Pretty Poison

'Pretty Poison' takes an unusual route in formally introducing Poison Ivy, certainly one of the nicer looking members of Batman's rogues gallery. As the lovestruck Harvey Dent's new fiancée, she's also the one who lands him in the hospital, thus establishing both the arrival of a new villain and the bond between Harvey and Bruce.

Once the secret's out, she's utterly certifiable; and this episode offers up a great fight scene, pitting Batman against a giant man- eating plant. I can't imagine I'm the only one who thought of Audrey II when I first saw this thing, but it's also kinda horrifying to be honest. It's a great scene and really exposes her militant environmental psychosis; as a villain, she's straight-up nutballs.

7/10

Huzzah! Poison Ivy is introduced along with District Attorney Harvey Dent in this eco-terrorist special full of intrigue and action. Not a deep mystery for most viewers beyond elementary school, but builds a lot of backstory for the series foundation. Also dig the Art Deco vibe. Couple of cheeky bits of humour and voila! An entertaining superhero show worth re-watching. Cool opening from a directing point of view, underground looking up, as well as plenty of dark-to-light changes with angular views. Animation is top-notch for the era, which translates very well in both comics as well as Batman toys.

I was looking forward to this episode with Poison Ivy and it didn't disappoint. Does a great job of capturing her sensual seductive side.

I love how her flytrap plant looks like a big, hungry tooth-filled vagina.

I know this is just a comic book cartoon, but the writers were ridiculously off target with this one.

It's the introduction of Poison Ivy to this series, and she comes in as the love interest of Harvey Dent. However, it's Poinson Ivy's ruse to seek vengeance on Dent for the destruction of a certain type of flower (which looks like a rose) during the construction of Gotham's new prison.

She poisons Dent with the extract of an otherwise extinct rose, and Batman figures out to search her compound for a solution.

Here's where the writers lost control. A man-eating plant with endless tendrils? A light panel which sparks a fire after it's been completely separated from its wiring?

They have to do better.

This episode begins with a flashback from five years ago. It was groundbreaking time for the new Gotham Penitentiary, funded by the Wayne Foundation, and has been the dream pet project of district Attorney Harvey Dent.

Dent is a major part of this story because he winds up as the first victim of "Pam Isley" a.k.a. "Poison Ivy. Miss Isley's nice little rose garden was ruined when the big prison was built and she wasn't happy about it. Now, she has her own way of revenge, using a wild thorny rose - thought to be extinct - as a lethal poison.

I loved the artwork in here: the browns and blacks of the Gotham skyscrapers were awesome. Bruce Wayne's yellow "Cord" automobile was very stylish.

While Ms. Isley was interesting, the better "villain" was her huge fly trap plant, which was genuinely scary and made for some good action scenes as it tried to devour Batman.

This was another attention-getting episode, and I'm sure we'll see more of "Poison Ivy."