Poison Ivy just made things very personal for Bruce Wayne, showing just how ruthless she has become after years of villainy.
Warning: The following contains major spoilers for “The Green Deal,” in Batman: Black and White #4, by Chip Zdarsky, Nick Bradshaw and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
Batman’s villains have taken plenty of personal shots at him over the years. Between foes like the Joker and Bane, the Dark Knight’s adversaries have crossed the line on several occasions. However, Poison Ivy recently made a personal attack on Bruce Wayne instead of Batman.
Ivy confronts Bruce in “New Green Deal,” a story in Batman: Black and White #4, by Chip Zdarsky and Nick Bradshaw. Standing outside of Wayne Enterprises, Ivy holds the rotting corpses of Thomas and Martha Wayne in her deadly vines. Ivy yells at Bruce, telling him to come outside for the sake of the world. Finally, Bruce arrives in his guise of Batman. Ivy tells the Caped Crusader that she dug up Bruce’s parents to get his attention.
What Ivy truly wants is to partner with Wayne Enterprises to make Earth cleaner for plants and humans. Ivy offers up a super-plant that can produce vast amounts of oxygen in return for Wayne Enterprises’ environmentally friendly technology. Ultimately, Ivy believes that cleaning up the planet will allow her to become one of the good guys. Working alongside Batman to protect humans and plants alike, Ivy would turn into a hero.
Of course, Batman does not take any of this well. Surprisingly, the Dark Knight seems pretty subdued in his reaction to his parents’ unearthed corpses. This is likely because Bruce has a secret identity to protect, so Batman can’t do anything to give that away to Ivy. Still, Batman was clear in telling Ivy that she crossed the line by digging up his parents. Later on, Bruce lets his anger slip a little, demanding that Ivy put the Waynes down. Immediately afterward, Bruce soundly rejects Ivy’s proposal. The Caped Crusader can tell that Ivy doesn’t truly value the lives of human beings. If she did, Ivy wouldn’t have desecrated the graves of Bruce’s parents.
This sacrilegious act illustrates how ruthless Ivy has become since she turned into “Queen Ivy.” After the destruction of Ivy’s garden, Eden, in Batman #97, by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez, Ivy reached her tipping point with humanity. In “Ashes of Eden,” part of Batman: The Joker War Zone #1, by Sam Johns and Laura Braga, Ivy vowed to end the entire human race. Digging up the Wayne corpses, Queen Ivy has caused Bruce Wayne a great deal of pain. Considering Bruce saw his parents murdered as a child, seeing their rotting corpses can only make things worse for him. Ivy doesn’t seem to care, using these dead bodies just so she can get Bruce’s attention. This disregard for human emotion shows how cold and ruthless Queen Ivy truly is.
If this wasn’t enough, Batman points out how Ivy was planning on torturing and mind-controlling Bruce if he didn’t agree to her plan. Clearly, human life is not all that important to Queen Ivy, who is desperate to protect plant-life. Ivy may have fooled herself into thinking she cares about humankind, but humans are still an afterthought for her. Overall, this whole scenario demonstrates how far Ivy is willing to go in order to save her plants.
Ivy is willing to deceive people like Bruce Wayne into thinking she actually cares for humankind so she can make plant-life the dominant force on Earth. Digging up the Waynes without a thought, it’s clear that Ivy has lost what little regard she had for human life. Even former loved ones like Harley Quinn might not be safe from Ivy’s mad crusade. Since becoming Queen Ivy, Pamela Isely has taken her disregard for humanity to the next level.
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