Price of War: A review of Animal Man #18

While Animal Man and Swamp Thing were able to save the world, they still have to go back and stop it from happening at all!

Post contains spoilers!

Rotworld ended last month and left Swamp Thing and Animal Man in a weird place. While they had saved the world from Arcane, it was not the world they lived in. Arcane was able to jump back into the past and start it all over until he wins. With no way of stopping him, out heroes are lost. However they find an ally in the Parliament of Decay. They can send them back to key points to stop this from happening at all. It could be a trap or it could work. Sadly they have little to no choice in the matter. If they don’t act now their loved ones could be gone forever.

As soon as they jump into the portal, Swamp Thing and Animal Man are separated. Buddy soon finds himself back in Louisiana. Right as he lands he can already feel the Red pumping at full power. With his strength returning he sets off to find his family. He finds them right when he family would have been lost. Right before Maxine became the third hunter. He is able to save Maxine from that fate but they still have a fight on their hands. It becomes a battle of the Red and the Rot. Buddy and Maxine vs the two hunters and William Arcane.

Now Buddy does pretty well on his own but in truth it is his daughter that has the true power. She is able to pull the Rot out of the hunters. She can not kill the hunters but she might be able to change them back to who they used to be. She is able to pull it off but it drains her and she passes out. When the Rot clears two men wake up very confused. The are asking if they are with Taproot and where the Ascension Chamber is. But both Buddy and Socks have no idea what they are talking about. For a shining moment everything seems fine and over. But William Arcane will not walk away easily.

As Buddy and his wife are talking, William sneaks up behind them. If it wasn’t for Cliff seeing him Buddy might have died. However, Cliff gets punched right through the chest. Soon after William’s body is cut off from the Rot and he dies…along with Cliff. Right as everything seemed to be right in the world, Animal Man loses his son. I am starting to think that DC has a grudge against sons.

Now the biggest thing to happen in this comic I think is something people will look over. What is Taproot? If you have been reading Animal Man this is not the first time you have heard this. While in Justice League Dark Black Orchid tells Constantine her past is classified she tells Buddy about it during Rotworld. When they first left the Kingdom of the Red she tells him how she is a hybrid of the Green and Red. This is not something that happen naturally. So my guess? Taproot was working on fusing the Red and Green using this “Ascension Chamber” These two guys clearly were taken out before going in but Black Orchid made it in. I don’t think this will be the last we see or hear of Taproot.