It wouldn’t seem like Green Arrow and Poison Ivy would see eye to eye on much, but a shared belief between the two could actually be the basis for a great team-up.
She may have spent most of her career on the wrong side of the law, but Poison Ivy is quite the impassioned warrior for Mother Earth. During her initial forays into villainy, Dr. Pamela Isley was a botanist whose exposure to plants and toxins left her virtually immune to naturally occurring poisons. Over time her skills developed into a full on mastery of the green, turning Poison Ivy into DC’s god of plants. Ivy has used her control over fauna to become the DCU’s premier ecological warrior, bringing vengeance upon those who have negatively impacted the Earth. Her actions may be violent, but Ivy has shown she’s willing to save the natural environment by any means necessary.
And it appears that she’s not the only person who believes people need to pay for their crimes against the planet. In Flash and Green Lantern: The Brave & The Bold #4 by Mark Waid, Tom Peyer, and Tom Grindberg, Oliver Queen shines a light on how he feels about the state of the world. Green Arrow and Green Lantern have just been sprung from jail by the Flash, and Queen can’t help but critique the system that led to his arrest. Green Arrow mentions to his fellow Justice Leaguers that the real problems facing the world aren’t brought on by costumed villains or threats from space but social ills that are harming people in plain sight. Green Arrow says that while militarized police are busting heads over unregistered drivers, the “real crimes” of the country, like sewage being dumped into rivers, go unaccounted for.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Oliver is so passionate about these kinds of issues. Green Arrow is DC’s biggest champion of social justice causes and he’s had a number of series that explored Oliver’s passion for fighting for the disenfranchised. But it is particularly interesting that among the many issues Queen describes as one of the “real crimes” in America, he mentions an issue that has a lot of overlap with the interests of the DC Universe’s biggest eco-conscious character. Poison Ivy may have started out as a planet and toxin-themed villain, but over time she developed into the passionate protector of the Earth she is now. And in a similar manner, the history of Green Arrow has him going from being a wealthy industrialist hero to a more socially conscious rebel. They may have initially been opposites as far as traditional morality was concerned, but their heightened awareness of growing ecological ills have brought them to see eye-to-eye.
Granted, Oliver is still a Justice Leaguer and Ivy can’t stand most people who aren’t Harley Quinn. But they both share a desire to hold those who have harmed the environment accountable for their actions. A team-up between Poison Ivy and Green Arrow may not be coming anytime soon, but it should strongly be considered.
