As March begins, a large menacing figure is being released from Gotham Penitentiary late in the evening. A limo picks the shadowy figure up from the prison gates and brings the person to the Falcone penthouse to meet with Carmine. It is his daughter, Sofia Gigante, and Carmine expresses the fact that he needs her by his side.
At the monthly board meeting of the Gotham City Bank, Bruce Wayne is behaving strangely. He has changed his mind and endorsed the Falcone account. As he leaves the building later, he passes Selina Kyle but ignores her as he heads to his limo. Selina sees Ivy inside when Bruce gets in and decides to investigate.
In Harvey Dent's office he and Jim Gordon are going over the Falcone case. Recently Maroni has hit the Falcone clan, thinking that the Roman is behind Holiday's killings. Harvey comments about how the recent gang murders could be a good thing, but Jim dresses him down for practically endorsing murder. Harvey asks Jim what to do about Bruce Wayne, but Jim dodges the question by bringing up Holiday's possible impending strike, with St. Patrick's Day coming up. Jim tells Harvey to focus on Maroni, and Vernon overhears them speaking from outside.
Carla Viti is in her basement, shooting at a target with a suspiciously familiar gun, when she receives a visit from her niece Sofia. Carla tells Sofia that the gun she holds is the one that killed Alberto on New Year's. She kept it from the police so she could use it to kill Holiday as revenge against her son Johnny's murder. Sofia informs Carla about Carmine's plans to hit Maroni on St. Patrick's Day. The Roman wants assurance that Carla will not side against him in further disputes, and Carla says that she couldn't care less now that Carmine has handled their money problems.
In Wayne Manor Bruce and Ivy are having dinner when Catwoman attacks suddenly. Bruce steps in to protect Ivy and the two scuffle. In the melee Catwoman rips Bruce's shirt to reveal he is covered with ivy, which Catwoman then tears off of him to free him from Poison Ivy's control. Ivy flees before Catwoman can chase after her.
On St. Patrick's Day morning, Holiday hits Maroni's house, killing several of Maroni's men. Minutes later Sofia arrives to carry out the Falcone hit but drives on when she sees the carnage. Maroni watches Sofia's car drive away from above and fumes at Holiday.
That night Batman answers the Bat-signal to discover not Jim Gordon on the roof but Catwoman. Batman thanks her for helping his "friend" Bruce Wayne but asks why. Catwoman disappears without answering, leaving Batman to contemplate the damage Ivy has done to his reputation at the bank. At the same time Carmine meets with Ivy to pay her for the work she did with Bruce on his behalf.
Annotations/Analysis
Cover--Ivy's hair is made of shamrocks on the cover, to tie in with the St. Patrick's theme of the issue. Also, the necklace she wears has a Bat-symbol on it, symbolizing how she has Batman under her control, or "charmed," in this issue.
Page 2--I have to compliment the artist on his use of shadow here, especially in the first panel. Really sets the mood and shows how intimidating a character Sofia is. (I have to admit I was surprised when the shadowy figure in these first few pages turned out to be a woman. I personally was expecting Marv from Sin City.)
Page 4--The Roman really ought to be wearing his ring in panels 3 and 5.
Page 5--
The caption in panel one tells us that this scene takes place in March. Unlike past issues which encapsulated just the holiday itself, the events of this issue could take place over the course of several days, possibly up to two weeks. It is never stated when exactly these events occur, but taking travel time into account (see page 9's comments), it's gotta be a few days at least. (I would also assume that the monthly board meeting happens on the first business day of the month, not mid-month like St. Patty's does.)
The shadow on Bruce's face in the first panel shows the evil influence on him.
I might be mistaken but I think the girl on the left side of panel two was also seen in the boardroom scenes in issue one.
Page 6--In panels four and six, you can just spy the ivy sticking out from under Bruce's sleeves.
Page 7--
Panel two tells us it's Harvey's office. The window on his door displays his name. Also the lamp on the desk was there in issue four.
Harvey's face is half in shadow in the last panel. Coupled with his statement, "Don't give it a second thought," it adds up to more foreshadowing. Here his right side is shown, telling us his right, law-abiding side is in control and that he is honestly apologizing for comments made by his darker half. Throughout the following page we will only see half of Harvey's face. Luckily it will be the right side, as he discusses what legal measures they can take against Bruce Wayne.
Page 8--
Gordon makes reference to his past life in Chicago here, a fact established by Frank Miller during Batman Year One and expanded upon by Denny O'Neil in the miniseries Gordon's Law.
Panel three is I think the only time in the entire series where we see Jim without glasses.
Page 9--
The gun and the workbench here are meant to make us think that Carla is Holiday, but it's all just red herrings. The workbench we see behind Carla in panel two is different from Holiday's bench in issue one. The tools hanging on the wall behind the vice are, from left to right, pliers, handsaw, hammer, and wrench.
Morte of course means die in Italian.
In panel two you can see Sofia's foot coming out of the shadows in the back.
Is this Carla's house in Chicago? I assume so, since it wouldn't make sense for Carla to be hanging out in Gotham all the time since she rules Chicago. That means Sofia has made a special trip to Chicago to warn Carla about the hit on St. Patty's Day. I would assume that they would tell her several days before the hit, but it could be as early as the day before I suppose. The only real problem is that Sofia has to get back to Gotham for the hit. She COULD have flown back again that night, but it would be cutting it a little close.
Page 10--
"Forgot???" She "forgot" to give it to the cops on New Year's? Wouldn't the cops have known the gun was missing? If it was a "holiday" killing, they would have expected it to be there, and when it wasn't, they would have naturally been suspicious.
Anybody know what "cafone" means?
The workbench, as seen in panel four, has changed magically since last page. Now the tools hang in this order: handsaw, hacksaw, pliers, hammer, and wrench. (It's still not Holiday's though.)
"The banking situation" Carla alludes to in panel four is our first hint that Carmine is behind Ivy influencing Bruce.
Page 11, panel two--I love this panel. Catwoman's hand in the upper left corner lets us know that she will soon be intruding upon Ivy's control of Bruce, which is represented here by the ivy on the building. (And from Ivy's "You'll need it for--" comment, I guess Bruce and Ivy got a little busy! Was it necessary for them to have sex for Ivy to maintain her control or was it just 'cause Ivy wanted to?)
Page 16, panel four--Catwoman's sly smile reveals her feelings about Bruce. Good thing Alfred wasn't around to hear that!
Page 17--
Note the time on the clock in panel one. It's 5:03 on St. Patty's Day morn.
Does a .22 normally hold twelve shots? That's how many it fires in panel two.
Panel four tells us that for today at least Holiday is a lefty.
I don't really understand why Holiday had to reload to shoot the chandelier, or why it took at least nine shots (according to panel five) to bring it down.
Page 18--
At least ten are dead in this hit by Holiday: one at the top of the stairs, three on the left side, two on the right, two under the chandelier, one guy's head in the foreground, and a hand peeking out from behind the door on the left is number ten.
The quote at the bottom of the leprechaun statue "Erin go bragh" means Ireland forever.
OK. The nipple silencer? Why? After the first twelve bullets, there's no need for silence anymore, especially since there were then at least nine more shots.
Page 19--
Note the time here in panel one, according to Sofia's watch. It's at least ten minutes after the Holiday hit.
Knowing that, does Maroni's comment in the last panel make sense? Or does it even make sense for him to be upstairs looking out the window? The shooting ended ten minutes ago! Holiday's long gone, Sal!
Check out the statue standing in the doorway in panel two
Page 20--Why exactly did Catwoman use the signal here? The obvious answer is so that Batman can thank her for saving Bruce. But how would she know he would want to do that? Unless... she found out that Bruce was Batman while in Wayne Manor! (Or maybe since he probably disappeared from Gotham back on Valentine's when Bruce came under Ivy's control, she just missed him since she hadn't seen him in a month.)
Page 22--Carmine's finally wearing the ring again, as seen in panels one and four.
(You know, I can't help but wonder where Alfred is during this issue. Was he too under Ivy's influence? My inclination is that he was. Somebody had to be driving Ivy in Bruce's car on page six, and making dinner on page 11. Alfred surely would've noticed that Bruce was out of it if he had NOT been under the influence and would've tried to stop Ivy. My bet is that he did just that and Ivy got the best of him. Once Bruce had been freed by Selina, Bruce freed Alfred in turn.)
(Anybody know if "the green" which Bruce refers to is the actual green that is ruled by the Parliament of Trees and which Swamp Thing taps into? It's possible, I suppose, since Ivy was changed by Jason Woodrue, who in his guise of Floronic Man became well linked with the green.)
As March begins, a large menacing figure is being released from Gotham Penitentiary late in the evening. A limo picks the shadowy figure up from the prison gates and brings the person to the Falcone penthouse to meet with Carmine. It is his daughter, Sofia Gigante, and Carmine expresses the fact that he needs her by his side.
