Saico-Tek was an animate entity created by Brushogun.
Character history
Saico-Tek was created by Brushogun under coercion by Uehara Daizo, a glory-hounding ex-police officer of the Tokyo Police Department. Originally, Saico-Tek was created for the sole purpose of profiling Daizo as a hero, playing the role of the villain which would be captured by Daizo at his convenience. At some point, however, Brushogun managed to exert some degree over his creations to create a Saico-Tek who would follow his will instead. As means of a call for help, Brushogun sent a pink-and-blue Saico-Tek to wreak havoc in Jump City and thus attract the attention of the Teen Titans. Saico-Tek was captured and questioned by Robin; he revealed the name of his creator just before he kicked open the fire sprinklers in the questioning room, erasing himself (see below).
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Saico-Tek handcuffed by Robin.
Following the clue, the Titans made for Tokyo, where Daizo met them and quickly assured them that Brushogun was merely an urban myth. When Robin would not cease his investigation, Daizo sent a pink Saico-Tek to attack him. Robin prevailed, but in the process he ended up beating up Saico-Tek so viciously that he appeared to have murdered him. As a consequence, he was imprisoned and the Teen Titans denounced as enemies of the state.
Following that, Saico-Tek, in multiple incarnations, made his final appearances as a mere henchman obeying Daizo's instructions to take down the Titans. When Brushogun was freed by Robin and died, however, Saico-Tek and all of his fellows created by Brushogun's power likewise ceased to exist.
Powers and abilities
Abilities-wise, Saico-Tek was a high-tech version of a ninja assassin, an expert in martial arts and acrobatics. He possesses a jetpack and a unique array of remarkably versatile weapons, which exist as handheld spheres which extend into weapons. However, his quintessential weapons are exploding throwing glaives which leave respectively colored smoke clouds in their wake which can be pink, blue, black, or yellow depending on the colorscheme of the assassin (mostly pink and blue since Saico-Tek was only printed twice as either pink or blue or both).
As a being composed of magical ink, Saico-Tek possessed any abilities bestowed upon him by his creator. The first Saico-Tek demonstrated the power to regenerate any damage, to the point of regrowing lost limbs; an ability which subsequent versions apparently did not possess. However, as a creature of living ink, he has a fatal vulnerability to water and would dissolve instantly upon contact with it.
Since he technically lacks bones, he has 360 degree flexibility, meaning he can physically change the directions of his limb’s range of motion with relative ease. This becomes apparent during Robin’s second battle when he has him pinned down from the back, and he rotated all his limbs 90 degrees to break free. He also gets free from his handcuffs by actually rotating his arms completely up and over his head and just slipping free.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia
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The second Saico-Tek.
- Saico-Tek closely resembles a Power Ranger, or more accurately, a Japanese Super Sentai Action Hero, which inspired the creation of the Power Rangers. Sentai means fighting force in Japanese.
- The first Saico-Tek's "half-and-half" design is similar to Kikaider's.
- The second Saico-Tek heavily resembles one of the various incarnations of the popular Japanese superhero Kamen Rider.
- His name is a play on the pronunciation of the English words "psycho" and "tech(nology)" and also on the word "psychotic".
- The word saico/"saiko" means 'latest', and tek is obivously a misspelling of 'tech' which happens in Japan due to the fact that the word is pronounced te-ku (through katagana which is basically a reverse romanization of worlds).
- In the movie, after Robin captured Saico-Tek in Jump City and brought him back to the Tower for questioning, Saico-Tek set off the sprinkler to disintegrate himself, since he was made from paint. When the Titans questioned how he disappeared (they did not know at the time he was made from paint), Beast Boy suggested he "wasn't waterproof". While the Titans were angered at his attempt to make a joke, his joke foreshadowed Saico-Tek's true nature and turned out to be correct.