Animal Man #12/Swamp Thing #12
Writer: Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder
Artists: Steve Pugh, Lovern Kinzierski, Marco Rudy, Daniel Green, Andy Owens, and Val Staples
Cover Artists: Steve Pugh, Yanick Paquette, and Nathan Fairbairn
Publisher: DC
If for whatever reason you have been avoiding Swamp Thing or Animal Man, now would be the perfect time to jump on. The two books have converged as Animal Man and Swamp Thing have joined forces to fight back the Rot. Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire have scripted a comic beauty here. The two issues, which serve as a prologue to Rotworld, do a great job of setting up the upcoming story while also being very new-reader friendly. Often, crossovers tend to be problematic because of the inclusion of a second series that readers may or may not have been reading. However, these two stories blend together well, and each side of the story is skillfully introduced without being exposition heavy. The art teams on both books do a remarkable job with these two issues. Pugh and Kindzierski have a fantastically contemporary style that lends well to the story in Animal Man. Likewise, Rudy, Green, Owens, and Staples do a gorgeous job on the Swamp Thing side of the prologue. Their art is so organic in nature that it feels alive. 4.5/5
Batman: Detective Comics #12
Writer: Tony Salvador Daniel
Artists: Tony Salvador Daniel, Richard Friend, and Tomeu Morey
Cover Artists: Tony Salvador Daniel and Tomeu Morey
Publisher: DC
This issue marks the end of Tony Daniel’s run as writer of Detective Comics, and it comes to a fairly mellow end. This past arc, featuring Mr. Toxic, wasn’t nearly as compelling or exciting as the series had been towards the beginning. In fact, throughout the entire series Daniel has been unable to capture the same spark he had on his Batman run. While Mr. Toxic is a powerful villain, he pales in comparison to the rest of Gotham’s rogues. Though his writing hasn’t been as great, Daniel’s art continues to be fantastic. Daniel will be providing one more issue on art duties, and you can expect it to look as great as it normally does. This run, while not nearly as bad as some other series’, hasn’t been at the level it should have been. Here’s hoping the next creative team will have better luck. 3/5
Green Arrow #12
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Artists: Harvey Tolibao, Richard Horie, and Tanya Horie
Cover Artists: Harvey Tolibao, Richard Horie, and Tanya Horie
Publisher: DC
After a reasonably decent issue last month, Green Arrow is back to being a collective mess. To start with, Nocenti is way too wordy throughout the entire issue, to the point of being annoying. There are pages that go by, specifically the one where Ollie fights a local gang leader, where very little makes any sense; and on the other hand, there are panels where the same thing is repeated four times. The plot itself isn’t particularly exciting, which is a real shame, because there is a lot that could be done with Green Arrow. The biggest obstacle here is that they haven’t really developed any strong secondary characters. There is no support team set up to pick up the slack for this completely useless version of Green Arrow. When DC rebooted itself, they made the decision to modernize Green Arrow and separate him from the Arrow family. Unfortunately, the only thing they’ve accomplished is making him an inept hero who rightfully doesn’t deserve to be on the Justice League. The art in this book is more of a distraction than anything, and most definitely not a good one. The art often feels rushed and incomplete, and is only saved by the gorgeous colors provided by Richard and Tanya Horie. 2.5/5
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Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net