Jace had a chance to sit down with G. Willow Wilson at SDCC 2024 and chat about all things Poison Ivy. From her somewhat two-dimensional roots as a character to perhaps the most relevant mission of any DC character with the current state of the natural world and climate shift, it's clear that G. Willow has a unique handle on Pamela. With so many different versions over the years, the challenge for G. Willow has been trying to bring all those iterations together to tell one cohesive narrative. If you've been reading Poison Ivy, you know that G. Willow has been very successful elevating Poison Ivy in the modern DCU.
The Comic Source Podcast
Poison Ivy Spotlight with G. Willow Wilson - SDCC 2024
(upbeat music) - Oh, here we go. Coming to you live, everyone from San Diego, Comic Con. I'm here with G Willa Wilson, the writer of Poison Ivy. So just so you know G Willa, we do a DC spotlight every week, we read every book, and we have been loving Poison Ivy. - Amazing. - So I think having read DC, I've been a huge DC fan for so long, she was very much a two-dimensional character for a long, long time. They added some dimension when they put her in the relationship with Harley, but you've taken that to the next level. So when you're approached with a project that you're coming up with an idea to pitchfork or what have you, was it purposeful that you wanted to really flesh her out as a character and make her more interesting if you will? - You know, yeah, in the sense that I wanted to bring all of her backstory together, I think what's interesting about Poison Ivy is that she's been very different things in different decades. Sometimes she's like a fun, she's cakey, Batman villain, and that's kind of it. At other times she's more of like a hippie-earth mama. You know, she can be an all-powerful eco-villain. Sometimes she's split into different bodies and part of her is a houseplant. So, you know, she's just been such really different things over the decades that it was interesting to have an opportunity to bring all that together and try to make it into one cohesive narrative. Because she's kind of a woman of contradiction. In some iterations, she's a vegetarian and some she's a carnivore because she can feel plants and so why would she eat them? And, you know, to try to bring that all together to make one Gestall, you know, Poison Ivy backstory and really get into the nitty gritty of what makes her interesting, her relationship with Harley, how she came to be who she is, how did she get from like kind of nerdy botany student to arch villain and just having an opportunity to tell that story was just really fantastic because she's a character that I've loved for a long time. - So right away you have the idea to go back and flesh out that origin story. I mean, we saw her formative years when she was in college, her relationship with Woodrow, you know, Alec Holland was there and sort of all of the green, if you will, all together and that was so fantastic. But planned right from the start. - Not necessarily. This book actually started out as an eight page. - Oh, that's right. - Short story in that villain's anthology that had the Danny Di Guido penguin and all that other fun stuff. But I guess editorial liked that direction enough that they're like, "Hey, do you wanna do 12 issues of this?" And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely." And that did so well that they're like, "Hey, you want another 12?" And I was like, "Sure." And they're like, "Let's just make it an ongoing." And I was like, "This has never happened to be before." Whereas something grows from an eight page short to an ongoing series about-- - I will take it. Yeah, gross, yes, lots of growth metaphors. But yeah, as soon as I knew that we were gonna have more space to tell this story, that's something that I was really, really interested in doing because we've seen bits and pieces of this back story in various different bad books. James Tinian brought us "The Gardener" and gave us a little bit more of that Woodruff story and all of the sort of acolytes or students of Woodruff who study under him. So to be able to bring those characters back in, we've got Black Orchid, we've got Alec Holland and Linda Holland. So to see them all interacting on screen before any of them become super heroes, super villains, et cetera, was just too good a chance to pass up because I love that stuff when you can sort of see how these really unique characters kind of come about and be like, oh my God, that's so-and-so or oh my God, I've never seen these two characters in a room before. And from a storytelling perspective, that's just a gold mine. - How was the reaction from fans? Did you get feedback on that? 'Cause I mean, I thought it was awesome. Everybody I talked to thought it was great. So as you said, see them before they came. With our knowledge of what they're gonna become. - What they're gonna become. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think the response has been pretty positive. People for the, exactly the reason that you say, an opportunity to see these characters who we know more about than necessarily the narrator does. From a reading perspective, that just builds such anticipation and it adds a lot of depth to their interactions because you can see, oh, this is that personality that's gonna take them this way or this is the inciting incident that causes them to do this other stuff. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun. And especially to see them all in a room. Woodrew is such a compelling villain because he's so manipulative. The sort of coercive control that he tries to get over his students is so creepy that he's a lot of fun to write. You wouldn't wanna be in the same room as him, but a lot of fun to write. - Yeah, I mean, the word I use is he's maniacal right from the start. - Yes. - Sometimes it's just a little more hidden. - Right. - But what's so interesting, you know, you talked about Pamela as an arch villain. Certainly she didn't start out that way. - No. - And I sort of feel like even now the path that she's on, the jury that you've showed us, we might not agree with her decision, but we understand why she makes them. - We understand why she makes them. Yeah, 100%. I think that's the beauty of a character like this. She's concerned about things that we're concerned about. Everybody now, with the wildfires spreading everywhere and droughts every year, climate change has become a more urgent issue, I think than it ever has before. And people who might not have thought of that as a central issue to their lives are now like, oh my God, we gotta do something. Because she's a villain, she can talk about these things in ways that we can't, you know, as you said, like she makes decisions that we might not agree with, but her concerns are legitimate. And so having her as a way of exploring these issues, I think is very cathartic for a lot of people because she reflects that fear, that anxiety. Does she handle it in a way that's always healthy? No. You know, as she calls the death, though probably a lot of people, yes. So in that sense, she's really a villain. But yeah, if we do our jobs right as creators, you get inside and you see the why. You see the reasons that she does what she does. You see the more human side of her, her relationship with Harley Quinn. You know, that extremely compelling complex relationship. And you start to think of her not just as a villain, but as a person and someone who's, you know, there should be points if, again, if we do our job right, reading the series, when you're like, is she right? Ooh, what does it say about me that I agree with her? Sorry, I just tapped the mic, that might make you sound. So that's the fun of writing a character like this. But a challenge, right? Like so many writers and you probably feel this way as well. If you're writing somebody who's a little more over the line than she is, right? Maybe their motivations aren't as legitimate, let's say. You have more freedom, you can have to do whatever. With Pamela, I feel like you gotta kind of-- You gotta walk the line. You gotta walk the line. Right, is that kind of tough? You always have to be cognizant? 100%, that's something that I think of a lot. Because I think she is more compelling without going into the Captain Planet realm of like, yes, she's concerned about the environment, but she always does the right thing and she's a hero. You know, the fact that she walks that line makes her more interesting as a character, but more challenging as a writer for sure. Because you don't want to go too far one way or the other. Like you always want to keep into account, this is why she does what she does. Ultimately, her allegiance is to the green, it's to life on planet Earth. And she's not afraid to take direct action when direct action is necessary. But at the same time, she is very human and we share her concerns, maybe not her methods. So yeah, it is a challenge and with every issue I have to kind of get into that headspace and be like, okay, am I doing right by this character in walking that line? Well, again, I think that exact thing, that dichotomy is why she's become so much more interesting. It's never been more apparent. And maybe it is just, as you said, that the atmosphere that we're in, where we are with climate change and pollution and everything, it's like, man, we're teetering. We're on the brink. Yeah, yeah, the things are not good. The other thing that I like about the book, you bring in humor and sometimes it's dark humor and sometimes it's just laugh out loud. Like I loved in the last issue when Pamela and Harley both admitted that they had their little thing with Janet from HR. That's right, yeah. That was just a laugh out loud. So is that bringing humor, whether it's dark or a little on the lighter side, is that something that you enjoy and you try to put in when the time is right? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you know, they're not called funny books for nothing. I think even with a book like this that does deal with some very serious stuff, there's a lot of body horror. You know, like there's a lot of tension and sort of big questions being asked. You need that levity. You know, like you have to be able to laugh and having sort of like an average Joe Blow character like we have in Janet from HR is so great for that because she can sort of the hours stand in. She's just an ordinary person who's gotten sucked in to this crazy world kind of against her will. And so she's just a great sort of counterpoint when we need that humor to sort of show like, you know, it's not all superheroes. You know, when ordinary people get sucked into these stories, they kind of react how we might react. And they can say the funny things and the silly things. So yeah, I mean, I think that's an important part of any drama is having that levity, is knowing where to put the humorous bits. Yeah, and it's fun, especially, you know, like the characters that I've been allowed to bring into this story, like Killer Crock, like Solomon Grundy, you know, like they're scary and they're kind of monstrous, but there's a real undercurrent of humor to both of those characters because their situations are often so ridiculous, you know, especially with Grundy, like he's limited, his dialogue is limited to the lines of this 12-line poem, like anything you want to get out of him has to come from there. So there's a real potential for comedy among the drama. Well, and I've never thought of Poison Ivy or Pamela as really a leader before, but she really is kind of driving this group or the, you know, sort of the conclusion for now of the story you've been telling the whole time. Yeah. You know, she brought them together. Yeah, Harley came in and helped out right at the end, but it was really, she was the linchpin and I've just never seen her as that. But I guess what makes sense, she is the lead of the book. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that's a way that she's evolved as well. And that's part of the story of the book as well. She, in the beginning, she's very much a loner, she's off on this road trip to kind of fight her own demons. And sort of almost reluctantly, she pulls in these other people, Janet, Harley, Killer Croc, Solomon Grundy, and I think she feels kind of a duty of care towards them. And that's part of her evolution as the character, where she realizes that she's not as disconnected from human life as maybe she would have thought or she would have told herself that she was. That even though her first loyalty is to the green and to plant life on planet Earth, that there are people that she cares about and she will go out of her way, again, reluctantly to save them when they're in trouble. So yeah, it's, I love sort of ragtag stories like this where you're bringing in this improbable group of people who are totally different, but for various reasons and up in the same place, with a common goal, because it's satisfying to see them work together. - Yeah, and it feels natural the way they came together. Well, like I said, the end of the Woodrow drama, I suppose you can say, for now, I'm really curious, without spoiling, can you sort of tell us what's next for Harley? 'Cause I feel like it's been one big story so far. Now we're gonna, I'm excited to see what comes next for her. - Yeah, absolutely, you know, this fall, along with a lot of other GC titles, we're sort of taking everything all in, as they're saying. And we are digging way into the vaults and getting more into the mythology of the green, connecting Ivy back as we've sort of been teasing to, you know, like a lot of that sort of Alan Moore in our mythology, we're bringing back characters that we might not have seen for a couple decades who are part of that mythology. There is, of course, the swamp thing, Poison Ivy crossover happening in October, which fans have been asking for since day one. So give the people what they want. It's an incredible book. It asks some of those questions, how does Ivy fit into that mythology? So-- - Yeah, like Perkins on the yard. - Oh my gosh. - I mean, Marcyo is amazing as well. - Yeah. - In the main book, Takara, I mean, the body horror sets. - Oh my gosh, yeah, Marcyo is down for anything. You know, like, it doesn't matter how gross the script is. You will be like, here you go. And I'm like, I almost can't look at it. It's beautiful and so gross at the same time. So yes, oh my gosh, we're very blessed with all of the people who worked on this book. You know, Jessica Vongon covers has been killing it. Hassan Utsman al-Hao on letters is a genius. I don't use that word lightly. And so yeah, it's just been incredible. - Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time, Willow. And everybody, be sure you're checking out Poison Ivy on a monthly basis. It's fantastic. I can't say enough about how you've elevated the character. - Thank you so much. - Yeah, thank you for doing that. - Yeah, it's been a pleasure. (upbeat music) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]