1 #589, 1988)Īfter serving her time in Arkham, Ivy was released on parole. Thus began her career as Poison Ivy.įor the Love of Ivy (DETECTIVE COMICS vol. Subsequently, before being fired from her job as an intern at Wayne Enterprises, she was doused with chemicals that gave her the power to control plants.
Years later, as a college student, Pamela used her knowledge of chemistry to kill her father in vengeance. This time, it was revealed that when she was a child, her father regularly beat her mother and eventually killed and buried her in Pamela’s own garden. When the DC Universe was reimagined following the events of 2011’s FLASHPOINT, Pamela received another new origin. The two faced off repeatedly, each encounter ending with her confined to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. She was defeated by Batman, and Ivy became fascinated with the one man who could resist her charms. Her first act was to hold the city for ransom under the threat of poisonous spores. After Pamela killed her boyfriend by suffocating him with fungus in his lungs, she left Seattle and set her sights on Gotham City. Yet Woodrue’s feigned affection may have been the only love she’d ever felt, and when his treachery was discovered, her anger at his betrayal consumed her with rage.ĭiscovering she had the ability to control plants, influence men through her pheromones, resist all toxins and poisons and kill with a kiss, Pamela ceased being the unassuming doctoral candidate and was transformed into the empowered Poison Ivy.īelieving mankind had failed the planet as men had failed her, Pamela sought to restore power to the plants, and to exert her own power over any man who got in her way.
Pamela was driven insane, and was left hospitalized for six months while Woodrue fled justice. Woodrue seduced the shy Pamela, and experimented on her by injecting her with poisons and toxins. When the DC Universe was rebooted after 1985’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Ivy’s new origin cast her as a botanist who studied in Seattle under Dr. His plan backfired, however, as she developed an immunity to all poisons. After he gained her help in stealing a rare Egyptian artifact containing ancient herbs, LeGrande decided to poison Pamela to keep her silent. Pamela Lillian Isley, who was betrayed by her professor, Marc LeGrande. We expressed more than a few concerns regarding this decision, foremost amongst them the worry that this was a decision made almost purely on the basis that they wanted to exploit the young teenage character’s sexuality.Poison Ivy’s first origin saw her begin as the botanist Dr. By means of Some Plot Device, they were going to switch out their 14-year-old Ivy Pepper (Claire Foley) with adult Ivy Pepper (Maggie Geha). You may remember that back in June, we shared the news that Gotham was going to be aging up their Poison Ivy character. There’s a more evil quality to her as well.
She’ll still have some of the same traits, but she’ll be much darker, more manipulative than the Ivy we’ve seen so far. When she’s changed and transformed, there’s a real character change as well. And we didn’t just make her older with that attack. We want to explore that classic, canonical power of Ivy. Everyone was much more comfortable with that with an older actress as opposed to a teenager. We made the change for two reasons: The character Ivy in the comics, one of her greatest powers is the power of seduction.