Poison Ivy Appreciation 2018

[Green Ghost]

Let's hope not. This tease from DC Nation #2 had said two of the characters pictured would be murdered, which we now know are Wally and Roy.



Of that bunch, Ivy is the lone redhead left now, so no ginger massacre please. Interestingly, the teaser claims THREE of those characters will be accused as you can see. So Booster Gold, Harley and... Ivy? Are both women MIA from Sanctuary, which leads the surviving heroes to think they were in cahoots and responsible for the massacre? If so, where is Ivy? Does Harley know where she is or is she as in the dark as the rest?

Yeah, that's the burning question!

Right now I have the feeling one could be a fakeout and that Ivy will be the real victim, because they only revealed half the victims so they could save some more shocks for issue #2.

Ivy as a former villain would be an obvious suspect. But because King erased her complete killing record, it would be weird to do all that just to make her a muderer again. But who knows, King is known for ignoring the history of characters.

I don't know, I want to be optimistic and maybe everything will be fine by the end of the series but the thing that we'll still get Harley's worst moment has me worried as an Ivy fan...

[Confuzzled]

I think there may be an Ivy reference we missed in HiC #1:



The "with my..." part in the first panel... Was Harley going to say "I saw you with my Red/Ivy"? (her fingers are even reaching out towards a flower as she says this)

Would that mean she believes she saw Booster Gold with Ivy's body/killing Ivy or did she mean both she and Ivy saw Booster Gold "with all" the other bodies at Sanctuary? Just speculating but seems kind of grim.

[Confuzzled]

On to some pleasant news for a change, Tasia Valenza confirmed she will be returning to voice Ivy in the Lego DC Super Villains Game!

[Frontier]

On to some pleasant news for a change, Tasia Valenza confirmed she will be returning to voice Ivy in the Lego DC Super Villains Game!

I thought that sounded like her in the Ivy promo .

[kjn]

I guess this describes Poison Ivy's mood visavi DC at times:

poison_ivy-plants.jpg

Image by Stjepan Sejic.

[Frontier]

I guess this describes Poison Ivy's mood visavi DC at times:

poison_ivy-plants.jpg

Image by Stjepan Sejic.

Or her fans .

[kjn]

Or her fans .

Oh, that's easy.

poison_ivy1.jpg

(Also by Stjepan Sejic.)

[Confuzzled]

I guess this describes Poison Ivy's mood visavi DC at times:

poison_ivy-plants.jpg

Image by Stjepan Sejic.

If Didio is the cacti it will respond with "Harley's waifu. Now quit your cribbing and make her a meatloaf, woman".

[Nite-Wing]

Ivy makes her debut on DC Universe with this Harley Quinn clip
A bit too deadpan Daria for my taste but nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBrVLmLsHBQ
Animation looks good too so they put some money behind this show

[MajorHoy]

[ross61]

Ivy makes her debut on DC Universe with this Harley Quinn clip
A bit too deadpan Daria for my taste but nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBrVLmLsHBQ
Animation looks good too so they put some money behind this show

This is really aimed at you but moreso this widespread belief that if you throw more money at something that it will be better animated. It will not, it's all about the animation studio. And I can pretty much guarantee that it is one of the regular studios that WB uses.

Just wanted to clarify that

[Green Ghost]

I think there may be an Ivy reference we missed in HiC #1:



The "with my..." part in the first panel... Was Harley going to say "I saw you with my Red/Ivy"? (her fingers are even reaching out towards a flower as she says this)

Would that mean she believes she saw Booster Gold with Ivy's body/killing Ivy or did she mean both she and Ivy saw Booster Gold "with all" the other bodies at Sanctuary? Just speculating but seems kind of grim.

Yeah, the flower thing also caught my attention. I think we'll find out she's dead in the next issue, because Harley will be confronted by the trinity and it'll most likely come up.

Also Didio just said “It’s gonna get worse for Wally West”, which adds speculation his death being a fake-out and the early rumors regarding his role in HiC.

[Confuzzled]

Bleeding Cool has put out an article on the mysterious disappearance of one Pamela Lillian Isley:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/10...one-dc-comics/

These two paragraphs in particular are on point...

DC has been using Poison Ivy as a very successful promotional tool. She appears in expensive variant covers, prints, merchandise, clothing lines, toys, costumes, school bags, pens, pencils, glasses, cosmetics, the list goes on. The list is endless. She is one of the characters with the most merchandise available. Why? Because she sells. Her image sells. And DC knows that. And they use her image to sell things and make a profit. She will also co-star in the upcoming Harley Quinn animated series. So… where is she?

I know this will annoy a lot of people but it IS a bit (or a lot) sexist to use an image of a sexy woman in order to sell things and not give the character the opportunities to grow. To be involved in the DC Universe. To get stories. But hey. Even if you disagree with my argument about sexism… wouldn’t you dudes and dudettes like to see a sexy redhead kick some ass in a comic book?

[kjn]

Good questions in that article.

I think there are a couple of different possible outlines to answers for that, that I think interconnect with and reinforce each other.

One is that Poison Ivy, as she has developed lately, doesn't have a strong core of what her character is to be. You have her Circe model, but there she is fundamentally reactive and mostly wants to be left alone, like in Cycle of Life and Death. Then she can go all out in supervillainy, but then she ends up being far too powerful for most stories, like in Everybody Loves Ivy. And then you have the anti-villain, like in When Pamela Gets Blue. Last there are the hints that she is being groomed as Swamp Thing's replacement. I'm not sure DC really knows what they are supposed to do with her character right now, power- and storywise.

Second is her relationship with Harley Quinn. In effect, Ivy ended up being used as a plot device to pry Harley loose from the Joker, making sure that Harley could be used to maximum marketability. But I also think that there are more conservative elements within DC who are uncomfortable with same-sex relationships, and then you have the general DC issue with relationships in general. Again, this leaves Ivy at loose ends.

Third is that I wouldn't be surprised at all if DC higher-ups more or less automatically discount female characters unless they really make them sit up and take notice about sales. And it is too easy to dismiss any pitches as not fitting the character due to her slightly schizophrenic current nature.

[Confuzzled]

Good questions in that article.

I think there are a couple of different possible outlines to answers for that, that I think interconnect with and reinforce each other.

One is that Poison Ivy, as she has developed lately, doesn't have a strong core of what her character is to be. You have her Circe model, but there she is fundamentally reactive and mostly wants to be left alone, like in Cycle of Life and Death. Then she can go all out in supervillainy, but then she ends up being far too powerful for most stories, like in Everybody Loves Ivy. And then you have the anti-villain, like in When Pamela Gets Blue. Last there are the hints that she is being groomed as Swamp Thing's replacement. I'm not sure DC really knows what they are supposed to do with her character right now, power- and storywise.

Second is her relationship with Harley Quinn. In effect, Ivy ended up being used as a plot device to pry Harley loose from the Joker, making sure that Harley could be used to maximum marketability. But I also think that there are more conservative elements within DC who are uncomfortable with same-sex relationships, and then you have the general DC issue with relationships in general. Again, this leaves Ivy at loose ends.

Third is that I wouldn't be surprised at all if DC higher-ups more or less automatically discount female characters unless they really make them sit up and take notice about sales. And it is too easy to dismiss any pitches as not fitting the character due to her slightly schizophrenic current nature.

A great summary of theories regarding the strange treatment of Ivy over the past few years. I think ALL of them play into it to some extent or the other. And even when female characters destroy sales, there is still confusion with what to do with them, as seen with the cluelessness regarding Wonder Woman even after how stupendous a year 2017 was for her.

The crazy thing is, there already is a rough template for Ivy playing a more prominent role: Emma Frost. This doesn't mean I'm saying she should become a Frost clone (especially when ideology/worldview wise Ivy is closer to Magneto than Emma). But that is the general direction DC could go with her for a morally ambiguous anti-heroine sexy femme. Edgier than Catwoman and none of the goofball antics of Harley Quinn.