Poison Ivy 2021 Appreciation: Year of Queen Ivy

[Confuzzled]

Vector art depicting the various iconic versions of Poison Ivy by Twitter's @MilitechMatty

[Frontier]

Vector art depicting the various iconic versions of Poison Ivy by Twitter's @MilitechMatty

Classic -> B:TAS -> B&R -> New 52 -> TNBA -> Hush -> HQ

[MajorHoy]

1st page of an 8-page story with Poison Ivy in Batman Black & White #4 (May 2021):

[Confuzzled]

1st page of an 8-page story with Poison Ivy in Batman Black & White #4 (May 2021):

So, the writer literally thought what's plant/earth related to Batman and came up with Ivy digging up Thomas and Martha's corpses...

[Frontier]

1st page of an 8-page story with Poison Ivy in Batman Black & White #4 (May 2021):

Yeah, that, uh...that's kind of a lot, Ivy.

[marhawkman]

If I remember the episode correctly, Ivy had to hastily revise her original plan of the spouses simply controlling their respective billionaires and CEOs as the plant spouses started having trouble maintaining their human guises and started to deteriorate (Veronica Vreeland's husband being the first).

Oh yeah, there's the idea that the plant people have weaknesses Humans don't. Robin and Batgirl kill a bunch of them by spraying them with some sort of herbicide. IIRC sometimes it was things that are harmless to Humans.

[MajorHoy]

So, the writer literally thought what's plant/earth related to Batman and came up with Ivy digging up Thomas and Martha's corpses...

Actually, in the story, she's trying to get Bruce Wayne's attention, not Batman's.
(She doesn't know they're the same person.)

[Confuzzled]

No one:
Gail Simone at the end of the weekend:

[Frontier]

No one:
Gail Simone at the end of the weekend:

Gail Simone seems to have a lot of stories she wishes she could tell...I wish she had those opportunities.

[Confuzzled]

Gail Simone seems to have a lot of stories she wishes she could tell...I wish she had those opportunities.

It's shocking that the Big Two don't give her whatever she wants at this point.

[prepmaster]

Ivy's twitter fans should listen to this

[MajorHoy]

It's shocking that the Big Two don't give her whatever she wants at this point.

Why?

Personally, I'm luke-warm on her as writer. And how many additional buyers would she be able to pull in just because her name is on a product?

[Confuzzled]

Why?

Personally, I'm luke-warm on her as writer. And how many additional buyers would she be able to pull in just because her name is on a product?

DC shamelessly keeps mining her years long work in Birds of Prey and even original creations like Scandal Savage, the 'Get out of Hell free card' and Savant in movies and cartoons, so they can't let even her write a story if she wants one?

[kjn]

Ivy's twitter fans should listen to this

So why post it here?

I checked the transcript, and I think the analysis in the video misses the mark pretty thoroughly why a lot of people like Poison Ivy as a character. Many of those fans are highly critical not only of DC for not using Poison Ivy enough, but also of how DC uses Poison Ivy. It also accepts all the poor takes on Poison Ivy, takes them as given, and uses those to attack the character.

The video also misses another important factor, and that is for people who are exploited or suppressed, the person striking back is often viewed as a hero, even if that person is not nice or good. One can call this the Thelma & Louise dynamic, though it is far older than that—John Brown is a famous real-world example; Spartacus another. Both Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy fit that pattern very well—they are free from the shackles that society placed on them, and liberated themselves from abusive relationships of their own power.

Why?

Personally, I'm luke-warm on her as writer. And how many additional buyers would she be able to pull in just because her name is on a product?

I am myself one of those who think Gail Simone is a good but not great writer. But she does have some real strengths, and I'd argue that DC is severely lacking in two things that Simone is really good at. The first is understanding characters, especially female ones. The second is a real knack for getting representation, and a desire to get it right.

Both are sorely needed for DC to reach new readers. If I were running DC, I'd recruit Simone not as a writer but as a high-level editor.

[prepmaster]

I'd argue that DC is severely lacking in two things that Simone is really good at. The first is understanding characters, especially female ones. The second is a real knack for getting representation, and a desire to get it right.

DC has writers that dont get Batman right. I dont know whether they can get other characters right.