Happy Holidays I: Poison Ivy & Batman 495

I'd like to get in the holiday spirit, but I'm not really a Christmassy kind of guy. So why not talk about Halloween? This year's party was pretty cool, but the literary/historical theme is more nerdy than it is geeky. LAST YEAR'S was another matter entirely. The theme: Comics.So here's the first comics review based on one of the costumes. My friend Carolynn made a hot Poison Ivy costume, and by hot, I mean that she always had a choice to make: Hide the cleavage or hide the ass. Costume couldn't do both at once.
As you can see, she based it on Poison Ivy from the looseleaf version of Who's Who:
Carolynn's not a comic book fan, but she did do her research. And here it is. To get the personality just right, this was her only source of information: I went looking through my collection for a comic that had this version of Poison Ivy and I came up with Batman #495. It's #7 in the Knighfall story arc, which was pretty much the Gotham equivalent of the Death of Superman, except with less dying and more back-breaking. Don't worry, both heroes got better. Lots of stuff happens in this comic - like buildings blowing up and the Joker eating a donut - but most of the plot centers around Poison Ivy ambushing some kind of banquet with a bunch of plant-controlled zombies. She's gone from the sweet Betty-type seen above, to someone distinctly more like Veronica:
Kissy kissy, Batman! But she's not a one-man woman. While Batman is kicking ass, she goes for Lucius Fox:"Kisssss..." Is it me or she now a vampire? And since this is Jim Aparo artwork, it looks like it really hurts when he hits people (as depicted time and again over at the Invicible Super-Blog). I won't show you all the violence, and I won't show you the kick to the face Ivy gets, but look at this one:
That dude's whole BODY is shaking from the brunt of Batman's explosive kick. CHUNT seems like a very wet sound... or is it me? Here's the verdict: This isn't about Ivy enough. Batman's villains are supposed to be interesting enough that you can focus on their dementia. With all the Knightfall going around, there just aren't enough pages devoted to her, and she comes off as a vampire zombie priestess at a kissing booth. Aparo's heavy hitting isn't enough to warrant more than...

Comments

Mélanie said…
Jumped the shark, ça veut tu dire que c'est bon ou pas bon??? Jumped the shark peut être positif ou négatif... Ça pourrait vouloir dire "saute le comic" as in "lis-le pas" ou bien "wow, I jumped over the shark, what a good move!".
Siskoid said…
You are hereby invited to check out www.jumptheshark.com to get the lowdown on what the expression means, how it relates to the Fonz on waterskies and why this is definitely "not good".
Anonymous said…
I want to see Batman kick Ivy in the face!!!
Rnndy said…
anonymous---why would you possibly want to see Batman kick Poison Ivy in the face? I'd like to see Poison Ivy have Batman wrapped around her fingers.