[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Marc Andreyko, Paul Dini
Artists: Laura Braga, Amanda Conner
Summary
Free college tuition for all Riverdale residents?! That’s the plan—after the town drains the wetlands that lie between it and Gotham City and then builds a new campus. The only snag? A certain botany-obsessed super-villain. When Poison Ivy enlists her bestie, Harley, to kidnap both Veronica Lodge, daughter of Riverdale’s most important citizen, and her friend Betty, she’s counting on some assistance—and the mayhem that ensues will probably work as well!
Positives
In this team up of sorts, the reader is brought onto the narration of Hiram Lodge, reflecting on his abhorrence of today’s youth, and their seeming lack of agency to reach their true potential. He unveils his plan to drain the swamp that separates Gotham City and Riverdale, to build Lodge University, with free tuition for all Riverdale residents. This plan is definitely at odds with Poison Ivy, who sees the swamp as a valuable ecosystem full of rare plants, who enlists Harley to infiltrate the Riverdale community. Harley and Ivy try to influence Hiram into preserving the swamp but fail to, which leads the dastardly villains to hatch a plan to kidnap Veronica as another means to convince him to their whims. By issue’s end, Harley and Ivy are at the same costume party as Betty and Veronica, which is where things look to get really awkward fast.
Negatives
There are no negative worth mentioning in this issue.
Verdict
This story is absolutely revving up to be very intriguing. It is a nice introduction to both universes and will probably make readers a fan of the other.
