Poison Ivy #30: Both Sides Now

After thirty issues, it can be difficult for any comic series to keep things feeling fresh. Poison Ivy’s creators have chosen to make their thirtieth issue a flip book, with two related stories that meet in the middle. After reading one story—either Ivy’s or her girlfriend Janet’s—readers must literally flip the book over and go the other way. (I’d encourage readers to read physically, as this effect is lost in digital.) While this may sound as gimmicky as holographic covers in the 1990s, the flip-book format proves a compelling narrative device. 

In Poison Ivy #30’s two stories, each heroine finds herself lost in the woods, forced to question her place in the larger narrative and confronted by a being beyond her understanding. Marcio Takara’s forest backgrounds are mostly gestural, a foggy liminal space colored by Arif Prianto in soft grey greens. Jessica Fong’s dual cover is likewise evocative: on the front cover for Ivy’s story, Ivy wanders the woodland as Janet’s giant head emerges from the water behind her (à la Neon Genesis Evangelion), while Janet’s front cover puts Janet herself in the foreground. 

As Ivy and Janet chart their courses through a space that is both geographically and psychologically uncertain, their parallel journeys recall fairytales like Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. For most fairytale protagonists, a journey through the woods is often a metaphor for coming of age and the associated loss of innocence. For Ivy and Janet, too, the woods force an unwanted shift in perspective. And while this story might work perfectly well without the flip-book structure, the flip forces us to shift our own perspective quite physically. The parallels, differences, and interconnectedness between Ivy’s and Janet’s stories become all the more striking.