Poison Ivy Is A Far Greater Danger To The DC Universe Than Fans Realize

Spoilers for Poison Ivy #4 are ahead.

Villainess Poison Ivy is a far greater threat than other enemies in the DC Comics universe than fans realize. The DC Universe is home to some of the most iconic villains in comic history. From characters in Batman’s rogues’ gallery like the Joker to some of Superman’s greatest rivals like General Zod, these foes have stood the test of time and have enthralled fans for generations. Their plans for conquering smaller cities like Gotham or taking on the world all have a similar theme going for them: they’re loud and abrasive. DC villains aren’t afraid to let the heroes know when they want to take things over. Joker is notorious for broadcasting his intentions over the airwaves and Lex Luthor always comes up with schemes that require enormous stakes that can’t be overlooked. However, one DC villain is going off the beaten path to prove that louder doesn’t mean better, and so far it’s working.

G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara’s Poison Ivy is a recently extended solo series based around the iconic villain. She’s currently looking to overtake the world before she passes away from a terminal illness by exposing everyone on the planet to a dangerous fungus called Ophiocordyceps Lamia. This requires her to work consistently to ensure that she’s spreading enough of it to infect everyone before she pulls the trigger and activates the Lamia. However, unlike her Gotham counterparts, she’s doing something that makes her not only smart but devious in her schemes.

In Poison Ivy #4, Ivy gets hired to work at a package processing plant while she’s not in her monster form where she tapes up boxes that are meant to be delivered to multiple places around the country. Just based on this alone, it’s fairly clear why she’s doing this. It’s even brought up by Ivy herself when she says “by now, of course, you understand what I’m doing here.” Ivy’s packages all contain spores from the Lamia which she uses to distribute them to homes across the US. Anyone that gets ahold of one of the packages she wraps will instantly be infected. Plus, as revealed in Poison Ivy #2, those people will become carriers for the dormant spores as they spread them to people they interact with. This job allows Ivy to not only make sure her plan gets maximum coverage, but it also doesn’t limit herself to giving the deadly fungus to those that are near her on her road trip. She’s being sly and unnoticed with her plan, making her far scarier than Thanos.

What puts her over the edge of her other counterparts though is how quiet she is about her plans. She never mentions to anyone who she truly is when she comes across others. The only people that know what she’s up to are those she instantly kills with the fungus and the one person she trusts in the letters she writes that are used as the framing narrative: her ex-girlfriend Harley Quinn. By keeping her plans quiet and only divulging them to people she trusts or those that are dead anyway, this ensures that heroes like Batman won’t notice what’s going on until it’s too late. Ivy’s on a clear path to ending the human race, and it’s a plan so slick that no one can stop it but her.

Silence is truly golden when it comes to executing the perfect plan, and Ivy proves it. While the Penguin, Cheetah and Mr. Freeze are more bombastic and opening themselves up for an ambush by their foes; Ivy is carefully scheming and unleashing her killer fungus behind the scenes, helping to ensure her success. The mere fact she’s able to go under the radar makes Poison Ivy more dangerous than fans realize and one of the scariest villains in DC Comics.

Poison Ivy #4 is available now from DC Comics!