Poison Ivy #10: Psychedelic Spa Day from Hell

Following the previous issue’s romantic interlude, Poison Ivy #10 ratchets up the tension once more as Ivy sets off on yet another road trip. This time, her destination is a wellness retreat run by a Gwenyth Paltrow parody named Gwendolyn Caltrope. Unlike Ivy’s previous excursions, this one is at the behest of her housemate/sidekick/love interest Janet. 

When Poison Ivy #9 ended, Ivy had reluctantly turned down girlfriend Harley Quinn’s pleas to return to Gotham, excited for the fresh start Seattle offered her. In the comic’s final moments, Ivy plans a trip with Janet. At the same time, the opening pages of Poison Ivy #10 see Ivy packing her van to return to Gotham and Janet begging her to stay in Seattle or at least come to Gwendolyn Caltrope’s weekend wellness retreat first. It’s a disconcerting transition: there’s no sense that time has passed, and Ivy is a character who seldom changes her mind. Developments later in the issue suggest that this narrative disjointedness may be explained down the line. For now, however, the opening of Poison Ivy #10 reads as if G. Willow Wilson has chosen to retcon the ending of the previous issue.

The meat of the newest issue–set at the wellness retreat in California–is far more engrossing. While Janet and Ivy hope the weekend goes off without a hitch, they’re the protagonists of a psychedelic eco-horror series, so it doesn’t. Some of the dialogue and narration verge on the didactic, but portions of Wilson’s script are liquid gold. For example, Gwendolyn–drawn by Marcio Takara as a glamorous woman with a Stepford Wives smile–stands over her adoring fans and tells them: “When you consume responsibly, you can consume everything.” It’s exciting to see the series dig its teeth into the problems of “conscious capitalism” and wellness culture. There’s a surprising amount of humor in this issue, too, though the psychedelic horror elements of the series have come back in full force.

Takara’s artwork masterfully moves between sexy and unsettling, while colorist Arif Prianto fills the book from cover to cover with the series’ trademark technicolor delirium. There are a considerable number of unnamed female characters in this particular issue, all of whom Takara draws with the same long, lean body type. What’s not completely clear is if this is intended as a commentary on the expectations wellness culture puts on women’s physiques or if it’s simply part of an artistic tradition best left in the past. Overall, he fills every page with the polished and often chilling artwork readers of Poison Ivy have come to expect. Prianto continues to take full advantage of modern printing, emphasizing unnatural hot pinks and radioactive green as the panels of Takara’s artwork swirl together. Amongst the black-light-poster-ness of it, all is one mildly perplexing color choice: Janet’s hair. In Poison Ivy #9, Prianto changed the previously blonde Janet to a brunette, loosening the character’s associations with her blonde-haired foil, Harley. 

In the newest issue, Ivy continues to be vexed by her growing feelings for Janet, though the issue never mentions that Harley is okay with Ivy having a “side quest.” Until this point, Ivy’s guilt during romantic liaisons has been rooted in the feeling of being unfaithful to Harley, so it’s now much less clear why Ivy regrets it when Harley couldn’t care less. It’s nevertheless great to see DC continuing to move away from lip service and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it queer representation and towards something more meaningful. The newest issue, which features several kisses between both named and unnamed female characters in a series with a queer female lead, is a refreshing continuation of the trend.