s a twisted, fucked up villain and I love the idea that when he gets wounded, a mouth appears.

-The Green seems to be saved for now and hopefully that means we can get away from them for a bit. They’re slowly turning into the Guardians from Green Lantern and that’s NOT a good thing. Now that we know they are protecting Alec and Alec is protecting them, let’s deal with the Rot and go back to them later.

-Marco Rudy is definitely developing as an artist. He’s been the go-to fill in artist for a while now and sometimes his art looked a little shaky. Now though, I really love how his style has grown and he seems really perfect for this series. He can draw some really fucked up images but also great layouts as well. Unlike Yanick Paquette, his layouts are not difficult to follow but they have the same creativity as Paquette’s. That double page spread of Abby seeing The Rot was gorgeous!

CONS:

-Even though Arcane is a great foil for Snyder to write, I feel like he’s wasted here in this arc. He debuts in a great issue last month (which was my POTW by the way) and here he sort of comes and goes. We get a little tension as he kidnaps Abby but clearly Snyder had to get rid of him for this crossover coming next month. Speaking of which…

-I know this is going to sound weird, but I have no desire to read this crossover. I know Lemire is a great writer but I’ve tried Animal Man in trade and it is just not my bag. So I’m a little hesitant to read the next couple of issues if it’s going to tie in heavily to that series. But I trust in Snyder to make this not confusing to read and hopefully it’ll be one of those crossovers where it’s recapped quickly in the beginning.

-Finally, as much as I loved Rudy’s art in this I don’t understand why Francesco Francavilla didn’t finish this two-issue arc. Last issue was my POTW because, in part, of the great art he provided. Rudy is great and all but he is no Francavilla.

CONCLUSION:

-This is yet another solid issue by Snyder and ‘fill in artist professional’ Marco Rudy. While I wished Francavilla could finish this arc the art in this was pretty damn good and it had some fabulous layouts. My only big gripe with this issue is that Snyder had to rush to get Arcane out of the way to get to the Animal Man crossover. I would have loved to see more of Arcane and not get into a crossover I’m really not looking forward too. But I’m sure Arcane will be back soon and Snyder will write some fucked up arc for me to enjoy.