The Black

The Black
Gallery
Official Name	The Black
Aliases	The Rot
First Appearance	[[Animal Man (Volume 2) #1]]

The Black or The Rot is a force which is strongly associated with death. The decay and rotting of living things is where it flourishes, with its base being in the "Bone Kingdom" at in the deadlands of the United States.. As such, it works in opposition to life forces such as The Red and [[The Gr

We do not hate life. We need life. We feed off life. For without life, there can be no Rot, no decay. Life is the gateway to the Rot.

—Sethe

History

The Black or The Rot is a force which is strongly associated with death. The decay and rotting of living things is where it flourishes, with its base being in the "Bone Kingdom" at in the deadlands of the United States.. As such, it works in opposition to life forces such as The Red and The Green. Like the other elemental forces of its kind, the Rot is guarded by a Parliament; the Parliament of Decay. Each member of this Parliament is a former Avatar of Death.

The Black has most prominently worked through human agents who belonged to the Arcane family though has other agents:

• Anton Arcane
• William Arcane
• Abigail Arcane
• Wither

While Abigail previously resisted the call of the Black because she was protected from it by the strength and power of the Swamp Thing and his connection to The Green, she would eventually become the Avatar of Death in her uncle Anton's place.

Notes

• The Black is analogous with other forces of nature, their elementals, and their dimensions:
  • The Green (which is connected to all plant life and run by the Parliament of Trees).
  • The Red (which is connected to all animal life and run by the Parliament of Limbs).
  • The Clear (which is associated with aquatic life and run by the Parliament of Waves).
  • The White (which is associated with air elementals and run by the Parliament of Vapors).
  • The Grey (which is connected to all fungal life).
  • An unnamed fire realm (which is associated with fire elementals and connected to the Parliament of Flames.
  • The Melt (which is connected to Earth elementals and run by the Parliament of Stones).
  • The Metal (which is connected to metal and technological elementals and run by The Rithm).
  • The Divided (which is associated with bacteria, amoebas, and other microscopic forms of life).
• Like The Grey, which appeared prominently in Swamp Thing Vol 2, The Black is a force which consumes life. The Grey appears in the New 52 in this capacity on Earth 2.

Related Articles

• The Green
• The Red
• The Clear
• The White
• The Grey
• The Melt
• The Metal
• The Divided

See Also

• Appearances of The Black
  
• Catalogued images related to The Black