Injustice Year Zero #8 picks up right after its last issue where Harley has gotten pushed off a railing by the Joker, leaving her bruised and battered. Having enough of the Joker’s abuse and ignoring his pleads that she’s just overreacting, Harley is inspired to leave him when she reads a handwritten note. This issue follows Harley as she breaks her best gal pal out of Arkham. We learn that the note was from Poison Ivy. Not knowing Harley’s full plan, Ivy ask if she had an exit strategy in which Harley tells her in a very sweet moment that Ivy has always been her exit strategy.
Not having a hideout, Harley thinks of the next best place to go. Her sister’s house. This is at Ivy’s dismay. Harley insisted saying that she has someone for Ivy to meet. We get to see Ivy meeting Harley’s daughter for the first time whom her sister has taken sole custody of. She asks Ivy to look after Lucy for her, not wanting her to grow up too normal. Harley doesn’t think she will live very long since she is hell bent on her self-destructive journey with the Joker.
Ivy storms out of the house abruptly, leaving Harley, to go dish out the most glorious can of whoop ass onto the Joker. For me as a Poison Ivy fan, this was the best part of the comic followed about another sweet moment which I will get to later. Poison Ivy warns that if the Joker ever laid a hand on Harley again, she’d grow thorns in all his internal organs. Pamela gave us some life goals on how to handle “trolls” who insist on inserting themselves everywhere and making life miserable for all those around them. All I wish was that this scene was videotaped and sent to Batman so he can have an instructional video on how to do his job properly.
The next day, Ivy goes back to pick Harley up from her sister’s house in the pursuit of getting the hell out of town. Leading to the two stealing a plane so they could get to Vegas faster. Once in Vegas, Ivy ask Harley where she sees this ending. Harley, at first doesn’t want to think about it but at the urging of Ivy, answers her. She says that she is on a self-destructive road and almost seems to plead for Poison Ivy to stop her with her mind control. Ivy admits that she could never do that, realizing the lack of agency this would cause.
Harley flies solo while gambling, hits the slot machines (quite literally). While playing a simple game of “4 of a kind”, Harley is upset by the fact that the Joker’s presence is always with her. All is well though when she makes off with some loot from the machine she had destroyed. When she arrives back to the hotel room, she is surprised to see Ivy in a full wedding dress along her sister, daughter and an Elvis impersonator in the background. In this beautiful scene that fans of this couple have been waiting for, Poison Ivy proposes to Harley.
What I love about this end scene is what Ivy tells Harley. Poison Ivy, unlike the Joker, has always given Harley a choice. Showing her that she can always choose her adventure. She isn’t stuck on the same road (hence why the stole a plane, right?). Harley always has the choice to deviate from it and they could be each other’s exit strategy.
Honestly this comic made my whole year. Tom Taylor always write Harley and Ivy so respectfully and I loved this about him. I really hope that one day he could write for the Harley Quinn comic series or even a Poison Ivy or Gotham City Sirens book. I absolutely love his Harley Quinn. I feel like he writes Harley as an introspective character, flawed and impulsive but not incapable of regret and change.
The art by Clan Tormey is stunning. Particularly the detail in the cover art as well as Ivy fight with the Joker which beautifully shows vines wrapping around the panels. I always love this whenever an artist draws Poison Ivy that they create an elaborate world in the background art. Everyone’s facial expressions were spot on as how I imagine these characters to be.
If you're a fan of Harley, buy this comic.
If you're a fan of Poison Ivy, buy this comic.
If you love them as a couple, definitely buy this comic.
If you love seeing women tell off problematic men, totally buy this comic.
Injustice Year Zero #8 available online digitally today at comixology!
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Reviewed by AutumnIvy
on
October 13, 2020
Rating: