Mayor Pamela Isley investigates the state of her old stomping grounds, the Gotham City sewer system, and makes some unpleasant discoveries about what lies beneath. Meanwhile, a certain feline felon makes her long-awaited return to Ivy’s life. Poison Ivy #43 is a hell of an issue that focuses on the tough choices, the evil choices, that are made to rule.

Ivy is now Mayor of Gotham City… and she’s actually trying to do a good job at it!? The idea of villains taking over and leading a city or country, hell even a world, isn’t anything new. But, they usually have some malicious plan behind it. There’s been some exceptions, but generally, it’s not a good thing. Writer G. Willow Wilson seems to be taking things in a different direction with this arc as Madam Isely actually attempts to make Gotham better.

Poison Ivy #43 takes two tracks as far as the story. The first is the horrible decision Ivy made when it comes to her relationship with Harley as she has become Mayor. Politics can destroy relationships (having worked in politics for 25+ years, I can personally attest) and being an elected official can really test the best relationships (again, seen it). Ivy’s decision is tragic and heartbreaking, but also shows she might be taking her new role seriously. There might be some actual altruism driving all of this. Ivy has always been an interesting character straddling clear villain and eco-warrior with good intentions and bad actions. Here, we see a focus on actual issues impacting Gotham and Ivy attempting to resolve them, maybe not in the best ways.

That gets us to the second story. While there’s a bigger mystery going on that plays out, Madam Ivy has focused on the sewer/pipe system of Gotham. There’s a clear environmental impact but also massive corruption. Wilson does a fantastic job of showing both sides of the argument in that “it’s shit, but it works” and “we can do better but corruption prevents that.” She’s right in her beliefs. She’s right in there needs new leadership. She’s right that corruption has led to all of this and the corporate stooge is just full of excuses. She’s wrong in how she handles it… Wilson has done a fantastic job of making the reader sympathetic and then just pulling rug out from under.

The art by Jaime Infante is fantastic. With color by Arif Prianto and lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, the comic does a great job of giving us the broken down Gotham we know but adding in a big of magic from Ivy’s natural world. There’s also a slight horror tinge to it all, delivered by the worn infrastructure. The team also does a fantastic job when it comes to the individual characters. Their body language and their facial expressions, the comic hits the emotional aspects perfectly. You can feel the frustration, the fear, the sadness, it’s just fantastic visually.

Poison Ivy #43 is a great issue that shows the difficulty in managing a city and the difficult choices Ivy has to make. There’s lots of drama, there’s lots of surprises, there’s more than enough to get you to cheer for Ivy to succeed (with less killing… maybe). I was intrigued to check out this new direction when it was announced and after two issues, I’m completely sucked in and excited to see what’s next.

Story: G. Willow Wilson Art: Jaime Infante
Color: Arif Prianto Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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