Poison Ivy #2 // Review
Pamela Isley isn't a terrorist, though what she's going to do will cause terror. And she isn't a mass murderer, though she DOES plan on killing a lot of people...in the interest of saving the world. She's going to run into a few problems as she runs into someone on the run in Poison Ivy #2. Writer G. Willow Wilson continues a summer road trip west with a charmingly appealing anti-hero. The story is rendered for the page by artist Marcio Takara. Color comes courtesy of Arif Prianto. The strange complexity of Ivy's life continues to collect captivating little details in a thoroughly enjoyable second issue.
Poison Ivy rolls into a roadside eating establishment somewhere in Montana, where she runs into a poet named Jenny. The man in charge of the roadside diner is a big, ingratiating guy who seems to be way too bright and cheerful for someone running a place by the side of the road. Ivy's seeds continue to spread as they gently cascade through the restaurant. When the police arrive, Ivy thinks they're after her. Turns out they're after Jenny. Ivy's a sucker for a pretty criminal, so how could she NOT help out?
Wilson has a really deft command of intricate, little complexities. What she's able to do with the hero/villain dichotomy in Poison Ivy is impressively subtle. What Ivy's doing is partially self-destructive and partially heroic (in a mass-homicidal sort of a way.) Wilson manages some really complicated characterization of passing characters in the story's periphery. The tragedy of what Ivy's doing is not lost on the presence of the moment in any single panel. That she's able to do this without over-rendering things in thought or dialogue is one hell of an accomplishment.
Takara picks up on Wilson's subtlety in an often breathtaking way. Ivy isn't all that comfortable with what she's doing, but she's resigned to doing it. Takara does a brilliant job of bringing that across in sidelong glances from Ivy here and there throughout an issue that is a whole lot more visually fascinating than it has a right to be, given the fact that it's mostly just taking place in a single restaurant by the side of the highway. The somber beauty of a moment that might as well be the end of the world is brought together with a tender mood brought to the page with the thoughtful color choices of Prianto.
The road trip might have a little bit more of a sense of place and intensity if the specifics of Ivy's route were covered in a bit more detail, but the series would lose a great deal of the restless resignation of the main character. She honestly doesn't care where she is. She's driving to her own death on the west coast, hoping to wipe out most of the human race. There's a sad beauty about it: Wilson and company hit home gorgeously in the second issue.
