Who's This? A walking vat of chemicals.
The facts: The giant not-quite-a-robot first appeared in a Metal Men story in Showcase #39 (July 1962) and is essentially their archenemy, fighting them in multiple appearances over the years, though he was not exclusive to them. In 1997, he was redesigned in Peter David's Supergirl series, and during Infinite Crisis, was dropped on Blüdhaven to make the city a toxic hell hole and killing millions (DC in the 2000s, amirite?). He was thrown into space by Superman after those events, but it didn't stop him from returning several times. The New52 decided to make him Doc Magnus' responsibility, because of course. At least it meant he was in the life of the Metal Men again, though the story took place in Justice League.
How you could have heard of him: Find the Metal Men in animation and Chemo won't be far behind, including in Brave and the Bold and a DC Nation short.
Example story: Metal Men #14 (June-July 1965) "The Headless Robots" by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
Chemo only shows up midway through the issue, so let me set the stage: A strange "chemical beam" has been shooting out of the sea and cutting planes and ships in half. After the Metal Men save a couple of transports, all but Mercury and Platinum throw themselves into the smelter so Doc Magnus can rebuild them as "less bothersome", which is crazy. One wonders if they huffed some chemical beam. The responsometers are reinstalled and while the rest wait for them to cool, they investigate the bay, get zapped, and tumble into it.
The title of the article (if not the cover) pretty much makes this mystery a non-starter. As Tina says: "Chemo! Alive again! For the second time!"
Personally, I love how he gurgles. As for the Doc-Tina relationship, thought balloons show they are not in sync. She's of course thinking about the relationship, while Doc sends us into the required flashback, showing how Chemo was just a vessel for all of this scientist's failures, but it somehow came alive. Also, how the Metal Men first encountered and defeated Chemo, burning him up in the atmosphere before crashing into the ocean. Well, marine chemicals must have rejuvenated the monster. And apparently made him telepathic. How else is he going to communicate what he wants?
Well, I don't think we needed a telepathic burst to figure this out. Kaiju gonna kaiju. In the waking dream, Chemo melts down everything, from skyscrapers to forests, until he's DESTROYED THE WORLD. "Why? WHY?" asks a despondent Doc Magnus. He's a monster, Doc, I don't know what's so hard to understand here. Doc reaches out to Tina and telegraphs instructions by pushing the button on her head in Morse code (yep!). Still trapped in Chemo's clutches, she can still stretch herself out for miles so heads (literally) back to the lab, picking up Mercury who's floating on the water as she goes. Mrecury puts Iron's responsometer in, but to save time, they just bring all the bodies, heads, and responsometers in their arms so they can rebuild them on the road. But Chemo's already out of the water and squirting at buildings. He melts their flying saucer too and as everything tumbles down...
Mercury's bid at leadership really doesn't last long. Time to grab whatever head's closest, guys.
All their reflexes are wrong and so Chemo is triumphant. Only the two Tin robots are left, and they're useless. At least, that's what they're always saying. Metal Men being pretty suicidal, they decide to go out in a blaze of glory and throw themselves at the liquid terror. That's when an unexpected chemical reaction occurs!
Tin pests indeed. And no worries, everyone will be rebuilt, so long as Doc Magnus survives. And Chemo? Yeah, he'll be back to. He's a big monster with a neat look, but there's not much personality there. Just a destructive force. So in the final analysis, I'd say he's only as interesting as how heroes who react to his threat. And that's fine. Too bad Godzilla was licensed at Marvel.
Who's Next? The mother of Speedy's child.
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