DC Review: KNIGHT TERRORS POISON IVY #2

Poison Ivy’s Stepford Wife-inspired nightmare began with an impressive first half in her standalone tie-in and G. Willow Wilson continued the strong narrative in KNIGHT TERRORS: POISON IVY #2 to conclude the story…or is it really over?!?

This issue opens with what seems to be a slight time jump as we see Ivy has fully embraced the “dream house” life that she found herself trapped in during the previous issue. I appreciated that Wilson didn’t drag this scenario out for long as it was probably one of the weaker aspects of this issue. We quickly pivot to an argument between Ivy and Harley that causes Ivy to snap out of her altered mindset and come face to face with the same cast of neighborhood from the first issue as she tries to escape. In this scene, and a later scene where Ivy defends Janet from HR from the same group of neighborhood crazies, we see Ivy come to grips with her real-world relationships with different individuals and come away thinking this will actually have an impact on her character development moving forward.

As I worried in my review of the first issue, there was too much Janet in this issue and I was disappointed to see her become a pivotal part to the stories conclusion — we’re left wondering if this was Ivy or Janet’s nightmare? For me, Janet’s fun in small doses and I wish this would have been a more dedicated Ivy story given the work Wilson has done with the character in her monthly.

Atagun Ilhan took a much more aggressive approach to the art in this issue compared to the last one. Faces were more dramatic, bodies were more exaggerated, eyes were more buggy. It was definitely jarring visually, which is what I think was intended to represent Ivy falling completely into the nightmare, but it verged on distracting for several pages.

Overall, I thought this was still an entertaining standalone story that keeps with the event’s nightmare theme, even if it's removed from the main Knight Terrors plot. It offers a look at Ivy’s fears, which seem obvious from afar, but fleshes them out in an interesting and unique way that feels new and hopefully leaves the character changed beyond this individual story.

Rating: 7/10