Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero is a 2021 DC Comics graphic novel published under its DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults label.
Sixteen-year-old Willow Zimmerman has something to say. She advocates on the streets for her community, works nights at the local dog shelter, and tries to help all those in need, even the local stray dog she’s named Lebowitz. And most importantly, her mother, who has brain cancer.
When she reconnects with estranged family friend E. Nigma, he opens the door to an easier life. Through her new job hosting his private poker nights with Gotham’s elites, Willow is able to afford critical medical treatments for her mother. Then one day, Willow and Lebowitz collide with the monstrous Killer Croc and get injured, waking up able to understand each other.
But when Willow discovers that E. Nigma and his friends are actually some of Gotham’s most corrupt criminals, she must make a choice: remain loyal to the man who saved her mother’s life, or use her new powers to be a voice for her community.
Tropes in this comic include:
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Poison Ivy is given dark hair in this graphic novel, while she is normally a redhead.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Riddler and Poison Ivy are still presented as antagonists due to their actions trying to drive people out of Down River, but the two are given a large amount of humanity to stop them from outright being pure evil. They both legitimately care about Willow and think they're doing good, and neither of them are actively trying to hurt anyone. When Riddler tells Ivy to kill Whistle with a poison kiss, the two have to step aside and discuss the ramifications. They clearly don't want to kill her and Ivy states Riddler swore there wouldn't be bloodshed, but Riddler hesitantly feels they don't have a choice.
- And the Adventure Continues: Willow continues being a neighborhood crime-fighter, though Edward's plans are still in motion and she still has to contend with living a double life.
- Anti-Hero: For most of the comic, Willow spends her time around Pammie and E. Nigma, despite knowing Pammie's views can be extreme and that Edward's illegal activities caused his friendship with Willow's mother to turn toxic, but she still hangs out with them because she looks up to Pammie regardless, she needs the money from her uncle and refuses to let him give it to her without labor, and she cares about the both of them. That said, she's appalled when it turns out they're supervillains and are responsible for wrecking buildings in her neighborhood, forcing her hand, though she's still conflicted between maintaining her relationships with them or doing the right thing. Eventually, she chooses to do the right thing.
- Arc Words: Toxic and manipulative, first used by Willow when she explains why her mother cut off ties with E. Nigma, then by Pammie when she talks about her relationship that turned sour, resulted in her powers, and gave her her view on people.
- Big Friendly Dog: Lebowitz, a stray Great Dane who is almost as big as Willow. Willow's mother takes her in after the Killer Croc attack, and she fights crime with Willow as "The Hound."
- The Cameo:
- Graciela is shown wearing a shirt with Wonder Woman's logo at the rally. Later, Willow wears a Flash logo shirt during her workout montage, and Garfield wears a Green Lantern logo shirt at the deli.
- It's implied that the woman who comments in on Pammie and Willow's conversation about college at the sauna is Selina Kyle, as she's wearing a shirt with felines on it. Later, when Willow tries coming up with a superhero costume, she decides a couple of her attempts look "too Catwoman".
- A graffiti reading "Harley Was Here" can be seen.
- Willow and Garfield attend a Black Canary band, with the lead singer being a young Dinah.
- At the toy store, boxes of toys for Superman, Mister Miracle, and Orion can be seen. A Batman toy can also be seen strung up on the ceiling.
- While Willow and Pammie are out shopping, they're seen walking next to Barbara Gordon and her friends. Earlier on, when they ride the train, the man to their right heavily resembles The Penguin.
- Canon Character All Along: Willow makes friends with a new student named Garfield, whose name is later casually revealed to be Garfield Logan, the civilian identity of Beast Boy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Pammie had a relationship with someone she trusted and looked up to, but it became "manipulative and toxic", resulting in them trying to kill her with plant-poison. However, instead of killing her, it gave her powers, including immunity to toxins and a poison kiss. Now, she can never be in a romantic relationship, neither physically (due to her poison kiss) or mentally (as she was left with trust issues).
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Riddler orders Poison Ivy to give Whistle a poison kiss because she knows too much, though neither of them are trigger-happy about it, as Riddler promised Ivy there wouldn't be bloodshed and neither are comfortable with killing but feel they have no other options.
- Honorary Uncle: E. Nigma is one for Willow, having been a friend of her mother's since college, though they haven't seen each other for a while as her mother cut off ties with him.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks:
- Willow finds that quitting her job at the shelter so that she can get more money through her estranged uncle's illegal work takes up more time from being with her friends while also risking getting her mother upset and rejecting the money if she knew where it really came from.
- In the process of becoming Whistle, Willow becomes even more torn, now having to keep secret about being the superhero who foiled her uncle and rolemodel's evil schemes while still wanting to keep her relationships with them.
- Kiss of Death: As a result of her powers, Pammie has a poisonous kiss, and she laments that she can never have a love life because of this.
- Morality Pet:
- Willow and Naomi are this for E., with E. wanting to give them money to help them and getting worried about Willow's life being endangered when Killer Croc attacks her for being his assistant… though he does very little to turn her away when she insists on continuing to work for him.
- Poison Ivy calls 911 after finding Willow injured from Killer Croc's attack.
- Mythology Gag: To Black Canary: Ignite. Willow and Garfield go to a Black Canary performance, with a seemingly deaged Dinah as the singer and her two friends on the piano and drums, as well as their band logo matching the title of the comic. However, the two comics do not take place in a Shared Universe, as Dinah's friends look wholly different from how they looked in Ignite and there would be little change them if they were indeed in the same continuity.
- Nobody Poops: Averted. Pammie explains to Willow that a plant-only diet is much healthier for her, such as for her poop. When Willow is disgusted that she would talk to her about that, Pammie responds that healthy living includes not being grossed out about how your body works.
- Stealth Pun: Pammie was in a toxic relationship that literally ended with them poisoning her.
- Suddenly Speaking: Willow is shocked when she can hear Lebowitz speaking English, but it turns out this is because Willow can now understand and communicate with her instead of everyone understanding the dog.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Willow explicitly said her mother's friendship with E. turned toxic which is why she cut ties with him, and Willow later on realizes she's changing in a bad way the more she works for him.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Killer Croc attacks Willow and has attacked the Riddler's previous assistants because Riddler's plans put Down River in danger, with Croc declaring himself as Down River's protector, even if it means hurting the teenage Willow.
- As usual, Poison Ivy wants plants to take over Gotham because she believes in preserving the environment. She believes the world needs radical change in order for the planet to survive, but she doesn't care about people due to her past trauma and how they've treated nature.
- E. Nigma has Pammie wreck buildings (specifically, community buildings, like religious buildings, restaurants, libraries…) in Down River because he plans to buy them after their price is lessened from property damage and people leaving, then rebuild and renovate them.
