Poison Ivy #43 – G. Willow Wilson, Writer; Jaime Infante, Artist; Arif Prianto, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: I’ve been confused by this story so far, as it seems to be at war with itself at times. The book seems to be going out of its way to show us that “Mayor Ivy” isn’t making Ivy happy, as it’s lost her the person she loves (her breakup with Harley is shown in the opening segment, and is less scandalous than I expected). But aside from that segment and a brief segment between Janet and another of Ivy’s advisors, it seems to mostly function as wish fulfillment for watching Ivy exact painful justice on disliked targets – this month’s choice being a plumbing magnate who hasn’t been quite doing his due diligence on keeping up on his family’s work, leading to some leaks in Gotham’s outdated plumbing structure. The punishment for that…seems disproportionate, which I suppose is fitting for Ivy’s character, but between this and Batman this week, it actually seems to be making Ivy look more like a villain, which would be a surprising backslide. Still, the last page does have a fantastic visual that brings this book back to the larger mythology it’s been exploring.
Batman/Static Beyond #5 – Evan Narcisse, Writer; Miguel Mendonca, Artist; Wil Quintana, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The penultimate issue of this future-set crossover really shows how the creative team clearly loves the source material, with some surprisingly deep cuts from both sources. On the trail of new Bang Baby Melvin Kim, Static and Batman encounter a secret sector of the city filled with Splicers, half-animal mutants who Batman tangled with in the past. There’s also the presence of the Zetas, robot companions who wound up going on to a short-lived spin-off called The Zeta Project. But at the spine of this issue is the story of Melvin, who flashbacks show was always a gifted kid who was surrounded by technology thanks to his scientist parents – something he was deeply uncomfortable with and only became more so when he became a Bang Baby. This issue does a great job of showing us how this normal kid would ultimately become the twisted villain he did – maybe one who’s too far gone to save.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
