Poison Ivy 2021 Appreciation: Year of Queen Ivy

[UniStudent]

Hi guys,
I am new to the thread, so this may be off topic (Sorry!). But I am currently writing my dissertation for university on LGBT+ representation in DC Comics. One chapter I am focusing on is specifically Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn's relationship.
I just wondered if anyone has any fanfic/fan art that predates 2013 (the year DC made the relationship canon.)
if anyone has any info, or the correct forum/thread place to post this or even to look at, that would be great!
Thanks everyone

[prepmaster]

Hi guys,
I am new to the thread, so this may be off topic (Sorry!). But I am currently writing my dissertation for university on LGBT+ representation in DC Comics. One chapter I am focusing on is specifically Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn's relationship.
I just wondered if anyone has any fanfic/fan art that predates 2013 (the year DC made the relationship canon.)
if anyone has any info, or the correct forum/thread place to post this or even to look at, that would be great!
Thanks everyone

I cant tell you about every depiction of the relationship but i can tell you what my take on what the relationship has been. First of all, understanding the characters is the key. Ivy and Harley were originally villains, meaning the kind of people who would put their own selfish gains over the well being of other humans and in some cases gain pleasure from seeing others suffer. Harley was Joker's sidekick while Ivy was designed as a standalone Batman's antagonist. Ivy hates men the most amongs humanity since she suffers from traumas inflicted by men onto her and for the fact that masculinity holds dominace over both feminity and nature. Therefore she sympathizes with Harley - a woman who suffered mistreatment from a man but she also wants to use Harley against her male foes as well. Despite having sympathy for Harley, there were still times that Ivy was quite abusive towards Harley because no surprise Ivy is still a violent individual - more violent than normal humans. It was around the times of Gotham City Sirens comics was released and the new 52 that the relationship starts to be potrayed to be healthier in order to push an image of Harley as an independent, strong woman as Harley became too popular to just be written as Joker's sidekick. Eventually Harley has been turned into an anti hero but Ivy is not 100% there because Ivy is still a good antagonist against Batman. She was designed as a standalone villain against Batman afterall.

Batman suffers from trauma and doesnt want others to suffer like him while his villains suffer from trauma and gain pleasure froms seeing others suffer.

[Avi]

Hi guys,
I am new to the thread, so this may be off topic (Sorry!). But I am currently writing my dissertation for university on LGBT+ representation in DC Comics. One chapter I am focusing on is specifically Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn's relationship.
I just wondered if anyone has any fanfic/fan art that predates 2013 (the year DC made the relationship canon.)
if anyone has any info, or the correct forum/thread place to post this or even to look at, that would be great!
Thanks everyone

LiveJournal is where you'd find most of the fanworks predating 2013. There is an old community named harley-ivy. Alternatively, some backdated fanfiction might be up on AO3. For Fanart, my best guess would be DeviantArt. Something more time-consuming would be searching for Harley & Ivy fanworks among popular femslash challenges that happened before 2013. I wish you the best for your dissertation!

[UniStudent]

LiveJournal is where you'd find most of the fanworks predating 2013. There is an old community named harley-ivy. Alternatively, some backdated fanfiction might be up on AO3. For Fanart, my best guess would be DeviantArt. Something more time-consuming would be searching for Harley & Ivy fanworks among popular femslash challenges that happened before 2013. I wish you the best for your dissertation!

Thank you for the links! Great help!

[prepmaster]

Back with another 3 pics

[MajorHoy]

from Detective Comics Annual #2 (1989)

[Frontier]

Back with another 3 pics

Ivy looks good in glasses.

[kjn]

LiveJournal is where you'd find most of the fanworks predating 2013. There is an old community named harley-ivy. Alternatively, some backdated fanfiction might be up on AO3. For Fanart, my best guess would be DeviantArt. Something more time-consuming would be searching for Harley & Ivy fanworks among popular femslash challenges that happened before 2013. I wish you the best for your dissertation!

AO3 appeared in 2009, and a quick search there (AO3 has very robust search functions) yielded a lot of Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel femslash from the very beginning, and also some fics that were written before that and later posted there. There is also some Ivy/Harley slash on fanfiction.net, including as far back as 2003.

Finding stuff on Livejournal is likely to be frustrating, given the fanfic purges that happened there (that were a large part in why AO3 was created) and the many users who have removed their accounts entirely.

Thank you for the links! Great help!

Even older than that is Usenet, but it's tricky to search, or even find, the old Usenet archives. However, I do happen to know Hawk, who was an important member of alt.comics.fan-fiction during the 90s. Contact me via PM and I can try to put you in touch with her.

[marhawkman]

So what are you guy's thoughts on the idea of Ivy channeling the Green? I think it has merits, but I'm not sure about it in general.

[Restingvoice]

So what are you guy's thoughts on the idea of Ivy channeling the Green? I think it has merits, but I'm not sure about it in general.

It justifies the extent of her powers. If it's just her, then I much rather her be the mentally unbalanced scientist with human skin who prefer the life of plants so she created experiments and seduce billionaires for the survival of nature... but can't just sprout a living tree from the ground in an instant

[prepmaster]

but can't just sprout a living tree from the ground in an instant

There is a comics where she just spawns an army of strawberry mice. I think her being able to create these sentient plants and how Batman deals with them is just interesting. It just shows a Batman without a no kill code.

[signalman112]

Cute Ivy.

PIvy.jpg

[kjn]

So what are you guy's thoughts on the idea of Ivy channeling the Green? I think it has merits, but I'm not sure about it in general.

I think it's a good idea, given DC's world-building. Poison Ivy doesn't really need the Green to work, and the concept of the Green (and later Red et c) was developed without Ivy in mind, but in a world where you have both they fit really well together and can serve to develop and deepen both the character and the world.

Now, how that connection should look is another question, and I think Ivy's connection to the Green should be different from Swamp Thing's or Black Orchid's or Floronic Man's. The concept of the Green will be stronger because of it.

[sifighter]

So what are you guy's thoughts on the idea of Ivy channeling the Green? I think it has merits, but I'm not sure about it in general.

I think its an interesting twist to the character, it feels right given her connection to plants and really connects her more to dc forces at large instead of just randomly possessing plant abilities. I think it opens her up to a wider array of stories, and it feels natural.

[scary harpy]

So what do you think of The Gardener?

I'm wondering why they just didn't use Honey Suckle.