poison ivy variant cover art for issue #12

Poison Ivy (2022-) #12 Recap and Review

More social commentary that didn’t quite land and a loving reunion makes for a mixed bag of a Poison Ivy issue. There’s lots to talk about in this spoiler-y recap and review.

poison ivy variant cover art for issue #12
Poison Ivy #12 variant covers. Art by Mateus Manhanini, Jenny Frison, and Xermanico.

Recap:

Pamela Isley and the ladies of the retreat are still dealing with the fallout of the wild lamia spreading and mutating in Gwen. Poison Ivy has to fight off and work the wild spores through her system. This process roughly takes a week, while the ladies worry the whole time. When Ivy wakes up, she gets to work on an antidote so that what just happened to Gwen, doesn’t happen to Janet or the others.

One lady has an objection to the antidote that Ivy pleads with her to take, very reminiscent of the COVID-era anti-vaxxers. After this, Pamela and Janet take off on a road trip back to Gotham, where Ivy finally reunites with Harley. Will she eventually tell her she hooked up with Janet? Time will tell.

Review: 

Special shout-out to Marcio Takara for the amazing visuals that always accompany this book. Equally beautiful and gross, these pages are worthy of hanging on someone’s walls. 

Now, let’s get to the story at hand. I wasn’t all that impressed with their inclusion of the antidote decliner that was clearly supposed to represent anti-vaxxers and how Pamela handled it. Sorry, but this lady just saw what happened to Gwen and you expect me to believe she would be cool with it happening to her? Then again, I remember 2020, all to well.  It’s a touchy topic to try and squeeze in a single page.

Poison Ivy reckons with someone who doesn’t want to protect herself and her family by taking an antidote. Art by Marcio Takara.

Another issue I’m starting to have is, while I love me some Ivy and Harley, it feels like DC won’t let Poison Ivy have her own stories without injecting Harley into them. In complete contrast, Harley’s own ongoing series has been without Pamela for quite a few issues and barely mentions her too. Ivy has too powerful of a story of her own to be relegated only to being Harley’s girlfriend.

Rating: 3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHAPTER 12- Ivy and Janet’s celebrity wellness excursion comes to a horrifically tantalizing close as Pamela Isley faces the unintended fruits of her murderous road trip. Will she make it back home to Harley in one piece or is Ivy going to be added to GLØP’s body count?

Written by: G. Willow Wilson
Art by: Marcio Takara
Colors by: Arif Prianto
Letters by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover by: Jessica Fong
Price: $3.99