NOT FOR KIDS!!!
I utterly love this series it has been consistent with art and story it has gone in a new and interesting direction and it totally works. The first two issues are brilliant read them now and so is the actual Rotworld crossover.
Plot
Abby is about to shoot Alec but is stopped when some plants grab her it turns out she was merely testing to see if he was Alec and after they make up they both get on Abby’s motorbike and ride off. William Arcane is attacked by some of the other kids in the hospital he is kept in.
Review
We haven’t seen a lot of action in these two issues Scott Snyder has mainly been setting things up for future issues but he hasn’t made it boring or anything he’s given you information while not giving you everything took keep you coming back for more in this issue he introduces a new villain Abby’s half-brother William most of this issue is spent introducing him and giving you some of his back story. We don’t learn everything but we don’t need to learn everything about him since Scott Snyder gives you all the vital and interesting information. We also see some development with the Abby and Alec relationship and we get to see what happened to her since Swamp thing disappeared.
The majority of this issue is about William Arcane we learn a bit about him we don’t need to know his origin or his backstory we learn enough and there are some surprising twists with his character. Probably the best one is the fact that he is allergic to chlorophyll this was an interesting twist because he’s obviously going to be allergic to Swamp thing and the green this could make it interesting when he gets into a fight with Alec. I also liked the part with the other members of the hospital he lives in since this eventually leads to the emergence of his powers. Originally in this issue he appears as a frightened kid who seems pretty harmless but obviously he’s not and later he does some fairly horrific stuff this book is not for kids and what he does to the doctor and the other kids is horrible and you should not read this but this does show how nasty the rot is and you do see stuff like this in later issues as well but some of these scenes coming from a kid really do stand out. William could be a really interesting villain and I’m happy he will continue to appear in the series since he’s pretty interesting and not a 1 dimensional villain.
Some of the most interesting scenes of this issue take place between Abby and Alec not only are some of these scenes drawn by Yanick Paquette but they are really well written I love what Abby does since it does make sense to test out if it was Alec but what really made these first few pages amazing is one splash page with the skeleton girl I mean this recurs several times in future issues but it’s so beautiful in this.
I also liked the little two page spread of what happened to Abby since Swamp thing disappeared since it helped to fill in some of the gaps about what happened to Abby and why she’s now become a more aggressive person to the caring person we are used to also these pages are really nicely drawn and I love the little borders we get.
The story in the end comes full circle and the two separate stories meet up in a satisfying way and we set everything up for the next issue.
The art is split between Victor Ibanez and Yanick Paquette I don’t normally like two different artists on the same book but the two styles mesh pretty well together and while I prefer Paquette Ibanez really does bring out the horror and gore in the pages. Sometimes Ibanez’s work does look a little off but that’s only in the odd panel. Paquette’s work on the other hand is flawless he nails the emotion and the panel layouts and the splash panel with Abby the skeleton girl is really beautiful.
Verdict
This was a great issue in the series while it is more set up for the next issue it is amazing with art and story but be warned don’t eat this when you’re having lunch some of the scenes are horrific!
5 stars
