Just when things were looking up for Harley Quinn, things got even worse. She was going to find her best gal, Poison Ivy, and work through their issues when giant prehistoric plants invaded Gotham. So Harley has to save Throatcutter Hill before she finds Ivy. Harley Quinn #66 is written by Elliott Kalan, drawn by Carlos Olivares, colored by Marissa Louise and lettered by Lucas Gattoni.
Meanwhile, Ivy is having her own problems. She thought the deal she made with the Parliament of Trees would save her skin from the vengeful plant gods. She was wrong. Poison Ivy #48 is written by G. Willow Wilson, drawn by Marcio Takara, colored by Arif Prianto and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Will Nevin: I want to start with something that’s baffled me for two weeks in two ways (one, that I haven’t found a way to bring it up yet, and two, my honest befuddlement). What do you remember as the last page of the “Bad Seeds” Nightwing?
Matt Lazorwitz: I remember Damian shows up, and he’s stopped the guy from blowing up his truck of explosives at Arkham Tower.
Will: OK, so that’s what I read *after* we put the column to bed because — and I don’t know if it’s laid out this way in print — I stopped at the “Bad Seeds” checklist, which is inserted digitally before the last two pages of the story.
Matt: It is not laid out that way in print. That seems to be a special bit of dumbness for the digital version. The story continues without that odd interruption in print.
Will: Weird as hell! And also, the checklist hasn’t been updated with the Gotham General delay. You’d think they’d want to fix that. Or, you know, stop running it. One of the two.
Matt: I think the files might have been put to bed before they knew about the delay, and pulling and pulping and reprinting for that is not worth it.
Will: You have a point there. It’s not like it’s a weiner or anything. But editorial should probably update it before the end of this.
Bad Seeds Week 5: BatChat Gal Pals Week
For Week 1 of Bad Seeds, click here!
Matt: We talked about how there are two kinds of comics in this crossover: the ones that forward the overall narrative, and the ones that take place within the book’s narrative and just feel the ramifications of the event. This week it feels like we have one of each, although they end in pretty complementary places, don’t they?
Will: That they do! Pretty smart of us (read: you) to group them together for discussion. If the average person not reading the line is anything like me, they’re going to be way more lost picking up Harley Quinn, but I think I gathered the necessary info via the animated series and osmosis.
Poison Ivy had nearly a similar level of focus on the various factions of the Green, but I was struck by an idea I’ve never had before (probably because I don’t read Poison Ivy): Ivy is just as likely to be not accepted by humans as she is to be not accepted by plants. The issue makes it clear that’s her fault, but I’d never before considered the character as truly not having a place.
Matt: That has been a big part of G. Willow Wilson’s run on the character, Ivy’s lack of a place in the world. We’ve seen Ivy alienate the few people she cares about and win them back repeatedly, but it hasn’t been made quite as clear until this issue exactly what Ivy is experiencing: that she holds no loyalty to anyone but herself. I think the conclusion of the event is going to deal with that, and her loyalty to Harley, the one human she actually deeply loves and isn’t just someone she doesn’t actively dislike and kinda likes having around (sorry, Janet from HR).
I’m really glad series artist Marcio Takara is back for this issue. Plenty of good artists have done fill-ins and arcs for this title, but nobody draws plant monsters quite like Takara.
Will: Can’t have Ivy terraforming the city without some killer (looking) plant monsters. Tonally, these books were pretty different, weren’t they? I guess if I’m a regular Harley Quinn reader I’m looking for that sort of zaniness, but it was a bracing shot of crazy as someone popping in.
And speaking of that silliness, I was somewhat surprised by the references to Batman #445, which I had enough time to pick up and read today. (The future mostly sucks, but it is nice to find a back issue with no trouble.) That’s a fun little story. And, god, what a moment in time with the Soviet Union.
Matt: Firstly, yes, Elliott Kalan’s Harley Quinn is a zany book, and feels very much of a tone with the animated series. It’s a different cast of weirdos, but Harley has a found family of strange characters.
And Batman #445 is an issue I hold fondly in my heart. It came out January of 1990, and was the first issue of Batman that a bright-eyed young Matt Lazorwitz bought off the rack at the new comic shop that opened near his house. And he hasn’t missed an issue since. What a fanboy that guy must be! And, yeah, glasnost was a hell of a drug, wasn’t it?
Will: A Soviet super agent so angry at the concept of it that he starts killing his own countrymen! But, hey, he’s found capitalism in the last 40 years, so all is well. Also, Vicki Vale just *happens* to be in Russia? Sure, sure. Bruce Wayne’s Russian minder was also a hoot.
Matt: But that guy pops up after 40 years in the dustbin of history (since everyone wanted to use his mentor the KGBeast instead of him), and we get some comedic commentary on the fall of communism and someone doing something with the idea of these huge bounties on Bats. You’d think the city would have been flooded with Deathstroke and Deadshot wannabes thinking they could collect the money and learning how outclassed they are.
Will: I’m guessing all the plant monsters and “unbreathable air business” gets out on the news pretty quick. You might earn a fuckton of cash with a bounty, Matt, but you can’t spend it if you’re dead.
Matt: Fair. I was curious how lost you would be in Harley Quinn, as it is a book that has a lot going on. It’s also a book, like Catwoman, that every time a new creative team takes over, they usually wipe the supporting cast clean except one or two key figures and build a whole new cast. Kalan’s run has mostly been about Harley fighting gentrification and having a will they/won’t they thing with the hot, evil land developer. Which has been a ton of fun, and is a run I would highly recommend. Not as much as I’d recommend Wilson’s intensely dark and personal Poison Ivy, but also? How many creators get a run on a B-tier title that lasts 50 issues anymore? That’s impressive in its own right.
Will: The little tastes of the landlord business we got here was fun. I can imagine how that would be funny as a bit. Also, I will never pass up a chance to recommend Kalan’s Maniac of New York, which was one of the smartest concepts for a comic I’ve ever seen. And yeah, who woulda guessed you’d get a 50+ issue Poison Ivy book? As impressive as Mark Waid’s run on Batman/Superman (but for entirely different reasons).
Matt: We’re now at the halfway mark for “Bad Seeds.” How are you feeling about the event at this point?
Will: I am as engaged as I have ever been for an event. The stakes are real. The stories are fairly contained. I like how this is all playing out over one night, and we see similar action from so many different viewpoints. Outside of the delay, there’s been nothing to complain about aside from a few gripes about the ongoing-run-centric chapters.
Matt: I agree. Now we just need to see if they can stick the landing.
Will: And to what extent that changes the status quo in Gotham. If nothing else, we’ll need a new mayor.
Matt: Let’s see, I believe if the typical cycle holds true, the next one will be incompetent, yes? Although Ivy wasn’t exactly corrupt, at least not in the way Gotham mayors usually are, and she sure wasn’t great at the job, so she might fall in a weird gray area.
Will: She tried to do right (probably)! Although I got a real hoot out of the people she got a taste of this week. All I’d say to them is, “What the hell did you expect when you elected a literal villain?” Which is, of course, a line that has no applicability to the real world at all.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast starts off October, the spookiest month, with one of DC’s spookiest heroes: The Spectre.
Buy Harley Quinn #66 here and Poison Ivy #48 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
