Gotham’s Secret Mad Scientist Threat Existed Long Before Batman’s Most Famous Rogues

Warning: Contains spoilers for Poison Ivy #20!

Gotham is filled to the brim with painted and costumed rogues, despite Batman’s constant efforts to keep them at bay. But one particular threat was brewing before some of its well-known faces entered the scene. Bella Garten, also known as the Gardener, has been creating her monsters since Poison Ivy was a mere student. The only thing keeping her from turning on the city is her own choice.

Poison Ivy #20 by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara offers an in-depth look at Poison Ivy’s early years as Pamela Isley, one of Jason Woodrue’s students. This issue features the beginnings of her involvement with Bella Garten. Batman Secret Files: The Gardener #1 already gave a glimpse into the relationship between the two and their respective work in botany, but this new account is less forgiving of Garten’s early experiments.

Instead, it paints her as simultaneously brilliant and dangerous as she attempts to perfect her plant and animal hybrids. The Gardener romanticizes her achievements, but seeing her early monstrous creations proves that Bella Garten has the potential to be a major threat to Gotham and even the entire DC Universe.

The Gardener Is as Dangerous as Poison Ivy

Just like her relationship with Poison Ivy, Bella’s morality is complex. Both women have noble enough intentions and genuinely want to save the world. In Garten’s case, she wants to give the planet’s vulnerable forests a way to defend themselves against the threat of humanity. Though the core of her cause is well-intentioned, her approach has always been twisted. Ivy’s account in Poison Ivy #20 and the Gardener’s memories from her Fear State origin issue both show that she conducted her experiments in secret alongside the research she did for Woodrue. But each issue differs sharply in their depictions of this new anti-hero.

Instead of the relatively non-threatening early hybrids Bella remembers, Pam encounters something far more alarming: a chimpanzee-plant monster that makes her realize how far her partner is willing to go to complete her work. Ironically, the Gardener comes to think the same of the future Poison Ivy, leaving them both with the impression that the other has gone too far to achieve her ambitions. The truth is, Garten was well on her way to becoming a threat before Poison Ivy existed as more than an over-eager student, and she has all the intelligence and capability to become a full-fledged supervillain.

Poison Ivy’s Ex the Gardener Could Take Gotham by Storm

Art from Batman Secret Files: The Gardener #1 by Tynion, Ward, and Tom Napolitano

The only thing stopping Bella from becoming a serious problem for Gotham (or whatever city she sets her sights on) is her own desire to avoid the hassle of vigilantes and superheroes. She has perfected her plant and animal hybrids, meaning she has many monsters like her hybrid hounds at her beck and call. With little effort, the Gardener could attack on the same scale as Poison Ivy and turn her work against all of humanity. The Gardener has been operating longer than Poison Ivy and many of Batman’s other rogues, and she could easily become even more vicious.

Poison Ivy #20 is available now from DC Comics.