Amazo

I’ve been thinking about Amazo.

What do you think his limits should be?

I get that he’s an advanced android that can copy powers. I’ve got no problem with him copying the powers of Superman, Martian Manhunter, Flash. Or even learning fighting techniques from Batman.

But I feel there should be a reasonable limit to the powers he can copy. I think he should not be able to stretch/transform like Plastic Man, nor should he grow/shrink like Atom. I think magic should be completely off limits for him.

I don’t think he should be able to replicate items such as Wonder Woman’s lasso.

Nor should he be able to replicate Green Lantern powers.

Not sure why I feel like this about Amazo, it’s all fiction after all. Anyone feel the same? Anyone care to pinpoint why I feel Amazo should copy Superman’s powers but not others?

His powerset kinda rubs me the wrong way. For some reason it feels cheap that he should be able to copy everyone else's powers so faithfully. He should have a jacked up version of each power- still dangerous but not nearly as powerful. Should not be able to get Superman tier strength like it's not a thing.

>Batman and his robin have beaten him

The easiest "fix" for his powers in my opinion would be for how long he can retain powers that he has copied after the subject he was copying left his viccinity. Like, he should be able only to copy from someone who remains in his immediate viccinity. Not just steal the powers permanently.

Wonder Woman’s lasso was created by gods.

Green Lantern’s ring is a super advanced piece of alien technology.

Flash’s access to the Speed Force was due to a freak accident that should be extremely difficult -if not near impossible, to replicate.

Amazo’s powers rub me the wrong way too.

If Professor Ivo can create and android that can mimic these powers, then surely he could cut out the middleman and just give himself (or others) those powers? Why not give himself access to the Speed Force instead of his robot? Why not create a whole bunch of Green Lantern rings? I mean, if Amazo can mimic the ring, how hard can it be to just whip one up?

What I was getting at though, is more my post here. Why should Amazo be able to copy a Green Lantern ring at all? Or a Lasso of Truth?

Plastic Man’s powers work because his entire cellular structure has been changed -he’s literally made out of a rubbery substance now, and you could argue that he’s technically not even a living being. His mind is immune to telepathy because he’s made out of inorganic matter -his body has been completely changed. Why should anyone who is not made of the same stuff be able to copy his powers?

Atom uses technology to shrink. Why should Amazo, sans that same technology, be able to do the same?

Amazo's come in different models. They beat a really early model that was being sold on the cheap.

The normal Amazo model was so hax he had to be beaten on technicalities. Like the League disbanding so that he had completed his programming of defeating the league.

If they applied some limit it should be genetic powers and tech.

You could have an alternative Amazo that has been upgraded with some mystical nonsense that lets him mimic magic.

That’s a pretty loose definition of “defeating”, and pretty lame if it comes down to semantic games. I mean, could they satisfy his programming by challenging him to a game of chess and losing on purpose? He’d have “defeated” them, they just didn’t specify what he had to beat them at. What if they challenged him to a “fly into a black hole” competition?

How would Amazo work if he crossed into the Marvel Universe? Aren’t there at least seven or so characters whose power is “being fat”? Would he be able to replicate that?

There's been several points where DC scientists display (or even outright say) that their rules of physics are completely manic and nonsensical. The strongest version of Amazo had the powers of every member of the JLA, and if new members joined he automatically and instantly gained their powers. The weakest version had all the 'powers' of Green Arrow.

You are correct that his powers are completely unreasonable and that no hero should stand even a chance against him (combined SpeedForce + Backwards Magic + GL Ring + Martian powers?) but that can be said of most hero/villains if they just used their powers sensibly, or with a bit of imagination. To make superhero stories interesting, you have to give them a seemingly insurmountable foe, and I guess Amazo is just an insurmountable foe for a whole team, and of course they surmount him and display their heroism.

I tend to prefer the interpretation that he gets the power, but not necessarily the skill to use it as well as the person he copies it from, which in the case of the Justice League he uses brute force to make up for his lack of finesse.

...

I can suspend my belief that Superman and the Flash don’t stop all crime, everywhere, because then there’d be no story.

I can suspend belief that Joker keeps escaping from Arkham, for the same reasons.

However I find it quite a stretch further that Ivo -a human scientist, can casually create a robot that mimics all these powers. If he’s that brilliant, why not whip up a GL ring for himself? There’s also the mechanics of powers and technology (like Plastic Man, Atom) that should not be replicated full stop.

What if Amazo meets Mr. Mxy, Anti-Monitet, Empty Hand or the Pressence? Could he gain cosmic level powers

What would happen if he met Chemo? Isn’t he just a big container of toxic waste?

Billy Batson’s power is the ability to turn into Captain Marvel/Shazam. The kid can turn into a wise, noble hero. Would Amazo... also turn into Shazam? Basically a clone and now we have two? There’d be the Billy Batson Shazam, and the Amazo Shazam whose wisdom and nobility would give him the foresight to stay in that form permanently and never say the magic word to turn back into Amazo because he knows that his alternate form is an evil android?

Yup, I agree, a much bigger stretch - but it's done all the time in comics. Every engineer and his uncle seems capable of building a super-suit, and the US government blatantly has teleportation tech (in DC) and giant floating fortresses (in Marvel). Some human mind came up with these devices that should change the world, but never do really, cos the story demands the comic world bears a passing resemblance to the real world.

I just think comic books are the wrong place to expect a little bit of realism.

Are you retarded? Hes not Parasite.

There was an interesting Marvel story about this called Big Town. More of an Elseworlds than a What If, it was set in a Marvel universe where Reed, Tony, and the other big brains gave their inventions and discoveries to the rest of the world, and how the world was different because of it.

Gonna try and track this down, but I need to know beforehand - what is Cyclops doing on the front cover? Even if you needed an X-Man, wouldn't Beast, Forge or even Professor X have been a better choice?

He taught the world how to punch with their eyes

He's part of a mutant gang in Big Town (the nickname for NYC) called the Mutts.

What if he could only be defeated by bullshit?

these seem equally valid

If he replicates those powers its shit writing.

What’s the weirdest or grossest ability Amazo might replicate? Dog-Welder?

How would Amazo fare against the Spectre?

The guy explained what happened in the story wrong. Amazo was programmed to have all the powers of the JLA, so Superman disbanded the JLA, and Amazo no longer had powers because the JLA didn't exist.

A lasso of truth can't be that hard to replicate. It shoots nanites into you that make you tell the truth. GL is just plasma/hard light constructs. I don't think Amazo's abilities are as strong as those of the people he copies individually, but when there's so many together, he's pretty fucking hard to beat.

Seven? I'm struggling with five...

The Blob, Kingpin, Volstagg, Mojo, Squirrel Girl,

who else?

I dont see what the issue is. It's comicbook logic 101 that if a character is able to copy/absorb other characters powers, that they won't be able to exhibit those powers to the fullest extent the original user can.

The phrase "jack of trades, master of none" applies here. He wont be as strong as supes, or as fast as the flash, etc.

Yeah I think he needs to be toned down honestly. His weakness should be the copying of the powers if very temporary and it's a fake copy. He's blasting eye beams out of his eye because he sees Superman doing it, it doesn't mean the beams are made of the same matter/material and are as effective. Does that make any sense?

Going off the above, what if he's not copying the GL rings, he's just making energy blasts green? That's the kind of copying I think Amazo should be limited too. It's more of an facsimile than a copy.

IMO your limits are awfully arbitrary. *Why* is it ok to gain planet-busting strength like Supes but not ok to shrink or stretch?

Magic being off-limits I'm fine with. I might allow his tech allows for mimicry of magic while not actually being magic. If he duplicates Zatanna and says "sdniw, wolb yawa ym seof" it wouldn't actually be magic moving the air but some technological air-control power. Same with tech that is probably more advanced than his own tech, like a GL ring. Fine, he can make green-colored force fields but its not actually functioning as a lantern ring.

Personally I like him being able to 100% replicate powersets and his weakness being he is typically dumb. He strikes me a bit like Electro from Marvel, a hugely potent powerset that should make him a world-class threat like Magneto but ends up robbing banks instead