The Duality Of Poison Ivy

By Raquel Lesser on July 25, 2016

Robert Kanigher created the original Poison Ivy from the Batman comics. The artist who invented Poison Ivy is Sheldon Moldoff, in 1966 (Comic Vine). Poison Ivy’s real name is Pamela Lillian Isley, and she first appeared in Batman #181.

Pamela is a talented botanist and lives in Seattle. She lures Marc LeGrande, a criminal who steals an Egyptian artifact. He thinks she is an impedance, and he poisons her with herbs. This is when she gains her powers. She deceives the team of Batman and Batgirl with her eco-terrorism. Poison Ivy is a character with an obscene amount of duality. She also makes good vs. evil questionable in the movies and comics. Her incentives are scarcely realistic, and her character can be based off of real eco-terrorists in real life, according to Comic Vine.

Image via Comic Vine

Poison Ivy is created in multiple influences. She was created in 1966 enthused by Sheldon Moldoff during the time of the women’s movement and the original character, which is founded by Rappaccini’s Daughter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1844. Poison Ivy’s character is envisioned as someone who uses the power of plants according to Comic Vines’ Poison Ivy. Another version of the story is that she comes from a prosperous family and is seduced by her teacher as she tries to become a biochemist. He poisoned her with chemicals and she tries to overcome her psychotic features but it was too late.

Originally, Poison Ivy is a normal person but then turns into a super villain in the Batman movies and comics. Poison Ivy, an eco-terrorist, uses her weapons as plant toxins and mind-controlling pheromones. Poison Ivy’s duality is similar to someone who has schizophrenia. She is originally a normal human being and then an unexpected occurrence occurs causing her to be delusional about reality.

A chemical discrepancy or a chemical disturbance to the brain from medication or an event causes real delusions. Poison Ivy possibly has serotonin poisoning from too much medication, drugs or chemicals causing a person’s serotonin to rise and causing someone to go crazy. Serotonin poisoning can be fatal. Poison Ivy is also paranoid, producing a more sinister-like character. She is quite impulsive and has anti-social behavior, which is different from schizophrenia.

Poison Ivy’s anti-social behavior includes breaking items and hurting other characters such as Batman. She acts on impulses. Poison Ivy is clearly not thinking like her old self. Switching on a chemical imbalance, an event has occurred in her life. The magic powers in Batman can easily be questioned as mental illness. And the story’s plot can be questioned as symbolism.

Poison Ivy’s super powers include her ability to communicate with plants, and her weapons are plant toxins and mind-controlling pheromones. This can also be seen as a delusion of hers. She abuses her powers by using them for evil. A fine line exists about what makes someone good vs. evil in this dynamic.

There are questionable reasons to believe if the villain’s reflection or the superhero reflects the truth or if it symbolizes the true story of what is happening. The flow of the story seems to fit well, but the question is whether the story is realistic or seemingly a tall tale. The actions in this story are unrealistic but can be based off truth.

Poison Ivy’s story can be fit into post modernism because it is easy to analyze and question her existence and the truth of the story. It is easy to put the character into categories and to put the characters into realistic format. Poison Ivy’s character is easy to define as she was once a normal person.

With the movies and comics appearing about these super heroes and villains, they easily give these characters multi-dimensional images. Poison Ivy, however, has not been put into the new movies yet and has a little story in the old movies. But she has some sort of dimension in the comics.

Poison Ivy is a philosophical character because she makes a person question good vs evil. Her definition of a good person is helping the environment. So she believes through her motives that she is helping the environment and that she is helping growing plants. Her childhood and her character, before she is turned evil, make a person (although she is very promiscuous) pity her. When she becomes evil, she gets involved in an unhealthy relationship. It shows how a harmful relationship could forever change someone. In a special edition of Poison Ivy called Gotham City Sirens, Poison Ivy helps Harley.

Poison Ivy says, “There’s one other option. It would require patience. Even love,” according to DC comics, Gotham City Sirens’ Paul Dini. Poison Ivy seems like an inhuman character who dehumanizes and terrorizes the city, but in this scene she seems human. This shows that she is a flawed character that is misunderstood.

The Poison Ivy character can be considered realistic since there are eco-terrorists. She is seemingly an over-exaggerated character of a real eco-terrorist. According to Hot Air News, author Jazz Shaw says there are eco-terrorists called Greenpeace who were blocking a harbor in Portland in order to prevent Shells leased icebreaker. They believe they are doing the right thing just like Poison Ivy. It does not make it right, but that is what they believe.

One eco-terrorist that could relate to Poison Ivy is Tre Arrow. He was an extremist and environmental activist. He went to college. Then one day he cracked by isolating himself and sacrificing himself to the beliefs of the environment. Tre Arrow blew up vehicles. This could have killed people but he did not think of the consequences. Poison Ivy does not think of the consequences. Her motives are very similar to Tre Arrows’ although Poison Ivy is over exaggerated. Poison Ivy also went to college but she had to seduce the principle to graduate.

Poison Ivy cracks like Tre Arrow. She gets too passionate about her environmental beliefs and thinks it is the right thing to do that she goes crazy. Because Poison Ivy falls for a criminal, this causes her to have similar traits to her boyfriend after being poisoned. The poison jumbles with her mind and her once mannerly principles turns villainous.

Jeff Luers is also an eco-terrorist that can be compared to Poison Ivy. He also sets fire to vehicles and is sent to jail but for global warming, according to Jeffery Luers Earth First! Journal. This case is controversial because many people think he shouldn’t have been arrested. His motives and intentions are only good for the environment. Poison Ivy’s are the same but more violent, and she kills people. Like Jeff, Poison Ivy is an average person at first.

Peter Jay Brown is an eco-terrorist who makes films, according to the Huffington Post. He disables a whale ship. He is like Poison Ivy because he is a motivated eco-terrorist. He is inspired to “save the environment” like Poison Ivy. That is also how Poison Ivy is realistic.

Poison Ivy has several motives for her crimes. She believes in the movies by getting rid of Batman. She would save the environment because Batman is a threat to her plan. She wants the environment to take over because she symbolizes Mother Nature gone horribly wrong.

Poison Ivy’s motives are her sexualized behavior and need for love. Poison Ivy is hurt by her criminal target. Poison Ivy is promiscuous from the start. Comic women are portrayed as over-sexualized. Poison Ivy’s motive after getting betrayed is to seduce as many men as possible because she is hurt from her bad relationship. Her motive is her emotions and that she wants to get revenge on men.

Poison Ivy blames society for her problems like all super villains do. She claims she was mistreated and society is to blame. She does look at the whole picture or how anything could possibly be her fault. In her own twisted way she looks at herself as a good person. Most people look at themselves as a good person but she is not open minded. Poison Ivy also could think of herself as a failure and that there is no turning back.

Super heroes are based on mythology, according to writer Michal Rutschky from Sequart Magazine. People always talk about super heroes and villains as if they really exist, when they are over-exaggerated in real life. Myths of super heroes and villains have been talked about for centuries. For example, in Greek mythology they talk about gods and goddesses as super heroes and villains, such as Zeus.

There are Poison Ivy action figures that a person can buy. They sell them at Game Stop and Amazon.com. These action figures are collectible and they can be bought with Batman and Robin action figures. Poison Ivy is also in other shows and movies such as Flashpoint and JLA/Avengers.

Poison Ivy is in many TV shows such as The Batman (2004-2008), Justice League (2001-2004), Gotham Girls (2000-2002), The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999), Batman the Animated Series (1992-1995) and Gotham (2014). She was central to the movie Batman and Robin in 1997. These are the video games she has been in: Infinite Crisis (2014),  DC Universe Online (2011) and Batman Arkham City (2011). She plays an important role in Batman.

In The Batman (2004-2008), Poison Ivy is a high school student who is friends with Barbara Gordon. She becomes an eco-terrorist after accidentally getting poisoned by plant toxins. She turns to Poison Ivy. In Gotham (2014) her father is killed and she becomes homeless. There are many versions of Poison Ivy but in all of them she starts off as a normal girl.

In Batman and Robin in 1997, Poison Ivy starts off as a normal botanist trying to save the planet. She works for a criminal and he tries killing her. She becomes Poison Ivy and kisses him. Her kisses are toxic and kills him.

Poison Ivy pops out through the imagery of the comics and movies. The comics and movies of Batman are made for teenage boys and some adults. The comics are written for people whose interests are super heroes and action. The comics are also a replacement to books for reading. Poison Ivy and all girl characters in comics are made to appease the boys, although feminist groups have opposed this idea.

Poison Ivy plays the role of someone who switches sides and helps Batman in some of the comics. Her character is very complex and has good intentions but plays the role of someone having a psychotic episode. However, someone with a psychotic episode does not act that way exactly. Most people with psychotic episodes are actually harmless once they get the help they need. People who are psychotic tend to be delusional and exhibit abnormal behavior but most don’t harm others. This is an exaggerated character because someone who gets serotonin poisoning ends up really sick, dead or becomes normal again.

Poison Ivy’s emotions are not like a normal person because she is always raging for revenge. A normal person has mixed emotions. She plays a role of a psychopath because she doesn’t care about human emotions. She only cares about the plants.

This shows that someone who does good in one thing such as helping the environment isn’t painted in black and white. Poison Ivy might be good for the environment but she isn’t good overall. A person or a super hero isn’t just all good or bad. They are somewhere in between. Poison Ivy sometimes helps Batman in the comics when she thinks it is right. Batman isn’t all good either. No one is all good and no one is all bad.

Poison Ivy is a character filled with obscene amounts of duality. There are many sides to Poison Ivy and she has many stories whether she plays a botanists with a criminal boyfriend or a student who is turned bad by her principal. She has a bad side to her and a good side to her. She is an eco-terrorist that wants mother nature to take over. She is in a lot of movies and TV shows. Her duality is of someone who is psychotic. Poison Ivy has raging anger and wants to get revenge on Batman and his team. She came from a rich family which shows that evil comes in all parts of society. She is not very known but plays an important role in Batman. Without Poison Iv,y Batman’s not quite the same. She is an interesting character that plays a very important role in the series.

Citations 

•”Poison Ivy.” (Character). N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

•”The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly: Comic Books and Duality.” Sequart Organization. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

•”Deconstruction of Male Duality in American Comic Books: Robert Kirkman’s Invincible.” Sequart Organization. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

•Baram, Marcus. “Marie Mason, Eco-Terrorist Serving 22 Years, Gives First Interview.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

•”Open Letter From Jeffrey Luers | Earth First! Newswire.” Earth First Newswire Open Letter From Jeffrey Luers Comments. N.p., 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

•”How Tre Arrow Became America’s Most Wanted Environmental “Terrorist”" Www.counterpunch.org. N.p., 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

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