Professor Ivo

Professor Ivo is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Anthony Ivo was a male human who was born in the modern age to his father Leo Ives who was noted for being a wealthy man. (Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant v1 #1)

Over 20 years ago, when he was a young boy it was shown that Anthony Ivo witnessed the accelerated death of his grandmother with this triggering an obsession in the child who never wanted to pass away in such a manner. The boy said such words before his father Leo who was angry at the boy thinking only of himself whilst his other mother had just passed away. He was struck by his father which shocked the others that gathered at the funeral but it did not bother the young Anthony who was more terrified of the grave thus sparking his search for immortality. (Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant v1 #1) Whilst in college, his mother became very ill leading to her lingering in the hospital. Ivo became terrified of death as a result that he never visited his mother when she was in hospital. This was to such an extent that he never even said good-bye to her when she passed away. After her death, he devoted himself to his research and sought a means of immortality. (Justice League Quarterly v1 #5) A fight between the time traveling Hourman III and Amazo broke out in Ivo’s workshop. Before the duo left for other times Amazo told his future creator how much he hated him. (Hourman v1 #1)

Though immortal, the serum had led to a cost as it resulted in him being in constant pain as his body kept on changing. Thus, even the smallest of movements left him in agony causing him to be immobile and rooted to his floating chair. During this time, he constructed a series of androids dressed as men in black and referred to as Amazoids. These machines were tasked with each stealing the power of a superhero and gathering to kill him as Ivo grew tired of his life in this state. This brought him into conflict with the Justice League with Ice being captured and Ivo telling her his plans. He called forth his androids to end their battle with the Justice League and complete their objective where they used their stolen powers against their creator. The androids perished in the act and Ivo himself was unharmed by their combined assault with him falling into despair as he no longer wished to live the life of an immortal. Ice then used Guy Gardner's Power Ring to cure him of his ailment returning Ivo to normal through sheer willpower. Professor Ivo then promised the Justice League that he would return the stolen powers taken by his androids and face the charges made against him for his criminal acts. (Justice League Quarterly v1 #5)

When the Justice League were defeated by Brimstone, Ivo saw them on TV and decides to strike while they are weak. (Legends v1 #2) Ivo has become dangerously unhinged, and has built his own android psychologist, although he destroys it whenever it disagrees with him. To humiliate the Justice League who wronged him, he decides to wipe out their younger replacements. He builds an army of specialized androids to kill them one at a time. His first victim is Vibe, who is strangled to death in the streets. (Justice League of America v1 #258) Ivo sends a second android to kill Gypsy, but the android develops a conscience and helps Gypsy fake her own death. (Justice League of America v1 #259)

Ivo later worked alongside T.O. Morrow to create the android Tomorrow Woman where they gave her a false history and used her to infiltrate the Justice League to destroy it. She was intended to gain their trust and then detonate an electromagnetic bomb that would fry the superheroes brains. However, she came to outgrow her programming and turned against her creators where she sacrificed herself to save her comrades. (JLA v1 #5)

In the aftermath, Ivo’s health deteriorated when he lost access to his immortality serum while in jail, and he was sent to Vanity for treatment after suffering a cardiac arrest. Amazo gave Ivo a vial of immortality serum, claiming that things wouldn’t be the same if his archenemy died. Amazo actually spiked the serum with poison, but Ivo had taken an anti-toxin months ago because he anticipated this series of events playing out. (Aztek: The Ultimate Man v1 #10)

At Belle Reve Prison, Hourman III spoke to Ivo to learn if androids were inherently evil. Ivo mentioned Tomorrow Woman, who turned against her evil programming because there was good in her. Ivo begged Hourman who was from the future to let him know when he would die, and Hourman told him. (Hourman v1 #2) Ivo set up headquarters in a dingy abandoned warehouse, but was discovered by Atom II and the Teen Lanterns, who incorrectly guessed that the villain Oblivion was one of Ivo’s android creations. Ivo lied and took credit for creating Oblivion, then attacked the heroes with a group of robots. Ivo and his robots were soon defeated, and Ivo admitted he had nothing to do with Oblivion, he was only trying to impress them by claiming to have created something powerful enough to have defeated the JLA. (Green Lantern/Atom v1 #1)

Anthony Ivo came to sit among the Thirteen Immortals that existed in the world where he became part of the balance that required all of its members to be active. However, Ivo still desired to die and formed an alliance with Solomon Grundy who wanted a powerful everlasting body. Thus, the pair orchestrated a plot to steal the discarded mechanical form of Red Tornado that was to be fused with the android Amazo to create a form for Grundy. To achieve that end, Ivo helped create artificial versions of Starro that were used to mind control several villains that included Doctor Impossible, Trident and Plastique to acquire the necessary parts. (Justice League of America v2 #3) After regaining his body, Red Tornado enlisted the League's help in capturing Professor Ivo where they tracked him to his workshop at Alva Robotics in Dubai where they discovered the Ivo there was simply a robot duplicate but Zatanna managed to track him to his real location with her magic leading to his arrest. (Justice League of America v2 #25)

The Secret Society of Super Villains later assigned Ivo to collect soil samples in Auschwitz, Poland which will be used to create Genocide. (DC Universe v1 #0)

He was recruited by Maxwell Lord to head the newly revitalised Project Cadmus that operated from a cloaked facility in Vietnam. (Power Girl v2 #20) Lord later approached Professor Ivo with a job to reprogram the Metal Men and to help Lord build OMAC Prime who was an android similar to Amazo with the power to copy superpowers. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #10)

Feeling cheated by Solomon Grundy, he created a new Amazo that was dispatched to hunt down the undead being at Slaughter Swamp. (Solomon Grundy v1 #5)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Professor Anthony Ivo was a scientist who by adulthood came to operate from Ivy University where he was the head of the Cellular and Structural Biology department. He was then recruited by Silas Stone to oversee the biotechnology research of S.T.A.R. Labs where he pioneered an organic pattern process allowing him to develop technology that could mimic organic life on a cellular level. Ivo was later made the Project Director on the A-Maze Operating System though his difficult nature and unpredictable mood made him a poor work colleague. (Justice League v2 #4) His laboratory was later noted to had imploded with Ivo believed to had been killed in the event but in reality he survived and let everyone assume he had perished whilst he continued his work. He eventually came to work for the Secret Society of Super-Villains where he worked for the mysterious Outsider who led their group that operated in hiding. (Justice League of America v3 #4)

An Amazo unit was destroyed by the Justice League with help from Green Arrow. Ivo, having joined the Secret Society, built robots for their base security. (Justice League of America v3 #4)

During the Crime Syndicate attack, Ivo, now apparently fully healed of his burns, personally directed Amazo to destroy the American Pacific Fleet. (Forever Evil v1 #1)

He kidnapped the Justice League to power up Amazo, a power-absorbing android of his own design at some point in the team's first year. He would remain a thorn in the team's side for years, creating new androids like NewMazo and Ultra-Morpho. (Batman/Superman: World's Finest v1 #15)

After the Dark Multiverse crisis, Ivo was recruited by Lex Luthor to join the Legion of Doom where he was tasked with repairing the damaged Brainiac. Upon succeeding in his task, Professor Ivo had no further need to join the Legion's mission as he was only interested in science. As a result, Lex paid him by providing him his father Lionel Luthor's research on the Apex Predator that was a primordial form of a combined Human/Martian race. Ivo sought to replicate such a creature and targeted the Martian Manhunter for the missing clues to recreate the Apex Predator but J'onn was freed by Kendra Saunders. (Justice League v4 #27)

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was shown that his obsession for immortality began when he was a child after the death of his paternal grandmother. Upon seeing her death, he became terrified of the grave and not wanting to die. This resulted in him being obsessed in ensuring that he did would die himself. (Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant v1 #1) As such, he suffered from thanatophobia which was the feat of death that manifested in panic attacks and drug use. (Justice League v2 #4)

His father was Leo Ives who once struck Anthony when he was a boy for his selfish nature of only caring for himself when his grandmother had died. This created a strain between the two with Leo feeling guilt over his actions. However, Anthony never spoke to his father except to request for money for his experiments. (Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant v1 #1)

He seemingly had a daughter named Sara Sharpio whose genetic material was used to create the cyborg Kid Amazo. (JLA Classified v1 #41)

Powers and abilities

His early research led to him perfecting the art of biomechanical mirror genes that were equipped to be able to scan and imitate the genetic traits in others. He would coat his own D.N.A. with these mirror genes and seek out beings with long life in order to copy their abilities in the search for immortality. (Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant v1 #1)

Among his creations included:

• Composite : an early creation of Ivo created from superhero DNA that he gathered over the course of months where he attempted to create duplicates of his enemies but they were deemed nightmarish failures with him burying the stillborn creations in a grave. However, the project survived where they formed a Composite Superman that was half-Batman and half-Superman in form with it having the abilities of the entire Justice League. Ivo later came to perfect the technology and designed Amazo as a result. (Superman/Batman Annual v1 #3)
• Lira : a black-haired female android that appeared human who was an Ivo cybernetic organism with advanced probability capabilities and experimental cruelty algorithms where she was sent to fight in underground Metahuman fight clubs until she was destroyed by Wonder Woman. (Wonder Woman v3 #34)
• Amazo :
• Amazoids : these appeared as humans dressed as men in black suits who had the ability to duplicate the power of a single super-powered person. (Justice League Quarterly v1 #5)
• Kid Amazo : a cyborg who was half-human and half-robot created by Professor Ivo two years ago where he was implanted with false memories and believed himself to be an ordinary human named Frank Halloran. He was considered the son of Amazo as that android's bio-technology was plundered for parts that were crossed with human eggs to create Halloran. (JLA Classified v1 #37)
• G.E.L.F. : Genetically Engineered Life Forms that were hybrid cloned organisms created by melding various creatures into one another. (Power Girl v2 #20)
• M.O.N.Q.I.s : robots shaped as monkeys that served as his helpers and assistants that swarmed enemies in numbers. (Supergirl v5 #67)
• Shaggy Man : one incarnation of the Shaggy Man was said to be a creation of Professor Ivo. (Justice League of America v3 #4)
• NewMazo : an android created by Professor Ivo with the unwilling help of Doc Magnus but rebelled and took his creators prisoners. He started to kidnap various robot engineers to replace billionaires and entrepreneurs with android copies. He then started a war against the human race by taking control of other superpowered robot. (Batman/Superman: World's Finest v1 #15)
• Ultra-Morpho : an android created by NewMazo who made a biomechanical organism with the ability to mimic any element similar to Metamorpho. (Batman/Superman: World's Finest v1 #15)

Professor Ivo was also known to make robot duplicates of himself where he regularly monitored their input and watched through their eyes on their various activities. (Justice League of America v2 #25) He was known to encode an inability of his creations to harm him that was placed in the very nexus of their being. Thus, no matter how much they wanted to kill Ivo, they were unable to harm their creator. (JLA Classified v1 #37)

Initially, he came to believe the scars on his body were a side-effect of the serum but came to realise that they were an aspect of his newfound immortality. In fact, the serum was causing him to become more invulnerable but at the cost of making increasingly more immobile. As a result, the end state of this immortality was effectively turning him into a living statue. (Justice League Quarterly v1 #5) He also suffered from a range of illnesses that included Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiac failure, diabetes, ebola, hepatitis, HIV, and tuberculosis with all of these leaving him in constant pain. (Solomon Grundy v1 #5)

He was said to be among a group of individuals referred to as the Thirteen Immortals. (Justice League of America v2 #3)

Notes

• Professor Ivo was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky where he made his first appearance in Brave and the Bold v1 #30 (June, 1960).

Alternate Versions

• In JLA: Island of Dr. Moreau v1 #1 (2002), an alternate version of the character named Edward Ivo appeared in the Elseworld setting based on The Island of Doctor Moreau. This version was an assistant of the infamous scientist Dr. Moreau where he helped in conducting experiments to turn animals into half-men creations.
• In Future State: Justice League v1 #1 (2021), an alternate future version of Professor Ivo was shown to exist in the possible timeline of Future State. By 2030, he was shown to had been a member of the new Legion of Doom where he worked to oppose the Justice League that now consisted of the next generation of young superheroes. They orchestrated a new plot to defeat the heroes only to be attacked and murdered by the White Martian Hyperclan who had been incidentally freed from their extra-dimensional prison.

In other media

Television

• In Justice League, Arthur Ivo was introduced into the DC Animated Universe in the episode "Tabula Rasa" but had no speaking lines. He was shown to operate as a scientist for LexCorp until Mercy Graves took over the company and fired him. As a result, he continued his experiments in secret but died but not before he created the android AMAZO. Lex Luthor later arrived at his laboratory searching for Ivo to discover him dead and finding the AMAZO android. Luthor commented about Ivo that "...cigarettes finally got you".
• In Young Justice, Professor Ivo made a number of appearances in the cartoon series starting with the episode "Schooled" where he was voiced by actor Peter MacNicol. Ivo was mentioned as being the creator of the android AMAZO that fought the Justice League who defeated and disassembled. He created a number of robotic minions that he called MONQIs that he sent to reassemble AMAZO leading to a confrontation with the Team.
• In My Adventures with Superman, Professor Ivo appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Jake Green. This version was the CEO of AmazoTech who was suspected of being involved in illegal activities, was served by a personal assistant named Alex, and is wary of Superman's intentions. Additionally, he utilized the energy-draining Parasite armor and joined Task Force X later to get his revenge on Superman.

Films

• In Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem, Professor Ivo did not feature in the animated movie but was mentioned by Dr. Stone. He was mentioned being in charge of an artificial intelligence research laboratory where he made huge strides in the self-contained sequencing code thus creating a fully functioning self governing artificial intelligence. Joker had Scarecrow and Silver Banshee steal the ultra-intelligent computer that could think and feel. Once Jokers hands, they had the kidnapped Gogo Shoto create the Digital Laughing Virus.
• In Justice League: War, Professor Ivo made a cameo appearance in the setting of the animated film where he was shown as being a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist.

Appearance

• Brave and the Bold v1: (1960)
• Justice League of America v2:
• JLA v1:
• JLA: Tomorrow Woman v1:
• JLA Classified v1:
• Superman/Batman Annual v1:
• Power Girl v2:
• Supergirl v5:
• Justice League v2:
• Justice League of America v3:
• Justice League v4:
• Future State: Justice League v1: (2021)

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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