Glorious Godfrey
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| Glorious Godfrey | |
 Glorious Godfrey from Forever People #7, artist Jack Kirby |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Forever People vol. 1 #3, (June 1971) |
| Created by | Jack Kirby (writer & artist) |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Glorious Godfrey |
| Place of origin | Apokolips |
| Team affiliations | Darkseid's Elite |
| Notable aliases | G. Gordon Godfrey |
| Abilities | Powers of persuasion |
Glorious Godfrey is a DC Comics villain created by Jack Kirby, originally as part of The Fourth World series of comic books in the early 1970s. He first appeared in Forever People vol. 1 #3 (June 1971).
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Godfrey has a sister named Amazing Grace who is also a member of Darkseid's Elite. Both siblings have similar powers. Whereas Glorious Godfrey's speciality is persuasion, Amazing Grace's is manipulation. Godfrey remained a relatively unimportant character until 1986 (he had a total of 3 appearances over a decade and a half), when the first crossover since the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Legends was published. In it Darkseid attempts to deprive the world of its heroes, not only so that they would be ineffective against Darkseid, but also in the hope that the people of Earth would more willingly surrender to his rule.
The first phase of the plan consists simply of creating immense amounts of collateral damage by sending creatures to Earth to fight the superheroes. The public begins to resent the heroes in their midst, and therefore Darkseid starts the second phase of his plan by sending the master manipulator Glorious Godfrey to Earth.
Assuming the identity of G. Gordon Godfrey (the name being a parody of real-life personality G. Gordon Liddy), he starts a hate-campaign towards the superheroes that proves to be very effective, riling the public, ultimately leading to a presidential decision to outlaw any superheroic action. The final phase of this plan, consists of the Apokoliptian warhounds, cybernetic creatures that are bonded to human hosts, for which Godfrey is able to find an ample amount of 'volunteers' amongst his hypnotized public. He leads his charges to Washington D.C. only to be confronted by a cadre of assembled heroes.
The heroes are able to defeat the Warhounds and break up the public, and Godfrey makes one last ploy, where he tries on the helmet of Doctor Fate in hopes of obtaining his awesome might. Instead, Dr. Fate uses the helmet to mindwipe Godfrey, leaving him nothing more than an empty shell that is sent to the Belle Reve prison, where he would later be broken out of by the Female Furies under the order of Darkseid.
Godfrey has subsequently made brief appearances in assemblages of all the Apokoliptian Gods.
[edit] Final Crisis
In the Final Crisis Sketchbook, there is a sketch of a character called "Reverend G. Godfrey Goode" who shares many physical characteristics with Glorious Godfrey. The sketchbook goes on to say that "This passionate televangelist plays a central role in the evil gods' occupation of Earth." The sketchbook also features "reinventions" of many other New Gods.
In Final Crisis #1 Reverend Godfrey appears on a TV news report, decrying the situation in Bludhaven. He appears African-American, as do the reinvented Darkseid and Granny Goodness.
[edit] In other media
A different version of Glorious Godfrey appeared in the Justice League animated series. In the two part episode "Eclipsed" Godfrey (voiced by Enrico Colantoni) is the host of a sensationalist talk show which he uses to attack the Justice League's credibility. It is not revealed if he is connected with Darkseid or has his powers of persuasion. After the Justice League successfully prevented the destruction of the sun, his sponsors dropped him and the network moved his show to four o'clock in the morning.
At one point on his talk show Godfrey holds up a book called The Innocent Seduced and refers to its author, Dr. Frederic. This is a reference to Seduction of the Innocent, an actual book written by Fredric Wertham which had great influence during the early 1950s and accused comic books of corrupting minors.
This version of Godfrey had blonde hair, rather than the comic version's orange.
