Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Poison was originally conceived as a female thug in Final Fight alongside a similar character, Roxy, as part of the game's antagonist group Mad Gear, taking inspiration for her design from Jeanne Basone's appearance as "Hollywood" in professional wrestling magazine G.L.O.W.

Named after the band by an unnamed female employee at Capcom,[8] she was designed by Akira Yasuda to contrast against the bigger characters in the game and move about randomly, and were originally intended to utilize backflips to flee.

[1][9] Described as a "cool and rebellious woman",[10] Poison was conceived due to Yasuda's desire to introduce sexy female gang members to the game.

Final Fight Revenge features her also possessing a whip used in attacks, an element of her design brought back later with Street Fighter X Tekken.

Made of shiny, silvery material it consisted of boots that extended halfway up her thighs and a combined sleeveless shirt/short skirt with a plunging neckline.

[17] Though not appearing in Final Fight: Streetwise, the concept art section of the promotional comic for the game showcases an unused Poison redesign by Trent Kaniuga.

[18] In August 2006, Kaniuga revealed three additional alternate designs on ConceptArt.org's internet forum; one being the classic look; another being a white button-up shirt with red pants, high-heels, and short hair; and the third keeping the high-heels and pants, but adding shades, returning her hair to full length and swapping the shirt for a jacket with deep cleavage.

"[19] When designing her character model for Street Fighter x Tekken, production studio Dimps focused on her sexiness due to her long legs in her appearance and movement, while keeping her design close to the original, and a secondary outfit added modeled after the character "Unknown" from Tekken Tag Tournament to enhance her sex appeal.

[20] Producer Takayuki Nakamura kept her final design close to the original but added multiple elements, giving her a full glove on her right arm, a stocking on her left leg, garters, and made her whip consistently visible.

[8][14] However, concept artwork included in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection of the pair specifically uses the kana for 'newhalf' (ニューハーフ), contradicting the statement the change occurred post-release.

[30] In the Street Fighter III series, she reappears working as a wrestling manager for her friend Hugo, who could not find a tag team partner due to his immense strength.

From here their plots would focus on the two searching for a tag partner or starting their own wrestling association, echoed in their SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos appearance.

In Mighty Final Fight, a chibi parody of the character named "Poison Kiss" appears as a generic enemy, a corrupt cop and characterized as her younger sister.

If it connects, a quick peep show of Poison in several erotic poses is displayed, and afterwards the opponent is shown stunned with hearts dancing over their head.

[47][48] For Street Fighter V, her gameplay was changed to emphasize a long-range moveset, with a key focus being to set her apart from similar characters in the game by incorporating her whip into combos and standing attacks.

[3] When Final Fight was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, an American playtester working for Capcom reviewed the content during the localization process with one of the Japanese designers and objected to the protagonist hitting women.

While Akira Yasuda pointed out that the characters had already been made into trans women, believing this to be an acceptable compromise, Poison and Roxy were replaced with regular male punks named "Billy" and "Sid" in the English localization despite his objections.

[43] In print media, Poison is also featured frequently in UDON Entertainment's Street Fighter comic series, where according to Director of Publishing Matt Moylan she is considered transgender.

[54] In the second volume Super Street Fighter, a collection of short stories, she appears alongside Hugo preparing for a match against the wrestler Rainbow Mika.

[55] In Street Fighter Unlimited, both her and other members of Mad Gear are invited to Gill's fighting tournament, skeptical of his self-proclaimed god.

[59] She also briefly appears in issue 74.5 of the manga series Kengan Ashura, as one of the fighters representing the "Capcom Association" present to watch Ryu fight the protagonist Ohma Tokita.

In terms of merchandise, an immovable model was being made for the 2008 Capcom Girls Collection line of figurines by Mitsumasa Yoshizawa, using her Final Fight attire and at 1/6 height, standing nearly 11 inches tall.

[66] In Capcom's press kit for the 2010 release of Final Fight: Double Impact, a pink hair spray was included in tribute to the character, with the text describing it as "For men, women, and everything in between.

[69] Former Tips & Tricks executive editor Wataru Maruyama cited her design as an example of how an outfit is worn compared to its complexity can make a character memorable and stand out, stating "to use a phrase I don’t particularly like to use, she totally worked it.

"[74] As the exact nature of Poison's status as gender-variant has been left deliberately ambiguous by Capcom,[28] the topic has remained a popular subject for debate among fans and gaming media alike.