Naturally Eating The Rich: Reviewing ‘Poison Ivy’ Vol 2

Having literally devoured her past, Poison Ivy is renewed, refreshed, and ready to take on a whole new ecological mission. World-harming corporations beware, a whole new arc has begun as the villain’s solo series sets its sights ever higher.

Poison Ivy Vol 2: Unethical Consumption collects the second set of six issues from G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Atagun Ilhan, Arif Prianto, Ivan Plascencia, and Hassan Otsmane-Elahou.

There is little doubt that overall, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy is a villain. This series began with a tale where she was on a mission to use lamia spores within herself as a means to wipe out all of humanity. It was only after encountering actual good people and defeating her foe, creator, and abuser Jason Woodrue/Floronic Man that she was able to pull away from that with a new mission. One that sees her specifically targeting those who are in power and doing things to harm the Earth rather than wiping out or targeting everyone.

That’s not where Wilson leaves any of it though, continuing to do that character development magic that she’s so good at doing. Seeing Ivy struggle here really helps flesh the character out even more because, like many of us, she’s stuck in two places. Part of her still wants to harm anyone that she sees as a threat to the green, even if that includes using others and putting them in harm’s way, but then there is the part of her that is aligned more towards helping and not harming those that do not deserve it.

Constantly evolving and exploring characters, especially those that have been around for a long time, is always a great goal. In just these two volumes, Ivy has been fleshed out more than she had been in quite some time, and there is so much more room for Willow and her collaborators to really home in the core of Ivy and explore how she moves through this world and what that means to others.

Speaking of collaborators, the work that Marcio Takara and Arif Prianto continue to do on this series is just beyond words. We’re at a point where the story is not as eco/body-horror focused as it was during the first villainous storyline, but there are still spaces to allow them to dip into that well (with how the spores twist people) and it fits so well with the quieter or more real-world oriented moments. It takes something special to be able to not only hit that otherworldly funky appearance (done beautifully I might add) of the trippier panels and nail all the more human/emotional elements, but to do so in a way where they flow through and around each other seamlessly.

Takara not only has such a detailed and deep feeling style but the choices for paneling, especially the fantastic use of white space, really are something else. Part of creating a unique feel for a story artistically is finding the right way to display that story. Standard panel styles work great for many stories but personally, I’m all about the shifting styles that Takara and others employ where panels are wildly varying sizes and shapes sometimes eschewing borders at all as they also quickly shift between full page spreads and stacked panels.

The way Priaf mixes up the color palettes plays deeper into how the two different ‘worlds’ on the page flow together. For most of the people and ‘normal’ world elements, the colors are lighter/toned down quite a bit which allows the more fantastical elements (and elements to do with Ivy such as her hair) to go with the far wilder vibrant colors. It allows the two different parts of the world to stand apart while also standing on the same ground together.

Matching that sort of energy is not an easy task, but it’s one that Ilhan tackles masterfully. Ilhan not only captures that more horror-tinged tone but provides art that really ramps up the mystery at play in the story, featuring really solid smooth action with a style that captures all the details and emotional/facial work in a way that is pretty smooth with a bit of roughness to it (befitting of Ivy really).

We get a slew of different paneling styles, shifting between more standard ones or those with room for negative/white space to others where the panels are stacked and shift past one another. It keeps our focus shifting where it needs to go, in a very natural way, but also really ramps up the impact of certain moments. One example is the scene where Ivy takes down the monster, her attack in a sort of triangular panel with the point leading downward to a close-up shot of her face and then the wide shot of the fallen creature ending with another stacked-on close-up at the bottom. Sure, that would have been effective as a handful of standard box panels, but it not only looks cooler this way but to me is far more effective at guiding us through the sequence of events.

Priaf’s colors work well with Ilhan’s artwork, with some assistance from Plascencia along the way. Plenty of natural feeling greens that mix with sharp bright reds as well as putrid yellows that spice up the horror elements. Many of the natural elements, as well as the fantastical elements, are likelier to have a more vibrant pop of color, setting them apart, next to the more common human-made elements that are bright but in a more toned-down sort of way.

Art and the colors are experimental places full of color and wild swings to really bring things to life, and a great letterer does the same with the letters. We have that every issue with Otsmane-Elhaou who is easily one of my favorite letterers working. A powerful energy can just be felt through any words on the page, easily capturing the tone and voice of the character and the moment. This is a series where standard bubbles would just not cut it in many cases, and Otsmane-Elhaou gives us a vast array of jagged, sharp, colorful, and wild speech bubbles that fit both the more realistic but also fantastical sides of the comic.

Beyond the aforementioned things that are done to the speech bubbles/font, the SFX from Otsmane-Elhaou are true work of art. Colorful, rough, jagged, gross, horrific, beautiful, there are so many words that could describe each one and no two are fully described the same. It’s not just those things though as the still-going Ivy caption boxes with their green quality (love the little growths coming off them too) and sharp quality continue and are a delight every single time.

Poison Ivy Vol 2: Unethical Consumption is now available from DC Comics.