Overview: In Poison Ivy #16, the titular character spins the tale of a man whose life was destroyed during her campaign to Seattle.
Title: Poison Ivy #16
Written by: G. Willow Wilson
Art by: Marcio Takara
Colors by: Arif Prianto
Main Cover: Jessica Fong
Variant Covers: Otto Schmidt, David Nakayama, Mike Deodata Jr with Marcelo Maiolo & Eliza Ivanova
Release Date: November 7, 2023
This comic book review contains spoilers
We are introduced to “Chuck” by Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley). She serves as an unreliable narrator in detailing the accounts of Chuck, a man who passes Poison Ivy in a supermarket. After the two pass each other, Chuck immediately starts coughing, which continues throughout the rest of his shopping trip. His infection with her lamia spores begins. As he drives away, he starts to sing “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It” by Marilyn Monroe. This is a song from Irving Berlin’s There’s No Business Like Show Business, a musical from 1954.
Next, We see the lyrics to this song coming from the television as Chuck’s family watches the film at home. Chuck is scratching his neck and decides to turn in early. From the bathroom, he scratches some mushrooms off his neck and starts to freak out. Over this scene, Poison Ivy’s captions explain what her intentions were for her lamia spores. Apparently, they were intended as bio-surveillance and not bio-weapons.
Chuck has returned to work the next day as a warehouse worker and is now coughing all over. Again, Poison Ivy describes that her spores became mutated and spread so much faster than she knew.
Poison Ivy’s unconscious mind is connected to everyone infected by the lamia spores.
The spores are starting a full assault on Chuck’s psyche as he lays in bed. A magical, mushroom forest has appeared in his bedroom. Colorist Arif Prianto really does the heavy lifting on these dream sequences. Arif utilizes muted oranges that merge into stoic reds.
We are bombarded with rocks that seem to float to spaces just beyond a backdrop of forest. Poison Ivy says that he is dying even as he is seeing the most wonderful things. Massive orange mushrooms are just inches beyond his bedroom curtains. He is drawn to Poison Ivy’s ultimate form in his delirious dream state. Chuck tells her his real name. But, this is Pamela’s dream. She admits she forgot his name upon waking up like so many of our dreams. Ivy callously rejects him during their meeting, but then she sees other infected people are gathering as well. They come to a beautiful waterfall, which is the source of the original colony of spores.
Undine is there as well and tries to explain how the infected will flock to Poison Ivy now. Everyone she has ever infected will be connected to her whether they are dead or alive. Chuck wanders from Poison Ivy and is awake in his bedroom.
Otto Schmidt variant for Poison Ivy #16
Chuck’s final departure from humanity and what has come to Gotham City’s shore.
One last time, Chuck goes to his warehouse job, but he never makes it there. He collapses on the way and is consumed by the lamia mushrooms. He is no longer Chuck. His wife, Marla, calls the warehouse later, but Chuck hasn’t showed up for work that day at all. Marcio Takara brilliantly showcases this family’s anguish in a panel with Chuck’s daughters looking distraught.
The police come to the family home, but they are unable to give Marla any solace. Their only clue is that Chuck’s phone went dead in the woods. Marla’s close friends try to give her some comfort as she mourns her husband. G. Willow Wilson is just incredible at leaning into these key moments in this man’s disappearance, adding humanity and tenderness.
Meanwhile, Poison Ivy sleeps in Harley Quinn’s arms while Janet from H.R. scans her phone. Ivy is awakened when an army of her infected arrive on the shores of Gotham City ready to come to their mother. Only spotlights dance before the zeppelins that are floating around the skyline and a single solitary Batsignal in the night’s sky. I can only hope that Wilson tells us something more about Chuck. Usually, there are no follow-ups to a villain’s rampage or mass transformation of citizens. She is setting up something truly epic in just this small tale. In a period of the Bat-titles where stories get stretched to the absolute breaking point this one was pretty incredible.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Comixology through Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
