Warning: Spoilers for Poison Ivy #3 ahead!
DC’s Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn may be a fan-favorite couple, but villains aren’t known for having the healthiest relationships. Although the love between the two of them is genuine, with each of them looking out for the other’s well-being, their destructive tendencies magnify any faults or cracks to dangerous levels. Although Poison Ivy seems to be the more composed of the two, she is falling prey to a classic relationship problem that threatens her future with Harley.
Poison Ivy had her powers elevated to the point of near godhood during DC’s Fear State event, but had her powers diminished back to their original levels by her friends and loved ones in order to save her soul. Traumatized by no longer being able to connect to The Green (DC’s metaphysical realm of all plant life), the loss of her powers, and feeling betrayed by those closest to her, Ivy has cut ties with Gotham. Infesting her body with the lethal ophicordyceps lamia fungus, she now travels America seeking to spread as much of the parasite as she can in a desperate bid to finally wipe out humanity before she too succumbs to the spores inside her.
Poison Ivy #3 by G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, and Arif Prianto begins with a dream sequence in which Poison Ivy envisions herself floating down a river with Harley by her side. Although Harley tells her it’s not too late to turn back and desperately entreats her to stop her rampage, Ivy tearfully refuses. Still hurting from being cut off from The Green, she tells Harley that “maybe [she] didn’t want to [survive without it],” revealing just how depressed she truly is before waking up.
The vision of Harley in Ivy’s dream says so much about their relationship. Not only is Harley wearing a new version of her clown costume again, but this version of her old attire is refined and elegant and calls to mind the traditional Venetian harlequin: a tricksome character known for speaking truth to power and helping lovers to find their happy ending together. Through Harley, Ivy’s subconscious tells her what she already knows: that it’s not too late to turn back, that she has those who care about her waiting for her back home.
The tragedy of this vision is that it amounts to Ivy putting Harley on a pedestal. She wants Harley to be someone who will reach out to her and curb her worst impulses, someone who will tell her what she needs to hear, but Harley isn’t the gentle clown of her fantasies: she’s brash and bold and loves Poison Ivy in her own way. She doesn’t even resemble the idealized clown in Ivy’s dream anymore, having long since dressed down in more casual attire with only her makeup and diamond motif hearkening back to her original outfit. Poison Ivy has to learn to love Harley Quinn as she is now and not the idealized version of her she has in her head, or this flaw may destroy them both – and the world.
Poison Ivy #3 is now available from DC Comics.
