Poison Ivy #49 Comic Review

In this review of Poison Ivy #49, Pamela Isley faces a brutal reckoning for her increasingly dangerous behavior as Mayor of Gotham City and her willful defiance of The Parliament of Trees.

POISON IVY #49
Written by G. WILLOW WILSON
Art by ALEX LINS
Main Cover: JESSICA FONG
Variant Covers: NOOBOVICH, DAN MORA, MANNY VINCENT CARBONILLA, STJEPAN ŠEJIĆ
Page Count: 32 Pages
Release Date: 10/28/26

This review contains spoilers

Poison Ivy #49 begins with a flashback as Mayor Ivy reflects on her relationship with Harley Quinn, deemed as problematic by her staff. Cut to the present as Ivy treks though a plant infested Throatcutter Hill as she seeks out Harley, who appears almost immediately. Ivy figures out this is a ruse as Lady Jane, representative of the Parliament of Trees reveals herself and grabs Ivy by the throat. Ivy is ready to check out when Killer Croc (Waylon Jones) bursts out of the shadows and knocks Lady Jane back.

Ivy recovers and attempts to help Croc in the fight, but her powers are gone. That doesn’t stop Ivy from trying to kill Lady Jane, but Croc stops. Lady Jane disappears but not before telling them that Gotham belongs to The Green.  A bewildered Croc and Ivy catch up, but Ivy insists that she needs to find Harley before sunrise. Croc calls after her but she ignores him, running to Harley’s neighborhood and finding it totally destroyed.

Demoralized, Ivy vows to redeem herself in Harley’s, but she is interrupted as Commissioner Vandal Savage approaches with a tactical team armed with a special herbicide. Savage’s crew unleash the “Ivycide”, but a rumbling below signals an eruption of a manufactured winter storm courtesy of Mister Freeze’s machine.

Poison Ivy #49 ends with Savage’s men knocked back as Gotham is covered in ice and snow. Savage is outraged while a barely conscious Ivy utters Batman’s name.

Analysis 

Poison Ivy #49 mirrors Harley Quinn #67 several ways, with a tight focus on the lead character and a personal struggle to overcome (or is that really just any superhero comic?) Ivy, like Harley, is singularly focused on finding their paramour while facing off with a vengeful opponent who impeding their path. Writer G. Willow Wilson ramps up the tension and upends the status quo by having the Parliament of Trees rob her of the power over The Green.

Killer Croc also gets a heroic moment and a few pages of conversation with Ivy. Croc has been a recurring character in Ivy’s series, so his appearance isn’t necessarily a deus ex machina and his sage words about how Ivy treats people. Ivy finally admits there is something wrong with her, but whether that leads to actual character growth remains to be seen. Vandal Savage seems to be everywhere during “Bad Seeds “and is ready to finish Ivy off once and for all, despite the threat that the Ivycide presents to Gotham’s citizens.

Poison Ivy #49 presents an interesting parallel as Ivy admits that she is mostly numb to others, but at least she is troubled by that while Savage fully revels in his power and position, willing to sacrifice thousands of innocents in order exact vengeance against his enemy. Also, the cathartic ending as Mister Freeze’s winter engine conjures up a plant killing storm is the second time Ivy was almost axed within the same issue.

Alex Lins’ style continues the aesthetic started by longtime series artist Marcio Takara, with an energetic and remarkably expressive style. Lins adds scope, emotion and drama with extreme panel angles, close ups and creative use of shadows and silhouettes.

Final Thoughts 

Poison Ivy #49 puts the anti-heroine through an arduous and status quo shifting ordeal with a couple of plot twists that prove cathartic and hint at things still yet to come. For fans of the Poison Ivy series or the “Bad Seeds” crossover, this issue is one to not miss.

Adam Koppel

Who strikes fear into the darkest of hearts in Gotham City? Not me, I'm too busy reading comics and writing reviews.