Poison Ivy

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38 years ago - Pamela Isley is born.
35 years ago - 3-year-old Pamela is diagnosed with a skin condition that requires regular sunlight.  She spends most of her time in her rooftop garden.
31 years ago - 7-year-old Pamela's father kills her mother & buries her in the garden.  He is sent to prison & she's placed in foster care.
24 years ago - 14-year-old Pamela concocts a poisoned kiss that she uses to kill her father without suspiscion.
20 years ago - 18-year-old Pamela goes to college to study botany.  She has Jason Woodrue as a professor, and volunteers as a subject in some of his experiments, altering her biochemistry.
16 years ago - 22-year-old Pamela graduates & begins her graduate work in Botanical Biochemistry.
13 years ago - 25-year-old Pamela's research funding is cut.  Enraged, she adapts her own biochemistry to become a plant hybrid, generating a variety of poisonous or mind-controling pheremones.  She threatens Gotham with her spore clouds and hybrid plants, demanding enough money to continue her research.  She is stopped by Batman when he manages to resist her.  
10 years ago - 28-year-old Pamela escapes from Arkham and retreats from Gotham to a tropical island.  She is persued by Batman, but when they work together to stop the local government from testing weapons on the locals, he agrees to allow her to remain.  
8 years ago - 30-year-old Pamela joins Swamp Thing as he battles Jason Woodrue's attempt to usurp his role as defender of the Parliment of Trees.  She retires to a flower shop in Gotham, promising to help the green.
5 years ago -33-year-old Pamela's location is exposed as part of Edward Nygma's grand scheme.  She attacks and almost kills him, only held back with Barbara Gordon's help.  She is sent back to Arkham.
3 years ago - 35-year-old Pamela escapes Arkham during No Man's Land.  She takes over and protects Robinson Park, protecting a group of homeless children.  They are attacked by Basil Karlo, but are rescued by Talon. She returns to Arkham in the aftermath to guarantee the safety of the children.
1 year ago - 37-year-old Pamela befiends Harley Quinn in Arkham.  When the Joker comes to free Harley he tries to make her kill Pamela, and beats and abandons her when she can't. They escape together, and have adventues as they leave the city & travel the country.
now - 38-year-old Pamela returns to Gotham with Harley Quinn to confront the Joker.
While always considered on of the central members of Batman's rogues gallery, Poison Ivy is also very much set apart from the rest because her motivations are so completely different.  She's not a thief, or a psychopath... She's incredibly dangerous, but really only when she's threatened.  Unlike so many of the other villains that are proactive, she tends to be content when she's isolated, and only becomes a threat when some outside force disrupts her solitude.

But of course, she wasn't always depicted this way, and how she got to be what she is is actually an interesting notion to explore.

Ivy's Comic History

Poison Ivy debuted in 1966.  She was originally Dr. Lillian Rose, and was tricked to help in a heist before her accomplice poisoned her in an attempt to kill her.  She discovered that she had become immune to all natural toxins, and began using this immunity as a way to exact her revenge on the world, often expressing her rage at men specifically.  While Catwoman was a classic femme fatale, Ivy was more often used her sexuality as a deliberate trap in her active rejection of men.

Her backstory was retold in 1988 after the Crisis of Infinite Earths in an issue of Secret Origins.  Now called Pamela Isley, she was a student of Jason Woodrue (the human identity of the Floronic Man), who had fallen in love with her professor, been subject to his experiments, and then betrayed, leaving her forever altered and thirsting for revenge.  This is the version of the character that is best known, although it's noteworthy that both origins for the character attempt to paint her as a victim of someone else.

As the decades have passed she's been depicted both as a traditional violent Gotham criminal and as a person more interested in achieving isolation and peace.  Which version of a better representation of the character depends on who you ask.

Our Poison Ivy Story

One thing you'll notice in our version of Poison Ivy's backstory is the lack of inciting incident.  We removed the notion that she is the victim of someone else, making her entirely the product of her own science.  There's the moment when her funding is cut that leads to her decision to alter her biochemistry and hold Gotham hostage, but as you look back in her life before this it becomes pretty clear that this was the path she was always on.  Lots of writers like to take villains and tell their backstories in a way that hints at their future (or even make an entire network TV series about it), but for them most part those stories don't really strengthen the character.  For Pamela, however, it actually works really well, because she just doesn't need for there to be any outside influence to create her, she already is what she is.

After those original stories where she threatens Gotham and holds it hostage you'll notice that almost all her stories are more about her just trying to live peacefully than anything else.  She's still incredibly dangerous and won't hesitate to kill anyone that threatens her or her plants... and certainly deserves to be locked in Arkham in the rare cases when she's actually caught... but the fact is she's just not so much a criminal anymore.  This really does reflect the comics;  there are still stories that mimic her classic storyarc as a nemesis for Batman that threatens Gotham who is defeated when our hero resists her phermones, but those tend to be rather color-by numbers.  The stories that use her more creatively always make her a more sympathetic character.

Ivy's Costume

There's actually quite a bit to unpack when it comes to Ivy's costume, because while yes, she is very often depicted as varying degrees of naked and yes, that is pretty much always entirely designed for the male gaze and yes, that is really irritatingly sexist, there are also other elements at play here.

Ivy's main tool was always her ability to manipulate men, both through her pheremone powers and through the aformentioned nudity, but what as also happening was a character that was actively rejecting the traditional subserviant role of a woman.  There were quite a few classic villainesses whose central theme seemed to be "doesn't know here place', but with Ivy you actually saw it played out very literally.  She was a temptress, but she was also actively rejecting men as a whole, even killing them.  There are quite a few classic Poison Ivy stories that were absolutely filled with allegorical, or sometimes even overt, references that suggested that Ivy might actually be queer.  Of course, modern comics have come out and actively SAID that, primarily through her relationship with Harley Quinn.

So how does this relate to Ivy's costume?  Simply put, once you get past the irritating insistence to draw her for the male gaze, there's actually something narratively appropriate in her penchant for near-nudity.  It' actually very in keeping with her goal to twist men's expectations as a way to control them.  Just... you know... try to keep it in reason.

Ivy & Harley

The introduction of the Poison Ivy / Harley Quinn partnership happened in the animated Batman animated series, and it was mostly about watching these two very different personalities clash even as they became fast friends.  I can't tell you whether this was intentional or not, but it also filled a void in entertainment; you just don't see a lot of stories about female friendships.  There were always subtle layers of romance between the two but for a very, very long time they were just friends; they supported each other and looked out for each other, presenting a dynamic that was absent not just from comics in general but also from entertainment at large.  

When you consider that one of these two characters was in an abusive relationship, and the other had always been presented as, if not queer, than at least allegorically non-hetero-normative, than it's clear that the relationship has loads of narrative potential to unpack.  The fact that they were romantic was introduced decades after their friendship; and their sexual relationship is still only barely unfolding in comics as we speak.  

But the truly beautiful thing about these two is that it's all build on that friendship that was first introduced in the animated series.  These are two characters that NEED a best friend, and they derive so much love and support from each other that they are a joy to read.  

Ivy's Future

​While Ivy is definitely one of Batman's most important enemies, over the years there has been a surprising number of stories that were designed to present her as sympathetic.  It's become so common, in fact that, for the most part it's easy to see that she just wanted to be left alone.  

Of course, both in the comics and within our own timeline, the primary driving factor in her story has really become her relationship with Harley.  She hasn't really tried to stage any major plant-related crimes since the beginning of her career and has allied with Batman more times than she's gone against him.  Now that she's one part of DC's fan-favorite Bonnie and Clyde these two actually serve better as a sort of anti-Birds of Prey, getting into all sorts of shenanigans as they continue to live and thrive in a world where they're both a little bit crazy and definitely very dangerous.  

If anything, I imagine that Ivy will simply focus on her work as a scientist.  Her goal is always to have a sanctuary of some kind, some place where she and her plants can be left alone... But now instead of Batman stopping her, it's the constant whirlwind of catastrophe that is her best friend and eventual lover.  That's actually a story we'd all love to read.

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