Review: Animal Man Vol. 3- Rotworld: The Red Kingdom

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is tremendously exciting and gives a worthwhile conclusion to the past two volumes. Buddy’s family brings out plenty of emotions, which makes his journey even more meaningful. The ending opens up the series for even more unique stories.

Cons: The way the crossover is structured cuts some aspects of the conclusion. The artwork isn’t that great in a few chapters.

Overall: The previous two volumes of Animal Man concluded with the promise that the third volume would be even more epic and meaningful than ever before. This collection does not disappoint. It combines fun action with emotional character moments to deliver a story that is filled with suspense and tension. It also helps bridge the gap between Animal Man’s past and his future. Anyone who has read the past two volumes should not miss out on this one.

Story

Animal Man Vol. 3: Rotworld- The Red Kingdom, is an action-packed story and a well-executed crossover. In this volume, all of Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire’s planning comes to a head, as the forces of the Red, Green, and Rot meet together in a finale that easily lives up to the anticipation. In addition, the series continues to use the family element in Animal Man’s life to tell stories that are filled with emotion and packed with real consequences. After reading this volume, I was left more excited than ever to read more about Animal Man. Overall, this is a great book and a solid way to push Buddy Baker into the future.

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Rotworld begins by setting up the premise behind Rotworld itself. When Animal Man and Swamp Thing dive in to the world of the Rot, they spend a few minutes unsuccessfully fighting before returning to their own world. However, when they emerge, they find that a full year has passed and that their world has now been overrun by the Rot’s forces; this is Rotworld.

Setting up the story in this way is a wonderful idea. It allows Snyder and Lemire to stretch their creative capabilities to the max by exploring what is essentially a brand new world. This gives the writing pair near unrestricted access in delving into unique versions of well known heroes, like a Green Lantern Frankenstein and a completely robotic version of Steel. The creativity here is awesome and helps make this a better story all around.

This also allows for an epic final showdown where Animal Man and Swamp Thing team up against the strongest forces the Rot has to offer. This finale sees Swamp Thing command a giant Bat-robot while Animal Man supercharges his connection to the Red. Both heroes then deal out a well-deserved beating to Anton Arcane: the fight fans have been waiting for.

The best part about Animal Man’s story though, is the family element. While Buddy is out trying to save his family, his family is simply trying to stay alive. Seeing Maxine sacrifice herself so that her mother and brother can live is heartbreaking but seeing Cliff sacrifice himself permanently is even more so. Both sacrifices inject a ton of emotions into the story and are sure to drive Animal Man’s character forward in future volumes. They also cause a rift in his family that will be interesting to see develop as his series progresses. This story has succeeded in making Animal Man an even better character to read.

My only real complaint with this crossover is that those who choose to exclusively read the Animal Man issues will miss the real demise of Anton Arcane. These readers will see Buddy rescue his family but won’t get to see the leader of the Rot actually be defeated. Even a summary would be nice to see, since no mention is even made as to whether the Rot was truly pushed back or not.

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Art

Though Steve Pugh’s art style worked well in prior volumes, it fluctuates a bit more dramatically in Rotworld. Scenes where the Baker family is on their own or scenes depicting the Red’s stronghold in Rotworld look fantastic. They are creative and help deliver the emotional impact necessary for the moment. However, scenes where multiple heroes and villains are fighting at once do not work well with Pugh’s more minimalist style and end up looking a bit odd instead. This splits the book pretty evenly and leaves it looking just alright overall.

In addition, one of the finale’s most pivotal chapters is rather poor. The book’s penultimate chapter, drawn by Andrew Belanger, sees a number of major events and even contains the conclusion to the war for Rotworld. However, this is, by far, the visual low point of the collection, which takes some of the impact away from an otherwise fantastic conclusion. It is not a dealbreaker but is definitely a disappointment.

Continuity

Animal Man Vol. 3: Rotworld- The Red Kingdom continues the story from Animal Man Vol. 2: Animal vs. Man (Review). This is also a crossover with the Swamp Thing series, so references are made to Swamp Thing Vol. 1 (Review) and Swamp Thing Vol. 2 (Review). This story also takes place at the same time as Swamp Thing Vol. 3 (Review).

The story here continues in Animal Man Vol. 4: Splinter Series (Review).