After the Crisis: Pamela’s Life in Seattle and Gotham

Later on, during the cosmic event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the origins of Poison Ivy were revised. Pamela Isley studies advanced botanical biochemistry under the guidance of Dr. Jason Woodrue who manages to seduce her and inject her with some deadly poisons as part of an experiment. Isley has two near death experiences on account of these poisonings. After the incident, Woodrue runs away from the authorities leaving Pamela in the hospital to fend for herself. Being consumed by this treachery, Pamela goes through violent mood swings, being very cheerful one moment to being completely vengeful the next. After her boyfriend is involved in a car accident, she decides to leave Seattle and settles down in Gotham city.
Using the persona of Poison Ivy, Pamela starts a life of crime as she sets out to prove her dominance over men. Her first major plot involved the threat of releasing suffocating spores into the air unless Gotham city managed to meet her demands. The Batman manages to avert this disaster and as a result, Poison Ivy is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. It is at this point that she starts to become obsessed with The Batman, as he was the only man that she could not manipulate. Over the years, Poison Ivy manages to develop plant-like venomous poisons with the most lethal being the one on her lips where she can kill a man just by kissing him.
Often, Poison Ivy manages to escape from Arkham Asylum, usually by seducing the guards that are watching her. She becomes one of Batman’s arch enemies, at times committing various robberies to support her cause of preserving all plant life. On one of several later missions, Ivy was able to take control of a small nation in Central America by managing to seduce the dictator and using him to dominate the country.
In later chapters, Poison Ivy states that the only reason why she started a life of crime was so that she could have enough money to be alone with her pants on an undisclosed location away from humanity. Some time later, after having escaped from Arkham, she leaves Gotham and settles on a deserted island in the Caribbean, transforming it into a second Eden. This is the first time in her life that she is actually happy. However, when an American owned corporation starts test firing their missiles on this beautiful paradise, Ivy returns back to Gotham vowing to punish those that were responsible.
There are times when Poison Ivy displays maternal instincts proving that she is not all evil. When the city of Gotham is destroyed in an earthquake, Poison Ivy takes care of sixteen orphaned children as she sympathizes with them; because she too had a one time suffered a very traumatic childhood. Despite her misanthropy, she cares for the orphans like daughters and sons.
Once the city has been reopened to the public, the city council wants to evict her and send her back to Arkham Asylum as they do not want a “psychotic eco-terrorist controlling the equivalent of 30-odd square blocks”. Mistaking the orphans living with her for hostages, the police department threatens to use R.C. Sixty, a vey powerful herbicide capable of killing virtually every plant in the city including Poison Ivy. Ivy, instead of surrendering, chooses martyrdom and lets the police destroy the wonderful paradise that she had created. However, when one of the orphan girls is accidentally poisoned, Poison Ivy decides to give herself up to save the girl’s life. Such an incident prompted Batman to remark that Poison Ivy was more human than plant, even if she hated to admit it.
In later episodes, Ivy along with other characters meet Hush and The Riddler and are manipulated by them. Her main task was to hypnotize Catwoman and Superman. Instead, Poison Ivy abandons Catwoman and allows her to be killed by Killer Croc while Batman keeps Superman busy in a fight allowing him to break out of the spell. After some time, as The Riddler who is being hunted down by Hush, seeks Poison Ivy’s help, she battles him injuring him psychologically and physically. She manages to humiliate him, breaking his spirit temporarily.
When Poison Ivy realizes that her powers of destroying Gotham are slowly killing the children she looked after for so long, she seeks the help of Bruce Wayne to try and make her normal again. Soon afterwards, Hush manages to convince her that he has created a serum that will restore her to her earlier self, however, the serum proves to be fatal, killing her. But when her grave is visited soon after, it is completely covered in ivy, giving the impression that she has once again managed to survive death.
Some time later, Poison Ivy appears in Robinson Park and kills two corrupt policemen that were responsible for killing one of her orphans.
“One Year Later”, Poison Ivy is back with an increased control over the plant life in the city. She resumes her battle against large corporations that are threats to the environment and starts to consider Batman as a hindrance rather than an opponent.
Batman, who has returned after a year-long absence finds out that Poison Ivy, was now feeding those people that caused her harm and misery to a giant plant, which digested the victims painfully. The souls of these victims merged together with the plant and created a monster named Harvest who tries to eat Ivy. However, due to Batman’s interference, Poison Ivy is rescued and left in a critical condition.
In “Battle For The Cowl”, Ivy is coaxed by Black Mask to join a villainous group planning to take over Gotham city. After she unsuccessfully tries to murder Damian Wayne, she flees from Black Mask’s control and teams up with Harley Quinn and Catwoman in the continuing series ‘Gotham City Sirens’.
In order for Hush to try and hurt Batman through various people that he loves and cares about, he kidnaps and surgically manages to remove the heart of Catwoman. After she is saved by Batman, Catwoman enlists the help of Poison Ivy to track down and pilfer all of Hush’s bank accounts. Catwoman gives Poison Ivy $30 million to start her life afresh.
After Poison Ivy aids in the rescue of Catwoman from a new villain called Boneblaster, the two of them go back to The Riddler’s house. It is here that Catwoman sees for herself that Poison Ivy has managed to keep the Riddler under a spell so that Harley and she could use the house as a stowaway place. It is then that Poison Ivy fears that Catwoman has in fact lost all her prowess and edge and so she consults with Zatanna. Zatanna states that the injuries of Catwoman are psychological and would take some time to heal. Poison Ivy promises Catwoman that she and Harley would help her heal with “positive female reinforcement”. Harley and Ivy decide to let Catwoman join the two of them on one condition: that she reveal the true identity of The Batman. Just as Catwoman is about to say something, Boneblaster crashes into the apartment and after putting up a tremendous fight, the three of them have to leave the house in search of a new place.