Wow, who would have ever guessed this character would prove popular to fanartists? PS I love how she's an absolute nobody
POISON IVY (Pamela Isley, formerly Dr. Lillian Rose)
Created By: Robert Kanigher & Sheldon Moldoff
First Appearance: Batman #181 (June 1966)
Role: Femme Fatale, Evil Environmentalist
Mental Problems: Chlorophile, Misanthropy
PL 10 (200)
STRENGTH 1/5 STAMINA 3/6 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 12 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 5
Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+10)
Athletics 6 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+11)
Deception 3 (+8, +13 Attractive)
Expertise (Botany) 11 (+15)
Insight 4 (+7)
Investigation 3 (+6)
Perception 3 (+6)
Persuasion 3 (+8, +13 Attractive)
Stealth 3 (+8)
Advantages:
Attractive 2, Daze (Persuasion), Diehard, Fascination (Persuasion), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Crossbow), Improved Defense, Ranged Attack 6, Ultimate Botany Skill
Powers:
"One With The Green"
"Enhanced Physicality"
Enhanced Strength 4 [8]
Enhanced Stamina 3 [6]
Regeneration 8 (Flaws: Source- Water) [9]
Immunity 1 (Poison) [1]
"Mind-Controlling Pheromones" Mind Control 9 (Extras: Area- Scent Perception, Progressive +2) (Flaws: Touch Range -2) (45) -- [53]
- AE: "Poison Kiss" Weaken Stamina 12 (Extras: Progressive +2) (Inaccurate -2) (34)
- AE: "Vine Snare" Snare 9 (Feats: Reversible) (28)
- AE: "Storm of Vines" Snare 8 (Feats: Reversible) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Shapeable) (33)
- AE: "Vine Blast" Blast 8 (Extras: Multiattack) (24)
- AE: "Tell Your Ficus And I'll Know" Communication (Telepathy) 4 (Flaws: Limited to Plants) (12)
- AE: "Grow Plants" Growth 10 (Flaws: Affects Others Only +0, Limited to Plants) (10)
- AE: "Plants Move Stuff" Move Object 7 (14)
- AE: "Vines Break Things Down" Weaken Toughness 8 (Extras: Affects Objects, Ranged) (24)
Unarmed +12 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Plant Power +12 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Poison Kiss +8 (+12 Weaken, DC 22)
Vine Blast +10 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Storm of Vines +8 Area (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Vine Snare +10 (+9 Ranged Affliction, DC 19)
Weaken Toughness +10 (+8 Ranged Weaken, DC 18)
Initiative +5
Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5 (+8), Will +8
Complications:
Obsession (Plants)- Ivy loves plants far more than people- anyone who harms plants, forests, etc., will do so at their peril.
Relationship (Batman)- In many stories, Ivy is obsessed with Batman, adoring him and wishing to start a relationship (or just seduce him). Other times she wants him dead.
Relationship (Harley Quinn)- They are merely good friends in continuity until "DC Rebirth", but appeared quite devoted to each other, despite polar opposite personalities (Harley is bouncy and insane, Ivy is emotionless and ruthless).
Power Loss (Vines)- Ivy requires plant matter close by to use any of her powers- if she is cut off from them, she is far less dangerous, and cannot use any Vine-based powers.
Total: Abilities: 74 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 15 / Powers: 77 / Defenses: 13 (200)
Poison Ivy- From Vamp To Ice Queen:
-Poison Ivy could've been politely described as a silly D-league Bat-villain with no future, until the Timmverse crew saved her. I'd certainly never heard of her until Batman: The Animated Series came out, even though she'd been around for 25 years by that point. She was an absolute nobody going nowhere and then BOOM- one great debut episode and character design later and she'd been a high-tier character ever since. She was based visually off of Bettie Page, and story-wise off of the short story Rappaccini's Daughter, about a maiden who tends a garden of poisonous plants- she becomes immune to the poisons herself, but is now poisonous to others. The main issue with Ivy is that her comics personality tends to vary from writer to writer so badly that there is no "set" Ivy, and so her behavior is extremely incongruous- in nearly every comic I own, she's this quasi-mystic, aloof figure with a lofty goal of protecting plants and orphans, but this doesn't jibe with her close friendship with Harley Quinn. Nor her backstory as this Femme Fatale with a poisonous kiss (which inspired the Batman: TAS version).
-Pre-Crisis, Poison Ivy is botanist Dr. Lillian Rose, who is persuaded to assist a crook in the theft of some Egyptian artifacts containing ancient herbs. Fearing she would implicate him, the man poisons her with the herbs, but she survives, develping an immunity to all natural toxins and diseases. He appearances are quite sparse- she debuts in 1966, then appears in a few 1977 comics acting as part of the Bat-Rogues and getting one solo-villain appearance. She shows up every couple of years in the '80s as well, which is better than MOST '60s villains, but it's still not much of a thing.
Post-Crisis Ivy:
-Post-Crisis, Poison Ivy is reimagined as Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, also a botanist, but a shy girl raised by distant, wealthy parents. The wallflower is easily seduced by her professor, Dr. Jason Woodrue, who injects her with poisons and toxins as an experiment. She survives, but only barely- the terrifying experience driving her insane. Abandoned by Woodrue, she suffers crazed mood swings and becomes a super-villain, killing her new boyfriend. She holds Gotham hostage but is beaten by Batman in his first year as a superhero, growing obsessed with him for being one of the few people whom she cannot control. Over the years, she develops plant-like superpowers- though Batman: TAS and older stories treated her as a Toxin-Immune person who was more of a schemer who sometimes created giant death-plants. An obvious Femme Fatale, she's so Fatale-y that her literal kiss is venom. Into the '90s, she maintains a crush on Batman, suggesting that he loves her as well- in essence, another "Catwoman" kind of a thing, but here Batman is more resistant.
-Eventually, she develops a "Psycho-Environmentalist" personality, deciding to defend the environment from encroachment. Her desire is to get money to find a location where she can be alone with her plants- she does so for a time, but it's soon firebombed by an American corporation that was doing weapons-testing- enraged, she takes revenge in Gotham and decides mournfully that she can never leave Gotham until the world is safe for plants. Woodrue (now the plant-like Floronic Man) finds her again, and makes her part of his scheme to create high-grade marijuana to control the world's economic future- Batman defeats him and Ivy escapes with the money. Batman: The Long Halloween keeps the "Ivy as Vamp" persona, using her to control Bruce Wayne for weeks until Selina Kyle (his girlfriend) finds out and frees him. "Thank you" Batman says to her. "For what?" "Bruce Wayne is... a friend".
Harley Meets Ivy:
-This whole "Ivy as Savior" thing continues as she "adopts" Gotham's various orphans during No Man's Land, caring for them despite her misanthropy. When Basil "Clayface" Karlo blackmails her into helping him, he imprisons her and her orphans beneath the Earth, weakening her- when Batman frees her, she murders Karlo and uses his corpse as fertilizer for her plants. It was then that they finally copied what the cartoons had done, and made her "Special Friends" with Harley Quinn, who had now been introduced into comics canon. Except the Poison Ivy of the cartoon was a snarling, man-hating scientist, not this aloof, quasi-mystical "One With The Earth" mother-figure, so their relationship felt totally different. Like, the cartoon version weaponized hotness and tried repeatedly to get Harley away from "Mistah Jay", while the comics version almost never changed facial expressions once in all the books I have. Not your typical "Lesbian Crime Exploitation Film" vibe at all. It just doesn't fit.
-Ivy, at least, gains a new level of importance around this time. In Hush, she is used to mind control Superman & Catwoman into attacking Batman. She once gives herself up once her attempts at protecting her region of Gotham Park poisons one of her orphan girls. Thinking she's killing the orphans, she is given a serum to restore her humanity, and seemingly dies when she takes another one to transform back- she quickly reappears even more powerful, and acts as a murderous environmentalist again. Various murder victims (including incompetent henchmen and "tiresome lovers") are fed to a plant, which absorbs their souls and attacks her- she is nearly killed, but returns in Gotham City Sirens, a Harley/Ivy/Catwoman team-up book written by Paul Dini. Harley & Ivy try to reinforce a previously-injured Catwoman's confidence, but things end badly when Harley goes back to the Joker (Ivy nearly kills her, only barely stopping herself) and Catwoman reveals that she was keeping tabs on the other two for Batman. They are furious, but Catwoman still helps them escape capture. Despite various stories having her act utterly unmoved by many things, she is often devoted to Batman, even threatening suicide when she thinks he's dead as of a 2004 story.
-Ivy becomes a major character in the "New 52", with a new origin story (her father killed her mother and buried her in a garden; she started out using botany to control minds and even killed her father with a poison kiss) and a role in the Birds of Prey book, where she betrayed them quickly, showing her true nature. She got her own solo book out of nowhere (where she raised three plant-human girls to a quick adulthood), then in "Rebirth" got refashioned again. Here, she is merged with "The Green" (the animating force that Swamp Thing is a part of), and finally hooks up with Harley in an official context, decades after the wink-wink stuff in the cartoon. Harley wishes to move in together, but Ivy says her mission comes first- they part as friends, but Harley is disappointed.
Poison Ivy- Epic Femme Fatale:
-Poison Ivy is a tricky one, as she's had 3-4 different incarnations over the years- this build kind of fits her early self... but only if you remove all the powers but one, as she had none Pre-Crisis save Immunity to Poison. Post-Crisis, she starts developing more and more powers, until she ends up this PL 10 Plant Controller. But then her PERSONALITY shifts, as she sometimes acts super cold, and is just a misanthrope. But in any case, in most stories set after the mid-90s, she can ensnare people, stab at them with vines, grow plants, use vines to break down entire buildings, control the minds of people, and even poison others with a deadly kiss.
. I mostly built stuff alongside doing this set because spending all this time on one character is a bit much even for me, but I'm looking forward to finally posting some of the other things I was working on. November is really gonna be a month of Fighting Games for the most part, starting off with Guilty Gear.
