InsaneJournal

dr. pamela lillian isley, a botanist from seattle, was once a very intelligent, yet naive, college student who knew just about everything about plants. that is, until her professor, dr. jason woodrue (aka the floronic man) conducted experiments upon her by seducing her with words of love. the experiments placed toxins in her blood stream that make her touch deadly and allow her to be immune to all poisons, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. the experiments also allowed her to produce mind-control pheromones that drove men wild at her touch. they also made her barren, and she has treated her plants as children, mothering them, ever since.
woodrue fled the authorities, leaving pamela in the hospital for six months. enraged at the betrayal, pamela suffered violent mood swings. after her boyfriend got into a car accident after mysteriously suffering from a massive fungal overgrowth, isley dropped out of school and left seattle, eventually setting roots down in gotham city.
her first act: threatening to release her deadly spores into the air unless the city met her demands. thus, she became the infamous poison ivy. the batman, who had appeared in gotham that very same year, subdued her and thwarted her scheme, resulting in her incarceration in arkham asylum for the criminally insane. despite gotham's perpetual night, ivy remained. as the years went on, the naïveté of pamela isley faded as the hardness that comes with a criminal lifestyle progressed. she would become more plant-like year by year. to this day she still remains a thorn in batman's side.
a few years later, she would try to leave gotham forever, escaping arkham to settle on a desert island in the caribbean. she molded the barren wasteland into a second eden, and was, for the first time in her life, happy. it was soon firebombed, however, when an american-owned corporation tested their weapons systems out on what they thought was an abandoned island. ivy then returned to gotham with a vengeance, punishing those responsible. after willing apprehension by batman, she resolved that she could never leave gotham, at least not until the world was safe for plants. from then on, she dedicated herself to the impossible mission of purifying gotham (considered the most polluted city in america).

another positive side of her was shown when she took care of some children after an earthquake that leveled gotham city left them orphans. they resided in robinson park, which had been a polluted haven for junkies and prostitutes before ivy arrived. she came to love the children like sons and daughters, protecting them from danger. after gotham city reopened to the public, the city wanted to evict her from the park and send her back to arkham asylum. they also mistakenly believed that the orphans in ivy's care were unwilling hostages. the gcpd threatened to spray the park with a powerful herbicide that most certainly would have killed every living plant in the park, including ivy, and more than likely do harm to the children as well. ivy refused to leave the park to the city and let them destroy the eden she had created, so she chose martyrdom. it was only after rose, one of the orphans, was accidentally poisoned by ivy that the hardened eco-terrorist surrendered herself to the authorities in order to save rose's life. batman stated that ivy was still more plant than human.
poison ivy recently came to believe that her powers were killing the children she looked after, so she got batman to reverse her powers and make her a normal human being once more. soon after she was convinced by hush to take another serum to restore her powers and apparently died in the process. however, when her grave was visited it was covered with vine and ivy, creating the impression her death would be short-lived.

ivy is alive and active. her control over flora has increased, referred to as being on a par with swamp thing or floronic man. she also appears to have resumed her crusade against the corporate enemies of the environment with a new fanaticism, regarding batman no longer as a main opponent, but as a 'hindrance'.
ivy has been feeding people including tiresome lovers, incompetent henchmen, and those who returned her smile to a giant plant which would digest the victims slowly and painfully. she refers to it as a guilty pleasure. in an unprecedented event, her victims' souls merge with the plant, creating a botanical monster called harvest, who seeks revenge upon ivy. with the intervention of batman, however, she is saved.

ivy is, at heart, a misanthrope. she despises humankind and all of the trappings humankind bring. people, in her estimation, are so self-centered they fail to see the wonder of the natural around them. so blind are they to the majesty of nature, they have constructed wastelands of concrete and steel, murdering thousands of beautiful, perfect specimens. people are beasts and do not possess the mental capacity to understand where they fall in the chain of power. she knows they are but tiny bugs to be obliterated beneath the power of mother nature's righteous fury.
pamela isley's specialty was always plants. from her childhood, she loved to play in her mother's garden or in the grass of the playground outside school. her childhood fascination grew to intellectual curiosity and finally into an obsessive, zealous passion. she is bound and determined to do anything and everything to aid plantkind. there are no measures to extreme to take when fighting for her cause, and it is this blind devotion that makes poison ivy such a dangerous individual.
ivy is an extremely conflicted individual. she loathes humans, yet she is one. her soul is forever connected to the flora and fauna of the world, but she cannot escape the flesh and bone body in which she lives. this internal conflict creates a very contentious and defensive aspect of ivy's personality. she herself does not know, especially with this latest mutation she is undergoing, whether she is more plant or human. and more importantly, sometimes she doesn't know which she would truly rather be.

BOTANY poison ivy is an expert botanist. in college she received her PhD in the field of botany. so let's suppose that's dr. poison ivy to you.

TOXICOLOGY ivy is an expert at toxicology. she is especially adept at creating a wide range of chemical products through the use of her plants.

COMBAT ivy's combative abilities have improved over the course of her career. she is familiar with a limited style of martial arts fighting, can climb and leap and is a strong and fast swimmer.

WEAKNESS ivy's one weakness is (surprise, surprise) her one human connection to the world. the eco-terrorist would do anything for harley quinn. anything. seriously. she's gotten herself into more close calls on behalf of the blonde than she can count, and as much as she complains, she would never turn the young woman down. her relationship with harley has, on more than one occasion, gotten between ivy and her work. she has missed opportunities and had projects ruined multiple times.

CHLOROKINESIS ivy possesses a semi-mystical connection to plants. she can feel and hear them and can control them with her mind.

TOXIKINESIS the presence of an abundance of animal- and plant-based toxins in her bloodstream make ivy's touch harmful and in some cases fatal. though skin-to-skin contact can be harmful, ivy most often chooses to kiss her victims. this contact is almost always (unless she chooses otherwise) fatal.