Poison Ivy continues her battle against Jason Woodrue in Poison Ivy #23. G. Willow Wilson and Haining pick up in the aftermath of the previous issue’s cliffhanger as more and more characters are brought into the conflict against Woodrue.
Comics are a bit of a weird business. Stories told in part, sold over the course of months, and eventually repackaged into volumes of a certain size necessitated by established publishing requirements.
If it feels like I’m dragging out the opening to the review, that’s kind of how I felt reading Poison Ivy #23.
Writer G. Willow Wilson opens the issue with the words “Most people don’t realize how much they’ll miss this place when it’s a dead, burned-out shell of a planet” and then continues the long spiral of death in the narrative as, revealed in the last issue, Ivy commits suicide to take out Woodrue.
That’s largely what is here. Ivy, committing suicide off-page while Woodrue’s creations attack Croc, Grundy, and Janet-From-HR. Other characters join the battle, notably Harley Quinn, whose entrance here is maybe the best visual in this issue if only how absurd Haining makes it.
DC Comics
Haining’s artwork keeps the issue afloat – the action is cool, and the fungal creatures are suitably gross. Color artist Arif Prianto’s blocking makes sure that the characters don’t get lost in the swampy muck. But all of that feels like a bit of a mask for the fact that the plot isn’t moving and it doesn’t feel like readers are learning anything new about these characters. Wilson’s script is filled with narration from Poison Ivy, but it never reaches the point of feeling or unique to her. Phrases like “Even when you’re dying, you think is there enough of me left to help them survive” might look beautiful on the page thanks to letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, but they ring hollow as the book continues to go on and on. The book as a whole just feels overly dramatic and it just stinks to feel that way when reading the supposed death of the titular character.
Ultimately, Poison Ivy #23 feels like the story ran out of steam a while ago and is treading water to make it to issue #24 because that’s what fits in a trade paperback. The opening line suggests at a thematic connection to the slow killing of our planet, but the book never really goes for that connection. I suspect Wilson and Haining were going for a tortuous death for Ivy before a potentially triumphant return in the next issue. Perhaps it was too good a job.
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