Pamela Isley

**Pamela Isley**, also known as **Poison Ivy**, is a fictional character and villain in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. She first appeared in *Batman* #181 (June 1966), but her first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing Annual* Vol. 2, #4 (November 1988). She was created by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff.

## History

### Origins

Pamela Isley was born in Washington, only child of a wealthy family. She attended college in Seattle, where she studied botany. Pamela fell in love with Marc Legrand, one of her teachers and they started a relationship. Eventually, Pamela stole some special herbs from a local museum to help Legrand with some experiments, but he betrayed and poisoned her using the same herbs she had stolen for him. Pamela survived the poisoning and as a result, she became invulnerable to all poisons. These events were known by the FBI, but they had Pamela's name wrongly recorded as Lillian Rose.

Turning to crime, Pamela adopted the alias of *Poison Ivy* and appeared in public for the first time in Gotham City in order to challenge the most renowned female criminals for the title of Public Enemy No. 1. She managed to outmatch them, but she was confronted by Batman and Robin. Using her charms, she almost escaped from them, but Batman recovered just in time to capture her and placed her in prison. Later, Ivy attempted to escape prison using Batman as her enforcer, but her plan backfired and she was captured once again.

Eventually, she escaped from prison and joined the Injustice Gang, but they were all defeated by the Justice League. Not long after this, Ivy became a member of the jury on a mock trial run by criminals in Gotham, which was staged in order to determine who had killed Batman. The whole situation was a plan concocted by Batman to capture the Joker, which allowed Ivy and the other criminals to avoid capture.

Some time later, Ivy joined forces with Catwoman and Madame Zodiac in order to confront Batwoman, Batgirl and the Huntress. Although successful at first, Ivy and Catwoman were captured and defeated while Zodiac betrayed them and escaped, leaving them behind. When Ivy escaped once again, she planned her revenge against her former lover, Marc Legrand, and transformed him into the Redwood, a tree-like creature under her command. Ivy started a new series of crimes, but she was confronted by Wonder Woman, who turned the Legrand creature against Ivy and caused their apparent demise.

#### Return to Gotham

Ivy had survived her encounter with Wonder Woman and after a short stint with the Injustice Gang, she returned to Gotham City with a grand scheme to steal the assets of Wayne Enterprises from Bruce Wayne. Ivy's plan was almost successful, but despite his hypnotic suggestion, Bruce Wayne resisted Ivy's commands and challenged her as Batman. Ivy's plan came crumbling down when Batman and Robin worked together against her and her trusted assistant revealed the truth to the authorities. Ivy was subsequently arrested and Wayne recovered the assets of his company.

However, Ivy was soon released due to lack of evidence and good behavior and she started working on her next scheme. She allied with a scientist and together, they created plant monsters that could potentially destroy Gotham. Ivy then used some executives from Wayne Enterprises to give the creatures their energy. Her recklessness caused Ivy to be confronted once again by Batman, who foiled her plans with help from the new Robin.

### Post-Crisis

#### Origins

Doctor Pamela Lillian Isley grew up in Seattle; daughter to wealthy yet distant parents. In college, she specialized in botany and toxicology and was a very promising, but naive, student. Her professor, Doctor Jason Woodrue, later known as the Floronic Man, seduced her, hoping to persuade her into becoming a human test subject for his experiments. These experiments, according to Isley, were torturous. Twice, she was nearly killed, and ended up in the hospital for six months. Woodrue fled the authorities, while Isley was left with a changed physiology. Toxins in her bloodstream made her touch deadly and immune to all poisons, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. She also gained the ability to produce pheromones that she could use to seduce men into doing her bidding. Unfortunately, the results of these experiments also left her unable to have children, and she has treated her plants as her children ever since.

Enraged at her betrayal by a man, Isley suffered violent mood swings. She later caused a boyfriend to have a car accident by bringing about a massive fungal-overgrowth in his lungs. Isley then left Seattle, eventually settling down in Gotham City.

Her first act, there, was threatening to release her suffocating spores into the air unless the city met her demands. Thus, she became infamous as *Poison Ivy*.

#### The Poison Tomorrow and Suicide Squad

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, her victims also died and investigations revealed that they had been killed by a disease that was slowly killing Ivy as well, as a result of the weakening of 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.

Shortly afterwards, Ivy joined the team known as the Suicide Squad and took part on many of the team's most dangerous missions. Around the same time, Ivy set out to wipe out a majority of Gotham's population by spreading the deadly toxins within her system, hoping to reduce population and keeping alive only those who were natually immune to the toxins. Her plan was thwarted by Batman and Green Arrow and she was presumed dead after her associate blew up her hideout with her inside. Of course, Ivy survived the incident, although it was never explained how.

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, the greenhouse Neo Eden. Batman thwarted Ivy's plans and stopped the eco-terrorist.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Chlorokinesis (Post-Crisis only):** Semi-mystical connection to the plant world through a force called the Green. She was able to manipulate and animate plants, using roots to form supports for a tunnel. She controlled an entire tree to come down on Clayface, ensnaring him in its branches. She once brought a whole skyscraper down with giant vines.
	+ **Pheromone Control (Post-Crisis only):** Ivy is known to be able to seduce men and women alike, often using pheromones to do so, but even without the pheromones, her beauty is still an asset that can she can use to seduce.
* **Toxikinesis (Post-Crisis only):** 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.
	+ **Toxic Immunity:** Immunity to all toxins, bacteria, and viruses.
	+ **Skin Pigment Manipulation (Post-Crisis only):** By reducing the intensity of her poison, she can give herself a normal skin tone, allowing her to move around in public without being recognized.
* **Adhesion (Pre-Crisis Only):** Poison Ivy was able to wall-crawling as the homonymous plant.

### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**
	+ **Science**
		- **Botany:** Doctor Isley was a renowned scientist with a career in Gotham City. She's always had a fascination with plants and they have been the major direction in her life even after her accident. Her knowledge of botany allows her to better manipulate her plants.
			* **Toxicology:** Her specialization in Botany was Toxicology, at first she used her knowledge for perfumes, make-up and medicine. After her accident, she used her knowledge to grow thorny plants and poisonous traps for her enemies.
* **Seduction:** Pamela Isley has always been a beautiful woman, but she never used her looks or talents for personal gain until she became Poison Ivy. She taunts her trapped opponents with their human desires and can even infatuate thugs to her cause through her plants or her own means.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic):** Her 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.
* **Thievery**

### Weaknesses

* **Darkness (Post-Crisis only):** Poison Ivy requires substantial amounts of solar energy to live.
* **Mental Instability (Post-Crisis only):** Poison Ivy has been committed to Arkham Asylum on a regular basis. She speaks to her plants, finds extreme rage towards males and at a certain point sought out the destruction of the human race so only she and her plants would live.

## In other media

*Main article: Poison Ivy in other media*