DC Comics Own: Poison Ivy
I sincerely apologize to you, dear reader, for the shambolic state of Comicsputer’s randomization process over the past few weeks. I have found the error and corrected it; when I popped open its case, the inside of Comicsputer was coated with a reddish/black viscous liquid of indeterminate origin.
It was no mean feat to clean up, either. Comicsputer claims it was some sort of oil, but it was awfully sticky. Also, I’m not an expert on computers, but do they need lubrication? Regardless, it’s done, and we have finally generated a random result!
Comicsputer Requires Additional Repairs. Please Place User’s Head Very Close To Screen.
Not clear on how that will help, but ok! Let me finish this, and I’ll get right to it.
So, on to this week’s selection, Poison Ivy, aka Pamela Isley. Ivy’s first appearance in comics was in 1966. Per one of her creators, Carmine Infantino, “The only reason she came about was because of Catwoman on the Batman show. They wanted more female villains.”
She never appeared in the actual show, though. You may be forgiven for thinking otherwise, considering her first live-action depiction was by Uma Thurman in Batman and Robin. Her performance in that movie would not have been out of place opposite Adam West and probably would not have involved bat nipples. So a shame, really.
She did appear in Batman: The Animated Series, and this is where I first saw her. This Poison Ivy cannot control plants. Instead, she’s immune to toxins and has pheromone powers, which is how she started out in the comics. The plant powers came later though the Wiki is unclear on when.
As a quick side note, I’d like to quickly curse DC and their wiki contributors to the fourth hell. Not the worst one but the one where you keep thinking you have a test in a class you haven’t attended all year. The endless litany of reboots and retcons are all paved over as if they had always been that way, and it’s infuriating to try and dig through and get some idea of what happened when.
You Choose To Do This Every Week. Quit Complaining!
That is a fair but rather cruel point. Very well. So Poison Ivy is probably the least villainous of Batman’s rouge gallery. Her whole deal is that corporations are destroying the planet, and they control the political system. Putting aside how true that is in the real world, it’s incredibly accurate of Gotham. They have who knows how many chemical companies pumping out who knows how much toxic sludge into the water at all times.
The classic argument is that while she may be right, she’s going about fixing it in the wrong way. She shouldn’t make such a fuss. Just get out there and support politicians who will fix it! Or, even better, start a recycling campaign at your school! Collect enough aluminum cans, and you could even win a bike!
Besides, it’s not the corporations’ fault that people want their Thneeds! A Thneed is a thing that everyone needs. Oof, that rhyme is sloppy. Sounds better than it looks. But you get my point. Any systematic change has to be coded as terrorism. Any actually effective strategy must be extremist. Because otherwise, people might start caring a whole awful lot, and then we might actually address all the rot.
Batman is the greatest detective in the world. He has to see the harm companies are perpetuating in Gotham, but he stops Poison Ivy each time, all the same. Does he then use his power as a billionaire to address the issues? I actually don’t know; I don’t read these things. But it seems from the Wiki that he does not.
Aren’t You Supposed To Be Finding Weird Stuff From Poison Ivy’s Wiki, Not Grandstanding About The Evil Of Corporations?
Yes, but I can do both! Let’s look at the “evil schemes” Poison Ivy has perpetrated. I’ll go in some sort of in-universe order but don’t expect accuracy; these things have multiple twisting timelines.
First, we have when Pamela worked for Wayne Enterprises and developed a pheromone that would force people to follow her commands. She used the pheromone to get a meeting with Bruce and tried to convince him to replace his marketing with pheromones that would force people to buy their products.
Huh. Well, that was obviously not great. And it’s not like it’d help nature in any way. But that was before she became Poison Ivy, so let’s give that a pass. Next, she gets a job with Jason Woodrue, a guy who studied plant life (and eventually became plant life, but that will have to be its own Adventure) and discovered a thing called “The Green” which connects all plant life into a collective consciousness.
The military, for some reason, thought this was a solid investment. So Woodrue subjected Pamela to vague experiments of some kind, and they turned her into a Poison Ivy. As the Wiki puts it, “Her blood had become replaced with chlorphyll [sic]; her sweat became poison, and she gained pheremonal [sic] powers…and she soon found herself able to control plant life.”
With All That Power, She’s Really Going To Be Able To Take On Corporations!
Exactly! So what’s her first stop? The Gotham Art Museum. She’s mad because Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth have portraits up identifying them as the top three female villains. Thus far, I agree. Especially considering I have never heard of any of those people.
Poison Ivy states she should be the top female villain, then leaves. Batman and Robin follow her for some reason. Is declaring yourself to be a criminal without actually committing any crimes illegal? Not a lawyer here, but it doesn’t seem like it should be.
The “top three” have heard of Poison Ivy’s challenge, so they show up to rumble. But it’s a trap, and Ivy knocks them out. As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with environmentalism, but maybe all three of them ran chemical companies. It’s good odds they do; I’ll give her that.
So Poison Ivy has now captured the top three female criminals in the city. How does Batman react? By tossing her in Arkham. Sure, this was vigilante justice, but Bats hardly has room to criticize her for that.
Ok, so that’s probably because her debut issue was in the sixties. The origin came much later, so they were perhaps still figuring ol’ Pam out. So let’s jump ahead, to after she’s been established as an eco-terrorist with all her powers and see how effective she can be.
Get Ready For Comics Where Poison Ivy Kicks Some Corporate Butt!
She screws around while trying to recruit other villains to help her. Come on, Pam. Pull it together! I wanted to root (heh) for you here! Ok, here we go. She convinces Clayface to be her husband and then rampages against Penguin. He looks rich, sure, but doesn’t he, at most, own a nightclub? Scummy, yes. But he is hardly an industrialist.
Ok, there has to be at least one-time Poison Ivy goes up against a corporation. Just gonna skim this a bit. It has to be somewhere. Took over the entire world. That counts, but it’s a bit arch for our purposes. She had plant babies, which is not relevant, but really weird. I don’t even have a third thing the Wiki mentions her doing.
There are zero examples of Poison Ivy fighting a corporation or being an eco-terrorist in any way in this Wiki. It’s almost as if she was primarily created as a femme fatale that they then spent decades justifying her existence. And I mean, sure, we got the Harley Quinn relationship, which is excellent. But an Eco-terrorist, she is not. At least, according to the Wiki.
Well, that’s disappointing. And here I was, chomping at the bit to tell you all my opinions about good praxis. If we all unite and…
So That’s Poison Ivy! Comics Greatest Anti-Villian.
You’re cutting me off now? Who gave you this kinda power? You’ve changed, man. You used to be cool.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this article, you might also like this previous entry on Mantis! Or if for some inexplicable reason, you want to check out something I didn’t write, you can check out this feature on the return of Hwoarang! Remember him? They kicky guy from Tekken? No? Geez, read a book!
Let me know in the comments below who you think the least villainous villain in comics is and who I should randomly select for next week!