#poison ivy: cycle of life and death

[demigodoreo]

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (2016) #2

[librarygoth]

poison ivy: cycle of life and death (2016) #1

[shyjusticewarrior]

Characters I Want To Appear In Poison Ivy (2022-Current)

Hazel, Rose, and Thorn

Red Hood

Miracle Molly

The Gardener- I know Bella has appeared in flashbacks in earlier issues, but I'd love to see some closure for her and Ivy.

[tomoleary]

Clay Mann - Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #6 (2006)

Source

[shadow-ofthe-cosmos]

Pamela Isley (Featuring Selina Kyle) in Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death | Chu/Mann

[dailyharlivy]

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (2016) #1

[violetmoondaughter]

Many are the faces of the Hellenic God Dionysus, but the duality of his nature is sometimes connected with two specific plants associated to the god. Dionysus relates to many plants such as Fig, Oak, Pine, Vine and Ivy, these two are specifically connected with two opposite faces of the god. 

Grapevine starts its annual growth cycle in spring with bud break. During spring and summer, the plant grows and after flowering the vine sets the fruits that are usually harvested in early autumn. Following the first frost the leaves begin to fall as the vine starts to enter its winter dormancy period. The following spring, the cycle begins again. Following the same annual cycle Dionysus is seen as a god that is reborn every spring, bringing during the hot season prosperity and abundance before disappearing in winter. Grapevine grows thanks to the hot weather and humidity and so it represents the warm fertilizing humidity power of the god. Grape is used to create wine which is the drink sacred to Dionysus because of its ability to release mental faculties.  

Ivy on the other hand, blossoms in the autumn when the vines are harvested and bears fruit in the spring. As an evergreen plant, ivy needs cold weather and humidity to grow and flower.  Ivy vines crawl as snakes and in the myth, ivy appeared soon after the birth of Dionysus to shelter the child from the flames that burned the mother's body. To its freshness was attributed the virtue of dispelling the ardor of wine, so Dionysus was believed to have commanded his worshippers to crown themselves with it. Ivy, in contrast to the vine that bore fruit bearing vitality and exaltation, produced a poison that sterilized and had medicinal virtues that were refreshingly depurative and narcotic. The plant is also connected with thunder and lightning and was believed to have the power to protect from lightning and cure sore throat and cough. 

Thus these two plants sacred to Dionysus are contrasted with each other in an eloquent contrast: the vine, drunk with light, is a child of heat and returns the rays of the sun by warming, with its libation, bodies and souls, while the ivy shows itself to be cold in nature; indeed the sterility and uselessness of its first sprouts recall night and death. 

Their affinity is rooted in the very essence of the dual-figured god, whose nature is expressed from the earth by means of them: light and darkness, warmth and coldness, intoxication of life and breath of death that withers everything; the multiplicity of the Dionysian aspects struggling with each other and yet conjoined with each other is manifested here in vegetal form, stands in struggle with itself and prodigiously transitions from one form into the other. 

Dionysus rules over all moist and hot creatures whose symbol would also be wine, as a hot and moist substance. In wine, heat is made ardor drink of fire that overwhelms everything, that ignites the soul and the body. But the moist heat is contrasted with the moist cold that as a Dionysian element, is manifested in ivy, a plant that greens even in winter when the Dionysian festivals take place.

[zahri-melitor]

I’m tired of boring samey suggestions for comics runs to start people on. Here are 6 comic stories I bet plenty of you have never read, require very little context, and that I rate highly as far too much fun:-

Batman/Wildcat: are you in the mood for Bruce Wayne and Ted Grant tracking down an gambling ring over illegal cage fights and ending up in one with a bunch of villains, set in late 90s DC comics? Do you want it to be charming, silly, and full of people getting punched? Have I got the story for you.

Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell: There’s a curse on a group of women Dinah knows that were hired to knock over a casino. Dinah investigates and gets Zatanna to help her sort out what’s happened. It’s a heist story meets magic.

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death: Ivy gets a job at a scientific lab and attempts to give up crime, while also growing a gaggle of fast-aging plant!Sim babies in her giant flowers. Yes. Really.

Arsenal 1998: Vandal Savage, the ultimate ancestor of Roy Harper, tries to kidnap Lian Harper for scientific experimentation. Roy and Dinah STRONGLY object. Famous for being the first time Lian Harper is actually a character not just a poppet in arms.

Arkham Manor: Wayne Manor gets turned over to Arkham Asylum to hold the patients. Bruce goes undercover as a patient to solve a murder mystery. Goofy plots involving various villains ensue.

Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia: okay this one is cheating, but if you haven’t read the Hiketeia you really should. A young woman in trouble uses an ancient Greek ritual to bind Diana to be her teacher and protector. Bruce comes to hunt her down for her crimes. Diana is sworn to intervene. Bruce ends up eating a lot of dirt.

[demigodoreo]

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (2016) #2

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP #19 Our Pharaoh, Your Duke

Imagine dis…

I kept reading about Tucker as a reincarnation of a powerful Pharoh from the Ancient civilization of Egypt and he wouldn’t stop reincarnating as long as people kept making and improving tablets. I don’t know if that is part of the canon or if that episode in DP is just another Sam and Undergrowth situation.

Anyway, just a thought is passing by…

….

Tucker was enjoying his afterlife with his spouses, Danny Phantom the High Ghost King in the Infinite Realm, and Sam Manson the heir and apprentice to the Ancient of Nature Undergrowth. All three of them were enjoying a rare day off that over-laps each other’s schedules. Tucker became the high leader also known as The Pharaoh in the Egyptian section of the Infinite Realms when the old ruler wished to pass on and when he was able to prove himself to be powerful enough to protect his section in the Realms as well as wise enough to lead them to prosperity. Add the fact that he is married to the High King and bump up other ghosts’ attitudes toward him as he is one of the official consorts of the new King.

The trio was just in a middle of a picnic when Tucker started to feel dizzy accompanied by a headache. Both of Tucker’s partners look at him with worry and concern in their eyes, as Tucker is about to reassure them that he was fine when darkness suddenly invaded his eyes.

…

Tucker is so sure that he has his reincarnation in control but the fact that he suddenly had clarity after months in the standard of his new body. Tucker felt panic fill him, A powerful entity or not every time he reincarnates, he forgets his life before and during his time in the Infinite Realms to not disrupt the normal flow of events, he only recovers his original memories when he was in the brink of death or something is need to change.

He also is worried about whatever his spouse would do as he remembered being in their presence when he was forcibly reincarnated. But by the looks of it, whoever did target him knew nothing about the complexity of the cycle thus having his memories with him along with some abilities that were muted to something more discreet. Tucker was just glad that it was him instead of his spouse.

…

As a child, Tucker no wait his new name is Duke Thomas, took it upon himself to explore this new world as it is taking his spouses a while to find him, which led him to believe that this universe may be part of a small sector of which Clockwork cannot interfere due to the delicate relationship between time and its citizens. Tucker was ecstatic when he had seen the futuristic appeal around him but felt disappointed when he had a need that only the rich and those who have connections can own them. He felt his eyes widen at the mention of aliens and other world beings and people around seemingly saving the world daily, not because of the heroes his lovely husband is an interdimensional/universal Hero and King, but because it has aliens which made him think about the opportunities of bragging rights to his husband the moment, they reunited.

When Tucker/Duke took notice of the city that his parents decided to call home, he was already thinking about his wife’s reactions will be, it seems she will either fall in love with the architecture that screams everything goth and the amount of gargoyle around each building or joins a rogue named poisoned Ivy to her crusade towards nature. It also seems that some of his powers mutated that seems to focus on his eyes, to accommodate this new universe or is it to accommodate this new body, he wondered.

As he was growing up, he began to have doubts about his so-called ordinary family as Danny’s luck rubbed them off the moment they all said I do at the altar. He just hopes that it is something he can handle future he could handle. There have been rules and laws about protecting people with power that were later named as Meta humans, he breath a sigh of relief when he saw no mention of the Infinite Realms from all data base.

…

When Bruce took him into his ward it took everything in Tucker/Duke to not scream fruit loop at the billionaire much more when he discovered a hidden base below his mansion’s basement, he doesn’t know that if Bruce is an upgrade is a degrade at the fury persona. It just never occurred to him that one day he will be a daytime vigilante like the origins of his husband. Honestly, he can’t help but have a new profound respect for his husband when he was just starting, he may be in the daytime schedule but it still took time to adjust. He also had a family of an experienced team from the start yet Danny has only him, Sam, and his sister as safety nets, he is so going to spoil Danny the moment they all saw each other.

The moment he laid eyes on Jason he can’t help but hiss quietly at his state. A liminal at the verge of hunger, no wonder his random outburst of anger kept getting worse each time he lost himself. With little to no materials that can handle the contaminated ectoplasm as well to turn it into a pure ectoplasm he was able to make a filter, yet it takes too much time to purify a liter of it yet reveals a small vial of a pure version. Yet it was better than nothing, whenever he was tasked to get them treats and coffee, he would always put the small vial of pre-ectoplasm into his drink which greatly improved his mood but unfortunately, he was the one who kept doing errands as Jason won’t drink anything else without his secret ingredient. Cass had already noticed him doing something to Jason’s drink but shrugged it off seeing that it was improving his mood, but he can’t help but feel that there is another shoe about to drop.

…

He was right, there was another shoe waiting to drop. You know, with his experience with Danny Tucker should have already known not to jinx things.

A group of archeologists found a new hidden tomb deep within Egypt and decided to go exploring yet the new guy on the job seemed to have done something and unleashed an endless number of Egyptian soldiers that seem to attack everything in sight. Though they are not killing anyone anyone who was sliced with their weapons is immediately teleported to a prison deep below the surface and forced to live a life of hard manual labor like a slave.

Tucker/Duke was shaken awake by Stephanie as the news of the Egyptian soldiers made their way to the mainland and the soil of the US. Much worse is that these soldiers found themselves at Gotham harbor and Batman is calling in every vigilante in Gotham to hold off the army while the JLD finds a way to undo the mess, every member of the magical side of the JL has already interrogated the new archeologist whether he had stolen something or he had disrespected someone in the site. Duke was pretty sure he heard Constantine grumble at the fact that this would be much easier if mind control magic is present but no, it just had to be neither of the common reason when an army of the dead raises themselves from the dead.

Now when Tucker/ Duke was wakened up after he had just gone and stayed awake for the past 14 hours straight due to an exam that his dumb professor insisted on having despite having no to little effect on one’s final grades as well as a case that needed his vigilante self his full attention, much to say he is not happy.

…

At the battleground, other members of the JL have already gone into Gotham to aid Batman and his associates while others were able to evacuate the civilians and now joining in the fight. Every person fighting is starting to feel hopeless as this Egyptian army kept coming back at them while their fighters are getting wary and tired at each wave they faced. As some of the people of the JL were about to succumb to what looked like their inevitable fate there come Signal in his yellow-clad suit and looked like he just crawled out of bed, climbed the Wayne tower with a megaphone in one hand, and proceeded to… scold the army?

Some of them blinked at the ridiculousness while some seem to pinch themselves at the absurdity of the situation. How Signal kept screaming at the undead army how his GPA and sleep is much more important than their so-called invasion to return the Ancient civilization of Egypt to its former glory. As jaws began to drop as all undead Egyptian soldiers seems to lower their heads in shame as they listen to Signal scold them for what looked like a half hour scolding before he heaved a deep breath and ordered the soldiers to go back where they came from and return the prisoners to the living world.

Just moments before each JL and JLD members try to reboot their respective minds at what had just transpired a crack was heard seemingly echoing throughout the ruins and a green portal began to form. There, two beings came through a black-haired woman with plants crawling up to her arms and legs with a wreath on top of her head and a white hair man with a crown floating above his head and a cape that looked like made out of stars dragged Signal by the arm and dragged him back to the portal. Now all heroes are scrambling to make sense of what had happened in a matter of minutes as well as trying to get back their youngest brother back, Duke may be older than Damian but he was the latest one to be adopted thus making him the youngest by their standards.

…

Back in the Infinite Realms Duke is quietly sleeping sandwiched and snuggled between the loves of his life while wearing his Pharaoh regalia he just can’t help but feel like he had just forgotten something.

Meh, he’ll tackle that after he had his full rest with both Sam and Danny’s arms and presence beside him.

…

PS: If someone out there wanted to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so, don’t forget to tag me though.

[isagrimorie]

I am loving a lot of Agatha/Rio stories they’ve been such a fun crop of multichapter stories.

I have a few nitpicks but I think the one that stands out is how Rio is written in some AUs (not all just some) is that Rio is written too softly. Or, in some cases Rio Vidal is written more as a softer Poison Ivy.

Which is cool in its own way but there’s a thing where Rio is written too much as a soft Poison Ivy. Or too much of a hippie. It might be because of Rio’s Original Green Witch status.

I feel most people forget to write the part where Rio is Death.

Death is Rio. In the MCU Death has an added cycle: Death brings Life. Death is the cycle of Growth and Decay, and the Natural Order of Things.

But straight up, Death is Rio’s main identity.

Death is who Rio is.

To quote the “Puss in Boot” movie. Rio isn’t the metaphorical or rhetorical or poetical or theoretical idea of Death. Rio is Death, straight up.

Death is Rio’s government name, so to speak.

Rio rules over all the death gods of the MCU, even all the gods of the MCU because as we saw in Moon knight and in Love and Thunder, gods die.

So that means death and dying doesn’t irk Rio because they get to join Rio.

I think the only time a death would bother Rio if, like in House of Usher there was blatant cruelty involved in the killing. Just like how Verna was angry with Frederick for his cruel treatment of Morelle (his wife). 

Mother Nature can be nurturing, Mother Nature can also be terrible, and destructive. Rio contains multitudes.

Death is both a healer and someone who brings people to their afterlife.

She is both sharp and full of edges. Mercurial and tempestuous when brought to anger but also curiously, patient.

Rio is also fair, when she’s fighting with Agatha she always meets Agatha where she is. If Agatha lost her powers, Rio is just fighting slightly above Agatha. The moment Agatha has powers, Rio reflects Agatha’s power level with only a slightly higher shine.

She also keeps her side of the deal to quote Elijah Mikaelson. “I make a deal, I keep a deal.”

Rio is many things, she loves Agatha fiercely. She is the Original Green Witch but Rio is also mainly Death.

The Death.

[bestjeanistmonster]

I so badly want to get into your DC au but i know absolutely nothing about DC.

I grew up on marvel lol

dfgghcgd that’s oki! i actually grew up on both marvel and dc cuz of my dad through watching movies and started just kinda getting deeper into on my own

my au isn’t completely loyal to dc canon, im basically just doing whatever i want like an elseworld story basically, i pull from different continuities, mix with sonic lore and force it all to bend to my will

if you want to go thru my dc au have any questions about the lore, or what exactly is going on feel free to send an ask and i’ll be happy to clarify anything!!!

but if you want to get into dc id say is easiest through watching the animated shows, movies, like:

(some i may have pulled stuff from, some i haven’t just saying wchich ones i really liked)

- batman the animated series

- the batman

- superman the animated series

- superman vs the elite

- wonder woman (2009)

- wonder woman bloodlines

- justice league + the spin off justice league unlimited

- teen titans 2003

- batman beyond

- batman beyond return of the joker

- batman: under the red hood

- the batman vs dracula

- DCAU batman movies

- creature commandos (15+, gore)

etc.

just listing some off the top of my head lol, you can basically just shop around for the dc animated content u like cuz there’s SO much

id also highly recommend watching playthroughs of the Arkham Batman games!!! i watched those all the time as a kid and ive started playing through them myself and its sooo much fun!!!(ignore suicide squad kills the justice league)

not the biggest fan of dark superman stuff but i do enjoy watching Injustice and Injustice 2 play throughs gor the character banter

some live action movies/tv shows that i rlly enjoyed are:

-The batman (15+)

- the penguin (15+)

- christopher nolan batman trilogy

- christopher reeeves superman films

- batman and robin (its so cringe and its amazing)

- james gun suicide squad (15+)

- birds of prey (15+)

- the upcoming superman movie

as for comics the dc universe has rebooted soooo many times so you can kinda pick and choose, some standouts i really enjoyed recently were:

- batman hush

- red robin (2009 -2011)

- Arkham Asylum: A serious house on a serious earth (inspo for the arkham games and some really disturbing imagery, pretty psychological horror)

- Batman: The court of owls (there’s a motion comic too)

- Batman the long halloween

- poison ivy: cycle of life and death

- poison ivy: the virtuous cycle (body and plant horror, only enjoyed up to issue #9 tho, didn’t vibe with the rest)

- harleen

- harley quinn black white and red

- Catwoman: lonely city

- harley and ivy

- dc pride comics!!

- The boy wonder

- superman red & blue

and that’s about all i can think of off the top of my head!!! srry about the ramble but hope this was helpful!

[tyrantisterror]

Wife Goals: Harley Quinn

Welcome back, fuckers. It's February, I'm in a bad way, let's talk about the unstable fictional women that I pine for, because fuck you that's why. Last time on this prolonged emotional breakdown, I talked about Ryoko Hakubi, the ancient demon space pirate from the Tenchi Muyo franchise. Today, I'll talk about someone I think we all knew would come up sooner or later - I have a whole shrine to her for fuck's sake.

Funny story - I didn't actually watch Batman: The Animated Series as a kid, despite being a child of the 90's. It, Power Rangers, and Gargoyles were the big 90's shows I just sorta bailed on (and I guess TMNT? I think of that more as an 80's show, personally, but I've seen some people lump it into 90's nostalgia too, so...). I just wasn't much of a superhero fan when I was a kid - superheroes were buff athletic masculine guys, like the bullies that picked on me, and they beat up weird-looking dudes who were obsessed with, like, monsters and spiders and shit, which I related to a lot more, so it just wasn't my scene as a kid. I had Godzilla for my hero-worship anyway, and it's hard to compete with Godzilla for my heart.

I did watch Batman Beyond, though, because it came on after Digimon and what else would I do with my Saturday morning?

Anyway, I don't think I actually saw much if any at all of BTAS until my teens. Pop culture being what it was, I was still loosely aware of Batman and his gallery of rogues, so I knew of Harley Quinn by that point, but I didn't have any particular fondness for the character yet, and even after watching some episodes she wouldn't become important to me until, like, after college.

And to understand why you kind of have to understand what was going on with Harley Quinn at the time. So, ok, Harley debuted in Batman the Animated Series, an exceptionally well-done adaptation of Batman that is specifically noted for taking the superhero comic world's devotion to maintaining a status quo super seriously. And by that I mean that essays have been written on the sort of Calivinist nature of morality in Batman the Animated Series, where if a character is a supervillain, then nothing they do, no matter how well-intentioned, will EVER allow them to break free of being evil. Poison Ivy wants to leave villainy behind and be a mother? Well, because she is Inherently Villainous, she can't help doing it in a way that involves mind control and gene splicing and crimes against humanity. Mr. Freeze wants to save his wife? Well, there's no way he can ever progress that goal without harming people with a freeze ray, and also every evil scheme he concocts to reach that end - a noble goal, mind you - will be foiled, leaving his wife still frozen on the brink of death. If you are a villain in BTAS, you will always, always, ALWAYS be a villain, no matter how hard you try to redeem yourself. The status quo MUST be maintained, no matter how tragic your situation is.

Which adds a meta-textual layer of bleakness to the already incredibly bleak life of Harley Quinn. Harley is a psychologist who fell in love with her patient, and said patient happened to be the Joker, i.e. one of the most notorious supervillains of all time. She turns herself into a supervillain to impress him, throws her career in the toilet in the process, and ends up being used as a disposable tool and punching bag by said villain over and over again. Harley suffers horrendous abuse from the Joker, commits horrible crimes to gain his favor, suffers terribly when she's caught by Batman, and basically repeats this cycle over and over and over and over again.

Because the status quo must be maintained, no matter how bleak your situation is.

It should be noted that, in the (intentional or not) Calvinist nature of the show, Harley's misery is clearly intended to be a direct result of her flaws. In Batman the Animated Series, pre-villain Harley is explicitly stated not to be a good psychologist to begin with - she was not smart enough to earn her degree honestly and slept with her teachers to raise her grades. Never ethical or talented, it's kind of treated as though her situation is her own fault for not growing as a person like she should have in the first place, which, uh... I don't think that element aged well at all, honestly.

But, luckily, Harley proved popular enough that the Batman the Animated Series take on her didn't remain the ONLY take for very long.

In fact, Harley's popularity grew so big over time that by the 2000's she got her own solo series, which came with a big problem to solve: how does Harley Quinn, a character who revolves around the Joker, who in turn revolves around Batman, work as a character without the two characters she was designed to orbit around? She's a moon, not a star, how can that work?

Well, Harley had to change, and that meant the status quo had to change.

Harley breaks up with the Joker and tries to, well, not go legit necessarily, but be a more low-profile kind of supervillain so Batman stops punching her in the face so much. More mischief and misdemeanors and less murder and manslaughter, and when she does kill someone it's, like, a serial killer or assassin, so basically fine. Because her relationship with the Joker is, like, the PICTURE of an abusive relationship, Harley becomes this picaresque figure, escaping from her chains to run free and rampant, and inviting us along for the ride.

And with that independence as a guiding theme, Harley got retooled a bit. She's always been a cheerful goofball, so it's not really out of character for her to help people now and then, albeit in a chaotic, mayhem-filled way. And hey, she has a degree in psychology - what if we just ignored the original intent and presented her as legitimately good at it? That brings a new sort of pathos to Harley Quinn, if she was a genuinely talented and dedicated person who stumbled once and paid severely for it - and it makes us invested in her quest to find some way to pull herself together after falling so hard.

And... that's kind of sympathetic, isn't it? It's hard to screw up worse than Harley Quinn did, it's hard to ruin your life more than she did, and yet here she is, still trying to pull it together in spite of that. She lives in a town so dark and depressing it has "Goth" in its name. Her ex-boyfriend is a killer clown who is infamous in-universe and out as one of the most cruel and monstrous villains of all time. Her resume consists of "psychiatrist who slept with her patient" and "moll for the most notorious serial killer alive." In many continuities she has permanently dyed her skin chalk white. You simply cannot fuck up worse than Harley Quinn has.

And yet she keeps trying. There's something heroic about that.

Harley has been beaten and abused by the man she gave up everything to be with, and yet she keeps trying. She is hated by most of the world because of her villainous past, and yet she keeps trying. She can never, EVER go back to the life she had, to the career she went to college for, to the stable, normal life she at one point wanted, and yet she KEEPS TRYING. She lives in the world of superhero comic books, where any significant change to the status quo is (almost) ALWAYS undone, where character development is considered a mistake that has to be unwritten, where redemption is impossible because once the narrative decides you're a villain that's what you will (almost) ALWAYS be...

And yet. She keeps. TRYING.

In a world that is determined to treat her as a punching bag, Harley finds a reason to smile, to hope that life will get better, to laugh and try and find love and happiness and joy. And her hope was so strong and so infectious that it changed the status quo. Harley being the Joker's punching bag hench-girlfriend used to be all she could aspire to be, but now? That's just her origin story, and she's become so much more than that.

She's a mess of Red Flags, an absolute fuckup of a human being, a terrible person, but goddammit, she is TRYING to be better, she is trying to make herself a good person, she is trying to make the world smile, and through all the shit thrown her way, she still believes in love and happiness. I don't just like Harley Quinn or crush on her the way I do with other fictional characters - I'm inspired by her. I strive to have some fraction of her resolve, her determination, her steadfast will to survive and thrive. Because if she can make it, if she can laugh so loud that the immutable law that is Comic Book Status Quo will bend for her, then dammit, any of us can do it.

...

Plus she's a hot lady in clown makeup who wears leather jackets and skin-tight acrobatic tights, I mean c'mon now almost everyone's down for that on some level

[memopmiff]

What are your favorite poison ivy series/movies/comics?

Oh I’ve been waiting for this! Buckle up, this is gonna be a long list!

Comics

Gotham city sirens (classic, bonus because harlivy peaked here)

Batman/Poison ivy: cast shadows

All star batman #7

Batman #41-43 (very cool seeing her control the world, including the justice league!)

Joker’s Asylum- Poison ivy

Detective Comics #823 (ivy’s crimes come back to bite her in the ass, scared of oranges at the end)

Harley & Ivy (the one by Paul Dini, so much cuteness and the dynamics between the two are just perfect)

Secret Origins #36

Poison Ivy: thorns

Injustice (she doesn’t appear much but the few times she does, I love it)

The one where she fights a creepy witch in a cabin to save her plant babies but I forgot the name😭 she has a nice leaf cloak at the beginning, art style is also really good

Poison ivy cycle of life and death (planning to read it to refresh my memory!)

A short story set around the holidays that I also forgot the name of. Ivy tries to be nice by using her powers in a villain’s bar to make them feel good, ends up killing a guy who’s overconfident

Dark knights of steel

Her own ongoing comic series, Poison Ivy, of course!

Bonus: not actual comic but any Ivy content by Stjepan Sejic

Animated

Batman the animated series!!! House and garden episode freaked me out then made me sad

Batman the long halloween part 2 (she’s gorgeous, one of my fav ivy designs)

Gotham girls (if you know this series I love you)

Batman assault on arkham (absolutely devoured her 30 seconds of screen time)

Batman hush

Dc super hero girls (she’s the most adorable thing, look at her!!!)

Live action

Batman and Robin because Uma Thurman will forever be iconic!

Bridget Regan also played Ivy pretty well in Batwoman

Games

Lego batman the video game (2008) MY FAVORITEEEEE — I also just found out Grey DeLisle did her grunts and noises a few months ago. Even better!😭

Batman arkham asylum/city/knight (not counting ssktjl bc even tho kid ivy may be cute it’s just what the fuck)

Injustice 2 (probably obvious at this point but I main Ivy😼)

That’s it! I know there are many more lovable Poison ivy content, though they tend to be strongly focused on Harley Quinn. So in my list, I went for the ones where the center of attention is on Ivy!

If you’re asking for my favorite favorite overall, it’s gotta be Batman the animated series! That Ivy along with Diane Pershing as her voice will always have a special place in my heart.

Thanks for the ask! I tried to include as many of my favorites as I can. How about you guys?? Tell me your favorite Ivy!💚

[talonabraxas]

Dionysos Nicholas Kalmakoff (Russian-French, 1873–1955)

A Brief History of the Dionysos Cult

The original Rite of Dionysos is almost universally held to have been a "wine cult", concerned with the cultivation of the grapevine, and a practical, understanding of its life cycle - embodying the living god - the creation and fermentation of wine - the dead god in the underworld - and the intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of the drink itself, believed to be a possession by the god’s spirit. In the first instance the cult was not only concerned with the lore of the vine alone, but equally with all the other components of wine. It should not be forgotten that wine once more commonly included many other ingredients, herbal, floral and resinous, adding to the quality, flavour and medicinal properties of the drink. The cultivation of all these also originally came under the lore of Dionysos, making it a general vegetation cult and herbal school. Honey and bees wax were also often added to early wine, bringing with them the associations of the even older mead lore and Neolythic bee cults (whose swarms were often associated with Dionysos as pure "life-force"). Later beer, plus grain/corn, cults were also incorporated into the domain of Dionysos, particularly via his partial assimilation of the Thracian deity Sabazius. Other plants believed to be viniculturally significant were also included in the cults retinue. Thus were added ivy, once thought to negate the effects of drunkenness, and to be the opposite of the grapevine, blooming in winter rather than summer, the vine of death as opposed to the vine of life; the fig, thought to be a purgative of toxins, and the pine, a wine preservative, taken from the evergreen. Similarly the bull, from whose hollowed horns wine was once drunk, and the goat, who provided wineskins and was the natural pruner of the vine, were also included as cult animals and manifestations of Dionysos. The predators or enemies of these were equally sacred, idealised as the panther and the poisonous snake (but see also Sabazius for serpents). Naturally the mythos already associated with these elements would also accrue to Dionysos, if not already there from the start. An understanding of both the practical realities of these processes, and their wider metaphorical significance, is crucial to any attempted understanding of the later primarily symbolic Mysteries of Dionysos, with their atavistic, life-death cycles.

The place of origin of the Hellenic Dionysian Mysteries is unknown, but they almost certainly first came to Greece with the importation of wine, which is widely believed to have originated, in the West, around 6000 BC in one of two places, either in the Zagros Mountains (the borderlands of Mesopotamia and Persia, both with their own rich wine culture since then) or from the ancient wild vines on the mountain slopes of Libya / North Africa (the source of early Egyptian wine from around 2500 BC, and home of many ecstatic rites), quite probably from both. Whatever the case it appears Minoan Crete was the next link in the chain, taking wine from both the Egyptians and Phoenicians and passing it on to the Greeks by 1600 BC, who would spread it throughout their colonies. Wine probably also entered Greece over land from Asia Minor. But it was most likely in Minoan Crete that the eclectic ‘wine cult’, that would become the Dionysian Mysteries, first emerged. Gradually evolving over the centuries, absorbing more mythic material wherever it was adopted. The Dionysos Mysteries would remain powerfully syncretic, absorbing the suppressed primeval cults of all the lands they touched. It would be the Greeks who were left with the task of making sense of the eclectic mix that reached them, and of integrating it into their own mythos with their inventive tales of the journeys and adventures of Dionysos.

The basic principle beneath the original initiations, other than the seasonal death-rebirth theme supposedly common to all vegetation cults (such as the Osirian, which closely parallels the Dionysian), was one of spirit possession and atavism. This in turn was closely associated with the effects of the wine. The spirit possession involved the invocation of spirits by means of the bull roarer, followed by communal dancing to drum and pipe, with characteristic movements (such as the backward head flick) found in all trance inducing cults (represented most famously today by African Voodoo and its relatives). As in Vodoun rites, certain drum rhythms were associated with the trance state, and these rhythms are allegedly found preserved in Greek prose, particularly the Bacchae of Euripides. One classical source describes what had become of these ancient rites in the Greek countryside, where they were held high in the mountains to which ritual processions were made on certain feast days:

"Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood…. In the state of ekstasis or enqousiasmos, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly…. and calling 'Euoi!' At that moment of intense rapture they became identified with the god himself…. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers". Peter Hoyle, Delphi (London: 1967), p. 76.

Unlike many trance cults however, the Dionysian rites were primarily atavistic, that is the participant was possessed by animal spirits and bestial entities, rather than intelligible divinities, and may even "transform into animals". A practise preserved by the rite of the "goat and panther men" of the "heretical" Aissaoua Sufi cult of North Africa, and remembered in the satyrs and sileni of the Dionysian procession, and perhaps even the "bull man", or Minotaur, of the chthonic Minoan labyrinth. But the most desired possession was that by Dionysos himself, or his consort Ariadne, though given the primal nature of these deities this is hardly discernable beyond the degree of power manifest. This practise is represented in Greek culture by the famous Bacchanals of the Maenads, Thyiades and Bacchoi. Dionysos in this bestial manifestation is believed to preserve the archaic archetype of the "Lord of the Animals" or the "Horned Hunter", and to a certain extent also the ambiguous "Trickster" archetype. In fact his ‘religion’ tended to absorb the remnants of these archetypes from the local culture wherever it was adopted (usually into Dionysos himself, or else, if still strongly established, as a mythic accomplice, such as his favoured companion the Arcadian Pan, or the ancient Silenus). Likewise the primeval and chthonic goddesses would become associated with Ariadne, or his mother Persephone / Semele. This ritualised atavism was also associated with a ‘descent into the underworld’ of which Dionysos was lord (‘Hades and Dionysos are one and the same’, declared Heraclitus).

The purpose of this atavism is controversial, some see it simply as a Greek saturnalian catharsis, a ritualised release of repressed elements of civilised psychology, and temporary inversion, in order to preserve it, others see it as a return to the "chaotic" sources of being and essentially a reaction against civilisation, while yet others regard it as a magical connection with chthonic powers. It is likely all of these applied in different manifestations of the cult. Like wine, Dionysos had a different flavour in different regions, reflecting their mythical and cultural soil, or "Terroir", and appeared under different names in neighbouring countries (or so claimed the Greeks).

The fact that these effects were attributed in part to Greek wines, that were barely 15% proof, has led many, including Robert Graves, to conclude some of its additives were of an hallucinogenic nature. This is certainly supported by suggestions of a "magic potion" associated with the Dionysos rites, said to include poison ivy, and by the known use of datura, henbane and belladona by shamans in this region, as well as the alleged use of "kykeon" (probably ergot ale), and possibly fly agaric mushrooms, within the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. Dionysos was most probably regarded as the patron of all consciousness altering substances in Roman times, and potion making paraphenalia have been found in the ruins of Bacchic temples (with the potions, and "poisons", of the Bacchants also featuring in Roman smear campaigns against them). The sacraments used probably varied with the intentions of the Mysteries at any one time, but remained central to all but the most domesticated of the Bacchic sects, as did the associated shamanic idea of stepping outside of an ordered world into something more fundamental.

This primitive Dionysianism survived well into late classical times times on remote Greek islands, and in the wilds of Thrace and Macedonia, but elsewhere was soon adapted to a more "civilised" culture. A spectrum of such sects was to be found across the Greek world, but the height of domesticated kind was to be found at Athens, where atavistic possession became dramatic masked ritual within the Bacchic Thiasos (Greek coven or lodge), seeding the emergence of acting and theatre in the West (crafts also sacred to Dionysos, particularly at the great tragedy and comedy competitions in ancient Athens. From Tragedos, 'Goat Song', Death? And from Komos, 'Revelry'). The ethos of the rites also seems to have become slightly less atavistic and more liberative and sensual in Classical Greece, and a place where the repressions and inequalities of civilised culture could be evaded, albeit temporarily. Thus many of its initiates tended to be women or slaves, the most repressed classes in Greek society, from whom its "leadership" was often drawn, in a typical inversion of normal society. This inversion in fact became a theme of the Dionysian Mysteries, and the Thiasos a place where even kings and rulers could throw off the pressures of rule and convention, and live in carefree, natural equality with commoners for a while. Thus the Mysteries of Dionysos would be adopted by figures as diverse as Alexander the Great, popular monarchs such as Mark Anthony, and rebellious slaves such as Spartacus, all of whom were initiated, and all of whom considered themselves embodiments of Dionysos, interpreting his "liberation" in different ways. But perhaps the most famous of all initiates were the anonymous Maenads, or "wild women", who led the orgiastic rites of Dionysos and became possessed by his frenzy, or the more sensual Thyiades, who raved in the hills. While relatively tamed on the mainland by late Classical times, there still seem to have been outbreaks (or rumours of outbreaks) of primal Dionysianism in Greece, often associated with "foreign influences", the cult itself being seen as originating outside Greek civilisation. These outbreaks were both feared as potentially socially disruptive and envied with great fascination, one such incident inspiring the Euripides' play, the Bacchae.

The Hellenic world, after Alexander’s conquest, spread the cult of Dionysos internationally, to Egyptian Alexandria, where he was associated with Osiris (eventually merging with him as Serapis); to Palestine, where he was associated with the Baals, and even the Adonai of the Jews (who had Dionysos imposed on them by the Hellenes); and most far flung of all, to India, where he became associated with Shiva. These various connections all fed back to the Aegean, where the cult became increasingly complex and cosmopolitan. This would also led to a breakaway mystical form of Dionysianism that would become part of the more philosophical Orphic and Pythagorean Mysteries (where Dionysos was effectively seen as the creative Primal Chaos before creation, beyond all manifest duality, as well as the paradoxical, dynamic balancing force still active within it, the ‘King of the World’, whose final liberation included not only that from orderly civilisation but from the natural world itself!), a move in sharp contrast with the earthy and irrational primitive rite of Dionysos, that in some places still existed alongside it (reflecting a similar pattern to the evolution of Shivaic cults). A complex evolution still not fully understood.

The evolution of the Dionysian Cult continued in the Roman Empire, where the Bacchic Mysteries, as they were known here after their arrival in 200 BC, were banned for a time in Rome and forced underground, following rumours of their "corrupt" and "subversive" behaviour (In 186 B.C. the Roman senate had sought to ban the Dionysian rites throughout the Empire, and restricted their gatherings to no more than 13 people, but was never fully successful. They were revived under Julius Caesar around 50 BC, and remained in existence, along with the Bacchanalian street procession, at least until the time of Augustine (A.D. 354-430)) Those Bacchic cults that survived into late Roman times are often considered degenerate forms, tending to be either rites of empty public theatre, or private excuses for orgies and drunkenness, but it now appears a few low profile Thiasoi did remain, particularly in Southern Italy. It is not surprising that early Christians should thus equate Bacchus and his company with the Devil (despite adopting quite a few of his cult trappings themselves, most obviously the wine communion). The purest survival of the Bacchic cult is perhaps the Lent Carnival which survives in Latin countries even today.

Today people often claim the precursors of Christianity, Devil Worship and Witch Covens in the Rites of Dionysos, with probably both a little justification and much imagination.

[zahri-melitor]

idk i think despite there being good comics during the n52 you can really tell there's someone they should've fired sooner

also i say this about 2000's comics too

My point is not that “every comic that comes out is valid”. There are in fact periods where there are more great stories, and periods when you have to really hunt for the gold. But it’s a lot easier to know where to look when you’ve got direction from other people who know the period.

The gold is still there, and it does annoy me when people just dismiss everything for a period.

And while hating Dan DiDio is super fashionable and has been for decades (and for justifiable reasons), there are still comics writers and artists during n52 that were working their backsides off to try and put out quality comics. (And once again I am back to pointing out Arkham Manor, Manapul and Buccellato’s Detective Comics, Superman: American Alien, Poison Ivy: The Cycle of Life and Death, Gotham by Midnight, etc. Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell was published during n52! Li’l Gotham was published! Bombshells was published!)

Like, do I agree that some absolutely dreadful comics came out between 2011-2016, written by writers who were clearly exhausted, did not care about the story, and who were getting screwed around by editorial? Of course. I’ve read titles like Threshold and Green Team Teen Trillionaires, and I cannot recommend that anyone actually read either story.

But it’s not actually worth dismissing the entire 5 year period.

Also, if you are interested in reading n52 comics, your hit rate for interesting stories goes way up after 2014 or so, from Wave 7 onwards, because they started really running out of conventional pitches to commission and got a lot more experimental with what they were approving to keep 52 titles coming out. Some of those experiments worked, some of them really did not, but it’s an interesting ideas incubator to look through.