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Saturday 11 March 2017

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death Review (Amy Chu, Clay Mann)


Cycle of Life and Death is so shitty it’s only fit for compost – no wonder Poison Ivy’s never had a solo title before! 

Because she has to for this book, Ivy’s suddenly gone straight and gotten a job as a plant researcher at the Gotham Botanical Gardens – but then her colleagues start dying! Oh noooo, could it be her or could it be some crap Scooby-Doo-esque villain? The answer will make you fill your pants with boredooooommmmm…

This is a bad whodunit largely because there’s barely any time spent on trying to figure out whodunit – the killer just reveals themselves at the end. Sooooooo exciting… Meanwhile Ivy, while not responsible for the first couple of murders, does kill another person from the lab so… what’s the difference between her and the murderer? So much for turning over a new… leaf (hoho)… but why did she want to turn her back on a life of crime in the first place? We never find out. Amy Chu’s writing stinks.

The guy Ivy kills was so unnecessary too. He’s blackmailing her for being her alibi for the first murder even though she had no involvement with it and was hanging out with Harley at a bar – so why did she allow herself to be put in that position by having him lie for her instead of just copping to the truth!?

Besides the other Gotham City Sirens, Harley and Catwoman, briefly appearing, Swamp Thing also cameos, probably to keep the reader momentarily awake. Ivy grows some sentient plant-human hybrids for stem cell-related reasons but why make them sentient if you’re just growing them to harvest?! Her “kids” turn out to be as violent and bratty as Ivy so I guess like mother, like daughters – still didn’t care about any of them! Clay Mann’s (his parents had a sense of humour!) art is fine but nothing you wouldn’t see in a thousand other superhero comics.

How does the rhyme go – “leaves of three, let them be”? Agreed. Let Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death be.

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