Animal Man #3

It turns out Animal Man has his own Parliament of Trees. Except they're not trees. They're Totems. Oh, and Animal Man isn't an as yet to be retired Totem the way Swamp Thing is an unretired Tree of Parliament. His daughter, Maxine, is the next Avatar of The Red. And she knows all the things I was annoyed with her knowing because she dreams about The Red all the time and visits the Totems there. Like I suggested would be the explanation for her knowing too much. Boy, comic books are easy to write!

While Buddy Baker and Maxine wander around The Red, these weirdos are hunting down Baker's family.

Not judging weirdos. I hate when I use a term like freak or weirdo to describe someone who is a freak or a weirdo and the freaks and weirdos freak out because they can only hear those words in a negative connotation. I also hate when someone with tattoos or piercings gets annoyed with me for staring. Fuck you! If you call it body art, you have to enjoy being stared at. The Mona Lisa never threatened to punch me in the mouth!

Is it okay if I reference my captions in the main body of the text? I was just going to continue by calling these guys freaks which made me think of a co-worker I had when I worked at Ellington Leather in Portland. Her name was Karen Von Klezie. She had her name legally changed to add the 'Von' because it just sounded cooler. Or more Transylvanian. I don't know. Anyway, some music awards show had been on and I mentioned that Beck had been acting freaky. And she got all huffy and told me she thought freaky people were creative and more interesting and that she just loved them. If the conversation had gone there, I also would have mentioned David Lee Roth was acting freaky but I don't think she would have stepped up to defend him. Besides, Beck was acting freaky! Like he was terrified of some being just past the point of seeing that was hovering over his right shoulder and about to chomp down on his second turntable.

Speaking of unneeded and unwarranted defenses! I was once talking with some coworkers when I ran a warehouse on the Netscape Campus and they were talking about going to the shooting range. I mentioned I'd never shot a gun and they instantly jumped all over me about how guns don't kill people and guns are safe and it's ignorant to outlaw guns. When their extreme defensy-ness wore down, I was finally able to tell them to calm down. There was no explicit judgment in my not having fired a gun. I just hadn't had the fucking experience!

I did end up paying Magic The Gathering with those guys one time. Ugh. Just the one time. Here's a tip: if you enjoy playing a game, learn the fucking rules. Granted, Magic has a lot of bullshit rules. But still. A deck with 20 lightning bolts? Fuck you.

Animal Man learns some disappointing things from the Totems. Like how even though his name is on the cover of the comic, he's not the important one. And the fact that the aliens that gave him his powers weren't really awesome and cool beings from space.

The Totems plagiarized Green Lantern!

The Totems manipulated everything so that Buddy Baker could have the power to protect his daughter who is the next Swamp Thing of The Red. But her power to raise the dead animals seemed so much like The Rot. And the Hunters of The Rot declared she was actually their daughter. But then, this:

Perhaps The Red and The Rot have more overlap than The Rot and The Green.

Animal Man has a big fight with the other two Hunters in The Red. And while I've had my share of bitching about Jim Lee's overly shiny and AT THE SAME TIME grim and cross-hatched style, here's an example of why that style is a very, very good trend in comics:

Go get 'em, Animal, um, Monkey Man? More vague combat scenes where you can't quite be sure what is happening.

I'm sure Travel Foreman's style was a large reason for putting him on Animal Man. When he gets a panel right, it feels right. The style and slightly-off kilter anatomy and faces work in certain situations. And the comic is doing well skirting the line between horror and humor. His art can work for this particular genre. But it's also, much of the time, flat and boring, like Jesus Saiz's art in Birds of Prey. Here's an example just before Detective Krenshaw gets eaten by a Hunter (oh, that was a spoiler!):

I should assign just as much blame to the colorist, Lovern Kindzierski.

The issue ends with Animal Man on his knees about to be killed by one of The Hunters. Maxine is yelling, "NO!" which means she'll probably blast this Hunter into smithereens with her Red Avatar Powers next issue. And in the comic book version of the real world, Ellen and Cliff (Buddy's son, if I haven't mentioned him before) are now being approached by the last Hunter now in the skin of Detective Krenshaw!

Animal Man #2

Last issue, Buddy wouldn't let his daughter Maxine get a dog because it might interfere with his powers. This issue, well, this issue, um...

I think he should have gotten his daughter a dog. Although how adorable is Mrs. Pickles?

A girl and her cat skeleton. Dog skeleton? Raccoon skeleton!

During all of the middle of the night chaos, Buddy ends up with red tattoos all over his body. This has never happened before so he has no idea what is going on. But Maxine does.

Oh, of course she knows! Someone has to know something or else the plot can't move along. Well, it could probably move along naturally. But since Lemire must want to speed things along, he pulls the Little Kid Who Knows Things She Shouldn't Know Trope out of his writing satchel. This is almost as bad as the Look Into The Future So We Know What To Do Next Trope. Although nothing is as bad as that nonsense. I'm looking at you, Heroes!

Although maybe she just knows some stuff from the dreams The Red is giving her, just as Buddy learned about the three Rot Hunters who are actually Maxine's father. Or fathers. However that works. Plus, Maxine can do this to the neighbor, so maybe she's in touch with something that lets her read tattoos:

Buddy decides he needs to take Maxine to this tree thing in the red place and find out what's going on. Somehow, he needs to get Maxine's powers under control or she's going to turn all of the neighbors into livestock.

Maxine's super hero costume. Cute!

Animal Man and Animal Little Girl follow the animals into The Red until they get to the sick tree. Animal Man and Animal Little Girl enter it and disappear into the next issue. Meanwhile, back at the San Diego Zoo, the hippos give birth to those three weird hunter guys Animal Man met in his dreams. Those things eat some zookeepers and steal their appearance. And then they're off to hunt down the Animal Family!

Animal Man #1

The reader is reacquainted with Buddy Baker, Animal Man, through a one page interview with him at the beginning of the issue. He's a vegan and spokesman for animal rights. He's just starred in a movie called "Tights" about a washed up superhero. And he's become a youth icon with his image emblazoned on t-shirts and posters. But mostly he's still just a family man.

When I first read about The Red in Swamp Thing, I naturally assumed they were speaking about the source of animal life just as The Green is the source for plant life. But I didn't make the connection that Animal Man would be using it in its stories! And since the two titles are basically sister books, that means Animal Man is also learning about The Rot.

Animal Man was cuckolded by a trinity of Rot Creatures!

This happens in a dream he has after a night of being Animal Man. During the hostage situation where he took on the abilities of a variety of animals, he began to bleed from his eyes. But the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him and Buddy said he felt fantastic. So he went home and used a cat's ability to nap to fall asleep.

After dreaming about Maxine hiding from the Hunters and hurting her brother and mother, Buddy wakes up with a start to hear Ellen yelling from the backyard. He goes out to find Maxine playing with some new friends.

His daughter Maxine has tapped into The Rot the same way that William Arcane has. Well, maybe not the exact same way! At least she's going about it in a cute way.

Animal Man #1 had a nice steady set up. We get to see Buddy with his family which is important. And we get to see why he keeps going back to the Animal Man persona even though he's always been a kind of reluctant hero. He just finds it fun. But no matter what he's doing, his wife Ellen is still the thing, the person, that keeps him anchored and satisfied. The reader also gets to witness how Buddy's powers work and he even explains one of his weaknesses: if he's around one animal too much (like a pet), he loses his connection to the other animals in the Life Web.

A truly well-done first issue of Animal Man that explains everything the reader needs to know about him in a well written story. While Swamp Thing relied on some really heavy exposition, Animal Man is relying on the story and character interaction. Swamp Thing did have a longer and more confusing history to deal with, so hopefully Swamp Thing will fall into this kind of pacing now that it's gotten the majority of the back story out of the way.

Swamp Thing #4

Swamp Thing doesn't meet anyone. Hell, Alec Holland doesn't meet anyone either!

Three issues down and there has only been one real fight scene. That's a pretty novel idea: build up the character and the background instead of just showing the main characters in flashy poses while pummeling their enemies. Plus, who wants to see a normal looking guy in a construction hat get into a fist fight with a deathly ill kid in a scuba suit? Okay, okay. So do I.

Here's a little summary. Thanks, Alec!

Most of this episode consists of Alec speaking to the Parliament of Trees in his dreams. They want him to kill Abigail Arcane because she is connected to The Rot. They also want Alec to become the Swamp Thing again because they believe he's their warrior-king. But Alec still doesn't become Swamp Thing. And he doesn't kill Abigail. They just wake up and, after arguing a bit about Abigail trying to leave without him, head off to find William somewhere in the Deadlands.

I'm not really sold on the concept of The Rot. Perhaps that's just the way The Green and other organic beings see it. The Parliament of Trees says that they don't speak its actual name. So organic matter would look at what this entity does and call it The Rot. If that's all it does, then of course it would kill itself by destroying organic matter completely. That brings me to the conclusion that The Rot has other powers than the control of necrotic flesh and it must destroy and manipulate other things as well. Unless it just travels across the universe making worlds rotten.

Overall, I find Swamp Thing fairly average. At least I don't have a problem with the writing. I just think the concept is a bit off. But I can see how Snyder is setting up a long term nemesis for Swamp Thing and The Green with this Rot stuff. And it's not the first time (or the half dozenth or the hundredth) where DC has created characters that take the science out of the world and replace it with a creature or being or God that explains why it happens. Maybe everything in the DCnU has a rational explanation and a mystickal/religious/elemental/technobabbly explanation.

Anyway, that's it for the first four issues of Swamp Thing. I guess I'll be reading Issue #5 in a few weeks!

Swamp Thing #3

Cover Accuracy: Poor. Alec hasn't even become The Swamp Thing yet!

After five pages of a boy who is allergic to chlorophyll story set-up where he lives in a bubble and is beset by a boy with a fork and tumors, we get back to Abigail Arcane. Now unlike Green Lantern, she didn't say she was disintegrating and that the disintegration was complete or anything. She just said she was going to watch Alec Holland die. The scene continues thusly:

Abigail: "Do something or you're going to die." [That's a little bit different!]
Abigail: "I said do something now!
Alec: "Do what? I don't understand--"
Abigail: "If you're who you say you are..."
Abigail: "If you're Alec Holland, the real one... prove it now. Or I'll unload this in your chest on the count of three." [This is a Shotgun.]

Of course she wasn't just about to watch him die. It was sort of a threat to gain as much power as she could over a guy she wasn't sure was the guy she thought he was. But the conversation would only ever be approached this way if you knew a cliffhanger was coming and you had to make an audience believe the story was headed somewhere it was never intending to head. Stupid comic books.

I guess Scott Snyder did this over in Batman as well. Blowing up the building Batman was in and then, next issue, having Batman describe how trip wires were more about fear and less about killing. You know, I really wouldn't mind a comic book that just ended with a to be continued and didn't feel it needed some surprise shocker. Especially when the surprise shocker ending never has anything to do with the reality of the story which begins the next issue.

Right after Abby counts to 3, Alec screams no, closes his eyes, and this happens:

Then he opens his eyes and this has happened:

So Abby believes Alec after that. Although now Alec has to wonder how he has the power to do this. They make a tentative peace and Abby says she needs Alec's help to save that bubble boy in Texas.

This boy isn't just allergic to chlorophyll. He can also control cancer. And instead of using it for good, he's called to Sethe's side to help destroy the world. Now, I understand choosing a guy who is allergic to chlorophyll. It's symbolic. Or maybe it's the only way a person can channel the powers of Sethe. But it seems that if your nemesis is a guy with the power to control plants, your champion shouldn't be a guy whose biggest weakness is plants.

Here he is using his power to explode the bully kid's tumors from inside.

Now, he doesn't actually control cancer. And it seems really odd that he can manipulate this boy's tumors. Alec asks when the reader returns to Abby and Alec, "This boy, he can control dead matter?" Cancer is anything but dead matter. The problem with cancer is that it's so alive it's out of control! But then Abby says he has a connection to the opposite force of The Green called The Rot. I can see them wanting to explain cancer as The Rot. But I'm just saying it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Cancer would just be an out of control form of The Red just like Kudzu is an out of control form of The Green.

It's starting to sound a lot like The Stand.

The boy who is allergic to chlorophyll is Abby's half-brother, William Arcane. And he's to The Rot what Alec Holland is to The Green. Holland can bond with the Swamp Thing to become a powerful elemental. William can bond with Sethe or The Rot to become a powerful death elemental. And now it's up to Alec and Abby to stop that from happening.

This comic just earned its Teen Plus rating. Ugh.

Swamp Thing #2

The Swamp Thing that confronts Alec Holland at the end of issue one is not a new plant elemental but an old one that has come out of retirement to bring Holland a message. He said he died on May 3rd, 1942 and his name had been Calbraith A.H. Rodgers. He had left his rooting at the Parliament of Trees to find Alec.

This got me curious about the Parliament of Trees and the original DC Swamp Thing, so I pulled out the old Who's Who. Not the old one but the binder one that came out in 1993. It turns out we have a change of history here that isn't very important but could add to the evidence of changes to the New 52 due to legal reasons. Here's an excerpt from The Parliament of Trees entry in Who's Who, 1993:
"In December, 1942, the plane bearing German pilot named Albert Hollerer was shot down. [The awkwardness of that sentence is not a typo on my part. Looks like whoever wrote that sentence did that thing where they change thought in mid-sentence or edited it later. I'm sure 'named' wasn't supposed to be there.] Engulfed in flames, the plane crashed into a bog. The plant elemental that arose as a result had a consciousness based on Hollerer's, but that consciousness was damaged and confused, leading the elemental to wander the Earth purposelessly until it joined the Parliament in 1954."

Incidentally, the very first letter in Who's Who #15 is from Vince Bellizia and he asks, "Why are creator credits not given for recent characters like Dorothy Spinner, Firestorm, Robin, etc.? Are there backstage politics preventing the proper names from being printed?" The editor answers simply, "Certain legal restrictions keep us from crediting every creator. Sorry." What a find!

So the New 52 changes this previous Swamp Thing character in a few non-essential ways. I like that they let him retain his original initials in his new name. Which are also Alec Holland's initials! Previous plant elementals were named Alf Oldland and Alex Olsen. Is there a reason all Plant Elemental names should have the initials AO? Or AHo which is really just the same thing.

Without the quote, this would make a nice, ambiguous t-shirt.

Alec decides listening to Swamp Thing wouldn't be the worst thing in the world as long as the walking plant and his buddies back in South America will leave him alone afterward.

World War II Swamp Thing's message to Alec is, of course, outrageously important! It's about the Force of Rot which is the antithesis of The Green. WWII Swamp Thing actually says that the Swamp Thing was created to protect The Green from this creature. And yet nobody speaks of him. Ever. Not one mention of him since 1972. But, you know, he's the whole reason for a Swamp Thing to exist!

That's okay. I've suspension of disbeliefed far worse than this! Also, it looks like this creature hides in places where The Green is weak and so a human-imbued Swamp Force needs to fight against it. Perhaps that's why it was never mentioned. No need since it stayed far away from the vegetation that would continually spy on it.

And then comes pages 10 and 11. I think there are more words on these two pages than in the entirety of the Supergirl series. Apparently this Swamp Thing reboot needs a lot of explanation to change it around! It seems that Alec Holland's Swamp Thing was not the Swamp Thing that should have been. Alec Holland actually died before he could become the Alec Holland Swamp Thing. Thus the Parliament of Trees tried to replicate an Alec Holland Swamp Thing using Alec's memories. So it was more of an automaton with some Alec bits thrown in. But the Parliament of Trees always believed Alec Holland's Swamp Thing would be their saviour of The Green. So now they want him back as Swamp Thing.

That makes some of the other stuff easier to believe. Why tell the half-assed Swamp Thing you created to replace the one you really wanted about some big Doom Death Rot Thing? But we still don't know why Alec Holland is back. Unless he was given a White Ring in Brightest Day or something.

WWII Swamp Thing dies (because that's what happens when you come out of Green Retirement) with a last warning to Alec to stay away from Abby Arcane. I wonder if Tefé is still around? It also warned him that the rot creature, Sethe, is already looking for him. Alec goes back to his motel room unsure what to do. And then he gets some visitors.

Alec is rescued by a woman on a motorcycle. I'm pretty sure it's a woman because of her body shape. Although it could be Ronnie Raymond, the white Firestorm. She also has on a helmet. Which means it's probably hiding her white hair. Which means it's probably Abby Arcane!

Oh no! Holland has been warned about Abigail and now she seems to be threatening him! But she also just saved his life, so maybe she's actually, um, warning him in a really bad way? Like he's about to be killed by one of those creatures but she's going to blow it's head off? So what she really means is, "I'm Abigail Arcane and I'm about to save you by shooting the creature behind you so that I don't have to watch you die!" Or, you know, something like that.

Swamp Thing #1

As Alec Holland (I'm making an assumption here!) narrates the story, the reader sees Superman, Batman, and Aquaman watching as creatures die all around them in their respective homes.

Superman is represented by pigeons.

Alec Holland rambles on about plants screaming at him. Then a tornado hits an archaeological dig and scatters Mammoth bones everywhere. And Holland throws out a bunch of wood. And then Superman arrives!

For a Teen Plus rated comic, this is pretty tame stuff! Even his origin story, which is one page long, doesn't have any sex or gore! He just narrates an explosion that killed him. Couldn't we at least have a flashback of his head blowing off and his eyeballs melting? Instead, we get a guy in a construction hat looking at wood!

Alec mentions that he woke up from being dead (that sounds more like being asleep!) and suddenly had memories of being a swamp monster. This is beginning to sound like a Lovecraft story. But all of this is background. I don't think the story really starts until Superman arrives looking for Alec Holland.

That's what I was going to ask!

During Superman's conversation with Alec, he basically confirms that he has died. So Superman having died is still canon. I guess I should assume that all of the stories DC has ever told are part of everyone's history but compressed over the last decade or less. The more complicated things get as I read these stories, the more it seems DC decided to do the reboot on the advice of their lawyers. DC is probably just going to shed any history of any character that can't expressly be seen as the property of DC Comics. No more creators wanting some extra cash from their creations! DC is just going to rewrite whatever the writer wrote right out of existence! Boy, I bet Marvel wished they had thought of this before squicking Gary Friedrich's flaming skull.

As an aside about Superman: do you think we'll get to see him killed by Doomsday again in the pages of Justice League? I'm betting that DC puts out a title at some point that reprints (or retells!) the major stories of DC Characters over the last half century. And they can all be squished into a nice neat little five year timeline.

Superman mentions to Alec that it can be rough coming back. He means from being dead like I said earlier. That was the line that tipped me off! But what it means is that Alec died, became Swamp Thing, had a bunch of Swamp Thing adventures in the old DCU title, and then Swamp Thing disappeared or died or withered, and Alec woke up in the swamp. But he retained all of Swamp Thing's memories. DC really likes the two personalities in one body story. Jason Blood and Etrigan. June Moone and Enchantress. Alec Holland and Swamp Thing. All the other ones I can't think of at the moment!

So Supes is just checking up on the newly resurrected Doctor Holland. Holland has gone all Office Space and decided to chuck the whole botany thing since plants were so frickin' violent. So now he was taking a break to not find himself and do some construction.

Meanwhile, the mammoth bones turn into some giant monster that sends out flies to go into people's ears. The people then twist their heads around and walk around backwards. These are probably some sort of threat to humanity.

Doctor Holland is harassed by vines and flowers while he sleeps so he decides to get rid of his formula that allows plants to grow in any environment. But just as he's going to toss it, Swamp Thing appears to stop him.

So Swamp Thing and Alec Holland are two separate entities now. Yeah. We'll see how long that lasts!