Review: Poison Ivy #1

We are back with another comic book review. This time with something a little bit different, Poison Ivy issue #1. Totally was not ready for this but what a pick up. Click the link If you want to check out last week’s review of Batman: Fortress #1. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

All right so why did I pick this one up? Well for one I had the intention of picking up some women led comics and as I walked into my local comic book shop I saw a whole row taken up by Poison Ivy variant covers, though I think that mainly had to do in part with it being PRIDE month. I took a little walk through the rest of the shop and checked out the comics available then ultimately came back to Poison Ivy’s shelf and picked this issue up.

Cover Little bit of a creepy vibe from this cover but I think that’s what really drew me into it. Up until now, the comics I have been getting are all of superheroes, not villains. To see Poison Ivy front and center with a plate of meat that she is eating made me think Oh, she means business! The tag, “Humanity Had Its Chance” also gave me some thoughts that this could be a look at a villain unleashing all hell on everyone. But it’s nice to see the full character on the issue and then to have her surrounded in a bunch of plants and flowers is a nice touch. As if she were making death look pretty.

This is where we see Poison Ivy use her parasitic mushrooms to just brutally murder these guys. Epic.

Story In the opening pages we get a sense of how ruthless and evil Poison Ivy is along with a bit of overview about her. We learn she is now back in a physical body and that this story is not about revenge but instead about love. Interesting. The setting is Wyoming with two farmer guys driving around in their truck and coming upon a group of dead cows. They are trying to make sense of how it happened and what is covering the cows mutilated bodies. In comes Poison Ivy saying that it’s a class of parasitic mushrooms and gives them a taste. What follows is a couple badass panels showing one of the men enduring a horrific death and transformation into mushrooms.

She then gets back in her truck that she borrowed from a couple, but really she killed them and has their decomposing corpses in the back. All throughout the book we have Poison Ivy narrating what is going on and giving us a bit of background info. For instance we learn of her having a falling out with Harley and things ending over something, not sure what.

For a second I wasn’t sure who this was and then I figured it had to be Harley.

From what I gather, Poison Ivy is just mad at the world/humanity and is determined to destroy everything in her path. We get another notion of this when some dirty old sleaze balls harass her after leaving the bar and end up paying the ultimate price for it. I thought these panels were also really awesome not only because of the action but i really liked the colors used in this spread as well as the last the panel in particular that shows her blowing some type of smoke or dust.

Love this panel because of the purplish/pink evening tones paired with another brutal killing.

Towards the end of the issue we get a better sense of what or why Poison Ivy hates humans so much. Instead she explains that she doesn’t hate humans, but hates humans as a whole collective species. She goes on to say that they are an invasive species and so that’s why she hates them so much. She accuses the humans of using up all the resources on the planet and suggest extinction is the best scenario moving forward because the earth deserves to live and not be destroyed by the human species. As you can see in the image below there is a full page dedicated to an awesome Poison Ivy covered in plants and her hair being magnificent. I’m not sure if that’s like an actual form in which she can take or if it’s how she envisions herself.

Now this part I was a little confused at, not sure if this was something that actually happened or this is something she envisions her body as.

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. Pretty hyped for this series and hope to learn more about this other form she can take. Had there been a little bit more info on her relationship with Harley ending and her form I would of given this 5 out of 5. Hopefully we learn more in the next issues.

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Review: Batman Fortress #1

I’ve been on a bit of Batman kick lately after watching the movie on HBO Max starring Robert Pattinson plus listening to the Spotify Original Batman Unburied, which just ended last week. If you’re curious about it, check out my review of the first episode. Because of this recent interest in Batman, I was thinking to myself “I should read a Batman comic.”

A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Before heading to my local comic book shop, I also made a stop at my local dispensary to pick up some wax. I always place my order ahead of time and just go pick it up, I went with some live badder called Banana Punch, Ice Box Pie and Miracle Mango wax all from Billo. After the dispensary run I stopped at the comic book shop and took a look at the current Batman runs. There were quite a few but many of them were already deep into their issues released and I wanted to follow along with new series. In comes Batman: Fortress, which came out towards the end of last month (May 24) poses a very important question right on the cover, “Where is Superman?"“

So let’s dive into my first Batman comic.

Cover Here are a few things I like about this cover; one of them being the outline of Batman paired with some of the headlines indicates to me that we are going to have a lot of dark and crazy shit going on. “Where is Superman?” we see on the main monitor above Batman’s head, what does it mean? Is he dead? What’s going on? All of these questions made me itching to find out more. Not to mention, I feel like Superman always just shows up and cleans house. So the thought that he is currently missing and Batman has to handle this city-wide power outage himself was another reason why I ultimately chose this issue. Though because I picked up this issue a week after it came out, I was unable to get a view and any of the variant covers. Next time though.

The opening spread shows the burglars inside of Wayne Manor.

Story Our story starts with pure darkness, Gotham is experiencing a total blackout. The stage? Wayne Manor, some dim-witted criminals think they can take advantage of this blackout and rob Wayne Manor. Phew, are they in for a surprise, me too. As these idiots make their way into what they think is an empty mansion, they get their asses handed to them by Bruce Wayne and his butler, Mr. Alfred Pennyworth. Yes, we get to see Alfred whip out some of his former British Special Forces skills and take out one of the would be burglars. The panel at the end actually makes me crack up! The dude is just laying there with his arm like backwards LMAO what?! Go Alfred!

I busted out laughing when I saw the guy that Alfred beat up is all mangled on the ground.

After whooping some ass, Alfred lets Bruce know that the blackout seems to be far worse than what they think. Thinking it was just Gotham, we get a shocked Bruce and then cut to the next page. Detective Gordon is trying to get the Batsignal working unsuccessfully but then they manage to get it on with the help of a few police squad car batteries. Which seemed to piss one of the other detectives but Gordon doesn’t care. He needs the Batsignal on so he can get some help to the people of Gotham. But right as they get it lit, Gordon is told that Arkham Asylum has had a mass breakout, the Joker has escaped.

We get back to Wayne Manor/Batcave with Bruce and Alfred discussing the current blackout event. After seeing multiple cities across the globe experiencing the same blackouts, they come to the conclusion that it must be some sort of attack on the earth. Bruce tells Alfred to alert other members of the league to assemble at HQ and in the meantime, he is wondering where the hell is Superman?

Batman! BAM! We see Bruce suited up as the Batman and talking to Gordon. Gordon is letting him know the severity of the situation. They’re able to use landlines but power and radio comms have all been knocked out. Also the new electronic locks for Arkham seem to be useless since the backup generator took too long to turn on and a lot of the city’s worst criminals escaped before the generators came back on. Batman lets Gordon know of making some modifications for their radios to get some lines of communication going.

Now the next part has been the topic of discussion in the comic community. See the spread in question below.

This has cause some controversy because apparently Batman must deal with all looters to help Best Buy make its profit margins.

For the next couple pages, Batman goes on a fighting spree and starts beating the shit out of everyone. As he is doing all of this, we are told that Batman doesn’t have time for looters in the sense that many of the places being looted all have insurance and they are at the bottom of his priority list. Instead he puts on the mask to stop the BIG FISH “the predators that lurk in the dark waters, feasting on the innocent, the defenseless… the ones who get off on the misery and suffering of others.” Which is a very important line in this entire stretch. It’s not that he doesn’t care for looters, there are just far more important things going on. All while this inner dialogue is going on, Batman stops Penguin from strangling a woman and Joker from taking over a school bus and a bunch of criminals in a dark alley.

It’s these sick bastards that Batman is after, his priority is not looters.

Cut back to the Batcave and Batman fills Alfred in on a very “crimey” night in Gotham and then asks if he has found anything out from the scans he was running. There seems to be some type of “warship” over the Indian Ocean, we don’t know what though. Batman still has no clue where Superman is but the league is waiting for him at headquarters.

Peep the “I survived the blackout” tshirt that Batman got Alfred.

Overall Rating As far as my first Batman comic, I think this was a good choice. I enjoyed the storyline so far, there was a lot of action, a couple funny parts and a big sense of mystery still. Excited for the next issue. I gave this a 4/5 on Comic Geeks.

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