Swamp Thing #9

The Queen of Rot reminds me of Beetlejuice.

This Beetlejuice!

The Queen of Rot does not feed. She keeps putting Swamp Thing right up next to her gigantic teeth but never takes a bite. Swamp Thing wants Abby to listen to him but she says no and all the misshapen beasts say no and Abby's little brother says no but the Queen of Rot still doesn't eat him. She crushes him a bit and smashes him into the ground and continues to beat on him but still she doesn't feed. Why won't she feed?! End it already! Bite off his head and stop listening to him! But she doesn't and finally, the tables are turned!

Take that!

Yes, Swamp Thing gets the upper hand with a second grade playground retort. Here's the Queen of Rot's reaction to being told to wake up:

The Swamp Thing has a powerful way with words! Just like the People's Poet!

"What do you think you're doing, PIG? Do you really give a fig, PIG? And what's your favorite sort of gig, PIG? Barry Manilow? Or the Black and White Minstrel Show?"

The Swamp Thing continues his verbal attack by reminding the Queen of Rot everything that makes Abigail Arcane special. Like canned peaches! But all of this is just showmanship. The Queen of Rot is actually freaking out because Alec put Orchid seeds in the peaches he fed her earlier. And now he's manipulating them through The Green to break down her transformation into the Queen of Rot. It works and the Queen of Rot transforms back into Abigail.

Sethe (remember him?!) decides that he's finally going to have to lift a finger to destroy the Swamp Thing. His minions couldn't get it done. William Arcane couldn't do it. The Queen of Rot couldn't do it. So he finally takes the job on himself like he should have done in the first place because he nearly defeats Alec Holland in just a couple of pages. But then Abby Abigail (now possibly The Black Orchid?!) stands up to defend Alec.

This doesn't remind me of anything. Sorry.

Abigail uses all of the power The Rot has given her over the years to simply take Sethe apart and break him down into dust. And they lived happily ever after.

Except you know they didn't really.

William Arcane is left to weep over the ashes of Sethe. But Sethe isn't completely gone. William can still, just barely, hear his voice. And Sethe gives William a heads up about next month's story.

"Anton Arcane!"

This is another comic book statement I can't abide: "It was all part of the plan!" No, it wasn't. I'm pretty sure the plan was super different and didn't involve Sethe being turned to dust and losing Abigail, the Queen of Rot, to the other side. Now, I'd believe that this was Plan D or Plan E, maybe. "Well, we've always got Anton Arcane if things really fucking go to hell." But I highly doubt the plan was to nearly die so that they'll feel safe and then spring Anton Arcane on them! Ha ha!

Seeing how Sethe nearly killed The Swamp Thing, it seems like a good plan would have been to just kill The Swamp Thing. Simple! Stupid evil is always so stupid.

Let's check the Who's Who to see what may be in store with the return of Anton Arcane.

Anton is the human in the first two panels and, I think, all three in the last panel.

Anton Arcane was a regular mortal who served in World War I. He became obsessed with becoming immortal when he encountered the Swamp Thing as the Swamp Thing was time traveling. The ridiculousness just gets better though! He served in the trenches of World War I with Hitler! But Hitler didn't like him because Anton was more ambitious than he was. So Anton eventually became immortal. But then he died because he wasn't invulnerable against falling out of windows. But then Hell couldn't hold him so he came back. But then he died again. But then he became a demon. But then he came back again. And then he died again. And now I think he's coming back again! Unless all of this shit is irrelevant because this is the New 52!

Swamp Thing #9 Rating: No change. I'm actually sort of relieved that this initial Rot storyline is over. The art and layout were not appealing and, at times, just plain confusing. And I don't really like the idea of The Rot being set up as the evil while The Red and The Green are somehow good. They're all just parts of the life cycle and work together. I guess the moral is that none of them should be any stronger than the other and they're constantly battling for balance. So when The Red becomes too powerful, you have large number of animals taking over a space. This will tend to drop the amount of plant life and then starvation and disease will set in (The Rot). With the dying off of creatures from The Red, The Green will become more powerful thanks to the nutrients provided by The Rot and balance will once again be restored! The constant struggle between them seems like a good story idea. I simply don't like the characterization of The Rot as evil. Plus, this story is probably a much better read in a collected format.