Batgirl Annual #2 Review and Thoughts.
How can I be objective with this?
Take 10 random comic book readers and ask them: Who should write a story about Poison Ivy? Ten out of ten readers will answer: Gail Simone. So here it is. A big, beautiful story written by Simone about hope, redemption, mercy and humanity.
The book starts with a Birds of Prey scene (STARLING IS ALSO HERE OMG!), a week before Ivy betrays the team. Birds of Prey are raiding a facility owned by a certain Dr. Rain where terminally ill people are acting as terrorists... A huge bombastic battle happens where Ivy looks a bit strange. Too happy, almost euphoric? Then one of Dr. Rain's “terrorist” whispers something into Ivy's ear. Something that makes her betray the team a week after.
This is a fairy tale about transformation.
I don't want to go deep into the plot. You HAVE to read this without knowing a lot in order to fully enjoy it so please avoid reading spoilery reviews.
This book takes you places you would never imagine. After years and years of bad, horrible Poison Ivy stories, Gail Simone focuses on what Pamela really is and gives her the change to speak for herself instead of “Death to all humans, you can't resist me, would you like to water my garden?” (actual lines of Pre52 Poison Ivy dialogue).
With the help of Robert Gill's incredibly detailed art (flowers in Pam's head, yaaay) Ivy is presented as a force of nature, majestic, euphoric, beautiful and benevolent but also scary, dark, depressed and unforgiving. By shifting the focus to Pamela, Simone makes more character progression for her than any other writer the last 30 years. This is it. I've been checking some forums this morning and everyone's saying the same thing: THIS IS IT. This is where Ivy changes this is her defining story. You did it Simone!
The book is filled with those tiny moments that only Gail knows how to write. I was talking about this the other day with a fellow reviewer and he said that this is what sets apart Simone from other writers. Her ability to write small moments that have huge emotional impact on the reader. Ivy's (spoiler) tears when she give that kiss of mercy (spoiler) a small detail made me cry.
And when she talks about her youth... this part resonated so much with me. I am different, I knew it from the beginning, I knew it since I was ten that it would be hard for me to “fit in”. I was weird and quirky and people always tried to change me, my cyclothymia makes me do and say things I later regret. So does Ivy. She is the victim, not the villain. She needs friends. She needs people to understand and trust her. She needs people to interact. (This is my only point of criticism for this issue, the mention of Harley Quinn. “Tying” those two characters together for so long has lead to poor character development. They both need to interact with more DC characters so it's better to keep their relationship outside canon...that's just a personal opinion, you don't have to agree. I just feel that Harley and Ivy belongs to the animated universe)
Batgirl is wonderful in this. Tension is constantly rising around her, filling her with contradicting emotions until the final showdown. Like an ancient Greek tragedy, pathos leads to the eventual catharsis. There is a huge progression in her relationship with Pam. She sees her changing, transforming, evolving. She sees a woman giving a battle for her soul. She sees a woman who is not evil, just misguided. Perhaps Pam is the one that will eventually saves the planet.
I hope this touching story becomes the guide on how to write Ivy from now on. In the few hours that Batgirl Annual is out, all I see is positive comments about it and people asking for this to be the starting point of a Poison Ivy book. I consider this book to be Pamela's “birthday” in New 52. I hope more writers get inspired from how Gail Simone (and John Layman) wrote Ivy and do something wonderful with her. Fans want it, a recent poll showed that she is the most requested character for a solo series both from DC and Marvel (!) and this book proves that there is place for some solid storytelling with her.
Being a big (duh) Poison Ivy fan this story goes into my recommended list: Gaiman's Secret Origin of Poison Ivy, Greg Rucka's Detective Comics and Gotham Central Poison Ivy, Ann Nocenti's Cast Shadows, John Layman's Detective Comics Ivy and now this.
If you want to read a good, exciting and well drawn story, if you like comic books that resonate with you, your feelings, your fears and hopes, if you like Batgirl or Poison Ivy, if you are a thinking reader that demands something more that explosions, please check it out.
To the rest of you, if you don't buy it the ghosts of a thousand angry meerkats will posses your computer and ban your access to porn.
Once more a big thank you to Gail Simone, Robert Gill and Javier Garron. You did it. This is it. Go check the forums and blogs online.
Happy Birthday Pam.
