Gotham City Sirens #8

March 2010
Plot/art: Guillem March
Dialogue: Marc Andreyko
Colours: Tomeu Morey

What better time to get back into Gotham City Sirens - and an Ivy-centric issue to boot - after reading about the lobotomised, bland, green place holder in the last review and the recent dramas I had in the comic store.
Givin' me the heebie jeebies just thinkin' about it. Even more so than opening up to the severely emaciated and shrivelled up form of Poison Ivy.

Jump cut to two weeks prior, showing Pam as beautiful as she is vengeful and deadly. Scorning the humans for doing things in her park. No, not THOSE things.. (that we know of, anyway) but rather children pulling up daisies, dudes thinking about their chances with her, people daring to exercise or sit on a bench.

Just imagine this face looking at you... it'll shave seconds off your run time!

Now as much as this is about Ivy's time in the spotlight, the issue shows us what's really happening within the team as a whole.

This scene for example. One look and you might think, oh that Harley, buying random shit in her name and having it delivered to their hideout?? What a card!

What we're really seeing is Selina not only ticked off at the breach of security.. but Harley's lounging on the couch watching TV, Ivy is nowhere to be seen until the last panel and Selina is picking up the slack in the kitchen. This hideout is a tinder box and it's about to explode.

The spark comes from Ivy strolling in from her saunter about Robinson Park at the same time a plant related murder that happened there is being reported on the news. 

Ivy is naturally curious (wait, was that a pun?) about who did this and quietly regretful that she's neglected her duties to the Green. She feels torn between two worlds, human and plant and she flashes back to when she last felt that way... and met Dr. Harleen Quinzel at Arkham Asylum. 

I love this scene. It's easy to underestimate Harley Quinn - she has no actual powers, has spent most of her life as a sidekick and doesn't have an overt criminal agenda. Here, she shows how good she is at her job and as a person as well as how big her balls are. 

Ivy is sitting in a dark cell, naked, feeling alone amongst the humans, locked in a concrete jungle after just having been through some of the most humiliating and degrading times that come part and parcel of being incarcerated. There are clothes there.. yet she does not put them on. 

Guillem draws amazing nudes but this scene is not to show us that. There's no exploitation here. She's just having one of those dark moments we all do, saying is it worth getting up today? Should I bother getting dressed? What's the point? 

She is at her lowest low and her saviour comes in the form of a stinkin' human. One who approaches her before her any mandatory session and asks to be friends. Calls her by her name, not her alias. Harleen knows who Ivy is, knows what she can do, but still reaches out her hand to the poisonous woman in the cell. 

We also get a precursor to the infamous couple of Arkham. 

Once you 'Oh!', then you "Oh." then you know.

Ivy recalls how her friendship with Harleen got her privileges like having a cell with a window and being able to receive mail.

Back in the present time, Ivy is approached by several GCPD officers but surrenders in order to gain information. Commissioner Gordon doesn't believe that Ivy is the murderer, given that the plant toxin carrying her genetic marker but lacking in her style, plus the fact that the poison was delivered by needle. Assuming correctly that Ivy wants to find the true killer as much as they do, Gordon lets her go. Which is great but she barely gets outside the building before someone smacks her upside the head.


Before she slips into unconsciousness, she wonders if she has her own sidekick a la Harley Quinn, and she flashes back into her recapture back into Arkham, alongside the newest inmate...

In current time, Harley approaches Selina for help with Ivy's issues. Catwoman suits up and does her stealthy catburgaler thing with the clown shadowing her hilariously.

Breaking into the GCPD, they find the files on the victims and discover they were former inmates of Arkham as well. Guess they weren't so stealthy after all. A balaclava'd thug appears and tries to shoot them down but they escape.

Seems to have a hard on for unrepentant criminals.

Present day Ivy isn't doing too good either. No idea of time, no food, no water or light... she is literally wasting away. Meanwhile, Selina pores over the files and makes a wall chart depicting what looks like a conspiracy theory. She rudely scorns Harley's offer of help, dismissing Ivy's closest confidant like a disruptive child. 

Upset, but not wanting to bitch at Catwoman to her face, Harley goes for a walk and subsequently gets attacked by the real Robinson Park.. um, imitation killer. She survives due to her Ivy granted immunity but only just. 

Selina tracks down one of the bad guys and this leads to a Saving Poison Ivy scene that is kinda hilarious when you think about it. With Harley back in business, Ivy puts the kibosh on her wannabes in the way that they probably would have wanted to go.

The Short End of the Jester Shtick

At the beginning, I never thought too much about this comic. Like, it was fine and all but it wasn't one of my favourite issues. Coming back and looking at it now I have a brand new appreciation for it. The symmetry in this one was excellent. I liked how Harley and Ivy's friendship basically started this whole thing without knowing it, and in a way that doesn't seem super contrived.

I thought it was interesting how the other women react to Harley. To Catwoman, she's an idiotic, child like simpleton who can't do anything right. To Ivy, she's the representation of what she used to be, someone who fell in with the wrong man and was forever changed. Ivy naturally sees herself as stronger having survived it while she watches her friend fall further and further into the cycle that could very well mean her doom.

The moment where we see Harley as a fully fledged professional who isn't scared to mix it up with the inmates is a nice counter to that - another facet of her personality and a reminder that deep down she does want to help people.

A scene towards the end has Harley attempt to help but gets knocked back by Selina. This hurts her but she can read people well enough that she goes away to vent to herself and give Selina some time to work on her own theories. I feel like the current Harley Quinn as featured in her solo series would yell at Selina and force her own plans on everyone else no matter how stupid they are, which is one of the fundamental differences between the two characters with the same name.

Wotta Comedian!

Gordon: Don't make us both regret this, Ivy. How can I reach you?
Ivy: Tell the ficus in your office and I'll know.
Gordon: How did you know--?
Ivy: It also told me it would like to be moved closer to the window. It thinks you're trying to kill it.

Catwoman: Uhn! Gotcha!
Harley: That was fun, Kitty! Can we do it again?
Catwoman: Don't make me drop you.

Harley: Kitty, maybe I can help ya. I'm pretty good when it comes to puzzles, y'know? I almost always get "Final Jeopardy!" and I do my Sudoku in ink!

Harley: "Yeah, sure, fine." What did I ever do to her? Well, except that time with Mr. J and that taser... or that other time with that napalm cream pie or...

Ivy: Let's go. We're done here.
Harley: Cool. Can we stop and get ice-cream on the way home?