BATMAN #339

"A SWEET KISS OF POISON..."
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Irv Novick & Steve Mitchell
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: An exhausted Batman returns from a night of crime-fighting, with only a few hours to sleep before attending a Wayne Foundation board meeting as Bruce Wayne. After that meeting, Lucius Fox encourages Bruce to take a vacation, but the philanthropist refuses. Later, Bruce meets with mayoral candidate Hamilton Hill for lunch, in the middle of which a mystery woman kisses him, mistaking him for someone else. The woman leaves in a taxi, revealing herself to be Poison Ivy. She crosses Bruce's name off a list and prepares for her next target.

That night, Batman is about to thwart some smugglers at the waterfront when a sudden urge seizes him and he leaves, making his way to the Ambassador Hotel. There, he spots all the other members of the Wayne Foundation board waiting at the hotel entrance. Batman changes back to Bruce Wayne and joins his fellow board members in entering the hotel. Inside, Poison Ivy appears and explains that she drugged each of them with her kiss, and they will now obey her every command. Ivy orders the men to sign over the full assets of the Wayne Foundation to her, and one by one, they do so. She then orders them never to divulge what has happened. Most of the board members leave, but Bruce sneaks into the shadows and becomes Batman once more. However Poison Ivy is ready, and traps him with a choking vine, then escapes.

Batman returns to the Batcave to call Commissioner Gordon, but finds himself choking as he struggles to spit out the story of Poison Ivy.

Continuity Notes: Batman is stalking Gotham more than usual, as he has gotten wind of a major crime due to occur any time now. It's uncelar if Poison Ivy's scheme is what he's trying to solve, though he does explicitly mention that the waterfront smugglers have nothing to do with whatever it is.

Alfred notes that Batman's late nights began after he returned to Alaska, with a footnote directing readers to DETECTIVE COMICS 505.

Lucius Fox is identified here as Bruce's "assistant". I think this is the second time Gerry Conway has used that phrase to desribe him, and it feels like sort of a demotion? I don't think the character's job title was ever stated during the Len Wein run that introduced him, but he always seemed like maybe the company's Chief Financial Officer or something to that effect. Calling him Bruce's assistant makes him sound like he's a secretary, which I don't believe was Wein's intention.

As noted above, Hamilton Hill makes another appearance, still on his absurd anti police brutality bandwagon. (That's sarcasm, everyone -- sarcasm!)

A footnote tells us that Poison Ivy debuted in BATMAN #181, roughly fifteen years prior to this issue.

My Thoughts: First, I just want to address Poison Ivy's scheme here -- what exactly does that piece of paper say? She refers to it as a "transfer of assets", and Bruce declares that with it, she can "loot" the Wayne Foundation at will. But -- what does this mean? Is it like a power of attorney or something? And did she use her real name on the document, or does it specify something like "We, the board of directors of the Wayne Foundation, hereby appoint Poison Ivy as our duly authorized etc. etc."? And what does "loot" mean in this context? To me, a "transfer of assets" would suggest that all the Foundation's assets are being moved, in one lump transaction, to Poison Ivy. But Bruce saying she will have carte blanche to loot the coffers makes it sound more like they're just giving her the company checkbook.

I know I'm probably over-thinking this, but it really makes no sense, and I hope Conway elaborates upon it as the storyline continues!

In other news (and of more interest to me) is the fact that when she catches Batman with her vine, Poison Ivy specificially says that she has "never killed anyone yet, and [she doesn't] plan to start now." I love this. I imagine it's not the case anymore. I have to believe that at some point over the subsequent forty years, Poison Ivy probably has, in fact, killed people. But there was a time when not every super-villain was a killer. I'll use Marvel (and specifically Spider-Man) as an example because I'm generally more familiar with it, but I think the same goes for DC too -- you had guys like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, who absolutely were (or could be) cold-blooded killers. But then you guys like, I dunno, Electro or the Shocker, who weren't.

But over the decades, I feel like every villain became someone capable of killing. Maybe you can say that the Shocker has still never actually killed anybody, but I would be surprised to learn that he's never even tried! Yet here, Poison Ivy goes out of her way to declare that she's not a killer. And it makes sense. I will again harken back to the tabletop roleplaying games of my youth, and a sidebar that I've never forgotten (even though I can't recall specifically which game it was in)... in a section on how to run villains in a game, there was advice for the Game Master suggesting that most villains aren't killers, in large part because they want to avoid murder raps. I imagine that's the case for Poison Ivy here, as it should be the case for most lower powered/"street level" villains who are more likely to be captured, incarcerated, and charged than the big guys. So kudos to Conway for putting that little line in Ivy's mouth. I just wish more writers thought this way!

This issue also features a Robin backup story by the same creative team as above, aside from Bruce Patterson on inks and John Costanza on letters. "Yesterday's Heroes" is a brief character study of Dick Grayson. Still at the circus, putting in a "special appearance" to cover for the still-sidelined Cleveland Brand, Dick does some aerial trapeze stunts while reminiscing about his three parents -- John and Mary Grayson, and Bruce Wayne. It's a short but sweet little piece which recaps Robin's origin, and in which Dick seemingly comes to terms with his recent antagonism toward Batman and desire to move out of his mentor's shadow -- but I suppose only upcoming issues will tell for certain!