Gotham’s Newest Street Drug is Literally Poison (Ivy)

Warning! Spoilers for Catwoman #30 ahead!

Gotham’s seedy Alleytown is being inundated with a new, deadly street drug with a strange, secret ingredient connected to Poison Ivy, and Catwoman is the only one capable of sorting out such a sordid mess.

DC Comics is adding a touch of Soylent Green with its newest Catwoman run and hitting it out of the park. Separated from Batman, Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, has set herself up as the queen of Gotham’s seedy Alleytown. In her short reign, the vigilante has gathered herself a gaggle of street kids to act as her eyes and ears, using them to down the mob and some of Gotham’s famous crooked cops. Now, she has turned her attention to a new problem plaguing the shadowy streets of Alleytown—drugs. A potent new drug has hit the streets, the trail of which leads much further than Kyle or readers expect.

In Catwoman #30 written by Ram V and illustrated by Fernando Blanco, Catwoman has rescued Riddler, patched him up and started detoxing him. Her motives, however, are slightly less than altruistic as she interrogates Riddler for information regarding the drug and the missing Poison Ivy. Riddler describes his own sampling of Alleytown’s new street drug, and his search for its source. He explains that the new drug is cut with something that has its users coming back for more. “I analyzed it,” Riddler explains. “It wasn’t synthesized in a lab, Selina. It was extracted. Ivy hasn’t been seen in a while and this stuff starts showing up on the streets?”

Blanco’s panels show glimpses, and Ram V’s writing tells the full story, allowing readers to fill in the gaps of Riddler’s explanation. Eerie green images of scientists in hazmat suits and what appears to be Poison Ivy floating in a large tank illustrate Riddler’s implications clearly. The street drug is being cut with poison—or, more specifically, it’s being cut with Poison Ivy.

Thanks to Riddler’s detective work and Kyle’s street kids, Catwoman hits the streets knowing that his new strain of drug isn’t from someone’s basement, but from a high-tech lab. The source can be followed all the way to the top, and the drug’s creators are now in a rush to torch their breadcrumb trail and potentially Poison Ivy with it.

What could possibly be being extracted from Poison Ivy, and why it would make such an addictive drug that much more addictive is not clearly explained. What is clear, however, is that this is being done against Ivy’s will and the creators’ likely have bigger plans than just selling dime bags of Poison Ivy.

About The Author

Bug Norman
(127 Articles Published)

Bug Norman is writer, reader, and lover of popcorn television. A current ESL educator, she’s answered phones, scrubbed toilets, worked as an intern on a film set, and now writes comic news for Screen Rant. She currently travels the world teaching English, and video chats with her elderly cat, McGonagall.

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