The story of Poison Ivy from Batman & Robin.
Life, Mutation, and Rebirth as Villainess[]
Pamela Isley before her transformation.
Ivy began her career as Dr. Pamela Isley working in the jungles of South America in an "Arboreal Preservation Project" funded by Wayne Enterprises. Like her villainous persona, she aspired to give plants and flowers the means to fight back against the "thoughtless ravages of men" but lacked the means to do so. After stumbling across her partner Dr. Jason Woodrue's plans for world domination, using her research materials to do so, she is quickly discovered by Woodrue and dragged back into her lab by him.
Pamela Isley emerging as Poison Ivy.
He tries to get her to join him in his conquest, saying that he owes it to her research and that they can rule together. Disgusted by what he has used her research for, she rejects him (by telling him he "won't be able to get a job teaching high school chemistry") and calls him a psycho. He calmly accepts her opinion but states he can't handle rejection, he attacks and seemingly kills her in response by pushing her into venom samples, the chemicals cooking the ground and burying her into the soil. Woodrue mocked her for now being buried in the Earth she cherished so much.
Later, Woodrue talks on the phone in Isley's old work area and disturbs her natural grave, now growing with ivy over it. Suddenly, the ground rumbles and boils with supernatural force, glowing with eerie pink light. Upon inspecting it the ground erupts, expelling Isley, who had actually been in hibernation rather than dead. A far cry from her previous appearance, Isley now bloomed with irresistible beauty and beguiling charm. Easily seducing the smitten Woodrue, Isley told him she literally had a change of heart and lured him into sharing a long, passionate kiss with her. Upon finishing, she revealed the now-toxic nature of her lips, and within moments he died, choking to death on the natural venom corroding his organs. Isley then destroyed the chemicals around the lab while deeming herself Mother Nature. With a henchman of Woodrue's creation, Bane, in tow Isley declared the world belonged to the plants and herself, deeming herself "Mother Nature" thanks to the new form her mutation had given her. She burned her lab to the ground and left for Gotham City.
Ivy in Gotham City[]
Ivy disguised as Dr. Isley.
Leaving the lab and her former life burning in her wake, Ivy moves to Gotham City to seek support — legitimate or otherwise — for her war against mankind. At the airport, Bane hospitalized ten security guards; Ivy killed a businessman with her kiss and stole his limousine (off-screen). Under the guise of her former persona Dr. Pamela Isley, she ambushes her former boss Bruce Wayne, Wayne Enterprise's CEO, at a press event to have him help her in her plans by having him stop all projects that poison the environment. After brief consideration he rejects the proposal, reasoning the cost of human life would be too great to allow for it. Angered, Isley proclaims that the plants will reclaim the planet and that there would no one to protect them. Her mad proclamations are laughed off by the press and she is explained to that in Gotham City Batman and Robin are protecting them — even from plants and flowers. Attempting to soften the blow, Wayne gives Isley an invitation to an upcoming event (a "Save the Rainforest" themed ball) where the duo would appear if she wished to meet them. Leaving quietly, Isley decided to take him up on the invitation, declaring to rid herself of the pests and leaving Gotham hers for the greening.
"Poison Ivy"[]
Poison Ivy crashing the party.
True to her intentions, Isley makes her presence known to Batman and at the ball, gate-crashing the party with a literally show-stopping performance before a captive audience. On top of a tribal-themed "mouth" overlooking the crowd, adorned in a fluffy magenta gorilla costume, she performed a seductive striptease, revealing herself as the red-haired leafy poison-lipped goddess that killed Jason Woodrue. Dousing the crowd - and the Dynamic Duo, her intended targets - with concentrated pheromones (which she referred to as "love-dust"), Isley had the room thoroughly enraptured by her. Making her way down to the stage where Batman and Robin waited, Isley greeted the duo with a friendly "Hi there" and introduced herself to her adoring masses as "Poison Ivy".
Pleasantries over, Poison Ivy turned her attentions to Batman and Robin. She seduced them both in turn with her love-dust and her seductively poisonous charms, offering them sexual pleasures while whispering insults about them behind their back, making each think she preferred them. She then takes the Heart of Isis necklace and puts herself up for bidding, offering an evening of her company for the winner, saying that whoever won would be able to see her how she was at the moment, and later everything they didn't see, seductively teasing the promise of appearing naked. This causes the wealthy men of Gotham City to bid for a night with Ivy followed by the Dynamic Duo themselves. Pleased to see her plan to tear the duo apart was already working, Ivy attempted to drive the wedge between them even further by mockingly asking if they were going to start a fight over her. Before she can take matters further, however, her designs are thwarted with the untimely arrival of Mr. Freeze causing the pair to combat him rather themselves. Freeze eventually approaches Ivy and demands the Heart of Isis from her, which she is forced to do after her love-dust has no effect on Freeze, who says that it "doesn't work on the cold-hearted." Watching Freeze, Ivy took note of his ruthless strength, intent on possibly using him to help further her own devices. With Batman and Robin in pursuit of an escaping Freeze, Ivy took her leave as well, but not before blowing a kiss to an enamored Robin, keeping her in his thoughts and planting a seed of desire for her, which she would capitalize on later.
A Proposal[]
Ivy and Bane made their way to the abandoned Turkish Bath House, where they confronted by the Golum Gang, Ivy challenges them to get her. Bane made them flee for their live after making them fly off a wooden plank they were all standing on. Redecorating the place, Ivy plants seeds then plants started to instantly grow. Ivy then planned to break Mr. Freeze out of Arkham Asylum. Ivy infiltrated Arkham Asylum in an effort to break out Freeze, who had recently been incarcerated there. While Bane recovered his equipment, Ivy lied her way into the prison, claiming to be his 'sister'. Gaining her entry into Freeze's cell under the pretense of visit Ivy went to work. Immediately upon seeing Ivy the stationed guards in his cell were smitten with her. Sheepishly, one of them told Ivy to not mind them and converse freely with Freeze.
Poison Ivy with Bane and Mr. Freeze.
Repulsed by him, Poison Ivy responded with a dose of her love-dust, further enamoring him. Flirting as she dosed the second guard too, Ivy claimed she "didn't mind him at all". With both guards under her spell she remarked to Freeze the absurdity of them as she led them away from the door deeper into the cell like lovesick puppies to Freeze's curiosity. Stopping under a light Ivy playfully basks in their deep affection for her for a brief moment as she seduces them both before turning her focus on one. Seductively remarking how she's "to die for" Ivy leans in towards one of the guards, with her lips puckered for a kiss. Eagerly he offers no resistance, sliding his hand around her back as Ivy plants her lips on his and steals his life away with a brief poison kiss.
Immediately upon removing her lips from his he begins to choke, succumbing to the poison rushing through his body. Before the other guard could even comprehend what happened Ivy grabbed him by the face and pulled him forward, forcing a rough kiss on him and causing him to struggle as he felt the toxin permeate his body in her ferocity. The deed done, Poison Ivy ended the kiss and the hapless guard slumped down dead. Ivy wiped her lips in disgust, trying to wipe away the taste of these kisses, before shrugging and smiling in amusement at Freeze. Freeze expressed his admiration of her abilities. Ivy proposed a pairing between them, offering to set him free as an incentive. Cautiously he asked what she wants from him in return but she turned the conversation to other things. With little choice he accepted her offer and with their combined forces they broke out of his cell. Freeze noted his suit was low on power though and said they must travel to his hideout and retrieve his power source and his wife. Ivy became enraged upon hearing that Freeze is married, but before they could discuss the topic any further the three escaped into the Gotham River.
Breaking the Duo[]
The trio made for Freeze's hideout to pick up some things of Freeze's, along with his terminally-ill wife, whom he had frozen in stasis until he could find a cure for her disease, MacGregor's Syndrome. Unfortunately, Freeze's escape had reached the Dynamic Duo and they were there along with the police. Both parties split-up with Poison Ivy and Bane distracting Batman and Robin, as well as rescuing his wife while Freeze recovered his much-needed power diamonds from the police. Luring them to the basement with the scent of her love-dust, Ivy seduced one of the pair, starting with Robin while Bane held off Batman. Now knowing of her evil nature, Robin tried to stop her and place her under arrest, but Ivy was unfazed by the young hero's attempt to intimidate her, seducing him with her love-dust and silencing him into a love-struck stupor. Reinforcing her influence over the young hero, Ivy offered to kiss him. Without waiting for Robin to answer, Ivy held him by the chin and leaned in, with Robin offering no resistance to her and instead slowly tilting his head forward to meet her approaching lips. Before they could get far, Bane knocked Batman to the floor nearby, snapping them out of their moment. Robin, momentarily breaking off Ivy's spell, picked himself up and ran off to face off against Bane in his mentor's stead while Ivy's attentions turned to Batman. Slowly approaching him and blowing her dust in his face, she pinned him to the floor and flirted with him. Deciding to cut the sweet-talk short, Ivy slowly leaned in towards Batman and attempted to kiss him.
Unfortunately, Batman was a much more stronger-willed opponent than Robin and despite being pinned down by her he was wily to her charms and stopped her from trying to kiss him, pushing her off him and grabbing her by the arm. Before Batman could arrest Ivy however, Bane saved her by attacking him from behind. As Bane held Batman in a headlock, Ivy gave Batman a quick hug, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest, and darkly asked him to not make a mess when he died.
"Let me kiss you..."
While they resumed their battle, Ivy sought out Robin, whom Bane had momentarily defeated. Realizing him to be less stronger-willed than his boss, she decided to thoroughly seduce the Boy Wonder rather than making it quick just as she previously did. Waiting till he was on his feet she resumed her seduction of him, shouting for him to stop before blowing yet another dose of her love-dust in his face and backing him against a nearby railing. Preying on his heroic ego and her past seductive efforts, Poison Ivy made him fall completely in love with her, disregarding her villainous identity and over-powering his better judgement. She spoke to him of moving out of Batman's shadow and being his own man with his own "Robin-signal". She convinced him that he no longer needed Batman, and she could help show him the way. At her mercy, Ivy wrapped her arms around Robin's neck, holding him in a hug, and after giving a soft whisper to let her kiss him moved in to kiss him with his spirit surrendered to Ivy and his defenses all but deteriorated.
Unfortunately for her Batman stopped them, shouting for Robin not to kiss her moments before their lips could meet and the two of them turning to glare at Batman as he ran up the stairs towards them. Knowing that Batman was onto her, Ivy slowly made moves to escape as Batman tried to explain why she was so dangerous. But thanks to her charms, the spell on Robin was indefinite and he fought Batman over her "honor" to Ivy's amusement—not believing his claims of her "poison kiss". Because of this, Ivy and Bane escaped unchallenged with the distracted crime-fighters too busy with one another to pursue them, Ivy taking a moment to laugh at both of them in victory as she escaped. In his misplaced anger, Robin cuts his ties with Batman due to the villainess' manipulations of his now-fragile emotions, truly believing Poison Ivy loved him as he did her. Before she left however, Ivy callously pulled the plug on Freeze's wife leaving her to die, so that Freeze would be easily manipulated by her with no "competition" as she put it.
Ivy showing one of her plant hybrids.
Returning to her now-blooming garden lair, Ivy told the waiting Freeze of his wife's death—claiming that Batman deactivated her. Freeze angrily accused her of lying until Ivy gave him proof: a necklace she scavenged from the woman's corpse. As expected by her manipulation, Freeze flew into a rage proclaiming to kill Batman and Robin in revenge. Using his grief and anger, Ivy twisted him into turning his wrath to the entire world, in turn giving her free reign to rule the world with her mutated plants, a natural by-product of her own creation, leaving them the only two humans left in the world. Brimming with vengeance and evil, Freeze agreed to the plan. With a plan already concocted, Freeze ordered Ivy to distract the Bat and Bird while he prepared to freeze Gotham City. Eager to help, Ivy set out with a plan of her own.
Guiding Light[]
Ivy as Isley hypnotizes Gordon.
Under the guise of Pamela Isley one last time, she attended the unveiling of a new telescope Bruce Wayne had donated to the Gotham Observatory. Hidden amongst the crowd she singled out Commissioner Gordon. Inquiring about the whereabouts of the Bat-signal she seduced him with love-dust disguised in a ivy-leaf shaped compact make-up case. Effective on the older gentleman she pressed him regarding access to it. Falling for the bait, the smitten police officer produced the keys to it, offering to show it her. Languidly blowing more dust into his face she took the keys from him and left him reeling, briefly toying with the idea to kiss him but deciding against it (claiming him to be too old for her). With that, she left the observatory and made for the Bat-signal's location. However, she was unaware that Bruce Wayne observed her actions from the crowd, and thus concluded that Pamela Isley was actually Poison Ivy. At her command, Bane ripped the light from it's point of origin and had it taken to her lair where she changed the signal from a bat to a bird. Once the signal was repaired, Ivy activated it and shined the light proudly in the sky, the Bat-signal now the Robin-signal. Smirking at her work, Ivy prepared for the next part of her plan, to lure Robin to her lair, in a final effort to seduce and murder him.
A Kiss For Luck[]
Ivy talking to Robin before kissing him.
Robin responded to the call as she knew he would. Having alluded to sending a Robin-signal for him in her last seduction of him he mistakenly believed the signal to be a sign of her love for him. Ivy sensed Robin's arrival through her plants and waited deep inside her lair as her plants slowly lured Robin inside and blocked his path behind him as he went further in. As he drew to the heart of her lair she finally revealed herself; a great bud opened where she laid voluptuously for him within a massive flower at the end of a lily-pad strewn pond. The mistress of all she surveyed, she looked more beautiful than ever, wearing a new seductive style of dress, a new hairstyle and removing her "mask" of ivy leaves all just for Robin. As Robin stared at her in silence, stunned by her grand reveal and enhanced beauty, Ivy smiled at the young hero and greeted him with a seductive "Hi there", similar to how she did when they first met at the gala. Robin approached the pond, and having been impressed by the state of her lair, asked her if her thumb was "the only part of her that was green". Ivy recognized this as an attempt by Robin to flirt with her and decided to humor his joke. Playing along, she pretended to be impressed and pointed suggestively at Robin, responding "You will just have to find out," with a smile. Understanding that she was beckoning him to her, Robin made his way across the pond, carefully stepping on the giant lily-pads. As Robin approached her, the two traded flirtations with each other, with Robin telling Ivy he loved her and wanted them to be together, but also had to make sure she was serious about her promise to "turn over a new leaf". Finally reaching Ivy and laying down beside her, the two cuddled each other as Ivy began to seduce the sidekick once more.
Ivy sharing a romantic kiss with Robin.
Robin tried to pry information about Freeze from her in an effort to find out whether she could be trusted, telling her that he needed a sign from her. Ivy simply continued to flirt with him in an attempt to get him to kiss her, jokingly suggesting in a sexual tone that her 'sign' for Robin should read "Slippery when wet", while rubbing his shoulder seductively. However, Robin ignored Ivy's attempts to seduce him, specifically clarifying he meant a "sign of trust", and ordered her to tell him her plan. Laying a hand on Robin's back and leaning forward, Ivy told Robin to kiss her and she'll tell him Freeze's plan. To her shock though, Robin refused, and told her he'll kiss her if she told him first. Ivy raised an eyebrow at him for a moment, with the two staring each other down in silence, before she gave in to his demand and told him Freeze's plan, with the belief that he won't live to make use of the knowledge. After she divulged the info, Robin tried to take leave, hurriedly reasoning that he had to stop him. But before he could escape, Ivy quickly grabbed him and pulled him back to her and innocently stroked his chin with a finger, tenderly cooing "One kiss, my love. For luck..." curling a devilish, seductive smile on her lips. Alone and unable to resist her, Robin silently submitted to her charms, nodding in agreement to her request. At her mercy at last, Poison Ivy gently laid a hand on the hero's face and languidly leaned in for a kiss, Robin following suit and closing his eyes. As they slowly inched closer together, Ivy glanced at Robin and smirked evilly to herself, pleased at her successful seduction of him, until their lips finally meet and dropped morbidly as they shared a passionate kiss.
Ivy Wilted[]
Ivy fighting against Batgirl.
As thanks for being her favorite victim, Poison Ivy gave Robin the most passionate, romantic kiss she has ever given anyone, with him kissing her back with equal loving force, putting all his feeling for her into one kiss as they shared a passionate moment together. After only a brief moment though, Ivy pulled away from their kiss and revealed with mock-"sadness" her true, deadly nature to him, stating that the kiss they just shared was actually for "bad luck" while rubbing noses with him and gently stroking his chin, and gleefully condemned him to his quickly-coming death, smirking at Robin in victory while leaning back in her throne. Unfortunately for her, Robin had been playing along with her from the very moment he stepped into her lair and was prepared for her. Wearing a protective film on his own lips rendered him immune from the deadly effects of her poison, allowing him to survive a kiss from her.
Momentarily stunned by the revelation, Ivy angrily glared at Robin, the romantic mood between the two of them destroyed by the two would-be "lovers" revealing their lies and mistrust. Ivy was humiliated that the Boy Wonder had not only outsmarted her, but had beaten her at her own game of seduction, and had successfully stolen a kiss from her. Snarling with rage, Ivy lunged forward, catching Robin off-guard, and shoved Robin away from her. Robin lost his balance and tumbled off her throne and into the lily pond, leaving him to the underwater vines to drown him. Ivy quickly jumped over the gap she shoved Robin into and walked away from her throne with a smirk. She turned to Robin as she passed him and mockingly waved goodbye to the drowning hero, taunting him "See ya!", as a final act of revenge against him, rubbing in that she was "breaking up with him" and ending their would-be relationship. Trying to escape, Ivy was stopped in her tracks by Batman, whom had apparently came with Robin, but Ivy quickly incapacitated him with the help of her plants.
Ivy thrown on her flower pod, defeated.
After briefly taunting him, she made moves to leave once again before a third figure, an unknown Bat-costumed woman, Batgirl, broke through a skylight and confronted her, telling her that she was "about to become compost." Ivy tried to defeat her, but was unable to match her opponent's fighting prowess, ending up on her backside from a swift kick. While on the ground, Batgirl accused her of using feminine wiles and her looks to get what she wanted. Poison Ivy unabashedly agreed to this claim, with Batgirl retorting with disgust, "Chicks like you give women a bad name." Ivy then leaped to her feet and tried to tie her up with some vines and gloatingly revealed she killed Nora Fries, the wife of Freeze, saying, "As I told Lady Freeze when I pulled her plug, this is a one-woman show." But Batgirl snapped the vines from her hands and flipped her over on her back. Ivy then pulled out a switchblade and intended to stab Batgirl with it, but she was quickly disarmed and kicked multiple times, knocking her into her own flower-bed that she and Robin had flirted on. Ivy screamed as the petals of the flower bed closed over her, supposedly crushing the villainess. Ivy was left in this condition thereafter for the police until her eventual incarceration at Arkham Asylum.
Ivy imprisoned in Arkham Asylum.
The defeated Poison Ivy is last seen in a disheveled, maddened state, plucking the petals of a flower, sadly playing the old "he loves me, he loves me not" game, likely referring to Freeze as the "he." After she gets to the last petal, she is interrupted by a loud "not" and witnesses the surprise emergence of Mr. Freeze within her cell as her new cell-mate. Originally pleased to see her "partner-in-crime," she quickly learns that he knows that it was she who had tried to kill his wife (thanks to Batgirl recording her admission and Batman playing it for Freeze). With that, he declares that he has come to make her life a living hell and to offer her an eternal winter, much to her stunned horror. What Freeze then did to her is unknown, but as anyone can imagine, it couldn't have been pleasant.