A Sister's Betrayal!/
After what seemed like a year, my partner and I went comic shopping. I was hoping to pick up the next Arkham City but apparently that's been postponed another week or so. How does that keep happening? Is the Arkham City comic licenced by DC Direct? Oh well, at least I got the latest Sirens.
Now I'd seen the cover before I bought the issue, but a few things bothered me about it. I mean, it makes enough sense - Harley and Ivy wanting revenge on Catwoman. Although, the words 'sister's betrayal' and the fact that one of Catwoman's eyes look like her sister Maggie's when she got all church demon-crazy made me think that they were going to tie Maggie all up in this somehow.
That said, it's a great cover. Harley Quinn being the more obvious threat, wielding her spike and nail riddled hammer and Ivy lurking in the bushes. (fancy that) Catwoman is a bit stuck and I'm stuck wondering how low they're going to have her zipper until they finally answer the question of if she's wearing a bra or not. Of course, her breasts are far less dangerous than they were in the purple painted on spandex era but that doesn't make this question any less relevant.
So Harley Quinn narrated last time, here Poison Ivy has her time on the soap box. Does this mean that Selina will have her spotlight in the final issue? Maybe. Poison Ivy opens with a Tennyson poem and then elaborates on the turmoil between life and death. Turns out she's been trapped in a power killing cage as the flash backs show. Somehow, her cage is cracked and this allows her to plot her escape, which takes a up a whole damn page because it's of epic proportions.
I quite liked the splash after that, showing a handful of inmates in their unique cells and foreshadowing some dangerous Ivy time. And... she's back in Arkham? Okay, before she busted out. She's using her pheromones to get the guards to quietly release her. I love the little exchanges between the guards here.
Flash back... back? A fake guard approaches Ivy with an offer to help her kill Catwoman if she can break out of Arkham. First thing she does after escaping her own cell, she goes to find where Harley is. Ivy is pretty angry right abouts here. Last issue she vowed to leave Harley if she didn't give up on the Joker and now she's about to strangle her with vines.
Even tells her she's about to die before Ivy turns the light switch on and sees.... love hearts and joker engravings just covering Harley's cell. Which just prompts more questions. How the hell did she get all the way up there? How did she get the colours? What did she use to engrave them and how was she ever allowed them? How has no guard seen this and investigated? I can see pencils on her desk, but that's about it.
For Ivy though, she sees this and her eyes widen. She stops threatening and looks around. Her heart breaks. A montage of their friendship follows, Ivy saving Harley from the rocket wreckage and fixing her up. Harley leaping in to defend Ivy from Bone Blaster. Harley doing something silly while Ivy looks on, smiling. She compares their relationship to that of a tree and a strangler fig.
Harley is the fig, choking the Ivy tree. Without Ivy, Harley cannot grow but without Harley, Ivy would not be kept in check. It's a pretty apt comparison. Harley is the only friend Ivy has. Ivy herself calls Harley 'the only human I've ever called a friend'. In a comic book world where eco-terrorism isn't as understood or supported as much as the quest for money or revenge, Ivy is misunderstood. Ivy is poison, and this is a big enough scare factor for most people but not Harley.
In a similar way, Harley is misunderstood as well - forever the lovesick sidekick no matter what she does. Ivy sees the best in her and is saddened when she sees her friend throw it all away for a man who doesn't always appreciate her. Being with Harley makes Ivy more human than she'd like to admit.
Ivy thinks about the ways she could stop her friend from her addictive madness, like altering her brain chemically, abandoning her to her fate or even out right killing her. Then she considers a final option, one that would require patience and.. love. So she offers Harley a chance to join her, knowing that Harley might only be doing it for revenge or for the Joker. Yet she hopes that she can help her break the cycle, accepting that it must be her choice.
Throughout the issue, Ivy's narration is bordered by vines. As she talks about the sometimes toxic relationship between her and Harley, it is symbolised in pictures as the actual fig and tree and how they progress. As they run away from Arkham, the barren vines surrounding them burst into life with colourful flowers, showing a new hope for the friendship.
Not so good for Penguin though, as the duo crash through his window and beat up his henchmen. As Ivy says, who else has the resources to entice Catwoman into a trap? There it is... the showdown we've all been promised. Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn - on a rooftop overlooking Penguin's 'broken down' money van in Robinson Park, each ready to die and all ready to fight.
Bring on the last volume.
No comments:
Post a Comment