Beware Story City: a Review of Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland

 

Review:

Bigby Wolf gets a solo story in this original graphic novel by the creator of the award-winning Fables universe. Bigby, whose appearance, demeanor, powers and ferocity are reminiscent of Wolverine from Marvel's X-Men, gets to show off all of those traits in this violent book, well rated for Mature readers.

From his opening narration, Bigby sets the scene and fits this tale into the larger Fables universe and timeline. His road trip is part of a quest to find a new place for the Fables to call home after the battles with the Adversary and the Dark Man. Since Bluebeard had some connection to a place called Story City, he concluded it was worth checking out.

What he finds is a town filled with a couple thousand werewolves. Young children. Happy parents. Young adults. About the only middle-aged folks are connected to his distant past: a former World War 2 partner, Arthur Harp, and his wife Dr Sieglinde von Abensberg und Traun. 

But how could they have aged so little in sixty years? And what is the connection to a town full of werewolves?

Cue the flashback narrative, showing how an explosion splattered them with Bigby's own blood, giving them a lesser form of his own wolf powers.

Not everyone is happy, though, with the town's status quo. With several factions sniffing for more power and influence, it was already an unstable place. Mix in Bigby, whom many revere as the God of the Wolves, and the match is lit.

While the first half of the book is heavy on narration and conversation, all wolf-hell breaks loose in the second half. The result is a gory battle royale, with blood and guts, deep bites and severed limbs aplenty. Mix in loads of human and werewolf nudity, full frontal both male and female, plus some sex and seduction and this book earns that "suggested for Mature readers" caution.

Ultimately, though, the two halves - the talking-heavy start then the violence and destruction - fail to mesh. The tension inherent in the town fails to transfer onto the pages and the final conflict is a disappointing fizzle. The ultimate showdown is so one-sided, as the town of lesser werewolves never really had a "ghost of a chance" in Bigby's own words. It's loud, ferocious and bloody but ultimately forced and foregone.

A nice touch is author and Fables creator Willingham's tale of encountering the real-life Story City, Iowa. It does fill in some seemingly random bits - it turns out that the Skunk River is real, as well as the town's historical carousel. His anecdote made this reviewer smile; unfortunately, not much else in this book did.

Description:

A #1 New York Times Best Seller!

At long last! The long-awaited original FABLES: WEREWOLVES OF THE HEARTLAND graphic novel is here!   

Bigby Wolf embarks on a quest through the American Heartland to find a new location for Fabletown, a secret society of exiled fairy tale characters living among the "mundys." In his wanderings, Bigby stumbles across Story City, a small town that seems to be occupied solely by werewolves. Oddly enough, they seem to already know and revere Bigby, but at the same time they've captured and caged him.  

FABLES: WEREWOLVES OF THE HEARTLAND tells an epic tale that began well before Bigby Wolf set foot in the bucolic plains of the Midwest. It began long ago when he served in World War II and became mired in a Nazi experiment that would change nations. It's soon evident that murder in Story City is the least of their sins, and unraveling the town's many mysteries may cost Bigby, the seventh son of the North Wind, much more than his own life.  

Collects: NA - Standalone graphic novel

Authors:  Bill Willingham
Artists:  Jim Fern (Illustrator), Craig Hamilton
Published By:  Vertigo
Published When:  Oct. 8, 2013
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401224806
Pages:  152 pages

Virtuous but Lethal: a review of Poison Ivy volume 1: The Virtuous Cycle

 

Review:

Writer G. Willow Wilson, in this collection of the first six issues of the Poison Ivy ongoing series (2022), leans into several of Poison Ivy's most defining character traits.

Plant-based powers? Check - although with significant limits, as something is slowly poisoning her and she cannot stop it.

Homicidal maniac? Check! At least ten people are killed in these six chapters. Some definitely deserve it more than others, like the abusive boss or the attempted rapists, versus others who just got in her way en route to fulfill her commitment to wipe out all of humanity.

Questionable sanity? Check. Especially fun is the sequence of Batman hallucinations.

Love for Harley Quinn? Check, although restricted to bittersweet flashbacks and touching letters Ivy writes as she travels across the country. This touch of humanity in our plant-powers homicidal maniac of questionable sanity also spills over int a heart for others she meets and helps, even as she prepares to wipe us all out.

Wilson, whose biggest claim to fame was the ground-breaking and Hugo Award-winning series Ms Marvel, splices all these pieces together so tightly that, by the end of the volume, it feels like a limited series, not an ongoing one. After the climactic battle with Jason Woodrue aka the Floronic Man aka the Green Man (he has lots of different names in this book), it feels very much like the story is done, with nowhere to go from here.

And indeed, it was originally envisioned that way, announced in March 2022 as a six-issue limited series. By the mid-point, DC decided to extend it to a further 6 issues, then by around issue #8 they committed to running it as an ongoing one. And as of this review, it has reached #34.

Wilson gives us a tale with themes of love and loss, nature and destruction, all overlaid throughout with dark horror motifs. In a jarring new take on the ravishing beauty with which Poison Ivy has traditionally been portrayed, Wilson also weaves in elements of body-horror at the increasing growths on that usually so striking body. Artist Marcio Takara illustrates her wearing more clothing and coverings than usual - baggy pants and yard-work clothing instead of the more typical leaf-based fabrics barely covering anything at all.

Takara also gives us artistic and horror-inspired Green Man and psychotic hallucinations, filled with monster tropes and nods. Even something as innocuous as mushrooms become, in Wilson's and Takara's hands, a horrifying and disgusting murder weapon.

While complete whole that feels unsuited to start an ongoing series, this tale is far from neat and tidy. Its carefully cultivated darkness is a powerful new direction for the beautiful and deadly Poison Ivy.

Description:

Humanity had its chance. Now it’s time for Poison Ivy. The fan-favorite Batman villain steps into the solo spotlight, in a thrilling and tragic adventure written by Ms. Marvel co-creator G. Willow Wilson!

Winner, Outstanding Comic Book - GLAAD Media Awards 2023

Pamela Isley has been a lot of things in her life. A living god, a super-villain, an activist, a scientist, and dead. In a new body that she didn’t ask for and with a renewed sense of purpose, Ivy leaves Gotham and sets out to complete her greatest work—a gift to the world that will heal the damage dealt to it...by ending humanity.

On her journey to doom humankind, a heartbroken and betrayed Poison Ivy encounters obstacles (plant assassins!) and dodges the law along the way, in a body horror-infused character-defining epic from the visionary creative team of writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Marcio Takara.

Collects: Poison Ivy #1-6

Authors:  G. Willow Wilson
Artists:  Marcio Takara, Brian Level, Emma Rios
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  May 14, 2024
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1779525031
Pages:  160 pages

Roses for Riverdale - a Review of Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica (HC)

 

Review:

Who knew Gotham and Riverdale were so close together? Our characters pop back and forth between the locations so much and so easily throughout this fun six-part limited series cross-over that, if not exactly a suburban commute, it's certainly day-trippable.

I picked up this gorgeous hardcover collected edition, a beautiful book with glossy finishes and packed with fun extras. The variant cover gallery shows the sheer delight artists like Jae Lee, Gene Ha and Dan Parent took in pairing these four ladies. And the draft sketches give great peeks into their artistic and creative processes.

This is fundamentally a concept piece - overlapping two very different worlds - and to some extent the story scarcely matters. For what it's worth: Veronica's father, Mr. Lodge the wealthy businessman, wants to turn the local swamp into a university and mall as his next grand business venture. On hearing the news, Poison Ivy determines to preserve the area's biodiversity and endangered species. So she and Harley Quinn travel to Riverdale to persuade him to change his mind. When he inevitably turns them down, Gotham's anti-hero duo decides to infiltrate the local high school scene and kidnap Veronica.

But at a teenager party, they wind up magically body-swapped, Freaky Friday style, with Betty and Veronica. Hilarious hijinks ensue as they encounter loads of other characters from both universes. Riverdalians like Reggie Mantle, Moose, Midge and Principal Weatherbee on one hand; Gothamites like Zatanna, Joker, Catwoman and even Alfred on the other.

It's an odd, occasionally indulgent romp of a collision between Gotham and Riverdale. And it works, for the most part. By pulling from the lighter, goofier side of the Harley and Ivy spectrum and pairing it with the more YA end of Archie and friends, writers Paul Dini and Marc Andreyko find enough overlap to sell this crossover. The result is much more successful and entertaining than the awful DC Meets Hanna Barbera crossovers, which fell flat in part because of the vast differences between those universes.

Artists Laura Braga and Adriana Melo match the fun tone with their bright, open images and the glossy treatment of this collection really lets them shine. And I loved the attention to detail of the fashions - de rigueur in the land of Betty and Veronica comics, in which the teens have a seemingly endless closet. But superheroes tend to wear the same thing over and over. But even Ivy and Harley get into the changes, and I count at least five different outfits on them as well.

This is a delightful meeting of two beloved comics universes and their much-adored leading ladies. With a beautiful package and loads of attention to the little details, it's a success!

Description:

The bad girls of Gotham meet the good girls of Riverdale!

Hiram Lodge (Veronica's father) wants to invest in the future by building a university with free tuition for Riverdale's residents. His site is a protected swamp on the outskirts of town, and once news of the plan reaches Gotham City, a certain eco-warrior (a.k.a. Poison Ivy) is determined to prevent the dream from becoming reality.

However, once Poison Ivy and her bestie Harley Quinn arrive, they get mixed up in the sort of hijinks that can only happen in Riverdale. At a superhero-themed costume party, the night's entertainment--Zatanna-- manages to place the personas of the Gotham City Sirens into the bodies of the town's notorious frenemies: Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. While Ivy (in Ronnie's body) seeks to derail Lodge's agenda from within, more than a few nefarious forces--from Jason and Cheryl Blossom to the Clown Prince of Crime himself--have their own foul plans.

This groundbreaking miniseries teams up two of fandom's best-known duos, bringing the ladies of Gotham and Riverdale together for the first time! This madcap mayhem comes courtesy of Paul Dini (Harley Quinn) and Marc Andreyko (Wonder Woman '77), with art by Laura Braga (DC Comics: Bombshells)!

Collects: Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica #1-6

Authors: Paul Dini, Marc Andreyko
Artists:  Laura Braga, Adriana Melo
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Sept. 4, 2018
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN:  978-1401280338
Pages:  160 pages

Angst, Ennui and Affection - a Review of Harley Quinn: the Animated Series: the Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour

 

Review:

Twenty-five years after Harley Quinn's grand debut (in a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series), eighteen years after successfully jumping media from TV series to comic books en route to becoming one of the most famous and popular anti-heroes of DC and with her own title, in 2017 Harley Quinn jumped back into animated TV series with her very own show.

Season Two's finale saw her interrupt the wedding of Poison Ivy and Kite Man. In a cross-blending promotion, DC spun off a 6-issue limited series comic run, bridging seasons two and three. Writer Tee Franklin takes our leading ladies on a Thelma-and-Louise-style romp of a road trip, but with more sex and way more violence.

Commissioner Gordon pursues them in an OCD-fueled blind rage, oblivious to the collateral damage to innocent people or his own life and sanity. Battles versus Hush, Clayface, Vixen and other members of the Justice League follow in rapid succession. Cameos by Catwoman, Nightwing and Batman add to the name recognition. Intimate scenes popping up in bedrooms, bathrooms, moving vehicles. It all adds up to a wild ride with plenty of noisy chaos.

But the furor and humour are tempered throughout by Ivy's endless introspection, confusion, perhaps even clinical depression. You'd think Harley, with her PhD in Psychology, would have more to offer than a lover's patience and commitment, as important as those things are in their relationship.

Franklin writes what she knows, weaving in many reflections of her own experience as a Black, queer, disabled, and reportedly autistic comic writer. All of those elements play a role in this jam-packed series. But importantly, those traits are never the focus, they are just the realities with which the supporting characters must deal. It adds up to a great display of diverse representation, possibly a portfolio for participating in DC's annual pride publications.

The visuals are recognizably reflecting the styles of the animated series, albeit with some small stylistic differences. Ivy's face is stretched even longer; Harley's is even rounder, and so on. But the strong similarities point to the deep reliance throughout the series on ties and connections to the TV show. The volume of references, in-jokes and events is off-putting to readers not familiar with the source material.

The result is a book that confuses on one level and fails in its marketing task on another; it may be awesome for existing viewers of the show but is unlikely to draw in new ones. It is a missed opportunity and, as a result, the story itself misses the mark. The moments of loud, kinetic chaos and of affection between our leads could have been so much more fun, but they wind up buried under the disjointed leaps, in-jokes and oppressive ennui.

Description:

Hey, do you wanna see Harley and Ivy go on a road trip and make out??? Picking up directly from the cliffhanger ending of Harley Quinn: The Animated Series, Harley and Ivy are on the run in a Thelma-and-Louise journey, it's all here!

Harley and Ivy on the road trip of the century! Following the wedding disaster of the decade, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy end up on the run from Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD! But as fun as all that sounds, Ivy still worries over leaving Kite Man at the altar... Luckily, Harley's got the perfect scheme to shake her out of her wedding-day blues!

This incredible volume is packed to the brim containing Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour #1-6!

Collects: Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour #1-6

Authors:  Tee Franklin
Artists:  Max Sarin
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Aug. 29, 2023
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1779520401
Pages:  144 pages

A Darkening Green: Review of Batman Arkham Poison Ivy

 

Review:

I love the Batman Arkham series of TPBs! Each book is a fascinating trip through the history and key moments of one specific member of Batman's gallery of classic villains. Sixteen books and counting have been published in the series so far.

This one follows Poison Ivy's growth and evolution, and it is a delight to see how the character grew and changed in the hands of different teams over her history.

Some things never change - her powers are based in the world's flora, she is always passionate for nature, she has a pervasive willingness to destroy manmade things and kill people in defense of nature.

But she has also been through many changes over the years. Her origin tale has been reimagined, her sanity has come and gone. And as these collected stories show, she has been portrayed in increasingly dark ways, becoming more cold, more deadly over the years.

Right from her first appearance, in Batman #181 (1966), she has been willing to use her beauty and her powers to seduce and control others. She sowed division between Batman and Robin while also seeking to knock other dastardly damsels from their perches (specifically Dragonfly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth, who reappear in occasional later reboots).

A decade later, in a two-part tale versus Wonder Woman in World's Finest Comics, writer Jerry Conway picks up her power of control and manipulation as she imprisons a former lover in a tree and forces him to do her bidding, and he amps up her willingness to poison and kill.

Conway revisited Poison Ivy with a 1981 Batman tale (#339) of seduction, manipulation and mind-control. Can Batman overcome both her lethal vines and her powerful and intoxicating kiss?

In Secret Origins #36 (1988), Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame gave us a darker take on her origin story; he made more explicit the sexual overtones of the villain. He also worked in several clever nods to earlier stories. Alas, Mark Buckingham (later of Fables) gave the story such scratchy and unimaginative art that it ultimately failed to live up to the tale itself and the renewed origin.

The pattern of increasing darkness was now established, and Poison Ivy becomes an increasingly ruthless killer and terrorist. The two-part "Hot House" by John Francis Moore (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #42, 43) leaned strongly into her mental imbalance and dangers that result. When Moore revisited Ivy in 1997's Batman: Poison Ivy #1, she snapped over the destruction of her island of tranquility, setting out on a bloody path of violent retribution.

By the time 2008 brought us Joker's Asylum: Poison Ivy #1 and 2010's Gotham City Sirens #8, her revenge-fueled willingness to hunt down, torture and kill her enemies in often gruesome ways was well established.

These and other stories in this volume portray this powerfully compelling character and her fascinating evolution. The writing is at times uneven, the art occasionally a disservice, but Poison Ivy herself is always striking, sexy and usually barely covered by a handful of ivy leaves.

Description:

GOTHAM'S DEADLIEST BEAUTY

Poison Ivy was once Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a young woman with a unique fascination with botany and toxicology. But then she was seduced and later experimented on by her mentor, Professor Jason Woodrue, also known as the super-villain Floronic Man.

Now a constant thorn in Batman's side, Poison Ivy uses the toxins in her bloodstream to make her touch fatal to whomever she chooses, giving her the ability to create pheromones that make men her slaves while she stops at nothing to ensure plant life will retake Earth.

BATMAN ARKHAM: POISON IVY collects some of the villain's greatest stories by some of the industry's greatest creators, including Robert Kanigher (THE FLASH), Gerry Conway (JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA), Neil Gaiman (THE SANDMAN), Guillem March (CATWOMAN), P. Craig Russell (WONDER WOMAN), Mark Buckingham (FABLES) and many more!

Collects: Batman #181, #339, Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight #42-43, Batman: Poison Ivy #1, Batman: Shadow Of The Bat Annual #3, Batman Villain Secret Files #1, Detective Comics #231, Gotham City Sirens #8, Joker's Asylum: Poison Ivy #1, Secret Origins #36, The Batman Chronicles #10, World's Finest Comics #251-252

Authors:  Various
Artists:  Various
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Sept. 13, 2016
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401264451
Pages:  312 pages