A villain is classically defined as a “character who opposes the hero” or a “deliberate scoundrel or criminal” according to Webster’s dictionary.
A hero is said to be “a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability” or “a person admired for achievements and noble qualities” and “one who shows great courage”.
And yet, we labeled Poison Ivy as a villain…
Yes, there are some people (like me) who believe she is not a villain, just someone who has good intentions but goes about it all wrong. Or the right way depending on your views of the rich …
To me, she has been my literal hero since I was three years old. I remember I used to watch the VHS of her two episodes all the time. Her episode “House and Garden” is the one I remember the most. For anyone who hasn’t seen it since it first aired in 1994, lets do a quick recap.
Pamela Isley is released from Arkham on good behavior and starts a new life with a man who she falls in love with and dotes upon his children as if they were her own. But Batman and Robin become suspicious of her new found happiness, due to the fact of a giant plant monster terrorizing Gotham City.
Yes in the end it was her plant monster posing as her husband who ran amuck in Gotham. But what stuck with me was, she was just trying to make a family. That’s all she wanted, yes there was more to the story, but at the core, all she wanted was to be loved. To create a life that can receive love and give it back in return. And as a child at the time, I saw nothing wrong with her actions / thought process. Even in her 2016 comic series (which I highly recommend), all she wanted was to have children to raise as her own. With a little bit of murder sprinkled in…
We classify a villain as someone who opposes the hero; does that make me a villain to my parents or boss for having a differing opinion on how a situation should be handled? How did we come to the decision that hero is the authority figure? Do they really know what’s best? Are they really who we should be looking to in time of crisis? Mostly yes. Depending on the story, even Batman can be a villain sometimes.
Point is… we all think our views on the world are the right ones, and who you stand behind can say a lot about you. I will always back Poison Ivy as a hero because while she might not go about it the right way, she means well in the end. Even if her plants do eat the rich…
-Nicole (Plainfield)
