Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Poison Ivy #8It's undeniable that Poison Ivy shares a link to DC's Green, but now the publisher is hinting that on her death, she may become the latest incarnation of the mighty Swamp Thing. The Green is the combined mystic consciousness of DC's plantlife, which chooses a superhuman protector to grant incredible power in its name.
Now that she's broken up with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy has hit the road. She has been infected with a fungal spore that connects to the Green. She has been using her power with this deadly spore to essentially kill off people across the country who she judges guilty of poisoning the planet. After dispatching her mentor and nemesis Jason Woodrue, aka the Floronic Man, she has set her sights on another corporate executive that has been polluting the environment.
In Poison Ivy #8 by G Willow Wilson and Atagun Ilhan, the executive gets the drop on her by infecting Poison Ivy with a substance that severs her control of the spores. They begin taking over her body completely, and Poison Ivy's mind starts to drift back into the Green. She even seems to have similar powers to Swamp Thing in this form, as she's able to communicate and interact through plants that are moving around the building. Poison Ivy even says that when her time inevitably comes, she will return to the Green.
Pamela Isley Will Merge With The Green When She Dies
A lot of this shouldn't come as a surprise to fans. Poison Ivy has always had an interesting relationship to the Green, so it makes sense that she will unite with it in her spirit form rather than passing on to a human afterlife. However, the Green's domain is ultimately represented by Swamp Thing, or more specifically, whoever is the avatar of the Green at any given time. If Poison Ivy is to merge with the Green completely in death, then it is likely Earth's plantlife will call on her to serve as its avatar - indeed, every previous Swamp Thing had to 'die' in their human form before taking on the mantle.
Poison Ivy is typically her own master. If she were to be the avatar of the Green then she essentially would be serving the Green's wishes and how it views its place on Earth, which may run contrary to Poison Ivy's own goals. Poison Ivy's Swamp Thing-level powers in her new form also brought her close to death, suggesting that she will have to totally leave her humanity behind to take on the role - something that she's currently on the road to. Poison Ivy is a fiercer protector of plantlife than any version of Swamp Thing fans have seen in DC's reality, so if she does eventually rise to this cosmic station, the other forms of life on the planet had better watch out.
Poison Ivy #8 is now available from DC Comics.