Review: Poison Ivy #13

Overview: In Poison Ivy #13, the titular character returns to Gotham City.

Synopsis (Summary): Poison Ivy #13 begins with Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley) and Harley Quinn in bed together. Ivy has finally made it back to Gotham. She ventures out at first light, alone, knowing word of her return has made its way around town and that people will be looking for her.

Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is the first to find her. Selina tells Ivy that the Bat-Family is looking for her, and it doesn’t take long before Batman is on her tail. Poison Ivy heads straight for Robinson Park, her old kingdom. It’s a familiar place where she knows no one can sneak up on her.

Batman leaps out, releasing a Bat-a-rang, but Ivy catches it easily. Instead of attacking, she responds somewhat calmly, not wanting to fight. Batman threatens her to stay in line. Better than expected, but it’s still not the ideal interaction with the Bat.

Now knowing that she is being watched, Ivy heads out into the swamps looking for a place where she can hide. She finds a perfect cabin in the middle of Slaughter Swamp. The building seems abandoned, except for a sandwich sitting on the counter.

The door bursts open and standing between her and escape is Killer Croc (Waylon Jones). They each land a couple blows before cooler heads prevail. She tells Croc that she will be needing to take the hideout from him. Croc then explains how he has nowhere else to go; Gotham has new high-rise developments for the rich and what is left of the sewers is uninhabitable from the leftovers of Ivy’s old underground gardens.

Ivy offers a deal. She gets rid of the high rises, cleans up her own mess, and Croc goes away.

The next morning, she heads downtown to check out one of the developments. As she sneaks around, she feels like she is being followed by something that feels like Jason Woodrue (Floronic Man). The issue ends with Ivy finding one of the workers dead, with a pink flower growing out of his face.

Analysis: After Poison Ivy Volume 1 was so good and Poison Ivy Volume 2 being so bad, I had no idea what to expect. What I had hoped for partially came through. After issue twelve, we didn’t know if Ivy was going to end up in Gotham, but thankfully, she does. I like that we will have Ivy back in the city where she belongs with other DC characters and known environments. Something that was greatly lacking in the previous arc.

This continues as she makes contact with Catwoman, then immediately Batman right after. When she first enters the cabin in the swamp, I was sure we were going to see Swamp-Thing. Having it be Killer Croc does work much better for the story. I enjoyed how they choose to end this issue. After agonizing getting through issues eleven and twelve, I am looking forward to reading fourteen.

The art had some wonderful moments and some not so good moments. There were a couple panels with no faces, one completely without a background. There were four artists and three different colorists, who did a decent job of making the comic flow with that many different styles going on, but they shouldn’t do it again. The panels where Ivy meets Batman are awesome; the ones leading up to the meeting with Batman, not so much. It didn’t work for me.