I was worried that I was reading too much into the first issue of Knight Terrors: Poison Ivy. I thought that issue was a brilliant exploration of Ivy’s psyche and relationships. How disappointed I was to pick up this issue and see that I was wrong.
Harley and Ivy’s Relationship Can Never Have Flaws
I thought we were exploring Ivy’s fears with this book and using them to confront the weird love triangle Ivy’s gotten herself into in real life. I thought we were going to see her come to terms with the very different lifestyles she and Harley Quinn want to live. All of that potential exploration is dropped once Knight Terrors Harley Quinn tries to kill a dandelion. This nearly makes Ivy lose her mind. It’s supposed to be dramatic, but it comes off as quite comical. Ivy relaxes and snaps out of her dream, however, when she realizes that the real Harley would never harm a dandelion, but rather “she would give it a name and talk to it.” All of Ivy’s fears are confirmed, therefore, to be just her projections and nothing based on reality.
I mean…really? If some of you are still unconvinced that the Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy relationship in comics is forced, let me ask you this. How is it that everywhere else in comics Harley Quinn is this shallow, selfish, irreverent, unaware, bulldozing, destructive character, but when she shows up in Ivy’s book she’s patient, wise, and respectful? She somehow becomes this angelic person in Ivy’s life, who complements her perfectly. Meanwhile, Ivy somehow becomes the ideal person in Harley’s life whenever she appears in Harley’s book. All her flaws are disregarded. Meanwhile, all conflict and interesting story development is gone for two characters who we have to pretend are constantly perfect for each other.
What is the Purpose of Janet?
If you think Harley and Ivy are going to spend a lot of time together now, though, not so fast. DC’s already created a cop-out where Ivy is going to conveniently make Ivy spend a lot of time in Slaughter Swamp apart from Harley. DC still doesn’t appear to want these two to spend much time together. Therefore, it is Janet who once again does the heavy lifting of getting Ivy out of this nightmare. Janet, in many ways, has taken over Harley’s role in Ivy’s life. Like Harley, Janet is a character who Ivy finds annoying. But Ivy also has a deeper connection to Janet which she might not want to admit. That makes me ask questions…
If Janet is going to be the emotional support in Ivy’s life, then what’s the point of Harley? If Harley’s going to be Ivy’s ultimate “true love” though, what is the point of Janet? I don’t get it at all. It just sounds like a mess.
Speaking of a mess, have I mentioned the artwork in this book? I get that Atagun Ilhun is trying to draw a very surreal world, but there gets to be a point where the distorted faces, blown-up eyes, and huge mouths start to look laughable. It’s also drawn inconsistently. On some pages one character will follow this distorted theme, but a different character will not. It really looked like an excuse for lazy artwork to me.
Recommend if…
- You wanted to finish off Ivy’s Knight Terrors arc.
Overall
In the end, we are essentially left where we started in Ivy’s journey before this entire event started. I thought Wilson would use this event to further Ivy’s development. Now it just seems like a total interruption that doesn’t tell us anything about Ivy that we didn’t already know. It’s a total missed opportunity to me. The quality of the Ivy book is a roller coaster. This is definitely one of its lowest points.
Score: 3.5/10
Disclaimer: DC Comics provided Batman News a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review.
