Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy #5 Review and Thoughts

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy #5 is here. The penultimate issue to Harley and Ivy's road trip. The solicits reads: "Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have had it up to here with the Floronic Man’s attacks, and now they’re ready to bring the fight to him. The only problem is...they don’t know where to find him! So they seek out the help of Batwoman-who’s hesitant to believe in the good intentions of former villains. Will Harley and Ivy convince Batwoman that they can be trusted in time to save their own skins from the Floronic Man?"

The girls visit a overgrown Manhattan in an attempt to stop Floronic (or Moronic) Man's plans. To kick his mossy butt so he can leave them alone. There are plants everywhere and a certain redhaired vigilante, Batwoman, thinks Poison Ivy is responsible. So before dealing with Woodrue our fav gals have to explain and convince Batwoman that Ivy is not responsible for the mess, they have turned a new...leaf and want to follow the heroic path.

There is great chemistry between the collaborators of the book and that is visible. Adriana Melos art is astounding and gorgeous adding small cartoony details, like i.e a heart when Ivy and Harley hold hands, that enhance the emotional impact of the book. It's been a long road for both heroines and hopefully they acn find some peace of mind after beating Floronic Man and the new, weird threat that has emerged (no spoilers here).

Hi-Fi and Mark Morales complete the book in a way that flatters Adriana's art. There is good chemistry here. Everything feels tight and colourful and theres a unique style in the artwork that deviates from the usual superhero art giving it a subtly dreamlike or cartoony quality. Without of course taking away from the drama and the action. 

I really enjoyed this issue and the addition of Batwoman as a moral compass (?) was a nice touch. I don't remember Ivy and Batwoman interacting in the past.

The only negative is that the book despite focusing a bit more than the previous issue on Ivy still hasn't answered a lot of important questions about Ivy. I.e she knows the secrets and identities of every superhero, how does she deal with that? This is an important point that hasn't been touched and it was the main point of both her Heroes in Crisis as well as her Batman appearances. Sometimes the book feels less like a Harley and Ivy and more like a Harley feat Ivy one.

An important character is introduced on the final page of the book. Something nobody could expect. There are three possible outcomes I can think of for the final issue. I won't spoil anything but... We are at a point where Jody and Adriana can elevate Poison Ivy to a new status, to make her fans happy and this series to be remembered as a central point in Poison Ivy's development for the years to come.

or

We can have one of the same, Ivy reset, her relationship with Harley in a null place, as usual. I'm scared because DC (I'm not putting the blame on writers here) seem to always want to end Ivy stories in a bad way for the characters development. Usually this means death, murder, mind wiping or reseting her. It has happened so many times. I really hope this book decides to do the right thing and give us a beautiful, heroic, strong Poison Ivy in love. 

And I hope we can get some more Poison Ivy real soon.