8 Things DC Comics Wants You To Forget About Poison Ivy

5. Her First Appearance

Although the Ivy of today comes replete with bags of agency, the character's original appearance didn't, and was a far cry from the character we all know and love.

In the original pre-crisis continuity, Isley becomes a leading botanist studying under Marc LeGrande, who enlists her help in his attempt to steal an Ancient Egyptian relic containing a veritable host of herbs and spices. Pulling a Joker in The Dark Knight's prologue, LeGrande tries to cover his tracks by poisoning Ivy with the very herbs in the relic, at which point Isley discovers that toxins and other poisonous nasties do her no harm.

Deciding that the next obvious step after finding this power was to become a villain, Ivy heads to Gotham, intent on displacing the three established vilenesses currently residing within the city.

When Ivy, much like in the aforementioned Schumacher film, starts to drive a wedge between the dynamic duo by exploiting Batman's infatuation with her, things get hairy. Apart from the fact this original origin isn't nearly as compelling as her later ones, her characterisation here just isn't at all convincing, and a shadow of what audiences would be later acquainted with in BTAS and other Bat-media.