Poison Ivy #29 – G. Willow Wilson, Writer; Marcio Takara, Artist; Arif Prianto, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: After spending the first two years of her title battling against a cosmic enemy for control of the Green, Ivy is dealing with something even more threatening – political radicalization. Her quest for answers about the terror group acting in her name has led her to Seattle via a convenient shortcut from a new ally in the Green, and it doesn’t take long to find that there’s an even bigger bloc of cultists here. They all follow a First Acolyte who claims to be the only one who has a direct link to Ivy – but Ivy has never talked to them, of course – and Ivy gets the chance to enter the inner circle once the police try to bust up a rally. Some of Ivy’s lines here will definitely be popular, and she soon winds up revealing her identity and being led to the location of the headquarters – a trailer park, where the First Acolyte lurks and turns out to be a figure with surprising ties to Ivy’s past.
Ivy doesn’t have that big a supporting cast, especially not before this run, so it’s not a surprise that Wilson has chosen to bring back her supervillain ex Bella Garten – aka the Gardener, another of James Tynion IV’s fan-favorite additions to the Bat-canon. While she was originally positioned as a more pragmatic foil to Ivy, she seems to have gone the other way, believing the Earth can still be saved but only with radical action. Unlike Ivy viewing herself as apart from humanity, Garten wants to harness young human radicals and force change with violence. It’s obviously a conversation that happens a lot in politics right now, and while Ivy hasn’t exactly gone soft, her growing connection to other humans has made her want to take a much more targeted approach. That makes this showdown between old lovers a very intriguing setup for a big new arc that will be crossing coasts.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
