The always iconic Dr. Pamela Isley, better known in DC Comics as the ecological terrorist Poison Ivy, is leaving her home city of Gotham to move into greener pastures in a new Poison Ivy series set to debut during Pride Month. While Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn have long been DC’s most prominent LGBTQIA+ relationship, it looks like Ivy is responding to their recent break-up (and the disastrous few years preceding it) by returning to her mission with renewed focus.
Poison Ivy was introduced as an outright supervillain, using her power and control over plant life to wantonly murder Gotham’s citizens in her quest to bring about humanity’s end so that they would stop destroying the natural environment of Earth. Since then she has become a more sympathetic antihero, often teaming up with superheroes to save the Earth while still remaining an ecological warrior at heart. Dr. Isley has been through a lot since the 2018 event Heroes in Crisis, which saw Poison Ivy accidentally killed by Wally West, before being resurrected by West using the Speed Force to activate Ivy’s latent immortal powers of the Green. Since then she slowly built back her memories, personality, and values with the help of her longtime friend and lover Harley Quinn, at least until the recent Infinite Frontier era of DC Comics.
The most recent Batman event Fear State saw the Magistrate’s Simon Saint kidnap Poison Ivy to experiment on her and create a new drug, and although Pamela was rescued by Catwoman, the experimentation she endured was so traumatic that she split into two distinct personalities and bodies: the innocent, loving Ivy and the dark and deranged Queen Ivy. As Queen Ivy she created a vast garden below Gotham dubbed Eden, almost collapsing the city in on itself in another attempt to destroy those who have killed the Green. Thankfully, Harley Quinn was able to save Ivy through their love and successfully reintegrate her two personas, but the couple split when it became clear that Harley’s quest for redemption was taking her down a path Ivy wasn’t ready to walk. The new Poison Ivy series – by the iconic G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara – will follow Poison Ivy as she sets out to reclaim her identity and get back to her roots… literally. Enjoy the gorgeous and deadly-looking main cover by Jessica Fong, along with Kris Anka’s Pride Month variant, with a beautiful rainbow flower array in Ivy’s flowing hair, below:
Poison Ivy, by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara, with covers by Jessica Fong (main), Warren Louw (open-to-order variant and 1:100 foil variant), Nick Robles (1:25 variant), Frank Cho (1:50 variant), and Dan Mora (team variant), launches on June 7. In her new series, Ivy leaves Gotham City and sets out to complete her greatest work – a gift to the world that will heal the damage humanity has dealt to it! DC is proud to present the unbelievable next chapter in Poison Ivy’s ever-growing library in a six-issue story arc by the incredible creative team of G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara.
Harley Quinn helping to reintegrate Ivy and Queen Ivy actually led to Poison Ivy saving the entirety of Gotham from Scarecrow’s Fear Agent, but with her and Harley having broken up in Harley Quinn #10, she now has no reason to stay in Gotham. With the immense power that Queen Ivy showed in creating Eden, perhaps her teased “gift” will be a new Eden – one that doesn’t need to destroy Gotham to exist. G. Willow Wilson, most known for her work on Ms. Marvel, Sandman, and Invisible Kingdom, is the perfect visionary writer to bring Ivy’s next step in her journey to fruition and Marcio Takara’s art will surely highlight the beauty and strength of this iconic character.
DC has announced that while Poison Ivy will launch during June, the 6-issue series will continue to publish throughout the year, bringing DC’s Pride with it. Poison Ivy fans should be sure to keep an eye out for updates about DC Comics new Pride Month special Poison Ivy, which will see the beloved queer character leave Gotham to start the next phase of her journey.
