Poison Ivy has had her origin story retold differently several times over her many years of publication, with significant variations in continuity.
History
Bronze Age
In the first version during the Bronze Age, Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a promising botanist from Seattle, is seduced by Marc Legrand into assisting him with the theft of an Egyptian artifact containing ancient herbs. Fearing she would implicate him in the theft, he attempts to poison her with the herbs, which are deadly and untraceable. She survives this murder attempt and discovers she has acquired an immunity to all natural toxins and diseases.
Post-Crisis
The Crisis on Infinite Earths ended the Multiverse and streamlined the entire DC Universe into a new continuity. Poison Ivy's origins were revised in Secret Origins #36 and Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #3. Pamela Isley grows up wealthy with emotionally distant parents.
The origin of Poison Ivy.
She later studies advanced botanical biochemistry at a university with Alec Holland under Dr. Jason Woodrue. Isley, a timid, shy girl, is easily seduced by her professor. Woodrue injects Isley with poisons and toxins as an experiment, causing her transformation. She nearly dies twice as a result from these poisonings, driving her insane. Later Woodrue flees from the authorities, leaving Isley in the hospital for six months. Enraged at the betrayal, she suffers from violent mood swings, being sweet one moment and evil the next. When her boyfriend has a car accident after mysteriously suffering from a massive fungal overgrowth, Isley drops out of school and leaves Seattle, eventually settling in Gotham City.
She begins her criminal career by threatening to release her suffocating spores into the air unless the city meets her demands. Batman, who appears in Gotham that very same year, thwarts her scheme, and she is incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. From this point on, she has a kind of obsession with Batman, he being the only person she could not control. Over the years, she develops plant-like superpowers, the most noticeable being a lethal toxin in her lips; she is able to literally kill with a kiss.
Related Articles
- Batman #181
- World's Finest #251-252
- Secret Origins (Volume 2) #36
- Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #3
- Countdown #37
- Joker's Asylum: Poison Ivy #1
- Detective Comics (Volume 2) #23.1: Poison Ivy