Poison Ivy Appreciation 2019

[Agent Z]

Hopefully they also get the artistic freedom to get away from Mann's rather… wooden… design for Ivy.

I see what you did there.

[Falcon16]

Is she still a Birds of Prey member?

[Frontier]

Is she still a Birds of Prey member?

No. I'm not even sure the Birds of Prey are still even a thing at this point.

[darkeyes]

I'm not much into the new DC Superhero Girls reboot but here is a fun Harley / Ivy episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx7zLN_RXqk

[kjn]

I see what you did there.

What? You want more flowery language to describe Poison Ivy's current look? I think I'll wait with that until Houser and Melo gets a new design to bloom.

[Confuzzled]

The novel Catwoman: Soulstealer which apparently had Ivy in a prominent role will be adapted into a graphic novel by X-Men legend Louise Simonson.

[Frontier]

The novel Catwoman: Soulstealer which apparently had Ivy in a prominent role will be adapted into a graphic novel by X-Men legend Louise Simonson.

I enjoyed that novel quite a bit. Looking forward to seeing how they adapt it .

[Robanker]

I was really hoping that post HIC, we'd get Ivy to stand on her own again instead of being relegated to Harley Quinn's girlfriend. She's such a strong character, but it seems like all DC wants to do with her is talk about how important she is to Harley.

[lucius121]

There are plenty to of examples of Ivy without Harley in recent books from Birds of prey to Damage, and even when they both appeared in Batman Harley was the side character and Ivy was the main focus. While I agree that Ivy should actually get a solo mini or series, her appearances with Harley Quinn just mean we get to see Ivy more.

[kjn]

Plenty? I'm not so sure. I did some very basic statistical analysis of Poison Ivy's appearances since New 52 back in October last year, compared to Harley Quinn and Catwoman.

Back then, Ivy was at 158 and Harley at 337. Today, about nine months later, Ivy is at 169, while Harley is up at 372. So in the last nine months, Ivy has a whopping 11 appearances, while Harley has 35. And half of Ivy's appearances were in Heroes in Crisis, where she was only as a means to get Harley into Sanctuary, then be fridged by Wally West, and then resurrected into a "pure" witness to Wally's suicide.

What I think Ivy suffers from is that she is a popular character, where her popularity and fanbase is not understood by the movers and shakers at DC, and at the same time is not large enough that they have to stand up and take notice and work with her. Instead, it's psychologically much easier to bury her.

[Confuzzled]

Plenty? I'm not so sure. I did some very basic statistical analysis of Poison Ivy's appearances since New 52 back in October last year, compared to Harley Quinn and Catwoman.

Back then, Ivy was at 158 and Harley at 337. Today, about nine months later, Ivy is at 169, while Harley is up at 372. So in the last nine months, Ivy has a whopping 11 appearances, while Harley has 35. And half of Ivy's appearances were in Heroes in Crisis, where she was only as a means to get Harley into Sanctuary, then be fridged by Wally West, and then resurrected into a "pure" witness to Wally's suicide.

What I think Ivy suffers from is that she is a popular character, where her popularity and fanbase is not understood by the movers and shakers at DC, and at the same time is not large enough that they have to stand up and take notice and work with her. Instead, it's psychologically much easier to bury her.

Didio even told a fan that he feared Ivy's popularity as a protagonist "diluted" sales, which, even though he didn't mention whose sales, it could logically only mean Harley's sales, as when Cycle of Life and Death was running and pulling in consistently decent numbers (for a mini not featuring Batman that is), Harley's solo was at its lowest in terms of sales until that point in time.

They probably want to utilize Ivy's popularity to prop up Harley by making Ivy her primary love interest (now slowly overshadowing the Joker in that regard) as the DC brass is really into the idea of cementing Harley Quinn as the "fourth pillar". And fleshing out Ivy as her own standalone character separate from Harley is viewed as taking away from that.

[Confuzzled]

IMO DC is kind of being short-sighted with only focusing on Harley. Now that both HQ and Selina are gaining solo attention, if Ivy received the same love and got some really great solo stories under her belt, imagine how potent and unstoppable the Gotham City Sirens brand would be when all three of them team up together.

[Frontier]

I was really hoping that post HIC, we'd get Ivy to stand on her own again instead of being relegated to Harley Quinn's girlfriend. She's such a strong character, but it seems like all DC wants to do with her is talk about how important she is to Harley.

Yeah, I'm a little over the Harley and Ivy relationship in the comics at this point.

IMO DC is kind of being short-sighted with only focusing on Harley. Now that both HQ and Selina are gaining solo attention, if Ivy received the same love and got some really great solo stories under her belt, imagine how potent and unstoppable the Gotham City Sirens brand would be when all three of them team up together.

I mean, she's basically a clean-cut hero now. You may as well just give her a solo.

[Confuzzled]

A Comic-Con cutout of Ivy from the DC Universe Harley Quinn animated show:

[darkeyes]

That cutout is great, hope they market it. I have not seen any new Ivy merch this year at SDCC 2019, just items previously revealed.