The Flash season 7 again revisits Ivo Laboratories, which ties it back to a DC Comics villain from Arrow season 2. The Arrowverse is no stranger to having the superheroes rely on or use villains that originated on other shows. Legends of Tomorrow season 2’s Legion of Doom consisted of villains from both Arrow and The Flash as they took on the time-traveling heroes. Ever since Crisis on Infinite Earths united heroes onto Earth-Prime, it became even more organic to keep doing that. Since Earth-Prime has a rewritten continuity, they can even utilize villains that got killed off initially. While they haven’t had any villains crossover from one show to another this season (due to the global pandemic), The Flash is still using something that ties back to a former Arrowverse antagonist.

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In The Flash season 7, episode 7, “Growing Pains,” Barry Allen, Chester Runk, and Joe West investigate the aftermath of an attack at Ivo Laboratories. The crime scene is covered by ice, including an Ivo Labs van, making it look like Killer Frost was responsible for it. But it turned out that Chillblaine had performed the attack while also trying to frame Frost for it. But this isn’t the first time that The Flash has revisited Ivo Laboratories after it initially got introduced in the Elseworlds crossover. However, the name Ivo ties back to one of the first enemies that Oliver Queen made when he was still on Lian Yu during the Arrow season 2 flashbacks. Even after Elseworlds, Ivo Laboratories has continued to exist while not clarifying Anthony Ivo’s Arrowverse status.

In Arrow season 2, Dylan Neal portrayed Dr. Ivo, obsessed with discovering Mirakuru to create super-humans. In the flashbacks, Dr. Ivo forced Oliver and his team to help find the Mirakuru. However, by the end of Arrow season 2, Dr. Ivo is killed by Oliver and hasn’t been brought up ever since. But due to Ivo Laboratories, has the Arrowverse changed his fate after Elseworlds, or more specifically, Crisis on Infinite Earths? When the heroes went up against Amazo in Elseworlds, it established that he had a nanotech version of the Mirakru serum, with the android originating from Ivo Laboratories.

In The Flash season 5, episode 13, “Goldfaced,” that location got used again when Goldface goes after a highly advanced 3D printer. The following time was in The Flash season 6, episode 11, “Love Is A Battlefield,” when Goldface and Amunet Black were at war for a rare flower that gave individual telepathic powers. In “Growing Pains,” Chillblaine attacked it while trying to steal a chip he had created while he worked for them. They’re specifically not mentioning Dr. Ivo by name every time Ivo Laboratories resurfaces on The Flash. That might allude to the Arrowverse reintroducing the former Arrow villain one day either on The Flash or the other shows.

Either Crisis on Infinite Earths revamped Dr. Ivo’s Arrow characterization completely, or it retooled his ending only. While Arrow‘s Dr. Ivo, for the most part, lined up with his comic counterpart, Neal’s version of Ivo was part of the early days of the Arrowverse. Since the franchise has expanded over the last nine years, he could do a lot more now in the present as a super-villain. Crisis on Infinite Earths wouldn’t necessarily have to retcon his entire journey on Arrow, as it’s only his death that would have to be changed. If The Flash ever wanted to reintroduce Arrowverse’s Amazo, having Arrow’s Dr. Ivo, the android’s canonical creator, back in the picture would help while also making sense of Ivo Laboratories’ existence.

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Andy Behbakht
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Andy is a senior writer at Screen Rant as he has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, including superhero/comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast while running and producing the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015. Andy has previously written for sites such as FanSided, KSiteTV, TV Fanatic, It’s Just Movies, Heroic Hollywood, TV Overmind, and more.

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