Swamp Thing 3: Rotworld—The Green Kingdom

Comic Info

Swamp Thing (5) #15

Reprints Animal Man (2) #12 and #17 and Swamp Thing (5) #12-18 (October 2012-May 2013).  The end is here!  Swamp Thing and Animal Man have teamed to end the threat of the Rot once and for all.  When they enter the Rot, they find they’ve walked directly into a trap and the trap has consequences.  Separated, Swamp Thing discovers himself in a world where the only sign of the Green is the Parliament of Trees after a year-long battle with the Rot…and his beloved Abby is also dead.  Now, in a last stitch effort, Swamp Thing must stop Arcane to save the world…and he might lose Abby forever if he does!

Written by Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire, Swamp Thing Volume 3:  Rotworld—The Green Kingdom is the culmination of Scott Snyder’s Swamp Thing run.  Following Swamp Thing Volume 2:  Family Tree, Swamp Thing 3:  Rotworld—The Green Kingdom brings together the storylines of both Animal Man and Swamp Thing and issues in this collection are also featured in Animal Man 3:  Rotworld—The Red Kingdom.

Swamp Thing was one of the New 52’s best titles.  The series really kicked off strong, but started to get bogged down quickly (pun intended).  For both Animal Man and Swamp Thing, the whole Rot storyline was six issues two long…despite this, it is good to see the story reach a conclusion.

Swamp Thing (5) #18

Ever since Alan Moore turned Swamp Thing completely around in the ’80s, Swamp Thing writers have been struggling to be “new and different” with a character that had literally traveled the stars with his powers.  Snyder brought Swamp Thing back, gave him his humanity, and restored his love Abigail Arcane…with Rotworld’s conclusion, Snyder undoes most of this work.

The problem with this collection however is that there is a lot of general “fighting” issues.  It was always going to be a big battle ending, but I’ve gotten to a point that fighting issues are rather tedious.  The writing often gives way to the visuals and story is put on the back burner.  I do like the final issue which has a classic Romeo & Juliet situation set-up between Swamp Thing and Abby.

Swamp Thing ends up back where he started before New 52 after this collection for the most part.  It is a smart way to operate in that the next writer essentially gets a clean slate and you get to create your own story with little strings attached.  With Scott Snyder’s leaving Charles Soule takes over the duties of this title.  Swamp Thing 3:  Rotworld—The Green Kingdom is followed by Swamp Thing 4:  Seeder.

Related Links:

Swamp Thing 1:  Raise Them Bones

Swamp Thing 2:  Family Tree

Swamp Thing 4:  Seeder

Swamp Thing 5:  The Killing Field

Swamp Thing 6:  The Sureen

Swamp Thing 7:  Season’s End