Originally published on Patreon
I've had a lot of good things to say about this series (for the most part at least), and whilst I've enjoyed it, one of the things that has sat weirdly with me is the way in which Ivy acts, her general plan to use the fungal spores to wipe out humanity and make the world anew. I got where she was coming from, but it didn't mean that I thought she was making good decisions.
This issue kind of explains a lot of that, and kind of every weird way she's acted since it began, by showing us that Ivy is very much not doing well right now. The issue is filled with flashbacks to important, traumatic events in her life that we get to see because Ivy is full on hallucinating now. The spores inside her have been slowly effecting her too, and it kind of explains every odd choice and out of character moment.
Not only do we get to see some important flashbacks, but Ivy gets a friend on her journey, a hallucination of Batman. Out of all of the characters that this could have been, I like that it was Batman. Harley would have been too on the nose, Woodrue could have been interesting, but his relationship with Ivy is too antagonistic, but Batman feels like the perfect balance of a character that Ivy could hate, yet also kind of respect and would listen to. I also enjoyed the moments where she's yelling at him to be more useful and hes like 'dude, I'm not real'.
Speaking of Woodrue though, he finally comes into the series fully as the main antagonist for Ivy, and it's one of the best things to happen. We get to explore the past trauma that Ivy has around him, and the impact that he's had on her life, and the fight with him here becomes a way for Ivy to deal with all that past baggage too.
Woodrue is drawn really well here, and his design is probably my favourite one for him. He's a character that I've found to be a bit goofy looking in the past, but this version of him looks pretty vicious. He looks like he could do some serious damage to you if he wanted, and his look just screams sinister plant.
Overall, this is a very good issue that feels like its pushed the story up a gear. Things feel more exciting and important now, and it feels like Ivy's in danger for the first time since the series started. Now that there's an actual antagonist in the story for Ivy to deal with I'll be interested in seeing which side of her hero/villain divide she ends up falling on.
This article, and many others, can be read a month early on my Patreon for as little as $3 a month!
No comments:
Post a Comment