- June 7, 2022
Poison Ivy #1 Review
Written by: G. Willow Wilson
Art by: Marcio Takara
Coloring by: Arif Prianto
Lettering by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editing by: Jessica Berby, Arianna Turturro, Ben Abernathy
DC is constantly trying to push Poison Ivy in a new direction different from the last. This is no different. Like many who have written Poison Ivy before, the creative team has to make a choice. Is Poison Ivy going to be a hero, an anti-hero, or a villain today? They made an inspired choice to toe the line between villain and anti-villain.
Her monologue comes off a bit sociopathic, with this recent loss of power driving a wedge between her and her humanity. She’s no longer connected to the Green, the mystical essence of all plant life on Earth, but because of that, she fights more fervently for it. She’s scary again in a way far more subtle than ever before. This is not going to work for everyone, but it was hard to pull away after the issue was over. I wanted to read so much more.
The art of this book does something brilliant with the way it sets the tone. It draws on similar horror vibes to Scott Snyder’s old Swamp Thing comic. Plant life is deadly, gross, and can be just as monstrous as the Rot (Decomposers) and the Red (Animals).
But it’s not as fantastical, which is established when Poison Ivy details how much of her power she’s lost in a jaw-dropping two pages. That’s when the nihilist in her reveals herself, and why she truly has become the way she is now.
My only real complaint in this amazing first issue is how the series is already setting up an end of the world plot. With Dark Crisis coming out this week, I don’t feel like we need too many of those, but honestly, I expect Poison Ivy’s apocalypse to be way better than Dark Crisis’s based on the tie-ins so, who knows.
This isn’t a book for all Poison Ivy fans, but it could potentially make more. I really recommend that people give it a shot. Tell me what you think about it in the comments below.