Quick Summary

Pros: Poison Ivy’s character is improved and even built upon. The story in this issue is great and told in an interesting way. Also, the current story arc is elaborated upon and made to be even more interesting.

Cons: The backup story is starting to drag.

Overall: This issue shows that the second story arc of All-Star Batman is a huge improvement on what was already a pretty good series. It, once again, does another fantastic villain highlight which tells a good story and also corrects some bad ones that came before it. On top of that, it is also continuing to set up and introduce what is starting to look like a pretty interesting story. If this continues into the next issue, things are looking very good for All-Star Batman.

Story

All-Star Batman‘s previous story arc was good but not great; this issue is the second in the new arc and delivers on the prior issue’s promise that this arc will be even better than the first. The way this arc focuses on a different villain in each issue is fantastic and is doing both Batman and his rogues gallery a lot of favors. This arc also seems to be building a bigger story to connect this arc together, one which this issue contributes to introducing. In addition to how this issue makes the arc better, it is also a fantastic stand along story which delivers a meaningful message of its own. Overall, this is a fantastic issue Hopefully the next one continues the trend.

(spoilers start here)

“Ends of the Earth” seems to be a story arc which means to spend each issue focusing on a different villain; this month’s villain is Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy was dealt a rather rough hand throughout most of the New 52. Her largest roles were in Birds of Prey, in which she was characterized as a jerk who turned into a traitorous psycho, and in Harley Quinn, in which her depiction completely flips to being the same “fun crazy” as Harley. This story and the current Trinity (Review) series are helping to build her back up as the complicated villain that she really is. This story correctly depicts her as an intelligent and caring woman who simply loves plants more than anything. Yet it also shows that she is not completely apathetic to humanity and that she may actually care about people more than she lets on. This complexity was great to see and confirms that Snyder is more than capable at using All-Star Batman to give these villains the respect they deserve.

Besides the villain showcase, there is also a fantastic story contained within this one issue. The actual story in this issue all flows out of the death of a young girl interested in the world around her. It shows her journey by intercutting pieces of it throughout the present day action, however it shows them all in reverse. This puts the reader in a position where, at first, they have no idea what these intercut scenes are and allows them to slowly figure it out as the story progresses. This leads to an impactful, sucker punch moment of realization which makes the issue’s final panel both tragic and meaningful. Telling the story in this way was a fantastic move by Snyder and, together with the content, it makes a beautiful story within this one issue.

This issue also does this second story arc a favor by further developing the plot. Honestly, this arc’s villain showcases have, so far, been good enough to stand on their own and do not even require a connected story to keep them interesting. However, the connected story simply serves to add more to what is already there. This issue confirms that the disease from last issue is not the only villain at play here. Someone sent a death squad after Batman and Ivy, yet not much else is revealed. The story here is still being introduced but it is looking good so far. Hopefully it will lead to a nice payoff at this arc’s conclusion.

Moving on to the backup story, “The Cursed Wheel” continues to be somewhat interesting while still delaying anything “real” from happening. The entire concept of Batman’s training process and Duke finding his place has, so far, been better than expected. However, at this point things are starting to drag. Batman and Duke have been jumping from misadventure to misadventure for many issues now and do not appear to be any further than when they started. The only development is that readers have learned a little more about the “wheel” and have been able to see how frustrated Duke is with everything. Now, the story has reached a point where something significant needs to happen before things go from slightly interesting to truly boring.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The art is another big positive in this collection. Much of this comes from the fact that Tula Lotay was able to really capture Poison Ivy’s strange vibe. Poison Ivy’s character has always been an odd mix of the natural world with a healthy dose of trippy pheromones thrown in. Unfortunately, all of this usually gets ignored in order to sexualize her as much as possible. In this issue, she is able to show her true colors: the earthy tones used in the majority of the pages clash magnificently with the florescent ones on other pages. This, in turn, mirrors her ability to be at one with nature and make use of all of its mind altering properties. The story does a lot of good for Poison Ivy but this art is what really drives it home.

The backup issue, once again, features stellar art by Francesco Francavilla. Francavilla draws an excellent Batman comic by sticking to simple colors and Batman’s traditional black. If Batman and his world are too full of color they start to lose their impact. This issues features a strong contrast between the dark black that Batman is usually shrouded in and the color that is thrown in everywhere else. This contrast allows the darkness to look even darker while still giving the reader something to look at. Overall, it is another good looking backup story.

Continuity

This is the second issue of the “Ends of the Earth” storyline in the All-Star Batman series. So all readers need to do to understand this issue is read the previous one.

The backup issue is a continuation of “The Cursed Wheel” story, which started in Issue 1. Make sure to check out our review of Issue 1 in order to see the continuity connections that “The Cursed Wheel” uses.

Batman references when Poison Ivy was fired from Wayne Enterprises. This happens in Secret Origins #10, which is collected in Secret Origins Vol. 2.

The “Mud Room” which Duke uses to train in can first be seen in Detective Comics Vol. 1: Rise of the Batmen (Review).

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