Poison Ivy is depicted as one of the world's most prominent eco-terrorists. She is obsessed with plants, botany, and environmentalism. She uses toxins from plants and mind controlling pheromones for her criminal activities, which are usually aimed at protecting the natural environment. Fellow villain Harley Quinn became her recurring partner-in-crime and possibly her only human friend. She has proven to be one of Batman's more powerful foes, being one of the few members of his Rogues Gallery to display anything close to superpowers. Pamela Isley a.k.a. Poison Ivy has been portrayed as a love interest forBatman in some comics. In one comic, Ivy was robbing a charity gala Bruce Wayne was attending. Ivy's first kiss was poison, the second its antidote. When they first meet, Ivy's toxic lips planted a seed of toxic rapture in Bruce. But when she later kissed a dying Dark Knight, Ivy unknowingly cured her intended victim and established a budding romantic tension between them.
Creator Robert Kanigher modeled Poison Ivy after Bettie Page, giving her the same haircut and Southern drawl as Page. In her first appearances in 1966, no origin was developed; she was merely a temptress. When she first arrived in Gotham City, hercostume was a one-piece, strapless green bathing suit, covered with leaves. Leaves also formed her bracelets, necklace andcrown. She wore green high heels and yellow-green nylon stockings with leaves painted on them. These particulars changed somewhat when she re-appeared.
Poison Ivy was promoted after the rise of feminism pointed out the need for a greater number of more independent female villains in the series. She was also used to replace the increasingly sympathetic Catwoman as a clearly antagonistic femalesupervillain foil for Batman, and then made further appearances in the Batman comic book series and in Suicide Squad. The second, retconned origin story provided for her by Neil Gaiman in the late 1980s linked her to Swamp Thing and his originalBlack Orchid as a human-plant hybrid. She has since appeared in starring roles in Gotham City Sirens and Birds of Prey.
In the 1997 film, Batman & Robin, she was portrayed by Uma Thurman. Poison Ivy has been featured in the television series,Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman, brought to life by voice actresses Diane Pershing and Piera Coppolarespectively. She is significantly younger on The Batman than in any of her other incarnations – a teenager in fact, who nevertheless proves to be one of the most powerful criminals in the world.
IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Poison Ivy as #64.She was ranked 21st in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.
References
^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1960s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "Poison Ivy first cropped up to plague Gotham City in issue #181 of Batman. Scripter Robert Kanigher and artist Sheldon Moldoff came up with a villain who would blossom into one of Batman's greatest foes."
^ "Poison Ivy is Number 64". Comics.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
^ Frankenhoff, Brent (2011). Comics Buyer's Guide Presents: 100 Sexiest Women in Comics. Krause Publications. p. 22. ISBN 1-4402-2988-0.
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