Most people know about the sensual villain Poison Ivy, who uses her control of plants to persuade and combat her enemies. The classic Batman related movies and television shows made this character even more familiar to fans. However, few may know her true name as Pamela Isley. From the start, she had used her beauty and mysterious nature to lead a life of crime. Her first appearance fails to explain her origin, which is told in Secret Origins 36.
We see Pamela Isley for the first time in Batman 181, published in 1966. The issue starts out with Bruce Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson in an art show. Pictures on display show off beautiful villains like Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth. Their pictures indicate that they are the top public enemies. They are all wearing outfits that show off their long legs. Bruce tells Grayson to stop drooling moments before we see Poison Ivy for the first time behind them. She calls the men fools, as she is not only more beautiful, but a more successful criminal as well. Pretty quickly, our playboy millionaire puts his hand on her wrist and implies taking her to the police. Ivy quickly uses the flash of bright lights to escape, which also allowed Bruce to quickly change into his Batman outfit without anyone seeing.
Paid criminals outside the museum try to stop the caped crusader, who of course pummels them into oblivion. Our bombshell villain, Pamela Isley, slips out and notices how Bruce Wayne is cute, but Batman is a real he-man, and thinks that she can’t choose between them. Batman remarks about how cute Poison Ivy is, and would hate to put such a beautiful doll behind bars. His sidekick Robin tells him to take a cold shower and to forget about her. Meanwhile, Ivy hatches up a plan to send the criminals Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth letters pitting them against each other.
Batman had been invited as well, parachuting into the location along with Robin. While the other lady criminals are distracted from an electrified golden crown, Pamela Isley takes the opportunity to seduce our hero with a kiss. Robin quickly deduces that her lipstick had chloroform in it. Although his head continued to spin, Batman manages to prevent Ivy from climbing up a wall, and lands her in jail.
The story ends here, although we had learned a lot about her character by reading this story. Of course, the best part was when we saw Batman kissing Poison Ivy, a sight that would get the blood flowing for any reader of this story. Finding this book (Affiliate Link) and story is not hard, but you need deep pockets to own the real thing. Luckily, there were many reprints and facsimile copies that anyone can afford. Leave a comment if you love seeing these two characters locking lips.