Anthony Ivo (pronunciation: Eye-voh) is a supervillain in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a mad scientist who is the creator of the android villain Amazo and, along with villainous scientist T. O. Morrow, the co-creator of the android Tomorrow Woman. As a result of his thanatophobia, Ivo has used his own scientific discoveries to make himself nearly immortal and invulnerable, causing him to become monstrous in the process.
Anthony Ivo first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960) and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.[1] The same story featured his immortality elixir and his most famous android creation Amazo.
Fictional character biography
Anthony Ivo grows up with thanatophobia, a deep fear of death so strong that he even avoids his own mother's funeral. As he discovers a talent for science, avoiding death and becoming immortal became his life's obsession.[2] Ivo studies cybernetics and genetics, and eventually engages in criminal acts to acquire the resources he needs to continue his strange experiments. He concludes he could create an "immortality elixir" by studying and experimenting on animal life known to have long lifespans, and decides he will become immortal and dominate the Earth. To act at his agent in criminal operations and conquest, Ivo creates Amazo, an android built with "absorption cell" technology (later compared to microscopic nanite technology) so he can mimic the abilities of superhumans he encounters. Amazo stalks the founding members of the Justice League (except for Superman and Batman), then uses their powers to steal long-lived animals and kidnap an elderly person. Ivo creates and ingests his immortality elixir. Ivo then attempts to permanently remove the superheroes' powers and memories, but the League defeats him and his android. Ivo is imprisoned and given a sentence of 500 years in case his immortality elixir was successful.
The later story JLA: Year One revised Ivo's history to say that before he created Amazo he worked as a research scientist for the criminal organization Locus, which gives him access to advanced technology recovered from aliens and super-villains, and allows him to dissect the bodies of alien warriors from the planet Appellax who are able to shift their biology and cause other life forms to mimic their own forms. The story implies this research into advanced tech and the fluxing biology of Appellaxians is what helped Ivo create Amazo later.
Years later, Ivo discovers his immortality causes disfigurement that makes his skin scaly and his face monstrous.[3] He blames this on the Justice League and becomes mentally unstable, leading to further criminal actions and attacks on the League. To keep him company, Ivo builds android duplicates of himself that eventually lock him up, repulsed by his insanity. The android then carry out Ivo's desire for revenge by attacking the newly reformed Justice League, killing new team member Vibe.
Later, Ivo builds a private island populated by robots and then discovers that his disfigurement is progressing, causing pain and increased immobility. Deciding he wishes to destroy himself but unable to do it directly, he creates Amazoids, versions of Amazo who can each steal one power. The androids take the powers of Red Star, Rebis, Valor, Power Girl, Starman and Geo-Force, then turn their abilities on Ivo but are unable to kill him. Ice of the Justice League sympathizes with Ivo, unknowingly invoked the power of Guy Gardner's Power Ring to cure him of his condition and restore his original human form.
Despite his disfiguring experience, Ivo succumbs to his death phobia and once again creates an immortality elixir, drinking it and accepting that once again he suffers a monstrous disfigurement, though now of a different nature. Deciding to target the Justice League again, he teams up with fellow mad scientist villain T. O. Morrow and they develop a friendly rivalry, bickering and trying to impress each other while also clearly respecting each other and enjoying their collaboration. They construct the android Tomorrow Woman, designed to act as a superhero to infiltrate the League and eventually kill them with an electromagnetic pulse that can disrupt brain functions. To Ivo's annoyance and Morrow's pleasant surprise, Tomorrow Woman becomes a true hero and sacrifices herself to save the Justice League. Discovering her true nature, the team then tracks down and arrests both Ivo and Morrow as they share a toast.
Years later, the time-manipulating Hourman android seeks out Anthony Ivo to discuss the deeper nature of androids. In exchange for this talk, Ivo asks to know whether he will one day actually die. Hourman tells him but the reader is not privy to the answer. Ivo decides to meditate on it.
Anthony Ivo returns in Infinite Crisis as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains. Later on, in Justice League of America (vol. 2) #4, he attempts to create a new Amazo body that can be inhabited by the mind of the villain Solomon Grundy.
The Secret Society of Super Villains later assigns Ivo to collect soil samples in Auschwitz, Nazi German-occupied Poland which will be used to create the Wonder Woman villain Genocide.[4] He does not care to create the villain, but agrees to do so in hopes that the Society's resources can cure his disfigurement at last. Anthony Ivo brings along his newest android Red Volcano as an aid.
Maxwell Lord later approaches Anthony Ivo with a job to reprogram the Metal Men and to help Lord build OMAC Prime, an android who, like Amazo, can copy super powers.[5]
The New 52
In 2011, The New 52 presents a reboot of the DC Comics universe. During the New 52 origin of the Justice League, in Justice League (vol. 2) #4, S.T.A.R. Labs Employee files revealed Anthony Ivo as a 37-year-old male who serves as Head of the Cellular and Structural Biology department at Ivy University for over a decade before joining and becoming director of the S.T.A.R. Labs project known as the Red Room (tasked with collecting and analyzing foreign, extraterrestrial and sentient technology deemed dangerous). Anthony Ivo pioneers the "organic pattern process", technology that mimics organic life down to a cellular level, which leads to the creation of the A-Maze Operating System.[6] A parallel support program based on Ivo's design, the B-Maze Operating System, is built without Ivo's knowledge. It has showed results comparable to those of A-Maze OS.[7] The same files note that Ivo is unpredictable, disappearing for days at a time and often consumed by personal projects not authorized or approved by S.T.A.R. Labs. Ivo's thanatophobia manifests in panic attacks and drug use, and leads to several confrontations with Ivo's fellow team members.[8]
Year later, Amazo fights and is defeated by the Justice League, apparently the result of further development of the A-Maze OS.[9] Ivo fakes his death, then teams up with a mysterious villain known as the Outsider to establish a new Secret Society of Super Villains. It is also revealed that he created his version of Shaggy Man.[10]
Anthony Ivo is a criminal mastermind and a scientific genius, skilled in genetics, biology, programming, robotics, artificial intelligence, and engineering. According to JLA: Year One, he was able to obtain some of his knowledge and expertise by studying the technology and biology of aliens and super-villains. He is responsible for the creation of various artificially intelligent androids including Amazo and, with help from T.O. Morrow, the Tomorrow Woman. Ivo has intense thanatophobia, with the one exception being a short time when he believed suicide was preferable to increasing pain and immobility (though even then, his fear prevented him from attempting the act himself).
As a result of his immortality elixir, Ivo's skin seems to be invulnerable to conventional weapons, fire, and most forms of energy attack. It is not known if his aging has been completely halted, but Ivo himself believed his first elixir would extend his life for five hundred years and that he could consume more elixir when it wore off. The elixir presumably makes him immune to all disease and poison as well. Ivo has never succeeded in making a version that didn't cause disfigurement or mutation, and has never been able to remove the disfigurement without also removing his immortality.
Ivo's androids
The following androids were created by Anthony Ivo:
Amazo - Android capable of mimicking physical abilities, superpowers, and creating copies of weapons.
Amazoid - Androids similar to Amazo, but each can only duplicate the abilities of one superhuman.
Composite Superman - In one version of Anthony Ivo's origin, his android Composite Superman is an early attempt to duplicate the Justice League's powers before later creating Amazo.[12]
Kid Amazo - The "Son" of Amazo, a techno-organic being created with Amazo technology and manipulation of human biology.
Red Volcano - An android with great speed and heat-based abilities.
Tomorrow Woman - An artificial life-form with telekinetic powers, artificial respiration and pulse, and false memories of a human life; co-created by T.O. Morrow and originally designed to infiltrate and eventually destroy the Justice League.
In other media
Television
Anthony Ivo appears in Young Justice, voiced by Peter MacNicol. This version is a member of the Light who is assisted by monkey-like robots dubbed M.O.N.Q.I.s and an android duplicate who is serving time in Belle Reve in his place.
Anthony Ivo appears in flashbacks depicted in the second season of Arrow, portrayed by Dylan Neal.[13] In his quest to find a sunken Japanese submarine containing the Mirakuru serum and save his wife Jessica from an unspecified, worsening illness, he employed the crew of the ship, the Amazo, traveled to the island of Lian Yu, and rescued Sara Lance from the sinking Queen's Gambit yacht. While on the island, Ivo encounters the stranded Oliver Queen and claimed that he intended to "save the human race" before forcing him to choose between whether Lance or Shado dies by his hand. After killing Shado and losing his right hand and the Amazo to a crazed Slade Wilson, Ivo begins to suffer from blood poisoning before being killed by Queen.[14][15]
Anthony Ivo appears in My Adventures with Superman, voiced by Jake Green.[16] This version is the CEO of AmazoTech who is suspected of being involved in illegal activities, is served by a personal assistant named Alex (voiced by Max Mittelman), and is wary of Superman's intentions. Additionally, he utilizes the energy-draining Parasite armor and joins Task Force X later in the series.
Anthony Ivo appears in DC Super Friends #1. This version intended to become famous via his robotics genius, but was overshadowed by the Super Friends.[18]
Red Tornado is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. As the second character to assume the identity of Red Tornado, he is the result of an android being merged with a sentient tornado by T.O. Morrow.
Brainiac is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, and debuted in Action Comics #242. He has since endured as one of Superman and the Justice League's greatest enemies. The character's name is a portmanteau of the words brain and maniac.
Vandar Adg of the Blood Tribe, more widely known as Vandal Savage, is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is said to be a Cro-Magnon warrior who gained immortality and advanced healing abilities after encountering a strange meteorite during prehistoric times. For over 50,000 years, he plagues the Earth as a villain and occasional conqueror, sometimes using different names but most often calling himself Vandal Savage. He is a brilliant and sadistic tactician with immense knowledge in various sciences and forms of combat, able to fight effectively despite not having any superhuman powers beyond his ability to survive and heal from lethal wounds. Throughout history, his most frequent enemies are immortal or reincarnating heroes such as Immortal Man, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Resurrection Man. He is also a recurring foe of the Justice Society and the Justice League and occasionally works as a member of super-villain organizations such as the Injustice Society and the Legion of Doom.
Vibe is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Solomon Grundy is a supervillain and occasional antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was originally depicted as a murder victim brought back to life as a corporeal revenant or zombie, though subsequent versions of the character have occasionally depicted a different origin. His name is taken from the 19th century nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy". It may also be a portmanteau and pun of Solomon Gundy, a dish that is made of pickled meat and has a word origin from the French word salmigondis, which refers to a disparate assembly of things, ideas, or people forming an incoherent whole. The preserved Grundy is effectively pickled and also made of many different parts from the swamp he was buried in, resulting in the incoherent Grundy.
Amazo is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #30 as an adversary of the Justice League of America. Since debuting during the Silver Age of Comic Books, the character has appeared in comic books and other DC Comics-related products, including animated television series, trading cards and video games. Traditionally, Amazo is an android created by the villain scientist Professor Ivo and gifted with technology that allows him to mimic the abilities and powers of superheroes he fights, as well as make copies of their weapons. His default powers are often those of Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. He is similar and often compared with the later created Marvel android villain Super-Adaptoid.
Tomorrow Woman is a fictional character, an android in stories published in DC Comics. She debuted in JLA #5, and was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. Within the DC Comics canon, she is created by the mad scientist super-villains Professor Ivo and T.O. Morrow. Given human-like physical characteristics and false memories of a human life, Tomorrow Woman believes herself to be a new superhero born with psionic abilities due to a "four-lobed brain". Her true purpose is to infiltrate and then kill the Justice League. In her first appearance, she says she exclusively has telekinetic abilities, but a later flashback issue of JLA: Tomorrow Woman (1998) reveals that she also has telepathic abilities.
Parasite is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Each iteration of the character has the ability to temporarily absorb the life force, attributes, memories, and superpowers of anyone through physical touch. The most well-known and recurring incarnation is Rudy Jones, who has become one of Superman's most enduring enemies and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery. In 2009, Parasite was ranked as IGN's 61st Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
Vixen is a superhero created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oksner. She first appeared in Action Comics #521, published by DC Comics. Through the Tantu Totem, which allows her to harness the spirit (ashe) of any animal, past or present, and use its abilities.
Lucas "Snapper" Carr is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Gardner Fox and penciller Mike Sekowsky, and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold in February 1960. From 1960 to 1969, Snapper Carr appeared as a supporting character to the Justice League of America. The character occasionally appeared in comics featuring the Justice League from 1969 to 1989, when the Invasion! limited-series comic book gave him superpowers.
Secret Society of Super Villains (SSoSV) is a DC Comics title that debuted in May–June 1976. The series presented a group of DC's supervillains, mostly foes of the Justice League of America. The series was cancelled with issue #15 in July 1978, as part of the DC Implosion, a period when DC suddenly cancelled dozens of comics.
Key is a supervillain appearing in media published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of the Justice League. The character continues to appear in Justice League and Batman comics, with a ghoulish appearance since 1997.
Shaggy Man is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.
Hourman is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Based upon the Golden Age character Rex Tyler, he first appeared in JLA #12 and was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter.
T. O. Morrow is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is responsible for the creation of the Red Tornado, Red Inferno, Red Torpedo, Red Volcano, and Tomorrow Woman androids, the last of these with the help of Professor Ivo.
Kid Amazo is a fictional cyborg from DC Comics, built to be the "son" of Amazo. Originally meant to star in a 2004 hardcover called JLA: Kid Amazo, he made his debut three years later, in the pages of JLA Classified; as a result, he was "predated" by the similar Marvel Comics character Victor Mancha, the son of Ultron. His civilian identity is Frank Halloran.
Red Volcano is a fictional android supervillain published by DC Comics. He first appeared in DC Universe #0, and was created by Kevin VanHook, Grant Morrison, Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti from a concept by Greg Weisman.
Bizarra is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Bizarra first appeared in DC Comics Presents #71, in a story written by E. Nelson Bridwell with art by Curt Swan. The character is a distorted version of the superhero Wonder Woman, based on the Superman villain Bizarro. She is a very simple-minded being, has reversed character traits, believes women are inferior to men, and speaks in reverse of what her true meaning is.
The Supermobile is the fictional vehicle for the DC Comics superhero Superman. It is capable of duplicating all of his abilities in situations where he finds himself powerless. It was introduced in a story entitled "It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Supermobile!", published in Action Comics # 481, cover dated March 1978.
References
↑ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p.237. ISBN978-1-4654-5357-0.
↑ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. p.275. ISBN0-8160-1356-X.
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