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
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