Poison Ivy #45 — G. Willow Wilson and Jessica Fong Turn Gotham's Mayor into the Hunted
Mayor Pamela Ivy has the city in her pocket, but her own home just became a trap. G. Willow Wilson and Leandro Fernandez deliver a thriller where the villain is losing control, and Jessica Fong’s cover hints at the beautiful chaos to come.
There is a specific kind of tension in watching a villain try to hold onto power, and G. Willow Wilson has been weaving that thread with quiet precision through this run. We’ve seen Pamela Isley navigate the treacherous waters of Gotham politics, trading her garden for the mayor’s office with a mix of botanical cunning and political maneuvering. But when the system you’re trying to fix starts to reject you, the stakes shift from policy to survival.
In issue #45, the narrative pressure cooker gets turned up. Ivy has been losing supporters faster than she can replace them, a vulnerability that turns the city’s political machine against her. The solicitation teases a terrifying premise: after a long day of political battles, the Mayor retreats to her luxurious Gotham home, only to discover that her sanctuary is no longer safe. Someone—or something—is waiting in the shadows, turning her own residence into a hunting ground.
This is where the creative team’s chemistry truly shines. Leandro Fernandez’s art brings a kinetic, organic energy to Gotham’s architecture and its inhabitants, making every shadow feel alive with potential threat. Jessica Fong’s cover art captures the mood perfectly—elegant, poised, but with an underlying current of danger that suggests the walls have eyes. It’s a visual promise that even in her own home, Ivy is the prey.
If you’ve been following Ivy’s journey from rogue eco-terrorist to elected official, this issue feels like a pivotal moment of reckoning. It’s not just about who is attacking her; it’s about what the city is willing to do to protect itself from its leader. The blend of political thriller and gothic horror creates a unique vibe that feels fresh even in a corner of DC Comics we’ve visited many times.
I’d pair this with any of the classic Batman encounters with Ivy if you want to see how far her evolution has come, but this run stands strongly on its own. Keep an eye on the variant covers here—Fong’s work is distinctive and tends to move quickly on secondary markets. If you enjoy comics that treat villains as complex protagonists navigating impossible systems, this drop is right up your alley.