Animal Man #13

If only Hawkman were really dead! Although his comic might get better now that Tony Daniels and Rob Liefeld are far, far away from it.

The Prelude to Rotworld left Animal Man a full year into the future. He and Swamp Thing had spent just a small amount of time in The Grey but that translated to much longer in the real world. Now Animal Man is back and everything is completely fucked up. Just look at Hawkman on the cover! It looks like Liefeld is still drawing him. Look at those feet!

Animal Man has just a minute or so to realize he's on Earth and he can feel The Red but it's very weak. He remembers leaving his family in the swamp and then he's attacked by disfigured Hawkman. Buddy tries to talk with him but when has that ever worked against THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN! It's all fisticuffs from here on out! Neither Hawkman or Animal Man is really winning the fight when Hawkman is suddenly beheaded by Black Orchid who has appeared with some allies.

I don't know why but this page made me feel like I was 12 years old again and reading Crisis on Infinite Earths. That's a good thing!

Apparently taking Rotten Hawkman's head off doesn't kill the beast. Remember? Killing The Rot just makes it deader which makes it Rottier. Or something. So Beast Boy jumps back into the battle and in three panels (including that one above), Jeff Lemire makes Beast Boy feel more like Beast Boy than in all of The Culling and Ravagers comics combined.

Simple is so much better than box after box of inner monologue and than dozens of long-winded speech balloons.

After Hawkman is splattered across the zoo, introductions are made. That big iron Superman guy? Of course that's Steel. He was first seen in that Sholly Fisch back-up story in one of the issues of Action Comics. He's gone through some changes. The other two are, of course, Beast Boy and Black Orchid. When Buddy Baker introduces himself, they exchange looks of stunned disbelief and take him back with them into The Red.

The action then shifts back to before Rotworld took over the world. Ellen and Maxine have left the site of Buddy's entrance into The Gray and have gone out to look for Cliff. Maxine feels that Cliff is with a rotting person. I don't know how the whole thing is going to come together, but I have a feeling that Maxine, Ellen, Cliff, and Abby Arcane are going to have to be the major players to stop this Rotworld thing from coming about. As for Animal Man and Swamp Thing supposedly being a year into the future on a destroyed Earth? I don't know. Possibly a simulation within The Grey? Because I have no idea how this will be resolved otherwise!

Back in Rotworld, John Henry tells Buddy how it all went down. The Rot spread fast and turned even the most powerful Super Heroes into decaying agents.

Ha ha! The Ravagers are dead along with Hawkman! I love Rotworld!

Buddy and his new crew arrive at The Red. It's just an oasis in the middle of Rotworld. It's composed of the Totems bodies and is a haven for the last living animals on Earth. One of those animals is John Constantine. Of course!

I wonder if he ever found the Books of Magic?

Back before Rotworld, Ellen, Maxine, and Grandma finally catch up to Cliff. He's acting strange and wearing vampire teeth and black contact lenses. Ellen hugs him and tries to make him feel normal again but he vomits up a disgusting fleshy thing which shoves itself down Ellen's throat. Now Cliff and Ellen are both puppets of The Rot. It's only Nana and Maxine left to save the world!

Animal Man #13 Rating: +1 Ranking. I wasn't sure I was really interested in another long crossover event. But I really like this. Especially since all of the heroes crossing over into this story line are out of continuity and anything can happen. That's far more interesting even if it does turn out to be a "dream" or a "future that never happens." Whatever! I like seeing Hawkman and the Ravagers killed!