OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: Poison Ivy's new job as a research technician may have her working undercover, but that doesn't mean a new threat to Gotham City will stay secret! Dr. Pamela Isley is spotlighted in this special issue of
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS.
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #12, guest-written by Tony Bedard, almost lost me when it started referencing some of the Black Lantern stuff going on in the larger DCU, so I wasn't quite sure why Selina Kyle's sister, Maggie, was becoming Sister Mary Murder the Nun.
And though I worried that this new story would delay Paul Dini's cliffhanger with Ivy from last issue, Bedard does pick up that thread and run with it in his own way.
Bedard's writing credits include BIRDS OF PREY and a solo miniseries for Black Canary, so he's no stranger to writing female characters. He gets Harley right in her few lines, and I think he particularly does a wonderful job writing Ivy. My only hesitance in recommending this issue is that Maggie Kyle's story wasn't nearly as effective, for example, as that of the Joker's former henchman from several issues ago who posed as the Joker and told the girls the story of who he was and how he came to be. Rather than anything emotional or nuanced, Bedard just goes for shock value in the form of Maggie's first two victims.
Guest artist Peter Nguyen does some really great work here, and going by his figures and faces, I'm going to guess he's related to Dustin. I'll try to find that out.
I'll give it a guarded B and see where it goes next month. - John Bierly
