Dr. Pamela Isley

Poison Ivy (Dr. Pamela Isley) NAME
Female, cis SEX/GENDER
Harley Quinn (animated series) CANON
Season 4 finale CANONPOINT

As a doctoral candidate, Pamela Isley was mentored and eventually entered a sexual relationship with Dr. Jason Woodrue. However when she made a scientific breakthrough by creating a specimen (Frank) which combined plant and animal characteristics, along with being immune to poisons, Dr. Woodrue betrayed her trust by demanding that she let him present her findings as his own. When Pam refused to give him credit, Dr. Woodrue locked her in a room with leaking toxins with the intension of killing her to get her out of the way. Pam was forced to use her experimental formula on herself in a last ditch attempt to save her own life, and in doing so became the metahuman known as Poison Ivy. Understandably, this event became one of the singular most formative of her life. It transformed her physically and mentally, with the shock of both the betrayal and transformation leaving her psychologically less stable. While she was already a fairly mistrustful and standoffish woman, this was the point where she turned her back on humanity.

While imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, Ivy met Dr. Harleen Quinzel (the woman who would later become Harley Quinn). At the time, Harleen was working as Arkham's psychologist, and she impressed Ivy by actually caring. Both outside of prison and incarcerated, Ivy had come to expect people to be stupid, cruel, selfish—more or less a lost cause. Harleen actually looked out for her, risking her own safety on Ivy's behalf and cracking the door Dr. Woodrue had closed back open slightly.

Until relatively recently, Ivy had struggled with her connection to the Green. Her lack of confidence and scientific mind both tending to undermine her attempts to access that connection. This struggle came to a head when Frank (her early mentioned experiment) was kidnapped. Her early attempts to find him through the Green were unsuccessful, and led to rampant uncontrolled plant growth in ger vicinity while weakening her physically. She eventually reached out to a sometimes-friend-and-ally, Swamp Thing, to help her master the connection. At the end of that visit, she was eventually able to locate Frank, but the process of getting to that point was incredibly difficult for her. It's not until she needs to enter the Green again shortly thereafter in an attempt to control a horde of plant zombies unleashed by Bruce Wayne (just go with it) and after experiencing the support of her allies that she finally finds to confidence to enter fully. In the Green, Swamp Thing appears before her to express that she has the potential to use her power her for good or evil, intending to nudge her in the direction of good. However with the power available to her there, she realizes that in taking control of the zombies she would gain the power to use them to turn the city into a plant paradise, realizing her long time goals. Embracing the power of the Green at this point is incredibly heady for her, and both grows her confidence and tempts her with power.

Following the third event mentioned above, Ivy and her plant zombies converged on a jazz festival taking place in Gotham to set in motion an endgame wherein she added Gothamites to her zombie army and uses them to green Gotham City by reviving dead plants (just go with it). Harley, now Ivy's girlfriend, interposed herself and became infected, forcing Ivy to reconsider her plans as she was faced with two choices: either she gets her primordial garden, or she can save Harley from zombification, and in the process release others who've been infected. The choice is frustrating, but not difficult to make. Ivy saved Harley and let this particular scheme go, sparing Gotham in the process. It's strange moment for her, both revealing how important Harley has become, and also the ways in which that had changed Ivy herself. While she is angry at being forced to confront this choice, ultimately Ivy recognized it as best for her.

As her monster transformation, Ivy's body is subsumed by a giant female construct made out of living plants roughly twenty feet tall. Externally, the Green Woman presents a more or less human facade, but every feature is made of plant matter. The exact composition can vary based on need at the moment, but normally means some combination of bark, stems, leaves and blossoms. The inside of her mouth (or other orifices) may be made of carnivorous plants, such as venus flytraps or pitcher plants. Within the construct is a complex root structure, with Ivy's own body curled tight in the chest where the heart should be. This heart is the Green Woman's only weak spot; damage to any other portion of her body will repair almost immediately.

The Green Woman has the ability to control her body composition, along with Ivy's normal powerset.

With regards to behavior, the Green Woman is luckily fairly lazy. Left to her own devices, she's inclined to put down roots and only attempt to eat or seduce those who wander close to her. While still intelligent, her thoughts are slow and overwhelmingly driven by her natural concerns. Some elements of her behavior and physical manifestation are seasonal: she is less active, less powerful, and more carnivorous in the autumn and winter; more active, more powerful and more interested in sex in the spring and early summer.