Poison Ivy #19 – G. Willow Wilson, Writer; Marcio Takara, Artist; Arif Prianto, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: When we last saw Poison Ivy, she was on the verge of death after a sneak attack by the remnants of Dr. Jason Woodrue, her arch-nemesis and twisted former mentor. As she bleeds out, naturally—it’s time for an origin flashback. We’ve seen bits and pieces of Pamela’s origins before, but we’ve never gotten a full “Year One” saga until now. We catch up with Pamela as a gifted college freshman, heading far from home to attend an elite botany program overseen by Woodrue. There, she meets a number of elite botany experts including Alec and Linda Holland, plus the scheming Phillip Sylvain (a character associated heavily with Black Orchid). As Woodrue pulls them into a series of bizarre experiments involving human-plant hybrid, the twisted genius starts to develop a particular fascination with his female students—including Pamela, who he begins an affair with.
This story works really well as a Poison Ivy origin, but it works even better as an all-too-real tale of a “Great Man” who uses his presence and position to manipulate people and get away with abuses—sexual and criminal alike. As the research goes on, he starts to isolate people—first the women from the men, and then Pamela alone, before luring her into his private world and teasing her with the secrets he’s been chasing. By the time he’s turning Pamela into a criminal to serve his interests, it’s too late. This reminds me a lot of the origin of Harley Quinn as well, but Woodrue isn’t a cackling clown that it’s hard to see how someone could fall in love with. He’s an all-too-real monster, and this is easily the scariest he’s come across. This feels like it could be opening some fascinating doors into the history of these plant-based characters, but the underlying story is darkly familiar in the best way.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
