Batman: Black & White #4 this year had a Batman/Poison Ivy story.

[thanekos]

It opened on Ivy puppeteering the corpses of Thomas and Martha Wayne outside Bruce Wayne's house.

Batman confronted her, cutting her manipulative vines.

" Don't hurt them! Don't - "

" Start talking then. Why are you here? "

" I need.. I need Wayne's help.. "





(Wayne Industries being environmentally good on an international level is a fair extrapolation of " yeah, Bruce Wayne's a rich guy, but not in a problematic way. ")

" Put down the Waynes. And we'll talk. "



" But you and I know it won't go that way. "

Batman summed up the world she was going to create: " .. plants win. People lose. "

He pointed to the plants she'd brought along with her: " These high-tensile vines were for binding [Bruce Wayne]. "



(Love the strong lines on Nick Bradshaw's art - the way they outline the distinct figures in this story is great.)



(You wave his parents' bodies around outside his house, Batman's not going to feel too much compunction about using explosives on you.

Pagecount's 2 and under 4/10ths of 8.

Writing's Chip Zdarsky, art's Bradshaw, and letters're Aditya Bidikar.)

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

Why is Poison Ivy still written as a villain? People genuinely root for her and she's a force for good especially now that climate change is more accepted as a fact than it was just a few years ago.

[deh_tommy]

That’s mostly down to her methods, I think. Like Batman, Ivy’s crusade has noble intentions, but she’s also a warning to what he can become because that’s warped her to the point she’s just as much a danger to her own cause as the bigwigs and polluters she targets. That and the whole plant superiority angle as Batman points out here.

[silverhammerman]

It'd be weird if all of Batman's female villains (and only his female villains) had slid towards being anti-heroes in the 21st century, but I do agree with you. It really feels like the whole trope of superheroes as upholders of the status quo vs supervillains who fundamentally have somewhat good ideas but "take things too far" has becoming increasingly prominent and uncomfortable in recent years.

[tcampbell1000]

It'd be weird if all of Batman's female villains (and only his female villains) had slid towards being anti-heroes in the 21st century

And yet... that's pretty much what's happened, hasn't it? Clayface was part of the Bat-crew for a while, but that seems pretty much buried, and I don't think Jason Todd ever quite registered as a villain, so the record of male reformed Bat-villains is... not great. Talia went the other way, and I'm sure there are a few other counterexamples (Orca?), but basically, if your pronouns are she/her in Gotham, your moral arc bends upward. Poison Ivy gets more hero stories than villain ones these days, despite her extensive kill count in earlier tales.

At any rate, I have no problem with individual "villains with a point." I do think it's worth remembering that devils can quote any scripture to justify wrongdoing, and that very few baddies see themselves as such. But I do remember getting a little concerned about the number of movie villains who seemed ready to unleash hell on the environment "in order to save it." That was a real uncomfortable trend, of which Movie Thanos was just the most prominent example, and the only reason it seemed to dry up was, um, the shift away from blockbusters during the pandemic.

[akodo_rokku]

And then we have the Flag Smashers in The Falcon & Winter Soldier, jumping right back on that train.

[tinygaylaura]

Thankfully this garbage isn't in continuity

[palgrave_goldenrod]

I mean, "force for good" is slightly debatable considering most of her methods for solving the problem tend to revolve around "wiping out most of if not all of humanity". She still fits into the "Well Intentioned Extremist" role pretty well these days.

[tinygaylaura]

Eh, she's a hot green lesbian with powers that are custom made for at least 30% of the fantasies going through my head at any time

I'm going to be rooting (PLANT PUN) for her every time regardless because any woman who has the superpower of the ultimate tentacle fuck fantasy and who looks like THAT is the kind of woman I'd follow to hell and back

[bradygirl_12]

Gee, Ivy, the dancing bodies would get Bruce's attention, but I don't think he would be too agreeable after that! You need work on your people skills.

[deh_tommy]

People wave about the slowly decaying bodies of flowers all the time to get people’s attention, why should waving about the slowly decaying bodies of humans be any different?

[nyadnar17]

I am dying laughing at the idea that Ivy thought she was bringing the equivalent of his favorite flowers to try to broker peace.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I can't follow her logic there. He's not gonna help if you show up with the parents' dead bodies...but also she came along with a bunch of methods to force his cooperation. Was she just trying to get a rise out of Bruce so she can claim that he HAD to torture/brainwash him into helping.

[arilou_skiff]

Don't plant generally deal really well with carbon? Like, the problems for plants tends to be the higher temperatures, not "choking".

[moon_pudding]

The carbon is not a problem for plants but one of the big issues of climate change is the increased desertification and resultant reduction in arable land.

[arilou_skiff]

Yeah, that's my point; That's not what Ivy is saying.

[janegray]

The art is beautiful.

[tripodeca113]

Those boots, do not look comfy to wear.