Gotham City Sirens #8 review & spoilers

Another great issue of Gotham City Sirens came in this week and got trapped at the bottom of my buy pile and almost didn’t get read. Fortunately I found it late last night when moving things around pretending to clean. I really love this book and was surprised to find out on the net that a lot of others do not. While I’ll admit Catwoman hasn’t had much to do yet, the character development on Ivy and Harley has been worth the trip. This is title I won’t even consider dropping even despite low funds in this poor economy, now the two JSA books are a completely different story. Guillem March who has been handling the art gets to plot the book this month with an assist on dialogue by Marc Andreyko of Manhunter fame. This was a dynamite combo that gave us a further look into Poison Ivy’s psyche, which was great because I no longer consider her a cookie cutter cardboard Bat villain anymore. She is developing layers and depth we haven’t seen and is proving to be a truly unique character in the DCU. Get ready for a stroll in the Robinson Park that reveals some spoilers.

Ivy is big trouble as we start this issue, there has been a string of murders in Gotham’s Robinson Park and news and the police think Miss Isley is behind them. Worse than that Ivy tells us she dying while being buried in a hole somewhere because she has been cut off from the sun. How did this happen? We cut back to two weeks earlier Ivy is strolling in park and feeling it’s every inch, she views the humans there as intruders and feels the damage they inadvertently do to the park. Even the small act of picking flowers by a child brings her pain, because she reveals she is the park. Perhaps this is why she never leaves Gotham for greener pastures for long. She seems to be tied to Robinson Park somehow.

Harley Quinn receives a package at the girls’ new hideout via FED-LEX (cute) and gets a scolding from Catwoman for giving out their secret address. She has ordered a giant wooden mallet off of E-buy (great nod to the old BOP story line from Platinum Flats) and tells Selina these things are hard to find. Ivy returns home to questions about where she has been and in time to have the TV news that Quinn is watching tell them two murders have occurred in the park. Both victims were eco terrorists and died of a mysterious plant toxin. Some double takes between Selina and Harley occur and you can see that while the girls are living together they don’t quite trust each other. Ivy says if you have a question to ask, then ask it. Selina point blank asks Ivy if she killed those men but she say no but thinks to herself she would have liked to while offering no explanation or alibi and leaves. She warns that they are not friends only teammates due to necessity.

Ivy returns to the park to investigate the murders while worrying that she is failing to her duty as protector of the green and what she considers worse if that she is becoming more human than plant. Her mind wanders to a trip to Arkham where she is stripped on her dignity and thrown in a cell. A young Doctor Quinzel introduces herself as Ivy’s Psychiatrist and offers to be her friend via an extended hand. Ivy reminds the doctor that she could kill her by doing this, but Dr. Qunizel persists telling her that all friendships have a strong foundation of trust. The girls bond for the first time via a handshake while the Joker is brought by in straightjacket. The wheels are set in motion for Harley’s tragic future. Ivy is amazed that Dr Quinzel is her friend and gets her moved to cell with a window so she can get the light the plant woman needs. This leaves to her eventual escape after receiving a strange note with a leaf in it that says, “I love you.”

In the present Ivy is capture by police in the park and taken to Commissioner Gordon who show off his detective skills by telling her he believe her to be innocent. He has noticed an injection mark on the victims from a needle. Ivy needs no needle to kill merely a touch will do so Gordon releases her hoping she will track the real killer. Ivy wonders if she has her own Harley Quinn trying to tag along on her mission to protect the green but then gets knocked out from behind. Her mind thinks back to her new roommate in Arkham the now insane Quinzel opening a letter from the Joker who says he’s sorry for breaking her arm. She fears the Joker will kill her friend some day.

Harley is determined to help her pal Ivy and suits up giant wooden mallet and all and forces Selina to help investigate. The girl snoop and find evidence that it is Ivy’s toxin that killed the men and run into a masked gunman in the process that causes them to flee. It has been two weeks and Ivy is still missing, Harley laments that she hasn’t had a call, letter or tweet from her friend. I must say I quite amused by thought of Poison Ivy tweeting on twitter. Harley attempts to communicate to Ivy via cactus while the brainstorming Catwoman ignores Harley offers to help which causes her to get bored and go for a walk. The real killer attempts to poison Harley but fortunately she has an immunity since she has been so close to Ivy for years. Catwoman calls the Riddler for help and he directs her to the only place someone could gain access to Ivy’s toxin the doctor’s office in Arkham.

Selina confronts Gordon with this info, and we find out that one of Gordon’s men is a brother of a victim and is the one who threw Ivy in the pit in an attempt to kill her. He only comes forward since Quinn’s live hangs in the balance needing an antidote only Ivy can provide. Gordon and Selina race to save near dead Ivy but are able to revive her by throwing her into some nearby water. Ivy is cleared of the charges but the real killer is still at larger. The girls stake out Robinson Park until the killer appears; he is one of Ivy’s old doctors from Arkham who had sent her the leaf that freed her earlier. He declares his love for Ivy but she remembers Quinn opening the card from the Joker and the damage it has caused her friend. She leans in for a kiss and murders with him. The killer has been stopped but the girls prove they are not exactly on the straight and narrow leaving him to rot in the park.

I enjoyed this issue immensely and Ivy and Quinn are developing into well-rounded characters to be reckoned with. Catwoman could use some more love overall in this issue but this is quickly becoming one my favorite titles next to Justice League, Secret Six and Birds of Prey. The tandem of Guillem March and Marc Andreyko can fill in anytime as writers and I’ll be pleased. I hope this title can survive the massive events it must battle to stay alive. A Secret Six, BOP, and Sirens crossover would be heaven.



Comments

[Marfisa]

Unfortunately, the word "ecoterrorist" normally means pretty much the exact opposite of what it is apparently intended to mean in this story--i.e., an ecoterrorist is someone who sabotages logging operations and other activities that harm the environment, not someone who does things like deliberately setting forest fires. When other characters first started talking about Ivy being a suspect because the victims were ecoterrorists, my initial reaction was "Why? Because the police think the victims might have been conspiring with Ivy to protect the green and they fell out with her over exactly what kind of drastic measures to take?" It eventually became clear that Ivy's supposed motivation for killing the two men was much more straightforward, but the disconcerting misuse of the term was so confusing it really distracted me from the story.