"The Poison in the Apple" V #9 (DC Comics) Written by Cary Bates Pencils by Carmine Infantino Inks by Tony DeZuniga Cover by Jerry Bingham October 1985

With the coming of summer, the Visitors have a window to exploit the heat weakness in the red dust and prepare an attack against New York.

Story Summary

In a captured skyfighter, Donovan, Julie, Willie, Kyle, and Elizabeth travel to New York City to meet with Mayor Alison Stein about the Visitors' planned attempt to move in on the city with the coming of Spring and the expected weakness of the red dust bacteria during that time. But upon landing and making their presentation of evidence to Mayor Stein, they are rejected.

Soon we learn that Mayor Stein has been replaced with a lizard duplicate. Later, as Donovan and Julie go on a stroll through the city, they are attacked by three Visitors disguised as homeless humans. They defeat the three lizards and Diana is upset at the upset.

Meanwhile, Lydia seeks revenge on Diana for bringing about the death of Charles. She sets her up to have to "reward" the humongous, lovesick Visitor freak Walter if he should successfully track down and kill Donovan.

At the end of the issue, a plethora of New York citizens present themselves to our heroes, ready to fight for their city and for Earth.

CONTINUED IN V #10

Didja Know?

The title "The Poison in the Apple" is a double reference. The story takes place in New York, which has the nickname the Big Apple. The second reference is to the poisoned apple eaten by Snow White in the Brothers Grimm version of the European fairy tale often called "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves".

The cover of this issue shows Kyle, Willie, Julie, Donovan, and Elizabeth against the flaming backdrop of L.A. with the question "Who are the Survivors?" It really has nothing to do with the story and is intended to show that the comic book has finally caught up to the TV series and is showing who is left as the major cast of V after the fall of Los Angeles on the TV series.

New York City mayor Alison Stein is a character borrowed from the novels, East Coast Crisis, Death Tide, and Path to Conquest.

Didja Notice? 

The TV news reporter on pages 1-2 is presumably meant to be Howard K. Smith since Donovan mentions that this report is from the Freedom Network.

The news reporter tells us that this issue opens three months after the burning of the open city of Los Angeles.

On page 4 Willie tries to make a joking remark about Donovan's chauvinism towards Julie. He says, "You sound like a male chauvinist fig, Mike."

Also on page 4, Mayor Stein mentions Gracie Mansion. Gracie Mansion, built by Archibald Gracie in 1799, has been the official residence of the mayor of New York City since 1942.

On page 5, Lydia is mourning the death of Charles in what appears to be a place of worship on the L.A. mothership. The room has a number of giant carved serpent heads, a pedestal of steaming stones, and a stylized image of a sun on the wall behind the pedestal.

Page 5 depicts Lydia crying over thoughts of the dead Charles. But how can that be when Death Tide reveals that the Visitors have no tear ducts? Lydia also invokes revenge against Diana in the name of Zon! But not only is Zon an outlawed religion, its  followers believe only in peace and nonviolence, not vengeance. It is highly unlikely that Lydia would be a follower of the Zon religion.

On pages 8-9, the imposter Mayor Stein reveals a Visitor weapon we've not seen before. She shoots a ray beam out of her purse that causes two muggers in Central Park to "evaporate" over the course of a few minutes.

Page 10 reveals that Nathan Bates has a brother named Dave who owns a townhouse in New York City. Dave is away in Europe at the time of this story.

Page 10 also reveals that Science Frontiers is now defunct since the death of its CEO, Nathan Bates.

On page 11, Kyle, Elizabeth, and Willie play a game of Trivial Pursuit. Elizabeth pulls a card and asks the question "What were the two hostile races that were the arch-enemies of the Federation on Star Trek?" Kyle, being the Trekkie he is (who knew?) immediately answers "Klingons and Romulans", which is correct.

On page 14, one of the undercover Visitors posing as vagrants calls the other Hanak. I presume that is a Visitor name. On page 15, Diana calls the undercover "bag lady" Visitor, Cybul. The unusual spelling of "Cybul" (instead of Cybil) may indicate it is an actual Visitor name as well.

After Donovan and Julie thwart the Visitor "hit" on Donovan, he comments, regarding Diana, their actions did not "make her day". This is probably a reference to the 1982 Clint Eastwood movie Sudden Impact in which Detective Harry Callahan twice uses the phrase "Go ahead, make my day," daring two violent criminals not to surrender so he will have an excuse to shoot them.

Page 17 shows Diana sleeping on a huge, ornate bed in her quarters. The serpents look similar to the ones just seen in Lydia's place of worship. And we've seen Diana in bed before ("Plan for Resistance" and "War of Illusions") and it doesn't look like this!

On page 18 we see that the Visitor Walter is apparently capable of crashing through a bulkhead on the mothership! Despite his large size, it seems unlikely at best.