Customer Reviews

Batman: Poison Ivy

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If you're a comic fan, you probably love Batman. If you are a comic-art fan, you probably have heard of Brian Apthorp. But if your a fan of incredibley well written books, I bet you have never heard of this special. It came out to promote the last Batman movie, and was just a marketing gimmik. It turned out to be an extemely human comic book, though. This graphic novel shows the reason why the villianess Poisen Ivy acts upon her love for plants, and it's more simple than you think. Poisen Ivy and Batman seem very alike, and really just want to preserve life. After haveing her private island firebombed, Ivy snaps, and goes looking for who did it. Batman must find her, and finds out that Ivy doesn't want to commit crimes, she just wants to be left alone. But when people don't respect the earth, she doesn't respect people. Truley a powerful book. Recommended to everyone from the casual reader to the biggest fan. At only five dollars, it's a steal.

One of the best books ever published focusing on Poison Ivy (aka Pamela Eisley), one of the greatest characters in the Batman corner of the DC Universe. Ivy has never been really evil like The Joker or Mr. Zsasz, not even close, but she was at one point a villain, albeit a sympathetic one. This is one of the comics that captures her right at the period of her evolution when she was changing into something more - not a superhero: she'll never be part of The Justice League or anything, nor would she have any interest in it - but she can't be classed as just one of the 'bad guys' anymore. This book shows her passion for her causes and her compassion - for the plant kingdom, for her plant-animal hybrids, even for humanity, as we see in the first few pages with the interaction between Ivy and the young Nicarauguan girl.

Although, ironically, as she becomes less of a villain and more of a crusader herself, this puts her more and more into conflict with human society than she ever was as a 'costumed criminal' robbing Gotham's wealthy elite. She despises the corporate 'slash-and-burn' mentality and the world governments that condone it. She is particularly protective of plants, who seems to feel are sentient and communicate with her. Now, does this make her crazy? Or is she right, or is the truth somewhere in between? I don't think DC's ever definitively said, and hopefully it never will. Some questions are better left to interpretation and ponderings. But one certainly knows where she's coming from.

For double irony, as she's becoming less of a villain but more into conflict with human society as a whole, she's also becoming more of a benefactor of and champion of humanity itself. There's the aforementioned scene with the Nicarauguan girl (which I won't elaborate on to avoid any spoilers); see also her role in the year-long "Batman: No Man's Land" saga - most of which is available in the trade paperbacks here on Amazon, I believe - and her related appearances in "Detective Comics" #s 751 and 752, just for starters.

I don't mean to ignore Batman, who's depicted great in here, as he generally is, but Batman gets a chance to shine in hundreds and hundreds of issues of various titles; it's okay that here he's not even a co-star but a supporting player to Ivy. This is Ivy's spotlight all the way through, and is the story of the actions she takes after the violence-free tropical utopia she's created from dust is annihilated by some of the poorer examples of the human race.