Pamela Isley (New Earth)

Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a botanist from Seattle, was once a very intelligent, yet naive, college student who knew just about everything about plants. That is, until her professor, Dr. Jason Woodrue (aka the Floronic Man) conducted experiments upon her by seducing her with words of love. The experiments placed toxins in her blood stream that make her touch deadly and allow her to be immune to all poisons, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The experiments also allowed her to produce mind-control pheromones that drove men wild at her touch. They also made her barren, and she has treated her plants as children, mothering them, ever since.

Woodrue fled the authorities, leaving Pamela in the hospital for six months. Enraged at the betrayal, Pamela suffered violent mood swings. After her boyfriend got into a car accident after mysteriously suffering from a massive fungal overgrowth, Isley dropped out of school and left Seattle, eventually setting roots down in Gotham City.

Her first act: threatening to release her deadly spores into the air unless the city met her demands. Thus, she became infamous as Poison Ivy. The Batman, who had appeared in Gotham that very same year, subdued her and thwarted her scheme, resulting in her incarceration in Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Despite Gotham's perpetual night, Ivy remained. As the years went on, the naïveté of Pamela Isley faded as the hardness that comes with a criminal lifestyle progressed. She would become more plant-like year by year. To this day, over a decade later, she still remains a thorn in Batman's side.

Leaving Gotham

A few years later, she would try to leave Gotham forever, escaping Arkham to settle on a desert island in the Caribbean. She molded the barren wasteland into a second Eden, and was, for the first time in her life, happy. It was soon firebombed, however, when an American-owned corporation tested their weapons systems out on what they thought was an abandoned island. Ivy then returned to Gotham with a vengeance, punishing those responsible. After willing apprehension by Batman, she resolved that she could never leave Gotham, at least not until the world was safe for plants. From then on, she dedicated herself to the impossible mission of purifying Gotham (considered the most polluted city in America).

Arkham Asylum

In some adaptations she can control plants. For example, in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell she was able to manipulate plants telepathically, using roots to form supports for a tunnel she and another inmate named Magpie were digging to escape, and also spawning glowing fungi to entertain Magpie.

The Injustice Gang of the World

Poison Ivy was a member of the original Injustice Gang of the World, which fought the Justice League on several occasions. She also joined the Secret Society of Super-Villains for a mission against the Justice League. Years later, she was coerced into being a member of the Suicide Squad. During this time she used her abilities to enslave Count Vertigo.

Harley Quinn

She also has been friends with The Joker's sidekick Harley Quinn. Unlike most villain team-ups, their partnership seems to be genuinely rooted in friendship, and Ivy really wants to save Harley from her abusive relationship with The Joker.

Robinson Park Orphans

Another positive side of her was shown when she took care of some children after an earthquake that leveled Gotham City left them orphans. They resided in Robinson Park, which had been a polluted haven for junkies and prostitutes before Ivy arrived. She came to love the children like sons and daughters, protecting them from danger. After Gotham City reopened to the public, the city wanted to evict her from the park and send her back to Arkham Asylum. They also mistakenly believed that the orphans in Ivy's care were unwilling hostages. The Gotham City Police Department threatened to spray the park with a powerful herbicide that most certainly would have killed every living plant in the park, including Ivy, and more than likely do harm to the children as well. Ivy refused to leave the park to the city and let them destroy the Eden she had created, so she chose martyrdom. It was only after Rose, one of the orphans, was accidentally poisoned by Ivy that the hardened eco-terrorist surrendered herself to the authorities in order to save Rose's life. Batman stated that Ivy was still more plant than human.

Poison Ivy recently came to believe that her powers were killing the children she looked after, so she got Batman to reverse her powers and make her a normal human being once more. Soon after she was convinced by Hush to take another serum to restore her powers and apparently died in the process. However, when her grave was visited it was covered with vine and ivy, creating the impression her death would be short-lived. A short time later Poison Ivy returned in Gotham Central #32 , killing some corrupt cops who killed one of her orphans, though whether this takes place before or after the aforementioned storyline is unknown.

One Year Later

Poison Ivy & Batman - Detective Comics 823

"One Year Later", Ivy is alive and active. Her control over flora has increased, referred to as being on a par with Swamp Thing or the Floronic Man. She also appears to have resumed her crusade against the corporate enemies of the environment with a new fanaticism, regarding Batman no longer as a main opponent, but as a 'hindrance'.

Detective Comics #823 reveals that Ivy has been feeding people including "tiresome lovers", "incompetent henchmen", and those who "returned her smile" to a giant plant which would digest the victims slowly and painfully. She refers to it as a "guilty pleasure". In an unprecedented event, her victims' souls merge with the plant, creating a botanical monster called Harvest, who seeks revenge upon Ivy. With the intervention of Batman, however, she is saved. Ivy is left in critical condition, and the whereabouts of Harvest are unknown.

Countdown

Poison Ivy, The Trickster and Pied Piper - Countdown 37

Poison Ivy makes a brief appearance in Countdown.^[1] She catches the Trickster and Pied Piper eating fruits in one of her gardens.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Chlorokinesis: Semi-mystical connection to the plant world through a force called the Green. In some adaptations she can control plants with her mind. For example, in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell she was able to manipulate and animate plants, using roots to form supports for a tunnel she and another inmate named Magpie were digging to escape, and also spawning glowing fungi to entertain Magpie. She controls an entire tree to come down on Clayface, ensnaring him in its branches. More recently, in Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows, she can be seen bringing down a whole skyscraper with giant vines.

Enhanced Strength

Toxic Immunity: Immunity to all toxins, bacteria, and viruses

Toxikinesis: a deliberate overdose of plant and animal based toxins into her blood stream that make her touch deadly. Ivy can create the most potently powerful floral toxins in Gotham City. Often these are secreted from her lips and administered via a kiss. They come in a number of varieties, from mind controlling drugs to instantly fatal necrotics. Her skin is toxic as well, although contact with it is usually not fatal.

Pheromone Control: Ivy is known to be able to seduce men and women alike, often using pheromones to do so

Abilities

Botanist: Expertise in botany. She specializes in creating new plant species and plant/animal hybrids

Toxicologist: expert in toxicology.

Proficient Combatant: Poison Ivy's athletic abilities have grown over the course of her career. She has learned a limited style of martial arts fighting, is proficient at climbing and leaping, and is a strong and fast swimmer.

Strength level

Average: Poison Ivy possesses the strength level of a woman her age, size and weight who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Weaknesses

Mental instability

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

Physical appearance

Poison Ivy by Jim Lee

Being a character that utilizes aesthetics to her best advantage, Poison Ivy has no shortage of different looks, ranging from variations of how she looked in her first appearance with tights and flesh tone to a naked goddess-like persona.

Her skin tone varies frequently. It has been mentioned that her blood contains chlorophyll which, being a pigment, would theoretically cause her to have green skin. However, most portrayals of her, particularly earlier ones, depicted her with either tan, snow-white alabaster, or off-white skin.

In recent years, DC Comics has depicted Ivy with green skin in some comics, although these are an exception to the norm. An explanation for this storyline was offered in Catwoman (Volume 1) #57, where a chemical formula of Ivy's falls onto her skin and causes the pigmentation change.

Poison Ivy (art by John Watson)

Ivy is a manipulative, red-haired seductress. At her first appearance, her costume is a one-piece, strapless green bathing suit, covered with leaves. Leaves also form her bracelets, necklace and crown. She wears green high heels and yellow-green nylon stockings with leaves painted on them. These particulars changed somewhat when she re-appeared. She keeps variations of this look from the 60s to the early 90s. It was not until No Man's Land that the character undergoes a significant physical change, ridding herself of the nylon stockings and high heels. During this time, she is depicted as freely walking around naked.

Artists such as Jim Lee draw her in a green form-fitting one-piece bathing suit. Other times she is seen in minimal attire composed of leaves that always follows a bathing suit pattern. She is no longer drawn as having tights or high heels, and is often depicted barefoot.^[2]^[3] When she is not, she is wearing "elf-shoes".^[4]

Trivia

Poison Ivy, Batman & Catwoman art by Jim Lee

Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy has been portrayed as a love interest for Batman in some comics. In one comic, Ivy was robbing a charity gala Bruce Wayne was attending. Ivy's first kiss was poison, the second its antidote. When they first meet, Ivy's toxic lips planted a seed of toxic rapture in Bruce. But when she later kissed a dying Dark Knight, Ivy unknowingly cured her intended victim and established a budding romantic tension between them.

Creator Robert Kanigher modeled Poison Ivy after Bettie Page, giving her the same haircut and Southern drawl as Page. In her first appearances in 1966, no origin was developed; she was merely a temptress. At her first appearance, her costume was a one-piece, strapless green bathing suit, covered with leaves. Leaves also formed her bracelets, necklace and crown. She also wore green high heels and yellow-green nylon stockings with leaves painted on them. These particulars changed somewhat when she re-appeared.

Poison Ivy was promoted after the rise of feminism brought the need for a greater number of more independent female villains in the series. She was also used to replace the increasingly sympathetic Catwoman as a clearly antagonistic female supervillain foil for Batman, and then made further appearances in the Batman comic book series and in Suicide Squad. An origin story was later concocted for her.

In Pre-Crisis continuity, Ivy's height and weight were 5'2", 100 lbs. ^[5]

Appearances in Other Media

Animated Series

Batman: The Animated Series

Poison Ivy (by Bruce Timm)

In Batman: The Animated Series and spin-offs, Poison Ivy was voice-acted by Diane Pershing. Her first appearance involved an assassination attempt on Harvey Dent, whom she was dating at the time, as retribution for the construction of Stonegate Penitentiary. The prison was built over a field that was the last habitat for a rare flower. In the earlier days of the Animated series, her meta-human characteristics, such as her immunity to toxins, were downplayed or outright ignored, instead portraying her as a human with an extreme affinity for plants. She mentions in "House and Garden", in which she ostensibly reforms, that her unique condition has left her unable to bear children.

The New Batman Adventures

Later in the series, she would become more and more plant-like, her skin turning chalk-white, and gaining the ability to control plants and produce acids from her body. She also underwent something of a personality change. While she still had a deep sense of devotion and love toward plants, she no longer seemed to have the fanatical mindset she once possessed toward them. Ivy also became more humorous and seductive in personality; this coincides with the depiction of her relationship with Harley Quinn as genuinely sympathetic. Although she apparently died in the episode "Chemistry," she would return again in several spin-off series, including "Static Shock," "Justice League" and a co-starring role in the Gotham Girls web-toon. The character also starred in her own miniseries alongside Harley Quinn, and was given her swan song in the critically acclaimed "Batman Adventures" comic book series (although, it is not considered canon with the animated series).

Subsequent spin-offs

She apparently survives the shipwreck and returns in several spin-off series, including "Static Shock," and the Gotham Girls web-toon, in which she held co-starring role. The character also co-starred in the three-issue comic book miniseries Harley and Ivy, and was given her swan song in the critically acclaimed "Batman Adventures" comic book series, which contains stories about Batman's adventures in Gotham City after a break from the Justice League. In the Justice League series, she appears only once, in a lobotomized form in an alternate universe. Bruce Timm stated that he turned down pitches for Poison Ivy episodes on Justice League so they could focus on new characters and storylines, only bringing back a minimal amount of villains from previous shows

The Batman

Poison Ivy - The Batman

Piera Coppola currently voices Poison Ivy in the animated TV show, The Batman, complete with a new origin with stronger ties to Barbara Gordon. In this Gotham, Poison Ivy is a young environmental activist, and Barbara Gordon's friend. She convinces Barbara to help her with her "protests," which were actually scouting missions on pollutionary companies for her hired mercenary, the corporate saboteur Temblor. In an attack on one such company, a plant mutagen falls on her during a battle between Temblor and the Batman. She awakes in an ambulance afterward and manifests powers similar to her other incarnations, most notably psionic plant control, and an ability to exhale mind-controlling spores when she blows a kiss at her desired target. She swiftly turns her powers to furthering her ecoterrorist career, before being stopped by Batman and Barbara in her debut as Batgirl.

Batman and Robin (Film)

Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy

Uma Thurman played Poison Ivy in the film Batman and Robin. This incarnation, boasting over-the-top acting, strange costumes and even stranger hair styles, is largely considered the worst version of the character, a sentiment in line with the over-all derision poured upon the film from fans and critics alike. This Isley is transformed when she is presumably murdered by her mad scientist boss, Jason Woodrue, and soon falls in love with Mr. Freeze, leading to a partnership to destroy Gotham City. Ivy is depicted in the film using her powers (toxic kisses and pheromones) liberally, as well as using Bane, in this version similarly transformed by Woodrue as well, as her sidekick. She is defeated by Batgirl, incarcerated and presumably frozen by Mr. Freeze as he saw that she betrayed him by nearly killing his near-dead wife, blaming Batman for the incidence instead.

Video Games

Poison Ivy has appeared in most of the Batman video games over the years. She appeared as a boss in Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD, Batman: Chaos in Gotham, the video game adaptation of the movie Batman & Robin, Batman: Vengeance and Batman: Dark Tomorrow. In most of these games Ivy does not fight Batman directly and usually watches in the background while Batman fights one of her plant monsters. In The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD and Batman: Vengeance, Diane Pershing reprised her role from Batman: The Animated Series.

Merchandise

Poison Ivy by Yamato

There are several statues, busts and action figures depicting Poison Ivy.

Links and References

Footnotes

↑ Countdown #37-36
↑ Batgirl #52
↑ Batman: Hush
↑ Harley Quinn Series
↑ Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe XVIII

Batman Villain(s)

This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of the Batman, or members of the Batman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Batman Villains."

Pamela Isley (New Earth) was a Featured Article on the DC Database Project!

[0] Countdown #37-36

[1] Batgirl #52

[2] Batman: Hush

[3] Harley Quinn Series

[4] Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe XVIII

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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