Warning: Spoilers for Batman: Fear State Alpha #1!
In DC Comics, the latest Batman crossover event titled Fear State has arrived, and one Batman villain, in particular, Poison Ivy — or Queen Ivy as she’s going by at the moment — has the unique ability to help, but won’t! Queen Ivy may be the more ruthless and less caring version of Poison Ivy, but saving the entirety of Gotham City should still be a thing that Pamela cares about enough to lend a hand with.
Seen in Batman: Fear State Alpha #1, by James Tynion IV and Riccardo Federici, Ivy’s new persona of Queen Ivy has set up shop deep under Gotham City and has filled it with her patented plants; shunning her closest friends and allies in the process. Dubbing the place Eden, Pamela’s main squeeze in Harley Quinn, the recently introduced character called Gardener, and Batman’s current rival and friend, Ghost-Maker, have trekked below the streets of Gotham to beg Ivy for shelter and protection for the Unsanity Collective — or a “group where people can escape the trauma of the city” — from the oncoming war that Scarecrow has slowly been unleashing across the city.
Knowing that the embodiment of Ivy’s decidedly nicer side is lost somewhere in the city, Harley still tries to talk some sense into her lover in an attempt to get her to do something that could save a whole lot of people. On the fence about helping out, Ghost-Maker gives Ivy an even better — and easier — way to save not only the group standing before her but the entire city itself.
Saying that Ivy could “do one better” than just sheltering this handful of people, Ghost-Maker suggests that Ivy could use her “pheromone abilities” to“calm the war that’s brewing on the surface… End this before it really has a chance to get started,” giving the entire city of Gotham an out during what will no doubt become an extremely terrifying and harrowing next few days, weeks and possibly even months. But as Queen Ivy is less interested in dealing with Gotham’s problems than ever before, she refuses, simply saying, “I will not interfere in the war above unless they are foolish enough to move against me,” succinctly shooting down an idea that would render Scarecrow’s latest plan moot in a matter of seconds.
Known in the past to be able to use her pheromone abilities to make anyone she sets her sights on do her evil bidding, Poison Ivy is much more powerful in her current Queen Ivy state, and it would stand to reason that she could utilize her powers at a larger scale to quell the unrest and fear sweeping across Gotham. Usually toeing the line between helping or hurting the city depending on her mood, Ivy’s original incarnation might have put a little more thought into calming Gotham’s citizens and saving the day, but as it stands, this Queen version of the character couldn’t care less.
So while Ivy does ultimately allow the Unsanity Collective to stay in her underground paradise “for now,” Ghost-Maker pointing out that she can stop Fear State before it even begins is a huge reveal that shows just how powerful Ivy can be, regardless of whether she decides to help or not. Poison Ivy may have just made Batman’s life a little bit harder as fear continues to grip the city he loves, but that doesn’t mean Ivy can’t change her mind and become a better, more heroic version of herself before things get really scary.