TBU Collected Review: Poison Ivy Volume 2

Overview: In the next six issues of Poison Ivy, making up volume 2, Ivy continues the journey to find herself after defeating her ultimate villain.

Editor’s Note: This collected edition includes the second six issues of Poison Ivy, first released as a miniseries with a planned six issues before being extended to a maxiseries and eventually an ongoing series. That makes this review unique as because the series has become an ongoing, TBU will begin reviewing the issues weekly starting in June. So while Poison Ivy Volume 2 will not be collected and released until later this year, we wanted to get caught up with everything that has happened prior to jumping into monthly reviews. Poison Ivy Volume 2 includes issues #7-12, with the its seventh issue released in February 2023 and the twelfth issue released in May 2023. This review focuses on the story as a whole rather than the individual issues that made up the collection. Spoilers are sure to be revealed.

Synopsis: Poison Ivy Volume 2 begins with Ivy doing exactly what she promised at the end of the last volume: go after the companies killing the earth. She is at a fracking company based out of Montana called FutureGas. Searching the grounds, she feels something familiar: lamia spores. As she follows it closer, she finds a giant silo terraforming some pink goop.

Ivy is then attacked by one of the Green Man’s monsters which should be dead along with him. Ivy reaches for the green and easily kills the monster. Locals attending the grounds hear the commotion and come to her aid. They tell Ivy of other monsters roaming the city, which all started as soon as FutureGas put in this new equipment. A small price to pay for living wages and insurance. The people plead with Ivy to keep quiet. She responds by applying for a job.

Ivy sneaks into headquarters and all the way to Ms. Crawley’s office. As she finds newly minted mushroom spores, she is caught. Ms. Crawley sprays Ivy with something that neutralizes her powers. We learn who Ms. Crawley is, another protégé of Woodrue, AKA the Green Man. Neutralized, Ivy cannot use her healing power against Lamia, and Ivy needs a miracle.

Janet from HR has no idea what she is looking at, but she knows she is scared. Ivy, dying, reminds Janet that she knows her. Ivy blew up Janet from HR’s former employer, the chemical plant in Gotham. Lucky for Ivy, she is a good person. Despite losing one job because of Ivy, she decides to help her.

Ivy leads Janet through the office, talking through the vines and plants towards an antidote that Ivy is able to feel. We learn Janet has cancer that has ruined her life, so she greatly needs the medical insurance from her job to save her life.

They come to a secret lab. It is clear to Janet now that her boss is an evil genius. Janet bumps into a table, tripping an alarm. Just as she finds what she needs to save Ivy, Ms. Crawley attacks with a bat. Janet escapes and gets back to Ivy in time. Ms. Crawley, knowing she can’t stop Ivy twice, tries to flee to no avail.

Ms. Crawley justifies her actions and justifies poisoning the fields and the people all for energy and power. Ivy kills her slowly.

Janet’s life is now ruined even more. Lucky for her, she had made a friend – a friend that has earned favors in the medical field. Ivy takes Janet to Seattle for medical attention and begins to repay Janet for saving her life.

In Seattle, it seems Ivy has settled down for a bit after taking down FutureGas. Comfortable. Ivy calls Janet but hears a different voice answer. Harley Quinn is standing in the doorway. Now knowing Harley got her letters, they embrace.

They spend the next day in bed. Despite Ivy’s protest, Harley wants to know what the lamia spores are like, so Ivy shares the green with Harley for the first time. She takes Harley to her favorite parts of the city, and they listen to the trees together, both able to see what normal people cannot.

As they come down, the truth starts to come out. Ivy has been using the lamia to boost her powers, but she misses her old powers. She misses being able to grow. Harley can give her the greatest gift: she pulls out her phone and shows her what she has done. Ivy hasn’t been able to stay in one place for long, and everything she has planted has blossomed past anything that could happen without her connection to the green. The powers she thought she lost have been there all along; the lamia has kept her blind.

As fast as she comes, Harley needs to return to Gotham. Both ask the other to stay, yet both have their own journey to finish. Invigorated, she tells Janet to pack: “We’ve got work to do.”

Suddenly, something in Ivy has changed. She no longer wishes to continue her vendetta; it’s all about being with Harley. Janet decides that she will tag along as well. Using Ivy’s hatred for conscious capitalism, she talks Ivy into detouring for a two-day women-only wellness retreat hosted by Gwendolyn Caltrope.

They arrive the next day. Yoga, Patchouli oil, and Glop. Ivy is annoyed but doesn’t see a reason to burn it all down yet. Janet takes off towards charcoal lemonade as Ivy sees something skid across the grass, then a green hand closes the barn door behind it. Ivy pushes through the crowd and bursts into the barn, but no Green Monster, just staff preparing for the next meal. She enters the party and takes a flute filled with a green liquid composed of wild mushrooms.

Ivy starts to see the green. This cocktail shouldn’t be able to do this. As they search for someone in charge to stop this before everyone is dosed, Janet finally pins Ivy, taking her chance before they reach Gotham and Harley. The mushrooms make it easy, and they kiss. Returning to the party, they realize it is not just them. Ivy fights through the guilt as the entire women’s retreat engages in a hallucinogenic orgy.

Gwendolyn Caltrope comes in to check on everyone, and it is then clear to Ivy this was no mistake. They were drugged on purpose. Gwendolyn shrugs it off as the other women protest. As they argue, they notice purple mushrooms growing out of their skin.

Ivy runs off with Janet at her heels. Ivy tells Janet that sleeping together was a mistake and that the lamia that has been mutating inside her has gotten out, and it is growing wild.

The second high has hit at the party, and everyone is at it again. Janet and Ivy revel in love but only for a moment. Janet drops. Then just as fast, pops right back up. Janet and the rest of the women at the party are staring at Ivy, their mother. The mushrooms are communicating through the mycelial network with Ivy at the center.

Ivy takes the women of the retreat out for a walk. Outside a remote oil refinery, the first truck hauling fuel tries to escape their blockade. The truck driver calls them climate freaks and gets back behind the truck’s wheel and hits the gas.

She holds Janet with regret as the truck speeds towards them. The mushrooms always have a way. The women vanish just before being struck. Not only can they communicate through the mycelial network, but they can travel through it as well.

Ivy breaks Janet and the rest of the women from the lamia spell. Janet is angry, but the anger quickly turns into love and care. Finally, Gwendolyn pops back up and gets into Ivy’s face, blaming her for everything. They fight about right and wrong, both realizing they want to make the world a better place.

The purple continues to build on Gwendolyn. Ivy tries to stop it, but it’s no longer listening. The lamia is taking her over; it has mutated beyond Ivy’s control. Gwendolyn erupts into a purple mushroom monster.

The Lamia Monster attacks. Ivy springs into action, stepping between the monster and the rest of the women. They battle; the monster gets the upper hand and takes a huge bite out of Ivy, then explodes. Now infected with the new strain of lamia, Ivy drifts, hoping her blood cultures the mushroom and survives.

Ivy walks through the plane between life and death, her fever dream ending with her throwing up Dr. Woodrue, The Green Man.

She wakes with Janet by her side. They are outside of San Fransisco, in the house of one of the women from the retreat. She has been out a week but gets to work. Her body is in the perfect state to make an antidote for the new strain of lamia.

She works until she can’t anymore. Succeeding, she gives the antidote to all but one of the women. She rejects it because she doesn’t trust Ivy, and no one forces her to take the cure.

Janet and Ivy get in the car and head to Gotham. Just outside the city, they see a lamia zombie walking around. Ivy realizes that there must be hundreds of these zombies between Gotham and Seattle spreading lamia spores. She doesn’t beat herself up about it.

Poison Ivy Volume 2 ends with Ivy finally meeting with Harley right outside of Gotham, choosing to lie to her about sleeping with Janet.

Analysis: I’m not really sure what happened here. I absolutely loved the first six issues of this run. Ivy told us a wonderful story about traveling across the country with the intention of killing everyone but instead finds that some people are worthy of sharing the earth. I have no idea what point Wilson was trying to make in the next six, if there was one to be had at all. Everything felt scattered and rushed. If asked, I don’t think I could give a concise answer on what the story was actually about. Maybe Ivy further finding herself?

I found this most frustrating in the middle of this collection, with the part that ends with Harley and Ivy knowing that they are in separate places and they are okay with that. They both know they can continue their adventures and still end up happy in Gotham. It immediately cuts to making that beautiful goodbye mean nothing as Ivy NEEDS to get to Gotham immediately to be with Harley. Ivy then spends the next week cheating on Harley with Janet. I wouldn’t call this a villain or hero story. I would call it someone just trying to do their best. Not really what I tune in for when I am reading DC.

The main reason I feel that these were rushed was the artwork. We did not see Takara for the first two issues, and even when he did show up, the quality was not close to that of the first six. There were many pages where I had no idea what was going on. The panels where she fights the purple monster are almost unreadable.

The only thing going for this run right now is Ivy is back with Harley. What has me scared about the continuation is that they don’t actually end in Gotham. I understand that I am not the main demographic for this comic, but the story and artwork of the beginning of the run won me over, whereas this volume failed to do so on all fronts.

Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with copies of the original issues of this series as they were released but not of this new edition. You can find this collected edition and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this edition digitally either for Comixology through Amazon or as a physical copy in a hardcover form at Amazon or from Things from Another World.