Gorilla Grodd
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Gorilla Grodd is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics, primarily as an opponent of The Flash.
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[edit] History
Gorilla Grodd is a hyper-intelligent telepathic supervillain with the power to control the minds of others. He is also, somewhat obviously, a gorilla. At one time he was nothing more than an average ape, but after an alien spacecraft crashed in his African home, Grodd and his troop were imbued with super-intelligence by the ship's pilot. Grodd and fellow gorilla Solovar also developed telepathic and telekinetic powers. Taking the alien as their leader, the gorillas constructed a super advanced home named Gorilla City. The gorillas lived in peace until their home was discovered by prying explorers. Grodd forced one of the explorers to kill the alien, and took over Gorilla City, planning to take the world next. Solovar telepathically contacted Barry Allen to warn him of the evil gorilla's plans, and Grodd was defeated. But the villain would return again and again to plague the Flash and his Allies.
At one point, the immortal villain Vandal Savage kidnapped Titans member Omen and used her to formulate the perfect team of adversaries for the Teen Titans. Savage approached Grodd, offering him membership in this new anti-Titans group, Tartarus. Savage sweetened the offer with promises of power and immortality. Grodd joined Tartarus on their mission to synthesize the immortal blood of the H.I.V.E. Mistress, Addie Kane. Savage sought to create a serum that would grant immortality. Their schemes were thwarted when the Titans intervened, and Tartarus retreated. Tempest later led a rescue mission to save Omen from Savage. During the rescue attempt, Tartarus battled the Titans, but collapsed upon itself due to each member having a different agenda. This was because Omen had purposely chosen members who wouldn't work well together when forced to formulate a team for Savage. Particularly, Siren switched alliances during the battle and aided Tempest in escaping. Following these events, Tartarus members went their separate ways and the group disbanded.
Grodd's psionic abilities allow him to place other beings under his mental control. Grodd can also project mental attack beams and transfer his consciousness into other bodies. Moreover, he possesses great physical strength far exceeding that of an ordinary gorilla. He is a scientific genius who has mastered Gorilla City's advanced technology and who has created many incredible inventions of his own.
One of Grodd’s widest-ranging schemes was to arrange Solovar's assassination and manipulate Gorilla City into war against humanity, with the aid of a "shadow cabinet" of prominent gorillas called Simian Scarlet. In the course of this, Grodd absorbed too much neural energy from his fellow apes, leaving him with the intelligence of a normal gorilla (Martian Manhunter Annual #2, 1999). He has since recovered, and a failed attempt to set up a base in Florida led to his capture and incarceration in Iron Heights.
Grodd was also seen in the Superman/Batman arc Public Enemies (Superman/Batman #1-#7) controlling numerous villains and heroes using them to take down Superman and Batman for the prize of 1 billion dollars offered by president at the time Lex Luthor. Despite his use of foes such as Mongul, Solomon Grundy, Lady Shiva and Nightshade, however, both were able to deduce his hand behind the attacks, and quickly disposed of Grodd.
He is responsible for crippling the Flash's friend Hunter Zolomon, resulting in his transformation into the villainous Zoom when Hunter tried to change the event so it never happened. Hunter would often think about how Grodd used him as a plaything in that fight while talking it over with the Flash (Flash #115)
[edit] Gorilla Grodd of Earth-3
Gorilla Grodd has a counterpart on Earth-3, the Anti-Matter Earth, called General Grodd who is a member of the Justice Underground. He is a freedom fighter from a militaristic ape nation.
[edit] Other media
Gorilla Grodd was a member of the Legion of Doom in the Superfriends television series in which one plot of his was taking control of Gorilla City. He is voiced by the late Stanley Ralph Ross.
[edit] "The Flash" (Live Action Series)
Gorilla Grodd was mentioned in passing by the character Nightshade in the episode titled "Deadly Nightshade" of the live action Flash TV series from the early 90's. He was a crime boss (presumably human) in the 50's who worked out of Central City's Helltown, and adversary of the original Nightshade.
He was also planned to appear but didn't due to budget problems.
[edit] Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
Gorilla Grodd is a recurring villain in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, voiced by Powers Boothe. Generally, he's referred to as just "Grodd", although Flash mentions him as "Gorilla Grodd" in the episode "Comfort and Joy". In his first appearance, "The Brave and the Bold", Grodd is a fugitive from the secretive Gorilla City, a spurned would-be tyrant who vowed vengeance on his fellow primates. Maintaining an e-mail relationship with Central City scientist Dr. Sarah Corwin, he comes to Central City to cloak the metropolis in a similar shield as Gorilla City's. This provided him a hidden base from which to launch a nuclear assault against Gorilla City, while he controlled the populace of Central City with his mind-control helmet. While the League hurried to stop the bombs, Flash, Green Lantern, and Solovar (a Gorilla City officer) rushed to defeat Grodd himself. Grodd became incapacitated once he tried to use the mind-control helmet on Flash, not knowing that Flash had switched around various wires.
Grodd's return in "Secret Society" would showcase a different side of the villain. No longer focused on Gorilla City, Grodd has vowed himself as an opponent to the League as a whole. With his loyal follower Giganta, he recruited Killer Frost, Parasite, Shade, Sinestro, and Clayface to make a sort of anti-League dubbed "the Secret Society". Also learned in this episode is that Grodd's accident with his mind-control helmet has granted him mental powers, which he utilized in this story as a subtle type of tampering with the League's emotions. Having watched the League via secret cameras for weeks, Grodd starts manipulating their feelings until the Leaguers start lashing out at each other and end up walking away from the team. Having separated them, Grodd tries to capture each Leaguer and invades a football halftime show to do away with the heroes publicly, only to be foiled by J'onn J'onzz, who frees his teammates. The Society is battled one last time, and fails to beat the League. Of note in this episode is that Grodd's romantic preferences become clear: he has a taste for human females, like Corwin or the artificially-made-human Giganta.
Finally, in the third season of Justice League Unlimited, Grodd turns up as the leader of the Legion of Doom. As he describes it, the Legion is a sort of co-op for supervillains, banded together to help each other's villainy in the face of the expanded League.
After having the Legion seek out various valuable artifacts, Grodd revealed his master plan: to turn every human on the planet into apes. The plan, however, was thwarted by the Justice League. Subsequently, an unimpressed Lex Luthor shoots Grodd (in a scene similar to the death of Commander Red in Dragon Ball, which often homages Superman) and usurps his position as the new leader of the Legion. Being obsessed with reclaiming the godlike power he briefly tasted when merged with the now-destroyed Brainiac, Luthor kept Grodd prisoner in the Legion's headquarters in the hopes that he reveal how to reconstitute the living supercomputer from the last remaining fragment. With the discovery that Brainiac had a base in deep space that was subsequently destroyed (see "Twilight of the Gods") Luthor has the Legion refit the headquarters for space travel, promising them a place of leadership in the new order with himself as absolute ruler.
Given Luthor's heavy-handed leadership and romantic disinterest, the spurned Tala eventually releases Grodd, who then arranges a mutiny with many other villains. Luthor uses his intellect and resourcefulness to counter his adversaries' powers; Grodd's mind-control ability is used against him, forcing him to step into an airlock, from which he is released into the void.
[edit] Video Games
Gorilla Grodd will be a villain featured in the upcoming video game Justice League Heroes, played by Neil Kaplan.
[edit] Note
Gorilla Grodd should not be confused with:
- Monsieur Mallah, another gorilla supervillain who appears in the Teen Titans series and Doom Patrol comics
- The Ultra-Humanite, who appeared in gorilla form in the Justice League series.
