The Thorniest Rose In The Garden — Reviewing ‘Poison Ivy’ #29

Sometimes it’s those we love or know us best that end up becoming the ones who hurt us most.

Pamela Isley pulls back the curtain of the Order of the Green Knight and finds nothing but pain in Poison Ivy #29. The latest chapter in this epic series is from G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Arif Prianto, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

It’s all Ivy in this issue as the magic of the swamp and the Green lets her step from Gotham to Seattle in the blink of an eye. Domestic terrorist groups, police, and former loves complicate things as she must make a bold decision.

No matter what is going down in these stories, from eco horror to more regular cape-related shenanigans, the care and depth that Takara brings to bear is top notch. Just capturing every nuanced emotion felt by Ivy or others to bear. Letting the energy soak up upon the page, with the right amount of roughness alongside a smoother quality.

Dynamic kinetic movement in every single panel really highlights the lived in feeling that has been part of the series since day one.

Location brings the ability to mix things up from an overall tonal and color perspective. Compared to Gotham, Seattle is a much lighter and brighter space. Prianto brings that to the page, going with a softer color palette than normal. That doesn’t mean that the darker or heavier colors are left behind, they still have a very prominent space within the overall picture. Boosting those elements on the page, as the overall backdrop feels wide open in many respects.

Vibrant greens are all over the place, fitting for both the title character and the overall plotline being followed. With the darker shadows and more neutral colors around them, those vibrant and fantastical beats pop even more.

Stories like this really provide such a launching board for the lettering joy that comes from Otsmane-Elhaou. Letting bubbles and fonts just glide around, shifting as necessary to always create unique voices and tones. Ivy’s bubbles and speech have a unique quality to it that has been born across these 29 issues. With the simplicity of the green (sometimes jagged) bubbles and slightly altered font doing so much.

SFX are one of the great joys of comic books and this book never disappoints in that respect. Going all in, letting the various sounds grow and stand out in their own ways. Pulling in a variety of colors, fonts, and shapes that make sure we are hearing what we’re meant to.

Character development is key in these long form stories. We must feel not only the familiarity of the character(s) we’ve been following for so long, but also feel like there has been momentum. Ivy, as she stands now, is nothing like the Ivy we saw in the first issues of the run, especially since she’s less murderous now. Point A to point B feels accurately long, because so much has gone down to lead us from there to here.

Even though Woodrue is dead and gone, his reach extends beyond the mortal coil. How Wilson incorporates that here and speaks to the effect that toxic people can have on us is smart. These beats, along with the return of Bella Garten, allow the story to build on what came before without being weighed down by the past.

Continuity or canon are a tool that can be wielded to bring more to any story within a wider sandbox. They do not have to be the anchor, holding the story in place — usually for nostalgia reasons — that they are in too many cases across various mediums.

What Wilson accomplishes in this title month after month never looses the astonishing factor. Never would I have ever thought that I’d be at a point where I excitedly await the next chapter in a title centered around Poison Ivy of all characters. Yet, here we are.

Poison Ivy #29 is now available from DC Comics.