For months I’ve been bemoaning the direction this book has gone in and pushing them to give it a new spin. The double-length Poison Ivy #25 finally takes a new direction, but is it for the best?
Poison Ivy #25 main cover by Jessica Fong. Image: DC Comics
Writer: G. Willow Wilson, Joanne Starer, Grace Ellis, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Dan Watters
Artist: Marcio Takara, Haining, Brian Level, Atagun Ilhan, Dani
Colors: Ivan Plascencia, Arif Prianto, Déborah Villahoz, Brad Simpson
Letters: Hassan Otsamne-Elhaou
Cover: Jessica Fong
Variant Cover Artists: Marcio Takara, Noobovich & Brian Bolland
Release Date: September 4, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
“Rewilding Part 1 & Part 2”
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Marcio Takara
Colors: Arif Prianto
In a shift from normal proceedings, Poison Ivy #25 has turned into an anthology this month with the book’s original A-team of G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara providing a two-part story to bookend the issue. In the aftermath of Ivy’s battle with Jason Woodrue and the mushroom zombies, Ivy doles out assignments to her crew to help return things to homeostasis. Killer Croc is in charge of checking out the town that has cropped up in the middle of Slaughter Swamp, Janet from HR is scoping out the state of Gotham City, and Harley and Ivy are going to clear out the bodies. Ready? And… Break!
Jumping ahead to the second part of this story at the end of the issue, the four regroup, exhausted from their respective tasks. Ivy promises that she’ll make it up to them as they walk into the sunset like the ending of The Last Crusade.
Marcio Takara’s return to this book is like a breath of fresh air. His work on Ivy is still unmatched. He takes the iconoclastic Pamela and Quinn and gives them a relatable panache. While they may be supervillains, they also look like a couple you might just run into at your neighborhood coffee shop. Pam’s jacket is tied casually around her waist, and Croc’s wearing a bathrobe. We’re relaxed here, the hard part’s over. There’s not much in the way of a narrative within the framing device, but I still enjoyed it. I enjoyed that Pamela finally calls her friend “Janet” instead of “Janet from HR.” There’s an entire page of a crane landing on a branch at sunset. I enjoyed that a lot.
Poison Ivy #25 variant cover by Marcio Takara. Image: DC Comics
“Beneath the Surface”
Writer: Joanne Starer
Artist: Haining
Colors: Ivan Plascencia
The next story in the anthology takes us years ago to an earlier encounter between Batman and Ivy. Batman enters a greenhouse from the roof and is immediately assaulted by the hallucinogenic pheromones of “jimsonweed” and the poison of “aconite wolfsbane.” He must fight the psychic attacks forcing him to relive the murder of his parents while also inoculating himself from the deadly poison. When he finally comes to, he finds himself alone in the greenhouse, with only the smell of roses and wet earth to greet him.
This is a fairly inessential story and the concept of Batman being psychically attacked by his past trauma is entirely worn out. Since Poison Ivy successfully escapes, it ends with an anti-climax and doesn’t end up being much of anything outside of a showcase for Haining’s art. Haining is certainly a talent, as this series has established, and this brief story gives her a chance to experiment with some more psychedelic and chaotic page layouts. She is also able to exhibit her horror chops with a horrifically deformed version of Ivy, created inside Batman’s jimsonweed-induced subconscious.
Poison Ivy #25 variant cover by Noobovich. Image: DC Comics
“Mushroom Hunters”
Writer: Grace Ellis
Artist: Brian Level
Colors: Arif Prianto
Somewhere in Wyoming, a couple of rocking chair yokels experiment with some mysterious psychedelic mushrooms one of them found growing out of a cow. Their trip is so intense that they become determined to find more, which prompts them to drive across America in search of the psychedelic lamia shrooms. This journey leads them to a van in Montana where they encounter Poison Ivy herself who has no sympathy for their psychonautic plight. “Unhinged junkie trash” she calls them before infecting them with a lethal dose of lamia. They both die, holding each other on the ground as the mushrooms subsume their bodies. “I see it. I see everything. I know everything,” one of them says before losing consciousness.
This is my favorite story in the collection. It’s so dark and haunting, like Romeo and Juliet for stoner bros. I love that Flint, the initial skeptic of the two, is the one that develops an insatiable addiction to the substance. His cousin Cody looks at the shrooms as just means to get some kicks while Flint wants to unlock the secrets of the universe. It’s the urge for knowledge that eventually leads him down the journey to find as many of these mushrooms as he can. Even at the end when Cody is prepared to walk away, Flint can’t fight his desire for more. More knowledge and more mushrooms. “I need this,” he says. It ends up costing him and his cousin their lives. I was not familiar with Grace Ellis prior to this story but color me a fan. In just a handful of pages she creates a beautiful allegory for addiction and a creepy little fable set inside the DCU. Brian Level’s art is also effective in depicting these two hapless mind travelers with patchy outfits and 3PM stubble. Arif Prianto’s coloring helps to give continuity, and the final image of the two glossy eyed men holding each other beneath layers of assimilative lamia shrooms is not one that I’ll be able to shake off any time soon.
Poison Ivy #25 variant cover by Brian Bolland. Image: DC Comics
“Boots and Handbags”
Writer: Gretchen Felker-Martin
Artist: Atagun Ilhan
Colors: Déborah Villahoz
Back at Slaughter Swamp, Killer Croc is attacked by a group of alligator hunters who bite off more than they can chew. Croc makes easy work of them before spotting a town that has seemingly just cropped up on the opposite shore.
There’s not much to work with here outside of a simple action scene, and writer Gretchen Felker-Martin keeps it short and sweet. I’m not sure why Croc is so shocked by the sight of that town when Ivy literally told him about it at the start of the issue, but who knows, maybe he wasn’t listening. Artist Atagun Ilhan and colorist Déborah Villahoz do good work. Croc looks like a hulking, scaly beast, and the sky subtly gets darker as the sun sinks a bit each page. Not much else of note here. It seems more like a setup for later issues.
“The Pyrophyte”
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Dani
Colors: Brad Simpson
The Gotham City Police track a former MI5 Counter-Terrorism agent named Robson who has gone rogue after interpreting messages he believes to be from Ivy herself. Devi, his former partner and potentially former lover in the GCPD, believes he is planning an attack on the city and is determined to stop him. Using her insider information, they are able to disable two of the three bombs Robson has planted throughout the city, but when Devi has a chance to take out Robson before the final bomb goes off, she hesitates. That gives Robson just enough time to denote it. It explodes, killing Robson, but not before he sees a vision of Ivy and professes his love with his dying breath.
Dan Watters is able to pack a lot of drama into eight short pages. Giving Devi a personal connection to the terrorist is a great choice, and the moment where she gets Robson in her scope but doesn’t shoot presents a terrifically dramatic panel. I love the ambiguity of whether Robson is actually communicating with Poison Ivy or just thinks that he is. It’s also an interesting bit of dramatic irony that his plot involves destroying a tree in order to release its seeds.
The art by Dani and colors by Brad Simpson have a great urban feel, which provides a stark contrast to the other stories in this collection. It’s got the grimy feel of Darick Robertson’s work on Transmetropolitan. I love the black squiggles on the wet Gotham streets and the cigarette butts beside weeds growing out of the cracks in the sidewalk. I love that everything inside the squad car is red and black, and finally I love that the final explosion looks like a golden plant sprouting out of its concrete jungle. “See it bloom.”
Editor’s Note: You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
