AMAZO
Created By: Gardner Fox & Murphy Anderson
First Appearance: The Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960)
Role: Copycat Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 16 (453)
STRENGTH 10
STAMINA --
AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 9
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0
AWARENESS -1
PRESENCE -1
Skills:
Intimidation 8 (+7)
Advantages:
Ranged Attack 8
Powers:
"Android Body"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 14 (Extras: Impervious 9) [23]
"Nanotech-Based Mimicry"
Mimic (All Traits of Others) 50 (Extras: Continuous) (Flaws: Tainted) [350]
(250 points' worth of traits)
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
League Powers +13 (+19 Damage, DC 34)
League Ranged Powers +12 (+17 Ranged Damage, DC 32)
Initiative +0 (+12 Flash Speed)
Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +14 (+5 Impervious), Fortitude --, Will +6
Complications:
Motivation (Killing)- Amazo has been programmed pretty much to destroy the Justice League, and doesn't do much else.
Power Loss (Duplication)- Amazo can sometimes only copy one person's abilities at a time.
Power Loss, Weakness, Vulnerable (Various)- Amazo adopts the weaknesses of anyone he copies, up to and including Kryptonite.
Total: Abilities: 24 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 403 / Defenses: 16 (453)
-I think Amazo has literally the worst character design in the history of comics. There has never been anyone dumber than this. Rob Liefeld's designs look like Rembrandt made them compared to this shit. The "generic pointy supervillain ears". The shirtless body. The green leggings. THE GIRDLE. The little red skullcap. He's just completely asinine. And his name is AMAZO. The character is almost unusable in anything you want taken seriously. I get that it was 1960 and comics in general were corny enough to have shitloads of "something+O" names and multiple "something OF EVIL" names, but this is just so bad, lol. No wonder the
Justice League cartoon writers just redesigned him entirely into a featurless silver android and ignored the name completely. Like they made it clear it was the "Amazo Project" or whatever, but he was just called "The Android".
-Amazo debuts in 1960 as the creation of the evil Professor Ivo, able to copy the powers of anyone. He drains various heroes of energy, then captures them- bringing them to Professor Ivo, who declares that he's seeking out the means of immortality by investigating long-lived animals. However, his experiment turns himself into a monster, and the inert android is left in the Justice League's trophy room. He reappeared four years later as a threat for the entire Justice League, as of course the more heroes being around meant the more he could swipe! He returns various times, usually reactivated by something- one time he is stopped before killing Ivo and the League, having turned on his creator. He faces the infamous "Detroit League" in the 1980s, defeating all the new heroes, but is beaten by Justice League originals Aquaman & Martian Manhunter.
-Amazo is reasoned with by Aztek in his solo book, and temporarily gains the time-controlling powers of the Worlogog in
Hourman, but is destroyed by the Resurrection Man. However, there starts to be lazy editing or just "many versions of Amazo" because he shows up all over the place. One time, he easily defeats the JLA and all the heroes called in for backup, until the Atom cleverly convinces Superman to publicly announce the League has disbanded. Programmed to "Copy all the powers of the Justice League", Amazo is then automatically depowered and easily defeated. Later, an Amazo attacks Metropolis alongside other villains, but is destroyed by Black Adam.
-Later, Ivo is revealed to have created a "Son" of Amazo, who grew up thinking he was a normal human. Frank Halloran finally has his powers unlocked, but decides to become the heroic "Kid Amazo"... but he slowly becomes mentally unstable, discovering that his fiancee is actually Ivo's daughter and was instructed to monitor him by Ivo himself. He goes on the rampage while Batman realizes that he not only has the League's powers, but their contrasting personality traits. This is used to cause greater internal instability, and Kid Amazo self-destructs. Amazo briefly returns being downloaded into the Red Tornado's body before he's destroyed.
-Ultimately the character is... kinda weird. As he stands, he's a walking Extinction Level Event, but he has zero character to his own, so he's just some big dumb goon. I was expecting more interesting stuff or some good hooks, but he's actually LESS of a character than Marvel's rip-off, the Super-Adaptoid! He's just some powerful, stupid-looking guy.
-Amazo is pretty tough and strong as his baseline, but he's defined by his ability to steal the powers of ANYONE. As an android with various "models", he sometimes can only use one power-set at a time, which would limit him quite a bit (and might drop his Mimic ranks by several, though Superman alone nets him 150+ points' worth of stuff).