Swamp Thing #12

Why does Swamp Thing have antlers? Is he one of those tricksy plants that camouflage themselves like animals? Do those exist? I suck at plant knowledge.

Unlike the Green which always seems to be a swampy, single locale location whenever Swamp Thing visits with the Parliament of Trees or the Red which seems to exist inside a massive, blood-filled, heart-pumping organism, the Grey exists as a giant gray ball of composting organic material. I think this is why this story arc is called Rotworld! Because the Gray looks like a giant world made out of rot! Or perhaps it's because Rotlings are squirming out of Anton Arcane's portal to turn Earth into Rotworld. One of those will probably work.

Buddy and Alec find themselves standing on top of this grey world. They can feel that it goes deeper. It looks like it's time to put on their dungeon delving boots! I bet they find some weird shit covered entrance with a bone staircase leading down to the first level of The Gray where they'll encounter Rot Kobolds and Giant Rot Rats.

My mistake! They fought the kobolds Un-men on the surface. And the weird entrance is merely a tear without a staircase of bone.

It's a ladder of bone.

Meanwhile on the surface, Maxine tears into the Rotlings with her Avatar of the Red powers and Ellen blasts away at them with Abby's shotgun. Socks tells Abigail to seal the portal so that no more Rotlings can getout. Abby seals the portal around Swamp Thing's vine and things calm down for a bit. Although Cliff is still out there acting weird and finding fly guys.

Animal Man and Swamp Thing make it pretty deep into the dungeon without finding any monsters to fight. How are they supposed to grind levels and prepare themselves for the tougher battles if they can't gather loot filled with stronger weapons and armor? Eventually they find themselves so deep that they end up encountering the Level Boss!

Whoops! There goes the automap! I hope they were mapping with good old fashioned graph paper!

Once the tether is broken, Socks says that the Parliament of Decay will send a full scale assault on the Earth. Without Animal Man or Swamp Thing to defend the world, it will surely fall. Unless the Parliament of Decay can be stopped. But, as Socks states, nobody knows where it hides.

Maybe she can take Cliff along to help her.

Back in The Gray, Anton explains how he came back as the Avatar of the Rot. Since the Parliament of Trees resurrected their Warrior Kingfrom the dead, the Parliament of Decay was able to resurrect their Warrior King as well! And perhaps Buddy getting a new body fits in their as well somewhere. The Rot has had so many incarnations since this comic book began, I couldn't figure out who was supposed to be the Avatar. I think Abigail was but she was saved from that destiny by Alec. And so the Parliament of Decay just resurrected an old Avatar. And unluckily for everyone else, it was their best Avatar ever!

Anton also informs Buddy and Alec that times move differently in The Grey and that they've already been there for a full year. Uh oh. That's really going to mess with DC's continuity and timeline!

Swamp Thing and Animal Man plummet deeper and deeper into The Gray until they finally hit the bottom. It's then that they can feel the connection again to their respective elements. And that's when it hits them:

Are all Issue Thirteens of the New 52 Comic going to be labeled, "Rotworld: Year One"?

 

Swamp Thing #12 Rating: +1 Ranking. Well, everyone is screwed! Nice knowing you world! Thanks a lot for entering the portal and fucking us all, Alec and Buddy! You guys suck.