Origin
As a child, Anthony Ivo developed a crippling fear of death. This fear remained with him into adulthood, and drove him on his obsessive quest for immortality. As an adult, he became involved in the study of cybernetics, and found work with Locus, a criminal organization. Locus enabled him to further his research when he dissected an Appelaxian. Using the knowledge obtained from his research, he was able to create the android Amazo.
Creation
Anthony Ivo was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.
Major Story Arcs
Amazo
Using his android creation, Ivo attacks the Justice League, hoping to utilize their powers to create an immortality serum. He fails, and is defeated by the League.
Immortality
Several years after his encounter with the Justice League, Ivo discovers an immortality serum, and drinks it. The serum worked, but has the side effect of disfiguring him, and causing his skin to become hardened and scaly. He blames the Justice League for his disfigurement, and retreats into insanity, frequently lashing out at the League. He creates a number of duplicates of himself to alleviate his loneliness, but his own creations turn on him, locking him away and carrying out their own revenge missions on the League. Ivo reappears a year later, with a private island filled with robots he has created, including the Amazoids, which as similar to Amazo but are capable of absorbing only one power each. These Amazoids succeed in stealing a number of powers, and return to Ivo, who intends to use them to commit suicide. He has realized that the scaly skin was not a side effect of immortality, but the immortality itself; he is slowly becoming a living statue, completely immobile but still capable of feeling the immense pain of his condition. His Amazoids fail in their task of killing him, but he is cured by Ice, who, taking pity on him, unintentionally uses a Green Lantern ring to cure him. Despite his experience with the painful results of immortality, he later willingly takes the serum, fully aware of the ultimate consequences.
Legends
While Amazo has continued to be a recurring threat to the Justice League, Professor Ivo has created other androids that have plagued the League besides Amazo. His androids were responsible for the deaths of the two members of the JLA, Vibe and Steel. Vibe was killed outright by one of the androids during the Legends crossover. In the same storyline Steel was critically wounded, comatose and put on life support.
Tomorrow Woman
Ivo forms a vitriolic working relationship with fellow mad scientist T.O. Morrow. Together, the two men create the android Tomorrow Woman, with Ivo working on her body and Morrow creating her brain. Within her body they conceal an EMP bomb wired to go off at a specific time and kill the whole Justice League. Though the two work well together, their personalities clash, and they bicker constantly, frequently exchanging insults. When Tomorrow Woman gains free will and refuses to kill the Justice League, Morrow secretly rejoices, as he feels this proves once and for all that he is the more intelligent man. Later, when they are imprisoned together, Morrow reports Ivo’s escape plans after growing weary of Ivo’s boasting. Despite this, they maintain a friendship of sorts, and Ivo appears to hold no grudge.
Secret Society of Super Villains
During the Infinite Crisis, Ivo makes an appearance as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains. During this time he had significantly less of the disfigurement that had long plagued him, but claimed to retain the immortality. He works for Solomon Grundy, who has become intelligent and is using Ivo to construct an android body in which he could live forever. Ivo is also involved in the creation of Genocide, as he is the one sent to Auschwitz to collect soil for her. He is revealed to be working with the Society, despite his opposition to their plans, in the hopes that they will be able to halt the progression of his disfigurement. Following the Final Crisis, he is a member of the third Cheetah’s Society.
Salvation Run
Ivo was sent to the planet Salvation along with a number of other supervillains. He escaped the planet through Lex Luthor’s portal.
Brightest Day
During the Brightest Day, Ivo is mentally dominated by the resurrected Maxwell Lord, who uses Ivo to help in his successful takeover of Checkmate. Under Lord’s control, Ivo created the android OMAC Prime, which combined technology and skills from a diverse collection of sources, including Amazo, the Metal Men, previous OMAC technology, and others. When OMAC Prime is briefly defeated by the Justice League International, Lord escapes, and Ivo is blamed for the OMAC activity.
DCnU
Professor Ivo createss doppelgänger robots of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman to battle the new JLA, who have been looking for the Secret Society.
Powers and Abilities
Ivo has a genius-level intellect in the field of cybernetics, and is also a criminal mastermind. He is an exceptionally skilled inventor who has created a number of high-functioning androids He was also capable of creating an immortality elixir.
He is immortal as a result of the immortality elixir he created. The elixir has the side effect of heavily disfiguring him. This disfigurement renders his skin exceptionally resilient, and he is able to withstand energy attacks and bullets.
In Other Media
The DCAU
Ivo makes no living appearances in the DCAU. In the Justice League episode “Tabula Rasa,” he was a scientist working at LexCorp, but was fired by Mercy Graves. Following a battle with the League, Luthor seeks him out, and discovers that Ivo (identified as “Arthur Ivo” and described as a medical doctor) has already died (dialogue implies this may have been the result of lung cancer). Instead, Luthor finds Amazo, who is waiting for Ivo to “come back”.
Young Justice
Ivo appears in the episode “Schooled”. Previously thought dead by the League, he sends his new creation, Amazo against them. It is defeated after a lengthy battle, and parts of it are placed in separate trucks to be transported to STAR Labs. He sends small monkey-like androids to steal the pieces of the android back. He reassembles Amazo, and uses him to fight the members of Young Justice who have tracked him. Though Amazo is ultimately defeated, Ivo manages to escape. He is one of few villains on the show not to be revealed to have been working for the mysterious Light. He later appears in the episode “Humanity,” in which he is incarcerated in Belle Reve and attempts to hide T.O. Morrow’s location from the team. He is played by Peter MacNicol.
Arrow
Professor Ivo appears during one of the many flashbacks, working with the pirates on the ship that saved Sarah Lance and kidnapped Ollie. Ivo orders the pirates to release Sarah to him, and later tells her that he can save humanity, and she might be able to help. The ship they are on is called The Amazo. He is played by Dylan Neal.