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
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