Poison Ivy: Thorns & Cells at Work vol 3

[cornerofmadness]

Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Really it's about a 3.5 read, might have made four if not for how rushed it felt, storyline wise. It does pull from existing DC history for Poison Ivy, updates it some and definitely tries to make a feminist point about who gets to choose what happens to a woman's body (hint, it's us but so often that is not the case).

In this Pamela is a depressed high school girl who really has no safe place left to her outside of maybe the school green house, a gift to the school from her mother, a botany whiz that Pamela is styling herself after. Pamela is also an eco warrior and that's where the story opens, she's furious a rich family has bought the only park in town and plans to destroy to build something. She tries to make a point, ends up gassing a lot of innocent residents, irritating her father who has to keep reminding her about the big family secret (which most readers will already guess if they have a passing familiarity with Poison Ivy). So her mother is gone and her dad is unbearable leaving her no safe haven at home either.

Enter into this gothic manse of the Isleys comes Alice, a goth girl in Pamela's class and her staunch defender especially when Pamela's date to the prom is pressuring her for sex and trashes her in every way imaginable when she doesn't give in. Alice will be living with Pamela for a little while thanks to Pamela's actions at the park (and gives Dad endless opportunities to remind her about the big family secret she must not let Alice know about, three guesses how that works out).

On one hand it's a solid entry into a villain's origin story. On the other the rushing weakens the story. As a result the lesbianism in it feels tacked on without any hint of surprise that Pamela likes kissing Alice, not a single question in her mind about this (or why Alice isn't more put off by the things Pamela has done), nor any depth of feeling. The same could be said for how fast she goes from eco warrior, not wanting/meaning to hurt people to straight up let's kill this dude. Both events are emotionally flat.

So yes, I liked it but I admit it: it has problems.



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Cells at Work!, Vol. 3 by Akane Shimizu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This remains a fun and accurate (for the most part) way to learn about the cells in the body. In this one red blood cell has only a minor role, the trials of learning the route around the body.

White Blood Cell is there throughout but even he takes a back seat to the story of how Killer t and Helper T grew up and how they followed very different paths. The other memorable one is a freaking out memory cell who is having terrible visions.

It's truly hard to sum up this oddball manga. Just know the art is great and the storylines make biology fun



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