| Anthony Ivo | |
|---|---|
 Anthony Ivo as depicted inJustice League of America #258 (January 1987). Art byLuke McDonnell. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | The Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960) |
| Created by | Gardner Fox Mike Sekowsky |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Anthony Ivo |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | Secret Society of Super Villains S.T.A.R. Labs N.E.M.O. |
| Partnerships | Amazo T.O. Morrow |
| Abilities |
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Anthony Ivo is asupervillain inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. He is a mad scientist who is the creator of the android villainAmazo and, along with villainous scientistT. O. Morrow, the co-creator of the androidTomorrow Woman. As a result of histhanatophobia, Ivo has used his own scientific discoveries to make himself nearly immortal and invulnerable, causing him to become monstrous in the process.
Anthony Ivo appears in thesecond season of the live-actionArrowverse seriesArrow, portrayed byDylan Neal.
Anthony Ivo first appeared inThe Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960), and was created byGardner Fox andMike Sekowsky.[1]
Anthony Ivo grows up with thanatophobia, a 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 createsAmazo, an android built with "absorption cell" technology (later compared to microscopic nanite technology) that enables him to mimic the abilities of superhumans he encounters. Amazo stalks the founding members of theJustice League (except forSuperman andBatman), 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.
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 carries out Ivo's desire for revenge by attacking the newly reformed Justice League, killing new team memberVibe.
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 ofRed Star,Rebis,Valor,Power Girl,Starman, andGeo-Force, then turn their abilities on Ivo, but are unable to kill him.Ice of the Justice League sympathizes with Ivo and unknowingly cures him usingGuy Gardner's power ring.
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 villainT. 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 androidTomorrow 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 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.
The Secret Society of Super Villains later assigns Ivo to collect soil samples inAuschwitz, which will be used to create the villainGenocide. Ivo does not care to create the villain, but agrees to do so in hopes that the Society's resources can cure his disfigurement.[4]
In 2011,The New 52 rebooted the DC Comics universe. During the New 52 origin of the Justice League, Ivo appeared as a former biology professor atIvy University before becoming director of the Red Room, aS.T.A.R. Labs project that collects and analyzes technology. 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. 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. 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.[5]
Year later, Amazo fights and is defeated by the Justice League, apparently the result of further development of the A-Maze OS.[6] Ivo fakes his death, then teams up with a mysterious villain known as theOutsider to establish a new Secret Society of Super Villains. It is also revealed that he created a version ofShaggy Man.[7]
InDark Nights: Metal, Ivo appears as a member of theScience Squad during Barbatos' invasion.[8]
Anthony Ivo is a criminal mastermind and a scientific genius, skilled in genetics, biology, programming, robotics, artificial intelligence, and engineering. According toJLA: Year One, he obtained 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.
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 unknown if his aging is completely halted, but Ivo believes that his first elixir would extend his life for five hundred years and that he can consume more elixir when it wears off.
The following androids were created by Anthony Ivo:
The reimagining of mad scientist Anthony Ivo (Jake Green) as a tech bro is quickly squandered when he fuses with Parasite, and Heat Wave (Laila Berzins) and Silver Banshee (Catherine Taber) are part of an inept version of Intergang.
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