In Poison Ivy #23, readers follow the continued conflict between Ivy and Woodrue and sees the return of a gamut of classic characters.
Poison Ivy #23 main cover by Jessica Fong (Credit: DC Comics)
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Haining
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letters: Hassan Otsamne-Elhaou
Main Cover: Jessica Fong
Variant Cover Artists: Frank Cho, Sabine Rich, Chris Bachalo, Nimit Malavia, W. Scott Forbes
Release Date: June 4, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
The Story
After the events of Poison Ivy #22, the swamp that Killer Croc, Janet from HR, and Solomon Grundy call home is being infested with lamia infused plant-zombies. When all hope seems to be lost, a familiar face shows up to save the day: Harley Quinn. Harley finds Ivy, barely clinging onto life, and Peter Undine who offers to help separate Ivy from the carnivorous lamia corpses. While he does that, Harley, Janet from HR, and Grundy take out as many lamia zombies as they can before we get another guest appearance by none other than Red Hood (Jason Todd).
Red Hood says that the only way to fully take down Jason Woodrue is to make sure that every trace of his DNA is destroyed. This prompts Harley to hop on Hood’s motorcycle and use its pre-equipped flamethrower to burn everything in sight. The issue ends with Harley cradling a near-dead Ivy in a callback to the classic Death in the Family panel.
Deus Ex Harley
Here is another month of this book incrementally moving forward with this Woodrue storyline. Last time I complained at how little story we got, with an issue entirely dedicated to a battle between Ivy and Jason Woodrue. This issue is something of a glorified do-over of last month’s, with some fan-favorite character’s to sweeten the blow.
Harley Quinn shows up somewhat unprompted, and we get a wince-worthy scene between her and Janet from HR, who complains about her lack of purpose and desire to become a main character of the story. Janet lets slip that she has an ongoing relationship with both Quinn and Ivy, which causes Harley to do a double-take. Peter Undine’s appearance makes this issue feel almost like a class reunion for this run, but I love his design so much that I can mostly forgive his uselessness in this story. Oh right, he’s “isolat[ing] Woodrue and the reanimated lamia corpses” (we’re told, not shown), whatever that means. Finally, Jason Todd AKA Red Hood shows up on instruction by the “big man.” His appearance is pure fan-service. A desperate attempt to juice up interest in this long-dead storyline.
How many times has G. Willow Wilson used Poison Ivy’s near-death as a cliffhanger at this point? Not counting her origin excursion, I think this is the third issue in a row. It has gotten to the point of self-parody. My theory that the prior issue could be skipped by readers without missing anything turned out to be correct as this month follows the same conflict of Woodrue vs Ivy without so much as a setting change. The issue is marginally improved by the cheap appearances of Quinn, Todd, and Undine, but it’s never been more clear that Wilson is desperately spinning her wheels by trying to drag this plotline out as long as possible. Even Ivy’s constant weighty inner-monologuing is beginning to wear on me. Hopefully this is finally the ending of this Woodrue storyline and we can finally move onto something completely new.
The Art
Returning guest artist Haining provides some strong artwork on this issue. Harley, Undine, and Jason all look on-point as do the rest of the core cast. The action is chaotic and muddy, but there’s only so many ways to depict people fighting rogue plant monsters, which seems to happen ad infinitum on this run. Unlike with Marcio Takara’s work, the art isn’t strong enough to recommend picking up solely on visuals alone, but it’s certainly not a bad-looking issue. Arif Prianto colors and Hassan Otsamne-Elhaou lettering remain consistent as well.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advance of this comic for review purposes. 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.
