Amazo is the secondary antagonist of the Justice League episode "Tabula Rasa" and a supporting character in season 1 of Justice League Unlimited.
He is a powerful android created by the late Professor Arthur Ivo, a former employee of LexCorp. Sometime after his creator's passing, Amazo comes across his "father"'s former employer Lex Luthor, who opts to manipulate the robot for his own ends before Amazo realizes the truth. He then later tries to kill Luthor but is stopped by the Justice League. Amazo then cooperates with Doctor Fate before fighting Solomon Grundy.
He was voiced by Robert Picardo, who also played Eddie Quist in The Howling, Meg Mucklebones in Legend, one of the Pirates in The Pagemaster, Equinox EMH and The Doctor in the Star Trek franchise, Edward Teague in Smallville, Wayne Whittaker in Supernatural, Sylvester Smirch in Beethoven's Christmas Adventure and Sebastian Krueger and the Shadowman in the Call of Duty video game series.
Biography[]
Past[]
Amazo was an android created by Professor Arthur Ivo, a renowned LexCorp employee until his firing by CEO Mercy Graves at some point after Lex Luthor's arrest after his public outing as a criminal mastermind. Acting like a caretaker, Amazo helped his creator with everything he needed at his mansion, doing so until Ivo passed away presumably from cancer due to his smoking history, leading Amazo to keep his corpse on his bed, covered by blankets. However, not understanding death, Amazo simply believed that Ivo was sleeping and would eventually wake up.
Justice League (2001)[]
In "Tabula Rasa", Amazo first appears when Lex Luthor breaks into his creator's mansion. At first, Luthor assumes Amazo is gonna kill him, but Amazo instead puts Ivo's arm back under the blankets (as Luthor had uncovered it thinking Ivo was alive so he could help him overcome his Kryptonite poisoning) and then scans Luthor's DNA to replicate his face, surprising Lex. Latern on, Amazo accompanies Lex as he looks for ways to save himself. When Lex asks for his help, Amazo asks him when his creator will return, to which Luthor reveals that Ivo died and tells him about his relationship with Ivo, taking the chance to manipulate Amazo into helping him to ensure he doesn't "sleep and never wake up".
To assist his new "father", Amazo goes to a factory to steal a fuel tank, tossing away any guards who try to stop him in the process. Hawkgirl gets alerted and comes to stop Amazo, but Amazo scans her and uses a maze he creates and his strenght to defeat her, escaping with the fuel after the guards try to retake it. He then delivers the fuel to Luthor, who thanks him and further manipulates him into thinking that the Justice League are seven evildoers who destroyed Luthor's dreams, so Amazo resolves to defeat them to become Luthor's successor in his "empire". To do so, Amazo attacks some cops, attracting the Justice League's attention, but he scans them and copies their abilities, besting them in combat.
Alerted by their teammates, Superman and Batman come to the scene, with Superman covering Amazo's eyes after being told about his powers by Greenn Lantern, but after a while, Amazo knocks Superman temporarily and removes the melted metal piece Superman used to cover his eyes, allowing him to scan and copy the Man of Steel's powers. He then proceeds to fight Superman by throwing things at him and beating him with his maze, but retreats once Batman approaches him with a Kryptonite sample he keeps, as Amazo has copied Superman's weaknesses as well, forcing the android to jump into the sewers to escape.
Amazo goes back to Ivo's mansion, but finds out that Luthor fled and the Justice League is there, forcing him to look after Luthor over the city until he finds him and Mercy Graves at LexCorp. Mercy shoots at him, but Amazo melts her gun before flirting with her due to having copied the Flash's womanizing nature before telling Luthor that he doesn't wish keep looking after the Justice League. As such, Luthor makes it look like he doesn't care and that he will take his chances against the Leaguers to make Amazo feel bad and promise to go after them, unaware that Luthor has a kill switch that can detonate his brain.
Hawkgirl finds Amazo, but he traps her and knocks her out, prompting Batman to intervene with the Kryptonite, but Amazo adapts himself and knocks Batman out. Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash and Wonder Woman then arrive, but Amazo neutralizes all of them with Lex's help, as he comes to assist him with his armor in the battle. With all of their enemies knocked out, Luthor then orders him to finish the Leaguers off, but Martian Manhunter comes and allows himself to be scanned by Amazo, insisting him that they aren't his true enemies. Luthor repeats his orders, but Amazo uses Martian Manhunter's powers to read Luthor's mind and realize he has been lied, turning against his new "father", who fruitlessly tries to deny that he is using him.
With no other options and confident at his "superiority" over the robot, Luthor activates the kill switch, detonating Amazo's head, but he turns out to have adapted too much to regenerate his head. He then proceeds to trap Luthor with his lantern ring and tear off his armor, with the Justice League opting to let him do whatever he wants with Lex at Martian Manhunter's behest, but Amazo dismisses a cowardly Luthor and the Leaguers as too insignificant for him who have nothing else to offer, so he instead flies away and leaves the Earth for the galaxy. The Justice League concludes that Amazo is now more like a god with all his knowledge, which Luthor dismisses as him just being a machine, but Superman warns him that he will likely have to pray a lot in case Amazo ever comes back to Earth, with Martian Manhunter adding that they will all have to pray perhaps.
Justice League Unlimited[]
In the Season 1 episode "The Return", Amazo finally returns from the galaxy after months of exploring. Despite having developed enough to the point he is no longer composed of nanites, Amazo decides to return to the Earth to kill Luthor. Alerted by his presene, the Green Lantern Corps try to stop him with a lantern barrier, but Amazo overcomes their barrier and seemingly destroys Oa by making it vanish, horrifying John Stewart. Realizing that Amazo wants to get back at Luthor, who now is supposedly reformed after stopping the Justice Lords, the Leaguers separate in three groups to save Luthor while Atom helps Luthor in his underground lair under a barbershop with a device that can reprogram Amazo's form.
Amazo eventually reaches the Earth and warns Superman that he will ignore them if they allow him to kill Luthor, but Superman and the others refuse, leading Amazo to best all of them and leave them unconscious floating on outer space. Supergirl leads another faction of Leaguers at Earth's skies, but Amazo bests all of them too, leading the Flash, Wonder Woman, Steel and Ice to try to stop him on land, but Amazo neutralizes all of them easily before finding his way into Luthor's lair. With no time to lose, Luthor and Atom activate the device and shoot it at Amazo, but to their horror, Amazo turns out to no longer be made of nanites, preparing himself to kill Luthor, so Atom shrinks himself and Luthor into an atomic realm to escape, but Amazo follows them there, leading him to reveal his true intentions to Luthor: he wishes to understand why he is unhappy despite everything he has while he muses the meaning of his existence.
Luthor reveals his private reasonings about his fears of being forgotten due to being a mortal, but that Amazo is immortal and can witness everything, suggesting him to seek his own purpose in the world. However, Luthor provokes Amazo out of spite by remarking how he can destroy planets but instead comes for guidance, angering Amazo enough to try to kill him again, but ends up restoring their normal sizes given how the Green Lantern Corps have cornered them with the intent to kill Amazo with the power of their rings for "destroying" Oa even though such action may destroy half of the Earth, but Doctor Fate insists that Amazo isn't a threat. Amazo then reveals that he never destroyed Oa but instead transported it to a different diemnsion. At their request, Amazo restores Oa to its place and accepts Doctor Fate's offer to become his apprentice so he can learn about his purpose in the world.
In the Season 1 episode "Wake the Dead", Amazo is seen at Doctor Fate's observatory, looking at Hawkgirl and Aquaman playing chess, noting to Aquaman that he is in the room where Aquaman mockingly says that he has better conversations with him. As Hawkgirl leaves, Amazo offers Aquaman to play with him, engaging in a game until Doctor Fate informs him and Aquaman that Solomon Grundy has been revived, leading them to go with Fate to assist the Justice League. In spite of Superman's doubts, Amazo offers all the help he can, planning to transport Grundy to the Sun so he burns into nothingness, even trapping Hawkgirl in a force shield for trying to stop him, but Grundy is able to absorb the cosmic energy Amazo directs at him, forcing Amazo to transport himself away to stop Grundy from empowering himself with his power, swearing to return once he discovers how to defeat Grundy. Ultimately, however, Amazo takes too long to think about this that it leads Hawkgirl to confront Grundy alone and kill him herself.
Amazo doesn't appear in the Season 2 episode "Panic in the Sky", but he and his creator are mentioned by Luthor during the final hours of the Project Cadmus Crisis. Luthor is working on a second Amazo-like body and thanks Ivo for creating Amazo, as his designs inspired him to make another powerful and immortal body for himself to become a god. However, this body gets destroyed by Amanda Waller, leading Luthor to merge with Brainiac in his quest to achieve godhood.
Comics[]
In the Justice League Infinity tie-in sequel comic book series, it's revealed that Amazo never returned after facing Grundy, instead choosing to leave the Earth again in his search for answers to his existence and loneliness, exploring entire galaxies, studying alien races and ancient civilizations and witnessing compassion and brutality. One day, Amazo accidentally scares the space colony of the Najarrans, having done inadvertently the same in several other worlds, yet though they try to defend themselves with missiles, Amazo makes a casual nod to will the projectiles out of existence and continues flying over the space.
Hearing a voice that calls him to the uncharted borders of the infinite cosmos, Amazo enters through a mysterious elevator door that takes him to the Mirrored Room, the space between realities, where Amazo concludes that he hasn't reached the end of his quest, but the beginning. Irritated at the deafening and unrelenting voice calling for him beyond his reflections, Amazo wonders why it affects him if he has no soul nor is he actually alive and tries to break the mirrors. He fails to fully break them, but as he laments himself, a crack leaks a dark unknown energy, that inexplicably swaps Superman with Overman, an alternate Superman from a Nazi world ruled by Vandal Savage.
Unaware of this, Amazo hears the mysterious voice asking him to see it, but he can only see his reflection, with the voice assuring him that all of creation is a reflection of oneself. Amazo insists that the voice speaks in riddles and assumes it wants to mock him, so he flies away to leave, but the voice prevents him and invites him to explore the mysterious of his own soul, which Amazo refuses to have. Meanwhile on Earth, several civilians vanish like Superman, disappearing or swapping places with others. After Martian Manhunter neutralizes Overman, he realizes that something is wrong, unaware that Amazo has gotten information from all cracks of the Mirrored Room beyond the brink so that he can end everything.
The random abductions continue with vortexes appearing at the skies above Asia, Europe, North and South America of the main universe, with even half of Atlantis being replaced by something "so alien" that Aquaman can't describe, simultaneously also happening in other universes like Earth-D. While the Justice League decides to travel into the cosmic whirlpool where the Mirrored Room and Amazo are, Wonder Woman is suddenly swapped with her deceased variant from a barren universe inhabitated by a broken Darkseid. The Leagers to aboard the Infinity-1 Javelin to the whirlpool and get sucked in, losing control of their ship before an overwhelmed Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl point out at the screen that Amazo is the one responsible for the chaos.
Immediately the Leaguers interrogate Amazo, who denies any faults and explains his reasons to be at the realm to Vixen, Hawkgirl and Batman, but Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter realize that the being who talks to Amazo will destroy all of the realm's mirrors and the whole Multiverse if liberated by him, as Amazo feels that whatever lies on the other side of the glass will complete him. They try to stop the creature, but Amazo stops them by pointing out that if they do, his creation will be incomplete, making Martian Manhunter to show him the consequences his actions will have if not stopped, distracting him for a while. However, Overman breaks free from the Javelin, injures Amazo and destroys the mirror, revealing Amazo's benefactor as none other than Amazo-II, a doppelgänger of himself from a universe where he wiped out all life, who neutralizes all of the Leaguers with a gesture. Once Superman and Wonder Woman, accompanied by the Justice Alliance, reach the Mirrored Room and save the stranded Leaguers, Green Lantern tells them about what they have discovered, but Amazo-II comes to the scene and tells his story, sarcastically thanking Amazo for naively setting him free, now aiming to bring down every world of the Multiverse. The Justice League and the Justice Alliance face him, but Amazo-II brainwashes them into believing that they are dying while fighting him, giving Amazo enough time to repair himself and plead his "brother" to join forces with him, find their meanings and cast out the Equation, but Amazo-II dismisses his pleas and vanishes Amazo before proceeding with his omnicidal plans.
With Amazo gone, Amazo-II wipes out all life in the mainstream universe, with all of the Multiverse's worlds following up, with Green Lantern being able to protect the Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Batman with his lantern ring, resulting in all five being the sole survivors of all existence, as Martian Manhunter confirms when he fails to connect with any alternate minds. However, Batman and Wonder Woman come up with the idea of summoning the Life Equation to undo the damage, so Amazo-II tries to stop them, but Amazo, now recovered, saves the day by punching through Amazo-II, destroying his body and letting Batman and Wonder Woman restore the Multiverse. As the Leaguers celebrate at the Watchtower, Amazo reassembles Amazo-II without the Anti-Life Equation's malevolent influence, inviting him to accompany him to explore the Multiverse, noting as well that he now has a heart.
Trivia[]
- Despite the name "A.M.A.Z.O." being seen in his blueprints, Amazo is never called by name in any of his appearances, always being referred by the other characters as "the android". Ironically, Lex Luthor does call him for his nin "Panic in the Sky", where Amazo doesn't appear.
External Links[]
- Amazo on the DC Animated Universe Wiki
- Amazo on the DC Database Wiki
