In this review of Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1, it’s Poison Ivy vs. Vandal Savage vs. Batman: Who will win? Not Gotham!
Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1 main cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli (DC Comics)
BATMAN: BAD SEEDS – SUNSET #1
Written by MATT FRACTION and G. WILLOW WILSON
Art and Main Cover: GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
Variant Covers: DAN MORA, MARCIO TAKARA, JORGE JIMENEZ, JEFF SPOKES
Page Count: 48 pages
Release Date: 8/26/26
This review contains spoilers
Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1 begins at 6pm, as Poison Ivy launches her attack on Gotham City (giving it to the Parliament of Trees), and Vandal Savage launches his attack on Poison Ivy.
Batgirl Cass and her new siblings Tenji and Jaya seek out noodles in Chinatown, Gotham General’s doctors and nurses get ready for a night shift, Robin Damian and Verity Pennyworth notice Ivy’s plants, Harley Quinn wakes up to the plants as well, Jim Gordon and his partner Ezzy Espinosa get a murder call in the middle of plant invasion, Tim Drake and Bernard try to help their fellow citizens out, Catwoman bathes in a penthouse, Batgirl Steph loses wifi (a sadly common enough experience for a Gotham girl she doesn’t realize what’s happening at first), Anarky delivers packages, Batwoman’s phone call with her dad is cut short by the plants, Ventriloquist loses power while discussing his plan with his Scarface puppet. In Blüdhaven, Nightwing sees the power go out in Gotham from the superhighway.
At 7pm, Batman sends out a message, letting the Batfamily know that Gotham is invaded by Ivy’s plant weapons, telling his family to defend each other and Gotham’s citizens. Batman sends Robin to Arkham, while he goes underground to see if he can attack the plant roots, telling Verity Pennyworth he believes in her.
In the sewers, Batman attacks a plant monster trying to eat a woman and her daughter, but is sucked under the water. Meanwhile, Robin reports to Verity that Dr. Zeller is on the subway, and Batgirl Steph heads to protect her. Killer Croc rescues Batman by eating the plant monster. Vandal Savage surrounds the Mayor’s residence, capturing one of Ivy’s friends and staffers Juhi. Ivy sends Janet from HR to save Harley, the one person she cares about. Croc tells Batman that Savage has an Ivycide poison, and that Ivy has to be persuaded to stop this, or Gotham and the whole world will be destroyed. Croc wishes Batman well in saving people, and as Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1 ends, Batman heads into the vine-choked streets.
Who truly owns Gotham…? (DC Comics)
Analysis
After months of exciting build up, Bad Seeds is here! Batman writer Matt Fraction and Poison Ivy writer G. Willow Wilson have cultivated (pun intended!) this story of Mayor Ivy’s fall, Commissioner Savage’s betrayal (curse its suddenness and predictability, Firefly fans), and Batman’s heroism for us, and given this opening, it’s going to be a fun, if ridiculous ride. While Fraction’s Batman has hewed pretty close to street level crime, no city or world destroying threats for the most part, this goes from zero to a billion miles per hour with 12 hours from sunset to sunrise to figure out how to stop Poison Ivy and Vandal Savage! The concept is wild, but at least it’s nowhere close to as bad as the horrifically and intellectually insulting idiocy (alliteration intended) of Gotham War.
It’s a bit sad that main Batman artist Jorge Jimenez isn’t taking the artistic reins on Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1, but since it’s technically a combined issue of Poison Ivy and Batman, Giuseppe Camuncoli’s art is excellent as usual, with great finishes by Cliff Rathburn (last noticed by this reviewer in the excellent conclusion to James Tynion’s absolutely brilliant Joker series). The vision of Ivy’s destroyed Gotham is chilling and darkly beautiful. The characters have excellent emotions, are clearly recognizable, even with such a huge cast to set up the 24 issue event. The one odd artistic note is colorist Tomeu Morey’s continued tendency to make blonde hair (like Janet’s or Alan Scott’s) look neon glowing (something that doesn’t happen when Morey is coloring Jorge Jimenez for some reason).
While Fraction and Wilson’s writing is generally quite excellent, giving enough information to someone who may have skipped the prologue issues of both Batman and Poison Ivy to jump right into Bad Seeds, there is an odd note. How does Croc know Savage has the Ivycide? It might have been nice to have a line that he saw it swimming in a particular area of Gotham, or that Savage constructed it at Arkham while Croc was being treated by Dr. Zeller. As it is, it feels a bit like unjustified (if necessary) exposition. But the way Fraction and Wilson set up all the various Batfamily spinoffs in an almost Dickensian way is brilliantly done, making each spinoff feel more than just a cash grab taking over the Bat-line. Hopefully they are able to just as masterfully tie it all together in Sunrise in as satisfying a bow!
Main event artist Giuseppe Camuncoli draws a striking main cover – Batman as a scarecrow on Ivy’s vines, as Ivy, Savage, the TUCOs, and a vine-wrapped city suffer in the setting sun behind them (also available as a foil virgin variant with a surcharge). Dan Mora draws a starkly beautiful connecting cover for the two bookend issues, with Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Batwoman, and Batgirl Steph in the shadow of the vines and flowers! Poison Ivy main artist Marcio Takara provides a beautiful full length portrait of Ivy in the city returned to nature – her deadly dream – in an homage to Jim Lee’s famous Batman portrait cover from Hush. Main Batman artist Jorge Jimenez provides a spot foil variant with Batman pinioned by Ivy’s vines, against a sinister Big Head Ivy in the background. Jeffrey Spokes pens a gloriously terrifying Ivy and her eye-spores with glow in the dark details. And Rachta Lin provides an Unknown Comics retailer exclusive with anime-style sexy Ivy capturing Batman.
Final Thoughts
Fraction, Wilson, Camuncoli and Rathburn provide a great opening to the 24 issue, two month, ten week Bad Seeds events – jump right in, the spores are fine!
