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 appeared in the second season of the live-action Arrowverse show Arrow and was played by Dylan Neal.
Publication history
Anthony Ivo first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960) and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. 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. 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. 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.