Amazo, the adaptive android, is a notable DC villain. It is known for using absorption cell technology to duplicate the superpowers of any superhero or supervillain it comes into touch with.
Amazo originally appeared in The Brave and the Bold no. 30 in June 1960, during the Silver Age of Comic Books. It is an artificial intelligence that becomes a strong foe for the Justice League and has appeared throughout the DC-verse, including the comics, animated shows for Justice League and Young Justice, as well as the CW’s live-action Arrowverse. It is famous for its talents, which enabled it to render the League impotent, which is a fantastic achievement.
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox and Mike Sekowsky, two American writers, created Amazo. Fox is most known for creating and co-creating various DC characters, including Flash, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Zatanna, the OG Sandman, and the Justice Society of America, which later became the Justice League of America. He introduced the concept of Multiverses to DC Comics, broadening the horizons not only for DC but also for a number of other comic publications. Rather, multiverses have crept into the narrative told through many forms of visual media, whether animated or not.
As a Fox character, Amazo has traditionally fought the Justice League, which means he has ripped off the abilities of some of DC’s most well-known superheroes. His power-replication from the first Justice League is permanent, making him a dangerous and powerful foe for DC’s best.
Amazo was developed by the wicked scientist Professor Ivo, who gave it the technology that allows it to duplicate the abilities of the people he opposes. It can also employ this technology to duplicate its weaponry, even if the weapon’s strength cannot match that of the original. Amazo now possesses a set of default powers due to the permanent copying of some of its powers. It possesses the abilities of Flash, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman at the present.
Amazo is thought to have influenced the creation of Super-Adaptoid, an android villain in Marvel’s rival publications.
In the New 52 timeline, he also appears. There are numerous major discrepancies in his origin tale, particularly the story about how he came to be. In this DC timeline, the A-Maze Operating System was the first to develop the ability to duplicate powers. Amazo’s adaptability is the main reason it poses such a threat to its foes, as evidenced by the fact that the New 52 features an improved version of the android. In JLA #27, a new version of Amazo assaulted the Justice League, and the squad worked mightily to defeat him.
Amazo has appeared in a number of DC-related items, including video games, animated television shows, and trading cards. Every year, the heroes from all of the CW’s live-action DC shows team together to fight a common foe in a crossover episode. Amazo appears as the antagonist in a crossover episode titled ‘Elseworlds,’ in which The Flash, Green Arrow, Superman, Supergirl, Killer Frost, Cisco, and The Elongated Man battle it.
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Despite the fact that the animated DC series are based on the comics, there are certain variances in the characters and plots, and Amazo is no exception. The distinctions in CW’s Amazo are far more pronounced, and we will take a look at them in this video.
Amazo In The Comics
Amazo the android originated after being built by the insane but brilliant scientist Professor Ivo. Ivo desired being immortal and had created Amazo so that he could go against the famed Justice League. He was obsessed with attaining immortality and hoped that defeating a league as esteemed and overpowered as the Justice League would proclaim him to be a genius and cement his legacy, ultimately helping him in his quest. He worked at LexCorp as one of their best scientists, as stated by Lex Luthor himself.
Luthor got his hands on Amazo after he went over to Ivo’s estate where he found him dead, possibly due to his habit of chain-smoking. The android considered Ivo to be his ‘father’ but following Ivo’s death, there remained a vacancy in that spot. Amazo eventually fastened to Lex Luthor. There are other timelines where Ivo is alive, most notably in the timeline of Young Justice where he remains present in the scene of action.
The first and original Justice League (that is the one with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman) encountered Amazo for the first time after they had experienced a sudden loss in their superhero abilities. Amazo already had their powers installed and wielded Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth as well as Green Lantern’s Lantern Power Ring.
Professor Ivo’s plan of defeating the League failed and Amazo was deactivated. However, they went on to consistently appear as the adversaries of not only the Justice League of America but also their members individually. Ivo kept on destroying and rebuilding Amazo, over and over, transforming him to be ridiculously strong.
Once, a version of Amazo was pulled from the timestream by android Hourman, who was curious to meet his ‘ancestor’. Amazo attacked him in response and copied the ‘Worlogog’, which was an artifact embedded in Hourman. He then became Timazo with the new power which allowed him to manipulate time and wreaked havoc until Hourman hurled him back into the timestream and into his former self.
Amazo has had another incarnation where he absorbs the abilities of the Justice League, overpowers over twelve superheroes, and becomes too strong to be taken down using strength. Ultimately, Superman is advised by Atom and makes the announcement that the Justice League has been disbanded. As Amazo primarily exists to defeat the League, he registered that announcement as his purpose being fulfilled so it shuts down.
Amazo had a version where it had a partial form as he lacked several abilities. It was discovered by Batman and Nightwing in a weapons shipment. They defeated Amazo after deactivating its abilities individually. For example, Batman used his Batarangs to damage the legs which prevented it from mimicking Flash’s speed. They then covered Amazo’s eyes with plastic explosives, which meant that it would be destroyed if it tried to use Superman’s heat vision ability. Finally, a missile launched from the batmobile was able to destroy the entire thing. As it did not possess the abilities of Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and Green Lantern in this version, Bruce Wayne’s plan worked out, making it an easy win for Batman and Nightwing.
Once, Ivo had secretly downloaded Amazon’s program into Red Tornado’s body. The League ends up battling an army of Red Tornadoes. Amazo ends up attacking the heroes and is finally taken down after Vixen shears the body in half. The android is finally teleported into the red star Antares in its gravity well.
Amazo’s programming varied from time to time. Some of its incarnations are programmed with the powers of Superman and Flash but his fighting ability was like Wonder Women. In another instance, its technology of absorbing powers was implanted into the body of Red Tornado (another android), after Red Tornado’s soul had moved to a human body. As Red Tornado’s spirit got incorporated into Android’s programming, things got very complicated for Amazo. For example, once it had absorbed the powers as well as the humanity of the Justice League, turning them into powerless and emotionless androids. This ended up being detrimental to Amazo himself because the program was unable to deal with not being able to reconcile its new emotions with its actions.
In every incarnation, Amazo has a robotic built. It is adaptable and can counter metahuman attacks, thanks to its internal database. Amazo’s knowledge and planning can be considered alongside that of Batman’s because the android can replicate powers to counter the attacks of any adversary and it can do it using pre-built defenses.
As Amazo keeps adapting constantly, its unpredictability is its most lethal factor. Anytime a superhero encounters him, it is almost often a gamble because no one knows what powers Amazo has at the moment. The fact that it can imitate the powers of any new opponent it has to face puts its adversaries at a higher risk.
Amazo has spent time imprisoned in The Fortress of Solitude after challenging Superman. Here, it was confined within an airtight chamber. It did escape though. Even though Amazo has shown no interest in factors such as world conquest, his powers make it a hazardous being to exist within humans.
In Flashpoint, a shrunken down Atom had taken over Amazo as he worked as a prison guard, stripping metahumans off of their powers. Things get worse for it in The New 52 when it is whooped in Issue 8 by the Justice League.
What Powers Did Amazo Have In The Comics?
Professor Ivo used ‘absorption cells’ in Amazo, which is the key factor in his ability to absorb the powers of others. He can also mimic the powers of superheroes and overrule them.
All versions of Amazo retain the abilities of the original five members of the Justice League.
Amazo can also amplify and combine the powers he has absorbed and use them simultaneously.
Amazo has the strength of Superman, the speed of Flash, the intelligence and skills of Batman, and the abilities of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern.
He has also demonstrated his abilities of Black Canary, Elongated Man, and Atom. Later incarnations of Amazo can copy objects, as seen when he copied Green Lantern’s ring and Wonder Woman’s lasso of the truth. It also copied Hawkgirl’s Nth metal mace.
A key weakness projected by this otherwise formidable adversary is that the powers it absorbs are not permanent (except those of the original members). It was also fairly easy to take it down when Superman disbanded the League to trick Amazo into thinking that its mission had been successful.
Amazo In The Animated Version
The animated series Amazo can copy anyone’s powers by simply looking at them. His nanotechnology enables him to do so, which is different from the ‘absorption cell’ technology in the comics.
Luthor discovered Amazo while seeking out Professor Ivo to make battlesuit reparations for him. When Luthor realized that Amazo could imitate the powers of the Justice League, he hopped onto the opportunity to take advantage of that by pitting him against the League and by making him believe that this is what Ivo would’ve wanted him to do.
In the Justice League animated series, Amazo becomes nearly omnipotent when it goes into space from Earth. It is able to teleport across a planetary scale and has evolved so much that it is invulnerable to attacks. Amazo can access any dimension and has psionic, psychic, and telekinetic abilities. It was even able to communicate with Atom and Lex Luthor when the latter two had been shrunk into molecular size by Atom.
Amazo can probably destroy the universe, even though it is not confirmed or written in stone but when it ended all creation, he was able to stir the molecular dimension so he probably has the power.
It is strong enough to take on the Justice League with ease with very little damage, if at all, to itself. Its strength is insurmountable and his speed far surpasses that of light, making him faster even than the Lanterns. When it was on his way to Earth, he casually displaced planet Oa (which is the home planet of the Green Lanterns) for being in its way and after that, it only took it a moment to reach Earth.
A.M.A.Z.O.
Justice League had a two-part episode called ‘Tabula Rasa’ where Lex Luthor funded Ivo’s Project A.M.A.Z.O. to have the Justice League destroyed. Lex Luthor had contracted Kryptonite poisoning for carrying it with himself at all times in order to always be prepared against Superman. However, the radiation caused him to fall sick and he needed Amazo’s help to get the necessary things for his survival.
Amazo went against the League full-fledged, getting his hands on their weapons as well, such as Hawkgirl’s wings of flight and mace and replicating Wonder Woman’s bracelets and powers. He also copied Flash’s speed and John Stewart’s power ring, overpowering the Justice League. He also absorbed Superman’s powers but his major weakness was absorbing the weaknesses of those whose powers he absorbed, which made him vulnerable to Kryptonite.
The most interesting factor here was that Amazo also began to absorb the characters of those whose powers he was absorbing. Naturally, he began to question Luthor’s intentions but Luthor being a manipulative scum of a guy was once again able to persuade Amazo into killing the League.
As Amazo was adaptable and could evolve, he overcame his vulnerability to Kryptonite and almost killed the League until J’onn J’onzz let him copy his telepathic powers, with which, Amazo read Luthor’s thoughts. Luthor tried to detonate him with a fail-safe kill switch. Having duplicated the Martian Manhunter’s shapeshifting abilities as well, Amazo was able to regrow its head. He attacked Luthor with the intent to kill, destroying his power suit but reconsidered after Luthor begged for mercy. Following this, he left Earth.
In this incarnation, Amazo had grown so strong that his color had changed from a metallic grey to gold.
The Return
In the episode ‘Wake the Dead’, Amazo helps the League in their fight against Solomon Grundy, an antagonist made by ‘chaos magic’ who was absorbing his powers.
Batman: Under The Red Hood
Amazo appears as a secondary villain in Batman: Under The Red Hood where it emerges from a container that was being stolen by criminals fleeing Gotham Harbor. As Batman had been chasing those criminals, this all happened in front of him and Amazo engaged Batman and Nightwing. Here, his powers are on par with that of Superman – super strength, heat vision, invulnerability, and flight. Batman’s explosions have no effect on him and he is only able to take Amazon down after blowing his head off using plastic explosives.
Return To Earth
The story of him returning to Earth is the same as the one in the comics where a golden Amazo displaces Planet Oa – the home of the Green Lanterns Corps.
How Did The Justice League Defeat Its Most Powerful Villain
In Mark Miller and Mark Pajarillo’s JLA #27, Wonder Woman, Huntress, and Steel were called to the Belle Reve penitentiary for an immediate threat. An all-powerful Amazo had the powers of every member of the current Justice League line-up and was set to be activated after an hour. It was much more developed than the previous versions by Ivo and had nuclear defenses as well.
Ivo wished to escape Belle Reve with the help of Amazo so he orchestrated this elaborate plan. Ivo’ rival T.O. Morrow tipped off the League about the entire plan even though he still thought of them as enemies and lied about the time they had to stop Amazo. The League realizes this after Amazo activates after thirty minutes instead of an hour.
Thinking that the android had the powers of the fourteen members of the League, the Justice League calls for its reserved members to help in battle. However, this new, advanced, Amazo’s programming is far above what it used to be and he easily adapts to the current-line up and adds their powers to his, making him nearly invincible in the fight.
Amazo almost defeats the Justice League until Ray Palmer aka Captain Atom comes to their rescue. He figures out the machinations of Amazo’s programming and tells an exhausted Superman, who was currently the chairman of the League, about how the situation can be handled. Superman turns to Amazo and announces that the League has officially been disbanded.
As Amazo was programmed to mimic the current line-up’s abilities, the notice of them being disbanded deactivates him. Atom goes on to become a permanent member of the Justice League of America.
In another version which was released at the same time as JLA #27, another incarnation of Amazo encounters Hourman from DC One Million. This series by Rags Morales and Tom Peyer shows Amazo imitating Hourman’s abilities and morphing into ‘Timazo’. He runs through time and is ultimately defeated when Hourman makes him return to its original timeline in the past.
A.M.A.Z.O. In The Arrowverse
Amazo appears as an antagonist in the Arrowverse as well, during the time A.R.G.U.S. contacted Ivo Laboratories for building a unit that could identify the physiological abilities of individuals. They wanted to scan the abilities of metahumans and convert them into metadata. After using a nano-adaptive hybrid of the Mirakuru serum as the ‘blood’ for the unit, the ability to utilize the scanned abilities was also programmed into the unit. Finally, the A.M.A.Z.O. or the Anti Meta-human Adaptive Zoonotic Organism (which is the full form for Amazo) was born.
It was stored in the Ivo Laboratory warehouse as a deactivated unit. One day, Oliver Queen’s (who had swapped with Barry Allen and became a speedster) inexperienced Flash accidentally threw a lightning bolt in the warehouse. The bolt ricocheted and finally hit the deactivated Amazo, powering it on. Amazo started to destroy Ivo Labs and Killer Frost, the Elongated Man, and Officer Jones teamed up to stop it but Amazo overpowered them easily. Then, it copied Frost and Elongated Man’s abilities and flew away using the cryogenic abilities.
It rampaged around Central City, looking for other meta-humans when Oliver Queen’s Flash, Barry Allen’s Green Arrow (that damned swap), Supergirl, and Superman attacked the robot, trying to keep it off-balance so that it cannot scan them. Superman punched it into the ground but in the end, it copied everyone’s abilities and escaped.
Barry developed a plan for Amazo to chase Oliver back to where the location they previously were at. Amazo, now a speedster, followed Oliver but Kara’s Supergirl intercepted it with her punch. Superman and Supergirl fought the android while Oliver prevented it from becoming intangible by counter-phasing. Having copied the Kryptonian’s abilities, it was vulnerable to Kryptonite so Barry shot a Kryptonite arrow containing a computer virus to it. Cisco and Caitlin had created this virus which wiped Amazo’s C.P.U., making it implode.
What Powers Did Amazo Have In The Arrowverse?
Amazo is an AI robot made out of strong metal. With the complex operations programmed into it, its strength was enhanced. It easily overpowered both Caitlin’s Killer Frost and Ralph Dibny’s Elongated Man. The metallic suit also made Amazo insanely durable, allowing it to crash through a building without suffering any damage whatsoever.
The Mirakuru hybrid serum that pumped inside it instead of blood allowed Amazo to scan the DNA of meta-humans, convert it into metadata, and utilize it as its own power.
Amazo possessed high levels of intellect as it was programmed to do so so that it could utilize the powers of the metahumans better than the people itself and know when to retreat.
It copied Kara Danvers and Clark Kent, which gave it the ability to absorb solar energy from the yellow sun, exhale powerful gusts of wind from the mouth and drop its temperature to freeze objects, use heat vision from the eyes, have unparalleled super strength, be invulnerable to physical damage, and fly by manipulating the gravitational field.
After scanning Ralph Dibny’s powers, it copied his ability to be elastic and used it against Officer Jones. Copying Killer Frost’s powers allowed it to take flight by directing the cryogenic abilities at the ground and using it for propelling itself to the air.
It also scanned Oliver Queen, who possessed Barry Allen’s speedster abilities. With that, Amazo could perform bodily vibration at high speeds. Vibrating its body at the frequency of air made it intangible, allowing it to phase through solid objects and matter. This allowed it to dodge attacks but Oliver’s counter-phasing rendered this ability ineffective, making Amazo vulnerable to physical attacks. Being a speedster obviously gave it super-speed and similar to the Flash, it could also produce a lightning trail by using the Speed Force.
However, Amazo is not all strength. It had some key weaknesses as well, which were exploited to take it down. As it is basically a computer, a virus can render it damaged or ineffective. To stop Amazo from its rampage, Cisco and Caitlin created a virus that could wipe the robot’s C.P.U.
Since its power imitation also means that it can replicate the person’s weaknesses as well, copying Clark and Kara made it vulnerable to Kryptonite (which is quite similar to what had happened in the comics). This turned out to be an opportunity that was exploited by Barry when he shot it with the Kryptonite arrow which had the computer virus.
A.M.A.Z.O. from Young Justice
In the episode ‘Schooled’ from Young Justice, Amazo went against Black Canary and Green Arrow. The latter called for Batman, Superman, Captain Atom, The Flash, Red Tornado, and Martian Manhunter to aid them in battle. This plan turned out to be a colossal failure as Amazo duplicated the powers of everyone present and it took the members four long hours to defeat and dismantle the android.
Its parts were separated and sent into two different tracks, one bound for the STAR Labs in Boston and the other for the STAR Labs in New York. The League also used four decoy trucks to confuse any enemy while the team covertly followed the trucks that did contain the parts to protect them.
However, Professor Ivo, who is alive in this timeline, used his robotic monkeys called MONQIs to follow a secret GPS installed into the separated parts. The Young Heroes were defeated and the MONQIs escaped with the parts. They delivered it to Professor Ivo and he reassembled Amazo.
Superboy followed the MONQIs and battled Amazo again, where the android had the upper hand over Superboy. Robin and Kid Flash arrived around Gotham Academy to back Superboy up in the fight. Amazo edged over the teen heroes throughout the fight until an observing Artemis fired an arrow, saving Kid Flash. That moment revealed Amazo’s weakness, allowing Superboy, Kid Flash, and Robin to come up with a plan and take Amazo down. Ivo was physically present in the battle as he wanted to observe it in person. This turned out to be fortunate for the Young Justice as they distracted Amazo by attacking Professor Ivo. As it considered Ivo to be its father, it went on the defensive to protect him. During this, it responded to its primary programming of defeating the League while simultaneously protecting Ivo and subsequently made a fatal error to Robin’s Batarang.
The android avoided the Batarang by switching to Martian Manhunter’s intangibility. But before it could switch back its strength to Superman’s to fight Superboy, the latter punched through its intangible head. Martian Manhunter’s powers also allowed Amazo to rematerialize but when it rematerialized its head the circuits overloaded due to the punch and exploded. The android was rendered inert. The parts were once again sent to STAR Labs for research.
In this fight, Amazo had absorbed other powers while allowing him to emulate Black Canary’s Canary Cry, Captain Atom’s energy blasts, Flash’s speed, and Red Tornado’s wind manipulation.
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