Poison Ivy is Gotham City's resident eco-terrorist. A unique human/plant hybrid, she cares only for her beloved plants and their ultimate dominion over the planet. Once-human, Ivy's body has been chemically altered during a wayward experiment and can create any number of pheromones and toxins to entice or destroy.
Her unique bond with plants means she can swiftly generate new breeds or plant explosive seed pods on her enemies.
Background[]
Doctor Pamela Lillian Isley grew up in Seattle as the only daughter to wealthy yet distant parents. Intellectually brilliant but shy, withdrawn and naive, Pamela turned to plants to keep herself company as a child and consequentially immersed herself in advanced botanical biochemistry research in college, proving to be an exemplary student with an unusual affinity for the world of plants.
While attending botany class alongside Philip Sylvian and Alec Holland, Pamela was developing a thesis on Plant and Animal Hybridization when her professor, Doctor Jason Woodrue, seduced her and made her a human test subject for his own "Plant and Animal Hybridization" experiments. Nearly dying twice from his experiments, Pamela was admitted to hospital for six months while Woodrue fled the authorities by moving to New York City.
After she was released from the hospital, Pamela began developing pronounced mood swings due to her altered body chemistry but despite this, she tried to resume her college career and it was at this stage that the men and women began feeling inexplicably attracted to her when near her. Eventually gaining a loving boyfriend, Pamela dropped out of college after her lover died in a car accident that was caused by a mysterious fungal growth within his body.
While the toxins in her bloodstream left her immune to all poisons, it also made her touch deadly. As the toxins altered her body chemistry further, she soon gained the ability to control plant life and discovered that she could consciously produce pheromones to seduce men and women to obey her. She could also now "hear" the cries of the ravaged plant world and believed that the plants needed her help. While initially opting to live naturally and peacefully in an undisclosed forest away from mankind, Pamela was driven out when the forest was cleared to make way for a housing estate. Mortified by the pain and death she witnessed from the plants around her, she swore vengeance on those who caused her green friends such pain and traveled to Gotham City to face the company responsible for the estate development.
Dubbed "Poison Ivy" by the media, Pamela used her knowledge of botany and her newfound powers to create new strains of plants to enlisted some henchmen and began her first crime wave, holding the city hostage until the city's leadership gave her a massive sum of money; which she intended to use to fund a location where she could live with her plants in peace and away from humanity. Unfortunately, this was the same year that the Batman began operating in Gotham and he thwarted her, freeing the city from her threat and imprisoning her in Arkham Asylum.
During her incarceration in Arkham, Batman went to Seattle to gain information about her and learned that both of Pamela's parents were now dead. Meanwhile, Pamela seduced her guards during a transfer to Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary and escaped from custody, fleeing to an uninhabited island near the Caribbean.
Using her powers and botanical expertise to transform the barren island into a floral paradise, Pamela was able to live there quite happily with the local populace believing her to be a plant goddess until a Russian corporation conducts an illegal weapon test upon the island; killing everyone and everything on the island with a new napalm weapon. Surviving the attack, Pamela hunts members of the corporation to Gotham where she attempts to exact murderous revenge on those responsible but she is once again thwarted by Batman and returned to Arkham, albeit after Batman saves her life by placing himself between her a bullet intended to kill her. After this incident, Pamela resolves that she would never leave Gotham, at least not until the world was safe for plants and from then on, she dedicated herself to the mission of "purifying Gotham".
During her second imprisonment in Arkham, two women named Holly and Eva successfully broke Ivy out of Arkham and brought her to their boss, the Floronic Man, who was formerly Dr. Woodrue. Despite Ivy's animosity towards him, the Floronic Man offered Ivy a massive amount of money to use her DNA to create a child who could control a new strand of high-powered marijuana which he intended to flood the world with and alter the world’s economy. Batman interrupted the plan but was ambushed and subdued by Holly and Eva. Deciding that she did not want Woodrue running the world, Ivy freed Batman and allowed him to go after the villain as she successfully escaped with the money.
Turning her hand to mercenary work; specializing in seduction and poisons, Ivy eventually became a member of the original Injustice Gang of the World, which fought the Justice League of America on several occasions.
After several encounters with Batman, Ivy was locked in prison for a while, until she was released on parole. Joining forces with a criminal known as "The Grip", Ivy used her pheromones and seduction tactics to steal from wealthy men. Unfortunately, despite her intentions to the contrary, her victims died and investigations revealed that they had been killed by a disease that was slowly killing Ivy as well, weakening her poison immunity. Batman located Ivy and after a brief confrontation, she understood that her life was in danger and agreed to be hospitalized, where she would be properly treated and eventually recovered.
After a massive breakout from Arkham orchestrated by Bane, Poison Ivy escaped and created an army of "deadfellows", after which she attended a charity function at the Gotham Civic Center, where she released some plant spores in the air to mind control all the wealthy men of Gotham and she took them to her hideout. As Bane had planned, Batman thwarted Ivy's plans and stopped the eco-terrorist.
Ivy was shipped to Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary along with Deadshot as a possible asset for the Suicide Squad to use shortly after the Janus Directive incident and she inadvertently helped Lashina "recruit" the Squad to return to Apokolips thinking it was a Squad mission and continued to work with the Squad as recompense for being fooled.
When the voodoo-inspired L.O.A. (Louisiana Ordnance Association) drug cartel felt that Amanda Waller was getting too close to discovering their operations in Louisiana, they leak her continued involvement with the Suicide Squad to the press, forcing Sarge Steel to shut the Squad down and imprison Waller. However, Waller believes the L.O.A. must be stopped and promises Deadshot, Poison Ivy, and Ravan their freedom in exchange for one final mission; they hunt the L.O.A. leaders down and execute them.
One year after her arrest, Sarge Steel has Amanda Waller released from prison to handle a politically sensitive mission in Vlatava. American right-wing extremists, intending to spark open war with Russia, are funding a revolution lead by Count Vertigo against the Soviet regime. Waller agrees to help under several conditions. Recruiting Batman, who is investigating a homicide related to the revolution, Batman helps Waller re-recruit Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Poison Ivy, Ravan, and Vixen. After her "release" from the Squad, Ivy had became the lover of General Vaca; the president of Rio Brava in South America, and had taken advantage of her status in the country to plunder the nation's treasury. By the time Batman had come to recruit her she had driven the country's populace into rioting against her and the General and agrees to rejoin the Squad if Batman extracted her safely from the country.
Infiltrating his camp, Ivy takes control of Count Vertigo using her pheromones as the other Squad members take care of the other combatants in the conflict. As they return to headquarters Ivy keeps Vertigo under her thrall for her own pleasure, however, when the Egyptian government hires the Squad to take down Kobra in Jerusalem. Ivy had to release Vertigo from her control to disrupt the Israeli military. With Vertigo promising to kill her after he was done, Ivy flees the Squad.
During the War of the Gods incident, caused by Circe, Ivy stumbled upon Circe's stronghold in the Amazon and was captured by the Bana Mighdall. Strung up and about to be tortured, she was saved when the Squad co-incidentally attacked the stronghold to stop Circe.
Ivy's last mission with the Squad was a group infiltration and assassination mission on the island of Diabloverde. The Squad was to locate and assassinate the island's dictator, Edwardo Guzman, a CIA agent gone rogue who gained metahuman powers.
Returning to Gotham and starting another of her schemes to infest the city with her plants by distributing a super fertilizer that will allow her plants to grow at an increased rate, Ivy is present when a 7.6 "Cataclysm" earthquake destroys the city. Establishing that her plan had not been disrupted, Ivy attempts to enact her takeover while the city reeled from the earthquake, however, she was prevented from releasing her seeds into the damaged reservoir by Catwoman.
After Catwoman defeated her by causing her own seeds to grow inside her, Ivy was released along with the other inmates of Arkham after the city was declared a No Man's Land and found solace within the remains of Robinson Park, turning it into an Eden paradise. Sixteen children who were orphaned during the quake came to live with her, as she sympathized with them, having suffered a traumatic childhood herself. She cared for them like sons and daughters, despite her general misanthropy.
That winter, Clayface paid Ivy a visit, hoping to form a bargain with her. This would entail her growing fruits and vegetables, while the orphans harvested them, and then he would sell the produce to the highest bidder. She wanted nothing to do with the plan and attempted to kill him with a kiss. Clayface overpowered her and imprisoned her and the orphans for six months in a chamber under the lake in the park. He fed her salt and kept her from the sun to weaken her. Eventually, Batman came and discovered the prisoners. The two agreed to work together to take Karlo down. Batman battled Clayface and instructed Robin to blow up the lake bed above, allowing the rushing water to break apart the mud, effectively freeing Ivy. She fought Karlo, ensnaring him in the branches of a tree and fatally kissing him. She then proceeded to sink him down into the ground, where he became fertilizer for Ivy's plants. Batman, originally intended to take the orphans away from Ivy, recognized that staying with her was best for them, and they remained in her care until the city was restored.
As she was delivering produce to Gotham as part of her partnership deal with Batman, Ivy came across a crashed rocket from Amusement Mile. Discovering a woman inside, she took the woman back to her nursery to heal, later recognizing her as an ex-doctor of Arkham Asylum; Harleen Quinzel. Intrigued by the doctor's story about her fraternization with the Joker, Ivy opted to give the doctor a serum that altered her body chemistry to allow her metahuman strength, endurance and agility as well as an immunity to poisons.
After Gotham City was re-incorporated into the United States, the city wanted to evict Ivy 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 undo the work she had done, so she chose martyrdom. It was only after Rose, one of the orphans, was accidentally poisoned by Ivy that she surrendered herself to the authorities in order to save Rose's life.
Escaping incarceration again, Ivy was invited by Harley Quinn to attend a party alongside other villainesses and was present when Harley announced her desire to "fly solo".
After surviving Joker's "Last Laugh" where he attempts to send some jokerized villainesses to capture her so that he could impregnate her and produce an heir before he died, Quinn convinces Ivy to uproot from Gotham and leave with her to Metropolis, where the pair are immediately confronted by the Science Police and Thorn (Rhosyn Forrest). Breaking into a penthouse apartment the girls witness the occupant hanging herself and Harley vows to hunt down whomever drove her to kill herself. Meeting Jimmy Olsen again by chance, Harley decides to continue toying with him and finds employment at the Daily Planet as the love columnist "Holly Chance"; providing love advice to forlorn spouses in Metropolis. As Quinn steals a jet pack prototype from STAR Labs with Ivy's help, Thorn attempts to stop the duo only to become captured by Ivy, who had become affronted by the vigilante naming herself after a plant, brings her back to their apartment torture while Quinn escapes with the jetpack only to be confronted by Bizarro, who reveals that he has been stalking her since she had arrived in Metropolis and had formed a crush on her. After promising to help Bizarro find a mate, Harley returned to the apartment to continue toying with Jimmy Olsen while Ivy continued torturing Thorn only to be interrupted by Bizarro who informs her that he and Harley were going to LexCorp Tower to create a Bizarro wife for him.
After Bizarro frees Thorn after Ivy tells him "not to free Thorn", Ivy is ambushed and knocked unconscious by the vigilante. Meanwhile, Superman interferes with Harley and Bizarro's schemes but not before a bizarro copy of Harley was created and exploded. While Harley dies and goes to Hell while trying to escape Superman, Ivy is incarcerated once again.
Batman teams up with Ivy to stop a killer, and must later accept a kiss from her as a cure for poison. The story revolves around a killer carrying out a series of Ivy-like murders (i.e. poisonous flower bouquets delivered to the victims). However, after it's determined that Ivy cannot possibly be the culprit, Batman and Ivy work together to take the killer down. At the end of the story, Batman has been poisoned by the flowers, and he must kiss Poison Ivy for the cure. Batman at first decides to punch her, hesitates, then willingly shares a romantic kiss with her instead, curing him. At first assuming Batman dead, a distraught Poison Ivy tries to kill herself, further revealing her feelings for him and once more insinuating that it is more than just lust she feels for him. Later, Batman filled Ivy's cell at Arkham with flowers as a gift, to make sure her time there wasn't as daunting as it might have been
Later on, Ivy and other Gotham villains are manipulated by the Riddler and Hush in their scheme to destroy Batman. Her task was to hypnotize both Superman and Catwoman, using Catwoman to steal ransom money from Killer Croc after the original plan was interrupted by Batman while Superman serves as a 'bodyguard' when she hides in Metropolis. However, she abandons Catwoman to be killed by Killer Croc, and Batman is able to keep Superman busy in a fight long enough for the Man of Steel to break out of the spell. Soon afterwards, Ivy was captured and again incarcerated. After their scheme fails, the Riddler is hunted by every villain he had manipulated and he approaches Ivy for protection. Ivy instead ensnares the villain in her vines and tortures him both physically and psychologically for using her. Only releasing him after she breaks his spirit as prominent criminal in Gotham.
Two years after Gotham City's devastating earthquake, a chemical weapons cartel industrialist named Zhang is conducting experiments on orphans using Poison Ivy's body chemistry to create human/plant soldier hybrids like Ivy. Some of the orphans wind up publicly committing suicide and Ivy recognizes the names and faces of the victims as the orphans she had sheltered in Robinson Park during the city's eviction from the country. Recognizing her poisons in their bodies and believing that she had somehow poisoned them due to being in such close proximity with them for a year, she searches for some of the other Robinson Park orphans who were still alive.
While at the scene of another suicide, she informs Batman that, although her poisons were in their bodies, she had not caused the teens to commit suicide. Breaching Fluorotech's security, Ivy searches through Jason Woodrue's research in the hope of finding a way to prevent any further deaths be creating an antitoxin for herself or to find a way to revert back to her human form.
Meanwhile, Gotham City Police actively suspect that Ivy is the cause of the deaths of orphan, a cop, and a man in an elevator. While on the verge of apprehend Ivy, Hush intervenes and claims that he has developed an anti-toxin that can negate her pheromones and toxins (while in reality he had simply developed a variety of ways to temporarily withstand her abilities until after she leaves). Asking Hush for his help, the villain refuses to help her change back to her human form.
Using Woodrue's notes, Ivy conducts research to determine what caused her transformation into a toxic being. Full of remorse, Ivy becomes obsessed about restoring herself to her human form so that she can no longer harm anyone else and she again seeks out Bruce Wayne as a man who can finance her transformation.
As more of Poison Ivy's orphans are taken captive and delivered to Zhang's experimental laboratory, Ivy convinces Bruce Wayne to help her return human. She realizes that Wayne is not the wealthy playboy idiot stereotype as portrayed in the news while Wayne admits that Ivy is not the psychopathic murderous criminal described in the news as well. Reading Woodrue's research, Wayne tries a different base compound for an antidote to Ivy's body chemistry and successfully develops a means to return her human despite Hush confronting and ordering him to leave Ivy as she is.
Taking Wayne's cure and returned to human, Ivy takes a ride to Robinson Park with Wayne where she encounters a human Jason Woodrue. Woodrue reveals that a multi-national biological arms cartel was actually responsible for his initial experiments on her that turned her into Poison Ivy and that she was the only person who can stop the cartel's leaders and their plans to create more plant/human hybrids. Before Woodrue could explain how she could stop the cartel, assassins kill Woodrue but are subdued by Batman before they can train their weapons on Ivy.
Informing that hero that she now wants to return to her Poison Ivy form in an effort to hunt down the cartel's leaders, Batman refuses to aid her in this plan. Pamela then seeks out Bruce Wayne, but he also refuses to help her become Poison Ivy again. Finally, she turns to Hush who agrees to take her to WayneTech and develop a chemical formula to restore her to her hybrid form. However, Zhang confronts Hush and Ivy at WayneTech with one of his hybrid subjects. As a fight breaks out, Ivy injects killer toxins into Zhang with a needle while Hush throws the hybrid (a girl named Jenna) out a window. As Batman arrives and attempts to stop the duo, Ivy injects a toxic solution into her body in an attempt to return her hybrid powers. However, she seemingly dies from the attempt and is buried in the Gotham cemetery.
One year after the Infinite Crisis incident, Ivy had returned to life and was alive and active. Her control over flora had increased and she appeared to have resumed her crusade against the corporate enemies of the environment with a new fanaticism but was confronted and imprisoned by Batman upon his return to Gotham City.
It was discovered that during the year after the Infinite Crisis, Ivy had developed a fetish for feeding people to a giant plant which would digest them slowly and allow her to watch, recording everything on camera as a "guilty pleasure". In an unprecedented event, the souls of her victims merged with the plant, creating a botanical monster called "Harvest". Collectively seeking revenge on Ivy, Harvest invaded Arkham Asylum and attempted to eat her only for her to escape. Pursued through the city by Harvest, Ivy sought Batman's help, who held her within the Batcave under Robin's guard until Harvest found her and Batman sprung a trap for the mutation that caused it to retreat.
Ranked as one of Batman's most powerful foes, Ivy continues her fight for the Green against the apathetic, ignorant and uncaring industrialization of mankind.
Combat Statistics[]
- Poison Ivy (The Greenhouse)
- Poison Ivy (Arkham Asylum)
- Villainy United
- Poison Ivy (Harley's Heist)
- Poison Ivy (Wayne Manor Gala)
- Poison Ivy (Bounty)
- Poison Ivy (Turf War)
Involvement[]
- Poison Ivy is one of the possible bosses in the Turf War: Team Joker duo of the Riddled with Crime episode.
- She is one of the random bounties in the Amusement Mile's Gang War (Bounty: Joker & Riddler Allies / Wanted: Joker & Riddler Allies).
- Poison Ivy is one of the taskmasters for the daily missions in BoP: Metropolis.
- Poison Ivy is available as an ally.
- Poison Ivy serves as Pride Month Vendor during the month of June.
Heroes[]
- She is also the center of attention of the Spring Seasonal event where Heroes must stop her plants from taking over Gotham.
- Poison Ivy has released her legions of plants to spread across the Giordano Botanical Gardens area. Robin has gone ahead to investigate. You must clear the area of her plant pods and locate Robin inside Poison Ivy's lair.
- She is one of the bosses in Arkham Asylum (Alert). She, Scarecrow, and Mr. Freeze have taken over Arkham Asylum and Heroes must fight them.
- Heroes must stop her, Harley Quinn and Catwoman during Harley's Heist.
- Heroes must aid her and Harley Quinn in freeing Catwoman from the Penguin at the Iceberg Lounge.
- Heroes must stop her, Harley Quinn and Catwoman at the Wayne Manor Gala.
Villains[]
- She is also the center of attention of the Spring Seasonal event where Villains must help her plants take over Gotham. She's located in The Pit where she gives villain players their quest.
- She is one of the bosses in Arkham Asylum (Alert). She, Scarecrow, and Mr. Freeze have taken over Arkham Asylum and Villains must fight them.
- Villains must help her, Harley Quinn and Catwoman during Harley's Heist.
- Villains must help her, Harley Quinn and Catwoman at the Iceberg Lounge.
- Villains must help her, Harley Quinn and Catwoman at the Wayne Manor Gala.
Associated Equipment[]
- Poison Ivy's Thorny Cincture
- Poison Ivy's Cultivated Belt
- Poison Ivy Emblem
- Enhanced Poison Ivy Emblem
- Botanical
Trivia[]
- Poison Ivy first appeared in Batman #181 (June 1966).
- Poison Ivy is voiced by Cyndi Williams.
- In addition to her metahuman powers and condition, Ivy is a very talented and knowledgeable botanist and chemist.
- While Woodrue's experiments on Ivy gifted her with fantastic powers, they also left her barren and infertile. Unable to conceive a child of her own, Ivy turns to her plants as her surrogate children and has a special soft spot for children in general; often going out of her way to protect them.
- Ivy's best friend is the Joker's sidekick, Harley Quinn. Taking pity on the girl when they first met, Ivy gave Quinn a herbal remedy that increased her strength and agility as well as making her immune to poisons so that she could survive her boyfriend's abuse. As time wore on, Ivy's friendship with Quinn grew from one of strained toleration and pity to one of intimate trust and what may be love. Their relationship has grown to include being available to each other for physical and emotional support as well as, after some exploration, indulging in sexual liaisons with each other. As Ivy tries to help break the abusive control the Joker has over Harley, Harley tries to convince "Red" that not all humans are bad.
- Ivy considers Batman "the perfect man" (largely due to his ability to constantly resist her) and wants him for herself. She also has a twisted interpretation of their relationship as Batman being her "Knight in Shining Armor" while she's locked up in Arkham, and at times has been frustrated and confused by why he would ever reject an offer to be with her forever. Although he has admitted that he finds her attractive and is tempted physically, Batman harbours no emotional attraction to Ivy.
- Ivy is openly bisexual, having no prejudice against seducing males or females to meet her ends and has been known to enthrall/take on lovers of either gender, sometimes multiple at a time, depending on whichever gender she wishes to herself indulge in. She seems to enjoy harems, group sex and assuming a dominatrix role; enjoying her ability to dominate her lovers and enjoying watching humans debase themselves like animals with her and each other. She has also recently developed a fetish for watching her plants eat people; deriving sexual pleasure from seeing, watching and hearing her beloved plants swallowing and digesting people so that they can absorb the proteins and nutrients found within the human body. One of her more notable lovers is her close friend, Harley Quinn, with whom she shares an open sexual relationship/friends-with-benefits arrangement. It should be noted that Harley is the only human that Ivy nearly loves as much as her plants and she has often fought to defend Harley's life despite her announced hatred for humanity.
- Ivy's skin is green due to the deadly toxins that flow through her body. As such she is immune to most toxins and possesses a "poison kiss" which can paralyze, enthrall or kill her foes depending on her mood. By manipulating the amount of toxins in her veins, Ivy can return her skin colour to it's previous "human pink" hue. Thanks to a concoction created by Ivy herself, Harley Quinn is immune to Ivy's poisons.
- Ivy's physiology is dependent on receiving a certain amount of sunlight, which she absorbs and converts to energy in much the same way plants do. She becomes greatly weakened if deprived of sunlight for an extended period of time. To this end she prefers to expose as much of her skin to sunlight as possible and so wears as little clothing as possible (which conveniently aids in her seductive abilities), indulging in pure nudism when in the privacy of her home.
- Both self professed "Guardians of The Green”, Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing are considered to be mirror images of each other; whereas Swamp Thing is plant life convinced it is still a man, the more humanoid Ivy will willingly sacrifice the lives of humans in favour of her beloved plants. Swamp Thing himself refers to Ivy as the "May Queen".
Gallery[]
See also[]
External links[]
- Poison Ivy (comics) Wikipedia
- Poison_Ivy DC Database
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Characters | |
Affiliates | Amanda Waller - Bane - Black Adam - Captain Boomerang (George Harkness) - Captain Boomerang (Owen Mercer) - Captain Cold - Deadshot - Doctor Light - Duchess - Harley Quinn - Killer Frost - King Shark - Mirror Master - Oracle - Parasite - Penguin - Poison Ivy - Power Girl - Solomon Grundy - Speedy - Steel - Superboy - Vixen |
Adversaries | Batman - Lois Lane |
Other | Chemo - Vicki Vale |
Items | |
Bombshell Belle Reve's Poster | |
Weapons | |
Apparel | Expert Marksman - Punchline |
Vehicles | |
Locations | |
Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary | |
PvE | Suicide Squad Training |
PvP | Belle Reve Sanitarium |
Miscellaneous | |
Checkmate - United States of America - Justice League of America - Justice Society of America | |