Poison Ivy Has a Big Part Yet to Play in Batman’s…

Unless the Arkhamverse continues long after the events of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in the franchise’s present-day or future, it seems fair to assume that players have seen most of the high-profile, colorful villains Batman goes toe-to-toe with. Many established antagonists are unaccounted for throughout the series while still being mentioned or referenced via Easter eggs or a throwaway dialogue line when eavesdropping. There are years in Batman’s career left blank before Batman: Arkham Asylum, too, but like Batman: Arkham Shadow they may be more concerned with laying brickwork for significant origin stories.

Rocksteady has been keen on hardly depicting any origin stories, though, and for inexplicable reasons. There’s yet to be a game portraying how any Robin came to be, let alone Batgirl, and there are so few years left where games set during that time could actually illustrate events before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Likewise, villains as well-known and omnipotent as Poison Ivy can’t simply sprout up out of the soil. Indeed, if anyone deserves an origin story with the lead role as an antagonist in an Arkham game, Poison Ivy is long overdue for nourishing sunlight.

Batman Arkhamverse Prequels Can Bring Poison Ivy Full Circle

Batman: Arkham Knight gave Poison Ivy a noble death as she sacrificed herself to dissipate Scarecrow’s city-wide blanket of fear toxin. Now, thanks to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, players have also witnessed her reborn (or rather regrown) as a child.

She’ll possibly have the age or appearance of a young adult if the Arkhamverse continues onward from here, and yet it would be fascinating to see how Pamela Isley initially became Poison Ivy. The earliest chronological mention of Isley in-game is via Batman: Arkham Origins’ Cold, Cold Heart DLC, where a visitor/guest ID badge with her name on it can be found at GothCorp.

Her story bio in Asylum doesn’t go into her lore any deeper than stating that “Botanist Pamela Isley was transformed by a science experiment gone wrong into a plant-human hybrid.” Meanwhile, Asylum’s patient interview tapes do discuss how Dr. Jason Woodrue poisoned her.

There’s a lot of rich history the Arkhamverse hasn’t dove into quite yet in-game and witnessing in gameplay how Isley blossomed into Ivy would be exciting to see, especially if they result in the deaths of hundreds of Gothamites. This mayhem may well be an incident more spectacular than anything the Arkham games have depicted thus far, even if Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s alien invasion of Metropolis and multiversal casualties have it beat in sheer bombast.

Poison Ivy is an A-List Villain and the Arkham Games Need to Remember That

Batman: Arkham Asylum did a phenomenal job of demonstrating how powerful she can be—when imbued with Titan, at least—by summoning enormous plantlife from beneath Arkham Island, entangling the Botanical Gardens in winding roots, and scattering Titan-mutated plants throughout the courtyard.

Asylum’s Poison Ivy boss fight also depicts her ability to cast a wave of thorns and hoist herself within a massive monster-like plant. It’s an outstanding boss fight spectacle, though unfortunately the only boss fight of Ivy’s that players have had the pleasure of enjoying in the Arkhamverse. Moreover, Asylum and Assault on Arkham tease an enemy faction of hers composed of anyone vulnerable to her pheromones as enslaved by her will, depicted by glowing green eyes and the body language of groaning zombies.

Asylum only touches on the potential of pheromone-controlled enemies sparingly, and it’d be a letdown if no Arkham game ever gets to explore it—let alone Poison Ivy in general—fully. There’s no telling whether Rocksteady or any other studio is currently developing a new Arkham game, much less if it would feature Poison Ivy in a lead villain role, but few antagonist choices may be as thrilling in the Arkhamverse who haven’t already had a game’s narrative dedicated to them.

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