Batchat Chapter 3: Poison Ivy
Batchat
Chapter 3: Poison (Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison) Ivy
(Yes, I genuinely thought this was a funny joke)
Alright, so right from the top, I’m going to have to be honest with all of you. I am NOT a poison Ivy fan. Out of decades of content, the only thing I have ever liked her in is Harley Quinn. I’m going to do my very best to be impartial to her until the very end when I rate her.
Before I get started I would like to pull a Chapter one of a Harry Potter book and give you a recap on how this series is formatted.
Part one: Origin
Part two: Powers and abilities
Part three: Best adaptations
Part four: Pitch
Part five: Rating
Why don’t we go ahead and get started.
Part one: Origin
As veteran readers may know (yes, veteran) that my first introduction to Batman was through the 2008 Lego Video game. Actually now that I’m thinking about it, it wasn’t my first, but it was definitely the start of my obsession. Actually now that I’m thinking about it, it isn’t an obsession, it’s more of a kind of love where I would absolutely do anything for him including, financial loads or sexual favors....uhhh so, Poison Ivy. As always I will be mixing my knowledge of her origin with what I find on Wikipedia.
Apparently there was another Poison Ivy whose name was Lillian Rose...which I hate more in every way. A fun fact that I just learned was that the Pamela Isly version was created by Neil Gamon who is one of my favorite authors. I guess I’ll give her some points for that. Pamala is a skilled botanist located in Gotham City or as fans may call it “Gotham”. She then gets powers after she is tricked into a lap experiment by her professor. I’m not going to pretend like I know more than that. Let me see if I can remember anything else, oh I know! She can double jump in the lego game.
*Disclaimer: You probably already noticed this, but Poison Ivy is one of my least favorite characters. My guess is that this is going to be a shorter Batchat than normal. Maybe not, who’s to say,*
Part two: Powers and Abilities
Poison Ivy’s main power is if you touch her you get very very itchy. Ok, that’s not true, but it’s kinda funny, yeah? Actually know that I’m thinking about it, that should absolutely be a power of hers. Right? Yeah, it should. She’s actually a very powerful character, sometimes in a way that is closer to MacGuffin than anything else. The two powers that most everybody knows about is her ability to control planets and to control people’s mind with a kiss. I think those are the most common. I think one of the biggest problems with Poison Ivy, if not comics as a whole, is that her powers aren’t clearly defined nor do they have any limit. This makes her either too powerful or too boring.
Part three: Best Adaptations
Poison Ivy has been used in TV and Movies, but only once has she been used successfully. That one time would be in The Harley Quinn Animated Series. Poison Ivy is so often used as a seductress, and frankly, that needs to come to an end. HQAS gave Poison Ivy life, character, and purpose. Personally, I haven’t liked Ivy in anything other than that series, so I can’t really recommend anything else. Don’t watch Batman and Robin, you can probably skip all of her episodes in Batman: The Animated Series, and I dare you to find one comic book where she is used effectively. Actually, if you find one, please send me the link. I don’t want to hate her, but I haven’t had much sway not to. I would like to have more evidence that could change my opinion.
Part four: Pitch
*One week later*
I want you to know that I have taken a week off of writing this because I wanted to be able to give you quality content. I wanted to be able to write something that is worth reading that isn’t just “f*** Poison Ivy”. I want to make the last three parts up to you, so I’m going to try and give you 3 solid pitches for Poison Ivy
The main problem with Ivy is that she is a femine character written with man brain. She has no clearly defined motive. Which brings me to my first pitch:
The Eco Terrorist: Most of the time Poison Ivy is used as a way to progress the plot. What if she was the main character? And what if it was good? My pitch is for a cat and mouse style movie. In this Poison Ivy is going around destroying companies that are destroying the environment and she is being chased by the GCPD.
Harley Quinn road trip: The title of this one is sort of self explanatory. Put her in a movie with Margot Robbie, and have them go on crazy wacky adventures. Maybe put a major DC villain in it. Make it absolutely crazy. Have them piss of Sinestro, Black Adam, Darkseid, Granny Goddnes, Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, or even *gags* The Joker. Make this movie fun as hell.
A team-up: Put her in a movie where she isn’t alone. When she’s alone or in charge she can be unbearable. I should remind you that I am excluding the Harley Quinn animated series version of Poison Ivy. The typical comic book Ivy needs to be in Birds of Prey or the Suicde Squad or whatever. She just can’t be alone.
Part Five: Rating
I really do hate how lacking this article is. I would love to be able to give you more in depth, thought about content, but I just can’t. I hope that’s more of a reflection of her character than my writing. I think that Poison Ivy has three things going for her. She has cool powers (not the lust powers), the HQAS, and she can double jump in Lego Batman. If it wasn’t for the decision to connect her with Harley Quinn then I would give her a 3 out of 10, but I’m not. I’m giving her a 5 out of 10. Those two points come from potential. I think that Poison Ivy has the potential to be a good character, so we’ll see. I give this rating a 10 year clause. If nothing good happens with her character within the next ten years then she gets a 3 out of 10.
Thank you for reading this, tune in next week where we talk about a character I actually like, Two-face!