Batman: Harley and Ivy #2

Jungle Fever July 2004

This issue opens up with a TV news short about the situation in Costa Verde.

Oooh, foreshadowing!

You remember that place, right? That's where the Zombie Root came from and also where our plucky pair were headed. The very next page is a full spread of.. um, Ivy's full spread after a guard throws her against the wall in prison.

It's definitely one way to open a comic, but not absolutely necessary to have the girls once again in a prison bathroom, this time in their knickers. Sometimes I wonder what guys really think happens in prison for women but it's not "all sexy all the time". Methinks they doth watch specific porn too much.



Also, like my gripe with the first issue, people keep touching Poison Ivy's bare skin and not breaking out in hives/rashes/dying violently! Probably doesn't matter because the body count in this comic is pretty high without her killer touch but still.

Hell, like the sewer this bathroom is gross as. I'm sure Ivy could manufacture something killer in two seconds flat. However, there is still Harley to contend with. A classic moment where she is underestimated and then absolutely creams her opposition .. with a plunger, no less.

The other annoying thing about this scene is that they appear to have gone out of their way to make the guards look like ugly men.





The violence is spectacular in this scene and the guards definitely have it coming but it's still pitting the pretty, young, half naked women against the overly butch, clothed, ugly women as if we didn't already know who we're supposed to be rooting for.

After taking down the guards, the girls have to avoid some heavy gun fire which I think has just been used to open the door.. they're told to go outside as the president wants to see them. So... if the president is there, were guns really necessary?



Anyway, we learnt the duo was carted away at gunpoint shortly after arriving in the country which apparently is just a bit misunderstanding or rather a shake down. Harley accidentally blabs about the Zombie Root which irritates Ivy to no end, not to mention putting their lives at risk.

Harley tricks the El Presidente into smooching a surprised Ivy - then quickly turns the tables on his guards (see what I did there?).

With the president under Ivy's spell and pledging full support to the expedition, the ladies head off into the jungle and run into some of those sneaky foreshadowed high tech mercenaries the foreword forewarned us about. Harley tries the old charm.

It's not very effective. I don't know if we're supposed to assume two guys living together in the forest are homosexuals, or if it's because they're weapon enhanced lumberjacks or because they wear earrings but there you go. Apparently that's how you tell these days.
The look Ivy gives Harley is definitely a 'barking up the wrong tree' face which is now kinda funny given their bi-sexual nature in Hardly's current comics.

Was this meant to be a stab at the fact that people kept shipping Harley and Ivy back in the day?
Who knows.




Anyway the girls shoot a stinger at these dudes and drive away so Ivy can cultivate the Zombie Root and then do some semi-tentacle porn relaxing with some vines. There's no penetration, obviously but there's an awful lot of moaning going on. I feel like rather than getting 'back to nature' as it were, DC banned Timm from doing anything more obscene than the bathroom scene so he figured he would cram as much

Meanwhile, Harley is left at 'camp' waiting for Ivy to come back from her plant orgy which apparently is an all day and half the night thing.

Poor Harley - this is exactly how I feel about being outdoors.
She's very miserable - even though Ivy would love to stay here she tells Harley to cheer up because they'll be going back to Gotham.

Well, they would be if the Lumberjerks didn't show up.









Yeah, they're angry about being shot at but in all fairness, they threatened the girls first.

Remember when Harley acted like a clown and used prop weapons? I do. Awesome.

Ivy also takes out her flirty companion with a poison frog. Which croaks after she kisses it. Get it?


Of course Batman hears about these escapades. Or rather, his butler Alfred gives him the condensed version because he's too busy being rich to read for himself. I feel like Batman's threat about basically destroying Harley and Ivy if they come back to Gotham is a bit harsh..  like Joker gets away with a lot worse shit than these two get up to, even in the animated universe.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

The plot's moving a bit more now but it seems like where we should get more elaboration on the jungle deforestation/knicker incarceration/why we're discussing the sexual nature of random lumberjacks is scrapped in favour of fight scenes/not showing us the arrival of the girls in Costa Verde or just showing violent bug slappin'. But that said, the characters at least acted like themselves, Harley's cute but deadly when she needs to be persona is so much more appealing than her current Rebirth deadly to everything then pretend to act cute because lolz schtick.

The girls work well as a team even if they question each other's mental prowess at times.
Very violent comic though despite it's innocent cartoon looking exterior -  as we say rest in peace to a poor little frog, two gay lumberjacks, possibly at least one prison guard and a few dozen random military guys between it's pages.

Wotta Comedian!

Ivy: Now, it's true my kiss won't have much effect on a woman... but my blood is just seething with poison....I'm immune of course, and Harley's had her shots -- but you.... I wonder... what would it do to you...?
Harley: I'm curious! 


Harley: Y'know what, Red? I think they don't like girls!
Ivy: Nothing gets by you, does it?


Ivy: So, how do you like the rain-forest, Harley?
Harley: I WANNA GO HOME! 

Harley: Got a plan?
Ivy: Yeah -- not dying!
Harley: Good plan.

Alfred: It seems they've actually been doing something useful on holiday. 
Batman: Maybe. But if they ever set foot in this country again.... I'll make them wish they stayed in the jungle.