Poison Ivy Appreciation 2019

[Mistah K88]

Thorn had a backup story in the Lois Lane comic, and one issue featured Poison Ivy as a guest villain. As this story was written back before Ivy was given any real powers and was just a vamp with a plant theme, the ending sees her confronting Thorn with a pistol of all things, only to be tripped up, disarmed, and punched out in short order:



Not exactly the best showing for our girl, but she was just the baddie of the week there and besides, I can hardly recall a story from those early days where Ivy actually won a fist fight.

The only time I've seen her and Black Orchid interact was the Brave and the Bold cartoon...where she was also punched out



Ivy doesn't tend to get along with plant based superheroes does she?

[Caivu]

More art:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/co..._i_drew_today/

[Frontier]

Very much agreed. As for the DCSHG Poison Ivy, you can draw the lines between this Ivy and the later "adult" Ivy; she is in some ways the person that Poison Ivy would have been if she hadn't grown up in abustive relations. The DCHSG Ivy is very much the passionate nerd, who is nearly always shy but opens up around her interests to a degree where she almost appears to be a different person.

I think a lot of the more heroic portrayals of the girls in DCSHG, like Harley, Ivy, Frost, etc. were achieved by taking away the vices or flaws that made them villains normally and then emphasizing what they are like without them.

The only exceptions were the characters who I guess those vices seemed too ingrained into the character, like Catwoman and Cheetah, who ended up being the "bad girls" of the extended cast.

It'll be interesting to see how the reboot portrays Ivy's civilian and villain sides since they seem so distinct from one another, and exactly what Ivy's motivations are.

Ivy doesn't tend to get along with plant based superheroes does she?

What better way to deal with a plant-based villainess, after all ?

[PwrdOn]

The only time I've seen her and Black Orchid interact was the Brave and the Bold cartoon...where she was also punched out

Ivy doesn't tend to get along with plant based superheroes does she?

It's a shame that it took this long for someone to get the idea of giving Ivy a gang of sexy henchwomen for the heroes to beat up on, it's a lot more interesting than her usual crew of plant monsters or pheromone addled muscle bros. I suppose she did have her two assistants Violet and Lily in that one TAS episode, though their costumes didn't really indicate who they were working for which must be some kind of faux pas in the minion world.



It is also funny how this still aired at a time when Batman was obliged to go out of his way to avoid hitting either of them, though the way he manhandled that poor girl when tying her up, you almost think she would've been better off getting clocked in the jaw or something.

[darkeyes]

Honeysuckle.JPG

I suppose they could always bring back her only sidekick Honeysuckle to take the fall when Ivy needs to escape.

[Frontier]

It's a shame that it took this long for someone to get the idea of giving Ivy a gang of sexy henchwomen for the heroes to beat up on, it's a lot more interesting than her usual crew of plant monsters or pheromone addled muscle bros. I suppose she did have her two assistants Violet and Lily in that one TAS episode, though their costumes didn't really indicate who they were working for which must be some kind of faux pas in the minion world.



It is also funny how this still aired at a time when Batman was obliged to go out of his way to avoid hitting either of them, though the way he manhandled that poor girl when tying her up, you almost think she would've been better off getting clocked in the jaw or something.

I think if there's any villain I could buy using exclusively female henchmen, it would be Ivy, granted she's not really in a position as either a character or a villain to use henchmen these days since she's usually depicted as too powerful and independent to need them. Either that or she just has Harley as "muscle."

I know she had henchwomen also in the B:TAS game with the animated cutscenes, and I think a newspaper strip had her using a gang of female college students as her partners in crime.

[Dylan Davison]

Similarly to Killer Frost actually, I believe the time is probably right to split Poison Ivy into two versions - the good version, the one we all dig on, Pamela Isley, neutral but generally kind of heroic, one-time Squad paramour of Count Vertigo, girlfriend to Harley Quinn and Gotham City Siren, sort of gray area anti-hero, rooted in the Neil Gaiman revamp origin and grown from there. And then bring back the O.G. Lillian Rose to be the evil Poison Ivy so that artists and writers can still have a villainous Ivy in all those supervillain team-up gauntlets and depict plant horror and whatever.

I don't know if you change up the name. In the case of Frost, Caitlin definitely seems to have dropped the "Killer" and that title is applicable to Crystal Frost and Louise Lincoln again, where Frost is now somewhat of a heroic character without "Killer" in front. So do you then drop the "Poison" from Pam?

Anyway it's just a thought about reconciling the "good Ivy" versus "bad Ivy" constant confusion because different writers are always trying to use her for different cross-purposes.

Has there ever been a story where Poison Ivy teamed up or interacted with Black Orchid, Black Thorn, and Rose & Thorn?

This isn't really a reply to you, but kinda on topic of what you were saying. The good Killer Frost was sick, and, thanks to Gail Simone, Ivy is sick with SADs, which just effects her more deeply thanks to her connection to the green. While I'm not sure if this is cannon anymore, as someone who has SADs, I think this is amazing and explains Ivy's crazy mood swings from Killer to Hero and back again.


As far as Heroes in Crisis goes, I'm glad they brought her back...Though I think it was a waste to kill her in the first place. She basically become Harleys girlfriend in the fridge and an excuse to boost Wally and Harleys stories. But ignoring that, as long as she gets something out of this in the end, I'll be happy. Maybe she will be a changed woman and the death will become her own growth. I hope so.....I also don't like her new look and hope it doesn't stay. I don't mind her being green again, it fits with her rebirth, but the bone looking things (stems, I'm sure) need to go haha.

I'm looking forward to what happens next with Ivy, if anything does lol.

[Caivu]

By Bryan Peralta:

Screenshot_20190406-090629.jpg

[Caivu]

By Penelope Barbalios:

Screenshot_20190406-115627.jpg

[Confuzzled]

Has there ever been a story where Poison Ivy teamed up or interacted with Black Orchid, Black Thorn, and Rose & Thorn?

The only time I've seen her and Black Orchid interact was the Brave and the Bold cartoon...where she was also punched out

She had a brilliant cameo in Neil Gaiman's Black Orchid mini from the 80s. It was the first time she was shown in a more sympathetic, conflicted light, even if the "wronged by a man" aspect was there to her character even way back in the 60s and 70s.

Ivy doesn't tend to get along with plant based superheroes does she?

She's been married to or tried to marry Alec Holland on two separate occasions

[Confuzzled]

I suppose she did have her two assistants Violet and Lily in that one TAS episode, though their costumes didn't really indicate who they were working for which must be some kind of faux pas in the minion world.

Wasn't Ivy operating undercover in Eternal Youth to entrap greedy industrialists though? Loved her 'Dr. Daphne Demeter' pseudonym.

I think if there's any villain I could buy using exclusively female henchmen, it would be Ivy...

There has been a recurring theme where her male henchmen or male colleagues have tried to assault her early on in her career. It happened in the Poison Ivy: Year One story in Shadow of the Bat, where she had no problem getting the better of them.

Though apparently there's a little known Ivy backstory in the DCAU where she wasn't as fortunate?

[Caivu]

By Samantha Dodge:

IMG_20190406_145332.jpg

[Ultimate Rogue]

By Samantha Dodge:

IMG_20190406_145332.jpg

I like those designs, especially Harley and Selina.

[Agent Z]

by Alex Horley

[Mistah K88]

Wasn't Ivy operating undercover in Eternal Youth to entrap greedy industrialists though? Loved her 'Dr. Daphne Demeter' pseudonym.

Yeah, Ivy was operating undercover so I don't think the hench gals would be wearing their green bathingsuits. Even when they were in their blue getups its probably so that the plant formula wouldn't get on them. As far as who Ivy was trying to entrap, I feel that Ivy in that series viewed all industrialists to be like Captain Planet villains. I doubt that the people she was going after were solely trying to hurt plants, Bruce Wayne was on that list for crying out loud, so you know she didn't do her research.

There has been a recurring theme where her male henchmen or male colleagues have tried to assault her early on in her career. It happened in the Poison Ivy: Year One story in Shadow of the Bat, where she had no problem getting the better of them.

Though apparently there's a little known Ivy backstory in the DCAU where she wasn't as fortunate?

You know, I'm not sure how Ivy's backstory in the DCAU went, her first appearance she was trying to kill Harvey Dent...then again she was far less sympathetic in that series. To the point that you could see that Harley could be more annoying to her sometimes and was kept around out of obligation. Though we do know that she was 28 when she went after Harvey and used to work for a cosmetics company.