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"I have evolved far beyond what I was when we last met. You do not want to challenge me."

A.M.A.Z.O., better known simply as The Android or Professor Ivo's Android, was a nanotechnogical creation of the late Professor Ivo. Amazo's nanotechnology enabled him to copy any trait and characteristic of people and objects, by merely looking at them.

History[]

Origins[]

AmazoGray

Amazo's original look.

Amazo was found by Lex Luthor when looking for Professor Ivo to repair his battlesuit. The Android was protecting Ivo's corpse after he passed away from sickness related to his smoking habit. As soon as Luthor realized that the android was capable of duplicating the Justice League's powers, he took advantage of the android's naivete, saying that now Ivo was dead, he would look after Amazo, saying that is what Ivo would have wanted, and tried to pit him against the heroes. Amazo was sent to steal fuel for Luthor.[1]

Amazo went on a rampage to attract the League's attention. He broke into the facility by copying a guard's fingerprints. Having already assimilated Hawkgirl's mace and wings of flight, Amazo replicated Wonder Woman's powers and bracelets, John Stewart's power ring, and Flash's super-speed. With all their powers combined, Amazo soon overpowered the Leaguers. When Superman showed up to try to stop him, he succeeded in emulating the Man of Steel's powers, despite Superman's best efforts to prevent it.

Super Amazo

Amazo engaging Superman with the Justice League's powers.

However, when Amazo duplicated someone's power, he also took in their weaknesses, i.e., Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite, which Batman exploited after the android tried to copy him. As the android assimilated other traits, he also started to develop character, and began to question Luthor's intentions. Despite his scepticism, Amazo again was persuaded by Luthor to try and kill the League.

Evolution

"None of you has anything to offer me now".

This time, Amazo "adapted" and overcame his weakness to Kryptonite. The combined power of Amazo and Luthor nearly succeed in killing the Leaguers until J'onn J'onzz stepped in and allowed himself to be copied. Amazo acquired the Martian's power of telepathy and used it to read Luthor's thoughts, learning of Luthor's manipulations. At this point, Luthor activated a fail-safe kill switch developed by Ivo to detonate the bomb at the base of the android's brain. However, having also duplicated J'onn's shapeshifting powers, Amazo could now regenerate himself and simply regrew his head. The disgruntled android turned against Luthor, tearing his battlesuit apart and preparing to kill him. Amazo only ceased his attack when the terrified Luthor pleaded for mercy. Upon realizing that he had nothing left to learn from Earth, Amazo gazed upon the cosmos, evolved into a golden version of himself, and departed to explore the universe. J'onn claimed Amazo had departed to go "where gods belong", prompting Luthor to scoff that Amazo was no god, no matter how much power he had now. Superman warned Luthor that he should be worried if Amazo ever did come back.[2]

Return[]

Amazo and Lex Luthor

Amazo returns and confronts Lex Luthor in micro space.

Some time later, Amazo did make his way back to Earth. While travelling through space, he apparently destroyed the planet Oa, home to the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe. Witnessing this event, the Justice League mobilized its forces in an attempt to stop him when he reached Earth. However, Amazo was now nearly omnipotent and he beat them all without effort. He then set about searching for Lex Luthor. The Atom and Luthor worked to try and defeat Amazo by devising a nanotechnological weapon against him, but Amazo had self-developed beyond nanotechnology and the weapon proved to be useless against him. The Atom took Luthor into a microscopic world, but Amazo followed them even there. It had been assumed that Amazo wanted revenge for the way Luthor had manipulated him, but in fact he was confused about his own existence and wanted guidance. Luthor was a man who always sought more wealth and power than he already had and Amazo hoped that he would explain what his own purpose in life was.

Luthor explained that the reason to keep on living was to see where it would lead to and that each person must decide for themselves what to do with their life, regardless of what it means in the grand scheme of things. Enlightened, Amazo relinquished his vendetta against Luthor. Upon emerging from the microscopic world, he was confronted by a group of Green Lanterns who wanted to destroy him for apparently destroying Oa. However, he revealed that he had simply shifted Oa to another dimension since it was "in his way" and, in the blink of an eye, restored it to its original location. He then departed with Dr. Fate, who had offered to help him find his purpose in life.[3]

Amazo vs Grundy

Amazo engages Solomon Grundy.

Amazo stayed with Dr. Fate until Solomon Grundy was resurrected as a mindless berserker. The android tried to stop him by teleporting him into the sun, but the zombie ― filled with chaos magic ― absorbed and repelled Amazo's cosmic blast. So as to prevent Grundy from becoming stronger, Amazo teleported himself several light-years away until he could figure out how to solve the problem at hand.[4]

Amazo has not been heard from or seen since then.

Indirect inspiration[]

Having a photographic memory, Luthor was able to memorize the plans when the Atom showed them. During the Cadmus Crisis, Luthor created a second Amazo android (with his own face), intending to transfer his mind into it. He was stopped when Amanda Waller destroyed the android with a nano-disassembler beam based from Luthor's designs to take down the original android.[5]

Powers and abilities[]

Originally, Amazo had the ability to copy one's powers, natural abilities, equipment, and DNA signature simply by looking at them.

Amazo first used his ability to replicate superhuman attributes and weaponry from all of the seven founding members of the Justice League. Subsequently, during Amazo's travels through the universe, he evolved to a nigh-omnipotent state that could easily outmatch the whole expanded League. In his enhanced state, he has flight, super strength, invulnerability, vast energy manipulation, psionic powers like telepathy and telekinesis, super-hearing, the ability to teleport himself across unknown distances, shrink into a subatomic universe, shunt entire planets to other dimensions and just as easily bring them back unharmed with a blink of an eye, along with many, many other superpowers and abilities. One instance of his power is seen when he effortlessly broke through a force field created from the combined power of a few dozen Green Lanterns.

All of these enhancements have made Amazo almost undeniably the single most powerful being ever known in the DCAU. Luthor also called Amazo "the most powerful creature in the universe".

Weaknesses[]

Originally, when copying the abilities of others, he also absorbed their weaknesses, such as Superman's weakness to Kryptonite. Amazo later overcame this flaw with his evolution.

Also, Amazo is no match for beings with Chaos Magic. Beings with the ability to absorb powers, such as those with Chaos Magic, are a threat to Amazo, given his amazing powers. This is why he teleported away from Solomon Grundy after losing, as the zombie could have potentially added all of Amazo's near-omnipotent abilities to his own already insane and destructive power (which he had used to beat Superman, Green Lantern, Vixen, and others).

Background information[]

  • Amazo debuted in The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1 #30 (June 1960), and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. He was a power-adapting android, created by the mad scientist Professor Ivo, who was trying to find a way to cheat death. Ivo created absorption cells that could imitate the genetic traits of others, incorporated them into an android, and pitted him against the Justice League of America. The concept of the android's power was retconned several times throughout its course. Originally he was programmed with specific powers, depending on the heroes he was up against. Only until recently did he gain the ability to imitate his opponents' powers by proximity. Amazo clashed with various superheroes on numerous times, only to be destroyed and rebuilt again.
  • In the Justice League episode "Tabula Rasa", the League discovered Ivo's blueprints for the android, labeled "A.M.A.Z.O.". It was never revealed what these letters stood for in the DCAU version of the character. The name "Amazo" was not an acronym in the comics. Only once is the name "A.M.A.Z.O." actually spoken.

Appearances[]

Justice League

Justice League Unlimited

External links[]

References[]

  1. Berkowitz, Stan (writer) & Riba, Dan (director) (October 4, 2003). "Tabula Rasa, Part I". Justice League. Season 2. Episode 3 (airdate). Episode 29 (production). Cartoon Network.
  2. Berkowitz, Stan (writer) & Riba, Dan (director) (October 4, 2003). "Tabula Rasa, Part II". Justice League. Season 2. Episode 4 (airdate). Episode 30 (production). Cartoon Network.
  3. Berkowitz, Stan (story) & DeMatteis, J.M. (teleplay) & Dos Santos, Joaquim (director) (September 18, 2004). "The Return". Justice League Unlimited. Season 1. Episode 8 (airdate). Episode 7 (production). Cartoon Network.
  4. McDuffie, Dwayne, Timm, Bruce (story) & McDuffie, Dwayne (teleplay) & Dos Santos, Joaquim (director) (December 18, 2004). "Wake the Dead". Justice League Unlimited. Season 1. Episode 11 (airdate). Episode 11 (production). Cartoon Network.
  5. McDuffie, Dwayne (writer) & Dos Santos, Joaquim (director) (July 9, 2005). "Panic in the Sky". Justice League Unlimited. Season 1. Episode 24 (airdate). Episode 24 (production). Cartoon Network.
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