As well as everything else we were expecting from the “Elseworlds” crossover, the first installment of the three-night event – which fell on The Flash season 5, episode 9 – also introduced a classic DC comics villain we haven’t seen in the Arrowverse before. They were already featured on the “Elseworlds” poster, but until the crossover aired yesterday, we didn’t know exactly who the giant robot was.
It turned out to be Amazo, of course, the android who can copy the powers of the superheroes it’s fighting, much like the Sentinels from Marvel’s X-Men franchise. On The Flash, A.M.A.Z.O. – Anti-Metahuman Adaptive Zeutonic Organism – escaped during a break-in at Ivo Laboratories and proceeded to run amok in Central City. At first, it sucked up Killer Frost and Vibe’s powers after it fought them, before doing battle with the combined might of Flash, Green Arrow, Supergirl and Superman. Despite also copycatting the foursome’s abilities, it was able to be stopped within the episode.
Arrowverse fans with long memories may recall that Arrow played with the comics character before in its second season. Back then, the shared universe was a lot grittier and grounded and so while Amazo’s creator Anthony Ivo was featured, he only had a boat named The Amazo instead of a super-powered robot. Ivo was the villain of the flashback sequences that year as he was determined to get his hands on the Mirakuru wonder serum.
Though Ivo was killed by Oliver Queen on Lian Yu, it seems that his company eventually got their hands on the serum as the Amazo android is said to be powered by a “nano-adaptive hybrid” of Mirakuru. Apparently, A.R.G.U.S. hired Ivo Labs to create a robot that was capable of detecting metas. That seems like a pretty important invention, but we’re not sure if we’ll ever see Amazo again, in the rest of the crossover event or otherwise.
In any case, “Elseworlds” continues with Arrow tonight on The CW and this time, it’ll introduce Ruby Rose’s Batwoman into the Arrowverse.