Poison Ivy Issue 49 is published by DC Comics, written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Alex Lins, colors by Arif Prianto, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
This is part three of week ten of the Batman: Bad Seeds event. Cut off from the Green, Poison Ivy is just as vulnerable as everyone else.
Ivy is possibly the most isolated person in Gotham, and Poison Ivy Issue 49 exposes that. She’s in a park surrounded by plants, and she has no connection to them anymore. In fact, The Green is actively trying to kill her. Trickery and hallucinations follow her as she runs through the park. The comic is pressurized and intense, with nowhere left to run for the Mayor of Gotham.
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Despite the giant scale of the event, the whole book is centered on one location, taking place in real time. Ivy is a target by both humans and nature alike, and that is revealed in this chapter. There is backup in this issue, but the sheer number of forces against Ivy makes it seem as if the world is closing in on her. All she has is one goal: to get to Harley. That isn’t as easy as it seems, because of what’s happening in other parts of the crossover.
It’s an emotional culmination of the story as Ivy starts to recognize all the mistakes she’s made in this series. And her ordeal isn’t over yet. The events in the last several pages are extremely important as they lead directly into the finale of the whole event.
Wilson’s writing of Ivy and all those around her has been incredible and continues to be so in Poison Ivy Issue 49. It’s such a wonderful idea throughout this crossover that Harley has been desperate to reach Ivy, and Ivy has been desperate to reach Harley. Their love has never been stronger and more apparent. But they are so far from each other, and end up talking to themselves or having hallucinations.
Ivy delivers a monologue in Poison Ivy Issue 49 that is one of the best in comics. It’s full of regret, care, malice, realization, and more. This is Ivy at her lowest. It’s so fascinating to see a villain recognize herself as a villain.
But she hasn’t been the only villain in this crossover, and many of them make appearances in Poison Ivy Issue 49. Lady Jane, one of the Green, is very similar to Ivy, but is completely part of the force instead of being human like Pamela, and there’s also the matter of Vandal Savage, whose attempt to kill Ivy sparked the Bloom in the first place.
The art is sensational. Poison Ivy Issue 49 takes place almost entirely in a single location, yet it is fascinating and energetic when it needs to be. Ivy and Lady Jane scrapping is fantastic because they are so visually comparable. They’re both feminine, with identical hairstyles, build, and clothing. And with her powers taken away, it becomes much more of a physical battle.
That’s a feature throughout Poison Ivy Issue 49; it’s extremely scrappy. Ivy has nothing left except for her bare hands, but she can still use them. It’s distressing to see such a powerful figure at her lowest. By the end of the book, she is hunched on her knees and sobbing, a far cry from the power she started with. And she is left in a very similar position to how Harley is on the final page of the crossover too.
The colors are pivotal in Poison Ivy Issue 49 because they reveal so much about the changes Ivy is undergoing. Pamela Isley is so synonymous with the color green, from the very firsttimeshe appearedon the page. Her costume has always been made up of actual leaves. But now, the Green has severed her powers, and she can no longer control it. So the leaves on her body are dying, turning the vibrant green into a dirty brown. And there’s also a change in color for the whole city as what’s happened in other comics starts to catch up. The lettering is very clear and easy to read.
Poison Ivy Issue 49 is like the final act of a Shakespearean play. There is an air of Macbeth, or another of the Bard’s great kingly stories, within this penultimate chapter, as Ivy runs out of allies, friends, and connections. She has revered the Green, fought for it, sacrificed the city for it. And it has rejected her. She has been toppled and trampled on. After Wilson has written 49 issues of this character, it’s a fascinating, gorgeously written final act that strips Ivy down. It leaves behind a raw, exhausted, and isolated figure who is just focused on reaching her love.
Poison Ivy Issue 49 is available now wherever comics are sold.
Poison Ivy Issue 49
TL;DR
Poison Ivy Issue 49 is like the final act of a Shakespearean play. There is an air of Macbeth, or another of the Bard’s great kingly stories, within this penultimate chapter, as Ivy runs out of allies, friends, and connections.
