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Though one of the more principled members of Batman’s rogues gallery, Poison Ivy got involved with one of the most bizarre villains ever to grace Gotham. Jason Woodrue, aka the Floronic Man, recruited Ivy as part of the “Leaves of Grass” story in Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Instead of aiming to achieve power or revenge, Woodrue roped Ivy in for a more simpler reason: he wanted to get Gotham baked!
The Floronic Man was created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane and first appeared in his Jason Woodrue identity in The Atom #1. He would later take a formula that transformed him into a plant/human hybrid in Flash #245. Floronic Man would also appear in The Saga of Swamp Thing, where he played a vital role in discovering the mystery of Swamp Thing’s origin. Needless to say, Woodrue’s entire history has revolved around plants, making him the perfect villain for a storyline about the most controversial plant around.
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #56-58 featured a three-part story by Alan Grant, Dave Taylor, Stan Woch, and Pamela Rambo. Poison Ivy is broken out of Gotham by the Floronic Man, who offers her ten million dollars in exchange for her help. Woodrue reveals that after being decapitated, he was accidentally exposed to weed by a technician monitoring his restoration and the experience opened his eyes to the mind-expanding abilities of the plant. He requests Ivy’s DNA to help him facilitate the growth of a powerful new strain of marijuana in order to save the world by keeping it perpetually mellowed out.
And yes, Poison Ivy does agree to help Floronic Man out and provides him with the blood samples he needs. However, it’s only because Woodrue is true to his word and ponies up the money he promised. Beyond that, Ivy sees him as completely insane and even manipulated Batman in order to dispatch Floronic Man. Poison Ivy is, at her heart, dedicated to the ecosystem and on the surface, it seems that using a plant in order to get humanity to unwind would be in her wheelhouse. But it’s obvious that she saw the Floronic Man’s plans as a half-baked idea that could never be seen through.
The strange adventure for Poison Ivy and Floronic Man is pretty much a product of its time. “Leaves of Grass” was written in the mid-90s, the heyday for anti-marijuana campaigning. And while DC had explored harder drug use as a serious issue in stories such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow‘s “Snowbirds Don’t Fly”, “Leaves of Grass” treatment of marijuana is downright silly by comparison. The idea of a villain plotting to get the whole world hooked on dope seems fine for an after-school special, but even for a comic book, it’s pretty over the top. It’d be interesting to see what Poison Ivy’s position is on weed now that social mores have softened on the drug, though it’s almost certain she’d sooner deal with Batman than the bizarre Floronic Man again.
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