Amazo (Ikarus)

Current Events

Justice League #40 - Wonder Woman, Captain Cold, Superman and Lex Luthor were the remaining members of the Justice League who combated Armen Ikarus. During their final encounter Wonder Woman noticed that Ikarus was unable to replicate or adapt to Superman's freeze breath; this realization caused Captain Cold and Superman to use their abilities to stop Ikarus in his tracks. He was last seen in a containment cell within LexCorp where he announced that he is Amazo.

Creation

Armen Ikarus was created by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. He made his first appearance in Justice League #36 - The Amazo Virus, Chapter One: Quarentined as Subject Zero.

He first calls himself Amazo in Justice League #39 - The Amazo Virus, Chapter Four: the Infected.

Origin

Armen Ikarus was a scientist and valued college of Lex Luthor. He was contaminated by the Amazo Virus after LexCorp was attacked by Neutron thus releasing the virus.

Armen reacted differently than the others who were exposed to the Amazo Virus and became known as Patient Zero. His brain was killed by the virus and he acted as a leader whom was connected to the rest of those exposed to the Amazo Virus.

The Amazo Virus works differently depending on if the person has a metahuman ability or not. Those with powers lose their abilities and an auto-immune response is triggered whereas when a human is exposed to the virus they go through three stages of development:

• Stage 1 - Flu like symptoms
• Stage 2 - Development of a metahuman power that is seemingly random; however, it may have something to do with the subconscious as seen in Batman's bat-like power development.
• Stage 3 - Their cell walls break down, their blood becomes black, their hearts burst and their brains boil thus leading to ultimate death.

Armen Ikarus had reacted differently to the virus. It was originally thought that he had anti-bodies against it; however, that was shown to be untrue after Lex Luthor analyze his blood. For some reason Armen Ikarus's abilities manifested much differently than the others who had been infected.

Major Story Arcs

Justice League - The Amazo Virus

Armen Ikarus was one of those exposed to the Amazo Virus; a virus based off of Professor Ivo's Amazo android, of which was created by Lex Luthor.

His body developed antibodies against the virus that prevented him from reaching stage three of the virus thus preventing him from ultimate death while also making him the only source of a cure for the virus.

Twenty-four hours after the initial exposure Aremn encountered Batman and Superman who had been searching throughout Metropolis for him. He displayed his abilities to evolve, mutate and adapt to obtain heat vision similar to Superman's while also growing large bat-like wings to obtain flight; he then fled the scene leaving Batman and Superman to continue their pursuit.

Armen's trail led them to LexCorp where he had been hiding in the shadows; waiting to attack them. Thankfully for Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman had been waiting there as well and used her lasso on Armen. Wonder Woman asked him how he had gotten sick; however, Armen states that he is not sick, that we are not sick, indicating that he is somehow linked to the other infected.

A fight breaks out causing Superman and Wonder Woman to restrain Armen while Batman obtains a blood sample, it is during this fight that Armen hits Batman with such a blow that it cracks his face mask thus exposing him to the virus.

Due to Batman's exposure he develops bat-like metahuman abilities and uses a sonic scream to knock out Armen, this allows Wonder Woman and Superman to carry him back to Lexcorp so Luthor can analyze him and create a cure using his blood.

After Lex analyzes the blood sample he informs everyone that Armen is infected just like everyone else; however, his abilities manifested differently. Luthor then reveals that he had exposed Superman to this very same virus four years ago but Superman's Kryptonian antibodies fought off the virus, thus leading Luthor to believe that Superman holds the true cure.

During this exchange Armen regains consciousness and uses his control over the infected to summon the Justice League members who had been exposed; leaving Superman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor and Captain Cold to fight for their lives.

Superman and Lex work together to create a cure while Wonder Woman and Captain Cold fight against the Justice League and Armen. Wonder Woman then notices that Armen is unable to adapt to Superman's freeze breath and Captain Cold's Cold Gun, thus leading her to believe that freezing Armen is the one way to defeat him.

Cold and Superman team up and blast him with their frozen firepower causing the other infected to faint. Armen is last seen in a containment cell within Lexcorp where he's being held for further study as a cure is being distributed to the public.

In one final shot he announces that he is mutating, that he will spread, that he will infect, because he is Amazo.

Powers and Abilities

Armen Ikarus is a human who was exposed to the Amazo Virus. His body reacted to the virus differently causing a strange manifestation of his abilities which allow him to mutate and evolve on spot to different abilities and stimulants; similar to Professor Ivo's Amazo android.

The abilities in which he has displayed thus far include:

• Superhuman Strength - He was able to go hand to hand with Superman and Wonder Woman during their encounter. His body also has increased muscle mass due to mutation.
• Superhuman Durability - His increased mass seems to have given him a superhuman durability.
• Adaptive Replication - Like the android of the same name, Ikarus/Amazo can replicate most anything he experiences be it feeling or surviving it first hand. In his words "What I see, I am." also like the original, Ikarus's mutated body also allows him to extrapolate abilities bestowed by objects; e.i. powered armor and such.
  • Heat Vision - When first meeting Superman he developed heat vision.
  • Wings - Mutated a pair of large bat-like wings when first meeting Batman.
    • Flight - Learned to emulate this after seeing superman hover in front of him.
  • Blasters - Morphed his limbs into powered energy cannons after copying Lex's armor.
• Infestation - Being the host of the mutated strain, Ikarus acts as an incubation/distribution unit to and for the Amazo virus infecting everything and everyone he comes in contact with.
  • Hive Mind - He seems to have some sort of link to anyone else who is exposed to the virus as he was able to command the infected members of the Justice League to attack Wonder Woman, Superman, Captain Cold and Lex Luthor.
  • Meta Manifestation Control - Being patient zero for the Amazo Virus enables the new Amazo the ability to control the virulent effects of his own outbreak. Amazo could voluntarily activate powers within others who were infected by it or shut off powers pre-existent within metahuman hosts.

His only weakness at this point seems to be freezing cold temperatures as he was unable to adapt to Captain Cold's Cold Gun or Superman's Freeze Breath.