A quick summary of what happens Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1: Poison Ivy, who’s also the Mayor of Gotham, decided to hand the whole city over to the Parliament of Trees. Why? Two reasons.
- It stops the Parliament of Trees wanting revenge for her killing Bog Venus.
- It gets her away from Vandal Savage, who runs the Gotham Police Department. He wants to destroy her.
Once the plants take over, Gotham won’t be livable for humans anymore. Ivy isn’t hiding this either. Because the corruption is deep in Gotham, she’s giving the city back to nature. All over Gotham, plants are sprouting everywhere making the air toxic. The growth speeds up at sunrise, so they are running out of time to resolve it.
The Bad Seeds event is 10 weeks long, spread among multiple comics, and ends in October. It started in August.
That’s where Bad Seeds #1 left off. Now let’s talk about issue Batman #13.
What Happens in Batman #13
Batman heads to the police station to confront Vandal Savage directly. There are some genuinely fun fight scenes, and the art looks good too, I’ll give it that much. But if you’re hoping the story moves forward from where issue #12 left off, it doesn’t.
There’s also a timing problem. In Bad Seeds #1, Vandal goes to Ivy to confront her. The issue ends with Ivy telling Janet to get far away and Ivy has to find Harley and get her someplace safe. She said, specifically, she was going to stay there, for now, and stall Vandal.
Vandal can’t be in two places at once, so if Batman is confronting him at the police station, that confrontation has to be happening earlier than what we see in Bad Seeds #1. But we never actually see that moment play out there.
So either the timeline between these two books doesn’t line up, or Batman #13 is filling in a gap that should have been shown already in another comic. Either way, it’s confusing to follow if you’re reading both series.
Why This Bugs Me
Issue #12 ended with assassins coming after Bruce Wayne. #13 doesn’t progress the story from #12. Instead of picking that thread back up, #13 pulls him into a crossover fight scene we all know is going to get resolved eventually anyway. But makes zero sense if you are only following the Batman story progression.
Bad Seeds is already spread across multiple comics, until October 2026, so its pacing is going to be slow. When it starts eating into Batman’s story, and specifically interrupting the “six assassins are trying to kill Bruce Wayne” plot, it feels like an unnecessary detour.
Maybe I’m not the target reader for this kind of tie-in. But watching Batman fighting with police officers trying to get to Vandal Savage made me realize how little I care about Poison Ivy’s story arc. We already know it gets resolved. Gotham doesn’t turn into plants.
Honestly, if this is the best they’ve got for Poison Ivy’s story, when this finishes, I hope her story arc goes on a planned hiatus while the writers create a strong story arc for her. She’s going to be defeated. What next?
