Ibis the Invincible

DC Comic Characters (378 items)
list by redrobin

Ibis the Invincible is a fictional character, a comic book superhero originally published by Fawcett Comics in the 1940s and then by DC Comics beginning in the 1970s. Like many magician superheroes introduced in the Golden Age of Comics, Ibis owes much to the popular comic strip character Mandrake the Magician.

Ibis begins his life as Amentep, a prince of ancient Egypt who was in love with the beautiful Princess Taia of Thebes. As a young man, Amentep is given the Ibistick, a talisman of incredible power, by the Egyptian god Thoth, who empowers the talisman after Ibis was overthrown. Amentep's throne is eventually usurped -- with the aid of a demonic army conjured up by the evil god Set -- by a cruel magician known as the Black Pharaoh, who shoots Taia with a poisoned arrow as she would not marry him and was under the protection of Osiris. Using his Ibistick, Amentep places his beloved in suspended animation to allow her to heal. He soon casts a similar spell upon himself, hoping to be present when Taia revived.

4000 years later, the mummy of Amentep returns to life in an American museum in 1940 (this was later revealed to be the work of the wizard Shazam). Now called "Ibis," Amentep sets out in search of his beloved, eventually finding her at another museum. Seeking to adjust to this new world, Ibis uses his vast powers to become a crimefighter.

Ibis can do almost anything with the power of the Ibistick: build force-fields around cities, transport himself and others, heal or destroy people, bring people back to life or summon spirits, give superhuman powers, and even make objects appear out of thin air. Without the wand however, he is powerless, and this weakness is frequently exploited by his enemies. The Ibistick apparently vibrates in the presence of evil, at one point it even wakes him up. Taia was once shown using the wand to make lightning strike a foe of Ibis, and often uses it at other times. It can be used by anybody, but not to cause harm directly to Ibis, or it will backfire on the user. It cannot be used directly against certain magics.