Okay, one more insultingly stupid shout out to a future Batman villain, and then we're done. Promise. Well, sort of, anyway. In the comic books Poison Ivy, the supervillain temptress, began life as Dr Pamela Isley. A genius botanist with a love for plants bordering on the obsessional, she grew up wealthy with emotionally distant parents until she could escape and make a name for herself in the natural sciences - which inevitably all went to pot (snort) when she was injected by a cocktail of poisons and toxins by her mad college professor, which gave her control over plant life and the ability to emit powerful, mind-controlling toxins. Which she then used to do plant-based crimes. Because she really likes plants. In the pilot of Gotham we're introduced to Ivy Pepper, daughter of no-good dirty criminal Mario Pepper, the main suspect in the Wayne murder case. As it happens Mario was set up, and dies needlessly at the hands of Bullock, which might not have been such a bad thing since Ivy notes he is "mean". Yes, Ivy Pepper. Pamel Isley was too normal a name, we suppose, and you wouldn't have gotten that she was supposed to be a young Poison Ivy if she'd just been a young girl raised in a rough neighbourhood by criminals who had bright red hair and loads of plants dotted around the squat she lives in, which in almost every single scene she's watering. Because she really likes plants.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
