The second episode of Harley Quinn Season 5 explores the origins of Poison Ivy (voiced by Lake Bell), explaining how the brilliant undergrad Pamela Isley became the green-skinned villain. Until now, the series had dropped hints about Pamela’s lab accident, overlapping her TV show transformation with her classic DC Comics persona. However, the latest episode draws inspiration from the post-Infinite Crisis continuity, revealing there was no accident. Ivy gained her powers due to a devious murder attempt at the hands of Jason Woodrue (voiced by John Slattery), Pamela’s former college teacher and lover. This deep and personal betrayal ultimately thrusts Pamela into a life of eco-crimes, shaping the woman she came to be.
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Adding Jason Woodrue to Season 5 of Harley Quinn amps the series’ emotional stakes as it forces Pamela to confront her painful past. However, his presence is also meaningful because Woodrue is best known as the Floronic Man, a DC Comics villain with close ties to Swamp Thing.
Who Is DC’s Floronic Man?
Jason Woodrue’s path from mad scientist to plant-human hybrid spans over six decades of DC Comics history. First appearing in The Atom #1 (1962), Woodrue was introduced as the Plant Master, an exile from a dimension called Floria who used his botanical knowledge to control plant life. His most significant transformation came in 1976 when he used an experimental formula to become the Floronic Man, a being composed of vegetable matter with the ability to mentally control plants.
While Woodrue fought various heroes over the years, his most meaningful role came during Alan Moore’s legendary run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing. In this story, Woodrue made a groundbreaking discovery that changed DC Comics forever: Swamp Thing wasn’t actually Alec Holland transformed into a plant creature but rather an intelligent plant that had absorbed Holland’s memories and consciousness. This revelation redefined Swamp Thing’s character and established Woodrue’s deep connection to “the Green,” a mystical force connecting all plant life on Earth.
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The relationship between Woodrue and Swamp Thing grew more complex when the Floronic Man attempted to use his connection to the Green to destroy all human life on Earth. After suffering a mental breakdown from his communion with the Green, Woodrue was captured by the Justice League and imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. Later, Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid mini-series established that Woodrue had been a university professor who taught botany to Alec Holland and Pamela Isley, among others, connecting the three plant-based DC characters.
In the post-Infinite Crisis continuity, Woodrue took on the identity of the Seeder, gaining new powers from the Green but still falling short of Swamp Thing’s full capabilities as the Avatar of the Green. This storyline culminated in a battle between Woodrue and Swamp Thing for the title of Avatar, which Woodrue briefly held before being defeated. This new continuity also ties Poison Ivy’s villainous to Jason Woodrue.
Harley Quinn Season 5 Remixes Poison Ivy’s History with Jason Woodrue
The post-Infinite Crisis continuity expanded on Pamela Isley’s and Jason Woodrue’s connection by revealing that Woodrue was directly responsible for her transformation into Poison Ivy. This backstory echoes elements from the 1997 film Batman & Robin, where John Glover’s Woodrue attempted to murder Isley, inadvertently creating Poison Ivy instead. The comics incorporated this dramatic betrayal by painting Pamela as a naive student who lets herself be seduced by Jason, her teacher, becoming his lab rat for several unethical experiments that shatter her mind.
Season 5 of Harley Quinn reuses the post-Infinite Crisis story, getting rid of its most problematic aspects. As in the comic books, Pamela and Jason are also romantically entangled in the TV show. However, the show underlines how Pamela is already a confident scientist, a far cry from her easy-to-manipulate comic book counterpart. In the show, Jason discovers Pamela has managed to split the DNA of a plant, Frank (voiced by JB Smoove). Jason wants to steal Pamela’s experiment, and when she refuses, he traps her in the lab after releasing poisonous gas. Pamela is forced to inject herself with plant DNA to survive, becoming Poison Ivy.
The Jason Woodrue version of Harley Quinn is among the evilest in the character’s history. He betrays Pamela, a woman he claimed to love, for nothing more than scientific fame. It’s a petty motive for an awful crime, which explains why Ivy was shocked to meet Jason again. Unfortunately for Ivy, her troubles have just begun, as she just turns Jason into the Floronic Man in the TV show, echoing what happened to her many years prior. She might need to weaponize that White Kryptonite, after all.
New episodes of Harley Quinn Season 5 premiere on Max every Thursday.