WARNING: Spoilers for Batman #117 ahead!
Dr. Pamela Isley PhD, better known as the eco-terrorist and reluctant anti-hero Poison Ivy, has a vast array of epic abilities stemming from her connection to the eco-magical "Green," but her most underrated power is the ability to regenerate, effectively making Pamela immortal. In the recent Fear State event, which just concluded with Batman #117, Gotham's new resident botanist the Gardener reveals just how vast and powerful Ivy's regenerative abilities truly are, all but guaranteeing that Ivy is here to stay as a permanent fixture on Prime Earth as long as a single "clipping" of hers exists.
Poison Ivy's regenerative abilities have never been more explicitly connected to her apparent immortality than during Heroes in Crisis. After accidentally murdering Ivy, Wally West is able to use the Speed Force to connect with the Green and regenerate Poison Ivy through a flower of hers that she gave to Harley Quinn. The regeneration process is not automatic, and it takes a while for her to return to a fully self aware and "human" state. In the meantime it is discovered that her abilities also allow there to be multiple Ivy's at once, each with disparate parts of her personality and with different desires. In the past Poison Ivy has been able to grow plant-human hybrid "children" (Rose, Hazel, and Thorn in Cycle of Life and Death) but she has not "split" before.
In Batman #117 - with illustration by Jorge Jimenez and writing by James Tynion IV - the Gardener reflects on Ivy's immortality, musing, "What is death to a woman whose mind is imprinted on every plant in a radius of hundreds and hundreds of miles? She’s too resilient for that.” Isley's ability to regenerate multiple versions of herself leads to there being two distinct Poison Ivys, an innocent and caring version simply named "Ivy" and an angry, crazed version who renames herself "Queen Ivy," after being tortured by the Magistrate.
Queen Ivy, who has created a jungle paradise below the streets dubbed "Eden," does not share the same love for Harley Quinn that Ivy does, and is even more harsh with her opinions of humans and their environmental destruction, actively telling Molly Miracle that she is intentionally holding onto her anger and bitterness because it has helped her survive. However, after the Gardener expresses concern that Ivy's resurrections are making her crueler, she reveals she has been able to synthesize a new Ivy from a seed she believes contains all of Pamela's best qualities, and is able to merge this new Ivy into Queen Ivy, stabilizing her deteriorating mental health and giving her back her compassion and ability to love.
Pamela Isley's ability to be resurrected through something as small as a single seed or flower petal means that as long as the Green has a single root left on planet Earth, then Poison Ivy will be able to live on in perpetuity, much like Swamp Thing. While Poison Ivy has some wild powers, her ability to be resurrected through the Green stands out as her most overlooked, and underrated, plant-based power. Make sure to check out Batman #117 to see how Fear State ends for the evergreen Dr. Isley.