Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #1 - DC Comics

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY No. 1, November 2019

Announced by Jody Houser on her “Twitter” account back in June 2019, and “set after the events of Heroes In Crisis”, Issue One of “Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy” disappointingly doesn’t actually provide much in the way of exciting entertainment until the comic’s conclusion when the titular characters are faced with a decidedly deranged Floronic Man. Indeed, the vast majority of this snooze-inducing, sedentarily-paced twenty-page periodical simply follows the sprawling soliloquies of Harleen Frances Quinzel as she dubiously determines whether to genuinely become a super-hero, and Doctor Pamela Lillian Isley’s difficulties having so recently returned from the dead.

Naturally, such a lavish attention to the mental well-being of the Joker’s pony-tailed main squeeze, provides the “critically-acclaimed” comics writer with several opportunities with which to both further explore the intern psychiatrist’s mounting insanity, and the villain's strong liking for her resurrected floral ‘partner in crime’. But even these, the highlight of which is arguably Quinn angrily kicking a fluffy, cuddly unicorn across her bedroom floor, don’t actually help progress the book’s lack-lustre plot, and instead simply inundate the reader with a plethora of text boxes and dialogue-heavy speech bubbles; “You’reawakehowareyoufeelingdidthefertilizerwasitmagicareyouallbetternow?”

Sadly, Ivy’s ‘spotlight’ is similarly as devoid of interest, as the occasional anti-heroine spends most of this publication simply struggling to maintain her humanoid shape, as well as coping with the mental trauma of being “merc’d by one of the good guys.” This debatably monotonous mindlessness of “one of Batman's most enduring enemies” really does Robert Kanigher’s co-creation a disservice, and sadly it debatably isn’t until towards this book’s end, once the Metahuman has fully consumed Lex Luthor’s box of specially treated fertilizer, that Pamela finally starts to attract the attention warranted by one of the mainstays of the Caped Crusader’s rogues gallery.

Mercifully however, what this comic lacks in quality penmanship, it does partially make up for in its arts department, courtesy of some wonderful pencilling by Adriana Melo. The Brazilian illustrator’s layouts arguably get better and better with every panel, and especially prove eye-catching once she is tasked with sketching the flowery Floronic Man. Little wonder therefore that Houser has gone on record as saying that she is “having a blast working with Adriana. I love the emotion and energy she brings to the characters.”

Written by: Jody Houser, Pencils by: Adriana Melo, and Colors by: Hi-Fi