Editing Poison Ivy (character) (section)

===Post-Crisis===
Following the events of the DC maxi-series comic ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'', which massively rebooted DC Universe history and continuity, Poison Ivy's origins were revised in ''[[Secret Origins]]'' #36, 1988, written by [[Neil Gaiman]].<ref name="goodcomics.comicbookresources.com"/> Her real name is Dr. Pamela Isley, PhD, a [[Gotham City]] botanist. She grows up wealthy with emotionally distant parents and later studies advanced botanical biochemistry at a university with [[Swamp Thing|Alec Holland]] under [[Floronic Man|Dr. Jason Woodrue]]. Isley, a shy girl, is easily seduced by her professor. Woodrue injects Isley with poisons and toxins as an experiment, causing her transformation.<ref>[http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/docs/swampthing.html Swamp Thing Chronology<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502074552/http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/docs/swampthing.html |date=May 2, 2006}}, Mykey3000.com</ref> She nearly dies twice as a result of these poisonings, driving her insane. Later, Woodrue flees from the authorities leaving Isley in the hospital for six months. Enraged at the betrayal, she suffers from violent mood swings, being sweet one moment and evil the next. When her boyfriend has a car accident after mysteriously suffering from a massive [[fungus|fungal]] overgrowth, Isley drops out of school and leaves Seattle, eventually settling in Gotham City.<ref name=LotDK>''Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight'' #43. DC Comics.</ref>

She begins her criminal career by threatening to release her suffocating spores into the air unless the city meets her demands. Batman, who appears in Gotham that very same year, thwarts her scheme, and she is incarcerated in [[Arkham Asylum]].<ref name=SotB>''Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' Annual #3. DC Comics.</ref> From this point on, she has a kind of obsession with Batman, him being the only person she could not control due to his strong will and focus. Over the years, she develops plant-like superpowers, the most noticeable being a lethal toxin in her lips; she is literally able to kill with a kiss.

In subsequent issues, she states that she only started a life of crime to attain sufficient funds to find a location to be alone with her plants, undisturbed by humanity. A few years later, she attempts to leave Gotham forever, escaping Arkham to settle on a desert island in the [[Caribbean]]. She transforms the barren wasteland into a second [[Garden of Eden|Eden]], and is, for the first time in her life, happy. It is soon firebombed, however, when an American-owned corporation tests their weapons systems out on what they think is an abandoned island. Ivy returns to Gotham with a vengeance, punishing those responsible. After being willingly apprehended by Batman, she resolves that she can never leave Gotham, at least not until the world was safe for plants. From then on, she dedicates herself to the impossible mission of "purifying" Gotham.<ref name=BP>''Batman: Poison Ivy''. DC Comics.</ref>

At one point, Batman travels to Seattle to ascertain information on Pamela Isley's life before she became Poison Ivy. Here, Batman states that both of Pamela's parents are dead. When and why they died has been left undetermined.<ref name=LotDK />

While in Arkham, Poison Ivy receives a [[Language of flowers|message through flowers]] that someone is to help her escape. That night, two women, Holly and Eva, successfully break Ivy out and bring her back to their employer. She is less than happy to discover that it is the [[Floronic Man]], formerly known as Dr. Jason Woodrue, her former college professor that conducted the experiments on her. The only human portion of him remaining is his head, while the rest of his body is plant-based.

After striking a deal with him in the tunnels of Gotham, Ivy receives a trunk full of money in return for samples of her DNA. Woodrue intends to combine their DNA to create a "child", all while flooding the streets of Gotham with high-grade [[cannabis (drug)|marijuana]]. The purpose of this is to create a world economy run on [[hemp]] and to have their offspring control it. Batman intervenes, but is overcome by Woodrue's henchwomen, Holly and Eva. However, Ivy turns on Floronic Man and lets Batman go to fight the intoxicated maniac. In the end, Batman decapitates the Floronic Man, and Ivy escapes with her money.<ref>''Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' #56–58. DC Comics.</ref>

At times, Ivy demonstrates positive and maternal traits. When [[Gotham City]] is destroyed in an [[Batman: Cataclysm|earthquake]] and declared [[Batman: No Man's Land|No Man's Land]], she holds dominion over Robinson Park and turns it into a tropical paradise rather than fight over territory like most of Batman's enemies. Sixteen children who are orphaned during the quake come to live with her as she sympathizes with them having suffered a [[Psychological trauma|traumatic]] childhood herself.<ref>''Secret Files 1998''. DC Comics.</ref> She cares for them like sons and daughters, despite her usual [[misanthropy]]. That winter, [[Clayface]] (Basil Karlo) pays Ivy a visit, hoping to form a bargain with her. This would entail her growing fruits and vegetables, having the orphans harvest them, and him selling the produce to the highest bidder. She wants nothing to do with the plan, and she attempts to kill him with a kiss. Clayface overpowers her, however, and imprisons Ivy and the orphans for six months in a chamber under the park's lake. He feeds her salt and keeps her from the sun to weaken her. Eventually, Batman comes and discovers the imprisoned orphans and Ivy. The two agree to work together to take Karlo down. Batman battles Clayface and instructs [[Tim Drake|Robin]] to blow up the lake bed above, allowing the rushing water to break apart the mud, effectively freeing Ivy. She fights Karlo, ensnaring him in the branches of a tree and fatally kissing him. She then proceeds to sink him down into the ground, where he becomes fertilizer for Ivy's plants. Batman, originally intending to take the orphans away from Ivy, recognizes that staying with her is what is best for them, and they remain in her care until the city is restored. Also, as part of a bargain to keep her freedom, Batman arranges it so that Ivy provides fresh produce to the starving hordes of earthquake survivors.<ref name=FotE>''Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' #88, ''Detective Comics'' #735. DC Comics.</ref><ref>{{Cite comic | Writer = [[Greg Rucka|Rucka, Greg]] | Artist = [[Dan Jurgens|Jurgens, Dan]] [[Bill Sienkiewicz|Sienkiewicz, Bill]] | Title = Batman #568 | Volume =  | Issue = | Date = 1998 | Publisher = [[DC Comics]] | location = New York City| Page = | Panel = | ID = }}</ref> Soon after, Ivy finds [[Harley Quinn]], who had almost been murdered by [[Joker (character)|the Joker]], among the debris of the earthquake and nurses her back to health. The two have been best friends and partners-in-crime ever since.<ref>''Batman: Harley Quinn''. DC Comics.</ref>

After Gotham City is reopened to the public, the city council wants to evict her from the park and send her back to Arkham Asylum, as they are uncomfortable with the thought of a "psychotic [[eco-terrorism|eco-terrorist]] controlling the equivalent of 30-odd square blocks." They also mistakenly believe that the orphans in Ivy's care are hostages. The [[Gotham City Police Department]] threaten to spray the park with R.C. Sixty, a powerful [[herbicide]] that most certainly would have killed every living plant in the park, including Ivy, and more than likely do harm to the children. Ivy refuses to leave the park to the city and let them destroy the paradise she had created, so she chooses [[martyr]]dom. It is only after Rose, one of the orphans, is accidentally poisoned by Ivy that the hardened eco-terrorist surrenders herself to the authorities to save the girl's life. Batman says that, as much as she would hate to admit it, Ivy is still more human than plant.<ref>''Detective Comics'' #751–752. DC Comics.</ref>

Later on, she and other Gotham characters are manipulated by the [[Riddler]] and [[Hush (character)|Hush]]. Her task is to hypnotize both [[Superman]] and [[Catwoman]], using Catwoman to steal ransom money from [[Bane (DC Comics)|Bane]] after the original plan is interrupted by Batman while Superman serves as a 'bodyguard' when she hides in Metropolis. However, she abandons Catwoman to be killed by Killer Croc, and Batman is able to keep Superman busy in a fight (aided by the [[Kryptonite]] ring he was given long ago) long enough for him to escape Ivy's control. Soon afterwards, the Riddler, who is being chased and attacked by [[Hush (character)|Hush]], approaches Ivy and seeks her protection. Ivy, who is angered by the manipulation, battles the Riddler physically and psychologically. She comes to physically dominate her opponent, humiliating Riddler and temporarily breaking his spirit.<ref name=Low>''Detective Comics'' #797–799. DC Comics.</ref>

Ivy comes to believe that her powers are killing the children she had looked after, so with Bruce Wayne's help, she willingly undergoes treatment to become human again. Soon after, she is convinced by Hush to take another serum to restore her powers and apparently dies in the process. However, in ''Batman: Gotham Knights'', when her grave is visited shortly thereafter, it is covered with ivy, creating the impression her death would be short-lived.<ref>''[[Batman: Gotham Knights]]'' #60 - 65 (February - July 2005)</ref>

Shortly after, Poison Ivy appears briefly in Robinson Park, killing two corrupt cops who killed one of her orphans (although whether this takes place before or after the aforementioned storyline is unknown).<ref name=GC>''Gotham Central'' #32. DC Comics.</ref>

"[[One Year Later]]", Ivy is alive and active. Her control over flora has increased, referred to as being on a par with [[Swamp Thing]] or Floronic Man. She also appears to have resumed her crusade against the corporate enemies of the environment with a new [[fanaticism]], regarding Batman no longer as a main opponent, but as a "hindrance".<ref name="OYL"/> After arriving back from a year-long absence, Batman discovers that Ivy has been feeding people including "tiresome lovers", "incompetent henchmen", and those who "returned her smile" to a giant plant which would digest the victims slowly and painfully. She refers to these murders as a "guilty pleasure". In an unprecedented event, her victims' souls merge with the plant, creating a botanical monster called ''Harvest'', who seeks revenge upon Poison Ivy. With the intervention of Batman however, she is saved. Poison Ivy is left in critical condition, and the whereabouts of Harvest are unknown.<ref name="OYL">{{cite web | first=Ray | last=Tate | url=http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/11578374516654.htm | title=Detective Comics #823 | access-date=2008-05-06 | date=September 9, 2006 | publisher=Comics Bulletin | archive-date=May 18, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518102540/http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/11578374516654.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>