Animal Man #12

Perhaps Cliff and Ellen shouldn't come along on this trip.

Judging from the start of the comic, Cliff isn't going along. He's collapsed from whatever the Hunter did to him and tucked away in a motel with his grandmother. Ellen refuses to let Buddy take Maxine on his own though. She feels she failed at keeping Cliff safe so now she's going to keep as close an eye on Maxine as she can. While she, you know, leaves Cliff alone again and in possible danger. Maybe Ellen's mom still has her shotgun. That should do in a pinch.

Socks is the second best character in the DCnU next to Dex Starr.

Socks teaches Buddy how to reach through the red and into the green so that he can find Swamp Thing. The trick is to follow all the threads within the food chain. Touch an alligator which ate a bird which ate a berry and you're now in the green. I imagine it would be the same for the rot. Touch a crow that ate some roadkill and Buddy could track down Anton Arcane. But since he's only searching for Swamp Thing, he simply does that first one with the alligator.

And seven pages later, we catch up to the end of Swamp Thing #11!

And maybe I spoke too soon about Cliff not going with them! While his grandmother steps into the bathroom to get him a wet cloth for his fever, he disappears. Maybe his grandmother will give chase and end up in Rotworld as well! If she brings her shotgun, she might be okay.

Speaking of using a shotgun on The Rot, how do you win against The Rot in a fight? Dead things belong to it so killing dead things just makes them dead again so they can be reinfected by The Rot. Do you need to sew seeds and throw earth worms on Rot Creatures? I bet that would work. Maybe get some of those flesh eating beetles too!

Back at Arcane's portal to Rotworld, Buddy Baker tells Swamp Thing the plot of the first eleven issues of Animal Man. Sheesh! I could have simply started with this issue and saved a lot of time! Dirty tricky comic book publishers. Swamp Thing listens and realizes that his fight is the same as Animal Man's. They should work together to stop the Rot from getting out of control. And that means entering the portal and going after Anton Arcane.

Eww! Romance! No wonder this is a Teen Plus comic book! Bleck!

Alec Holland and Buddy Baker jump into the Rot Portal together. Swamp Thing anchors them with a rooty vine so that they can hopefully find their way back. And they disappear into the darkness. And then all hell breaks loose from the portal.

Perhaps Nana and her shotgun should have come with them!

Meanwhile, Cliff is out wandering down some road when he meets a man composed of flies. I think. It was all kind of vague!

Animal Man #12 Rating: +1 Ranking. I'm still a bit unsure about this whole Rotworld 12 issue or more crossover but it's starting out decent enough. And what kind of short stories are going to be told now in an Animal Man book anyway? Ever since he became part of the Lifeweb and more than just a costumed nutcase, his adventures have always meant more and been bigger than stopping a criminal from heisting the crown jewels.