Gorilla Grodd is one of a number of intelligent, talking gorillas native to Gorilla City, a once-secret settlement in Africa. Grodd possesses an enhanced intellect and psionic force-of-mind abilities, resulting from exposure to extraterrestrial rock that was found on the continent. He seeks to gain control of both Gorilla City, as well as the rest on the world, and utilizes mind control and devolution technologies in his bids for conquest. Gorilla Grodd is a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and a frequent opponent of the Flash.
Background[]
Gorilla Grodd is a hyper-intelligent telepathic gorilla with the power to control the minds of others. Originally nothing more than an average ape, but after an alien spacecraft crashed in the Congo Basin of Africa, Grodd and his fellow gorillas were imbued with super intelligence by the ship's pilot.
Grodd and fellow gorilla Solovar also develop telepathic and telekinetic powers.
Taking the alien as their leader, the gorillas construct Gorilla City; an isolationist city of advanced technology cloaked from the outside world. The gorillas live in peace until their home is discovered by prying explorers. Grodd forces one of the explorers to kill the alien and takes over Gorilla City, however, Grodd was not satisfied and planned to conquer the world next.
Solovar telepathically contacts the Flash (Barry Allen) to warn him of Grodd's plans, and Grodd is defeated.
First met the Flash while searching for Solovar, who had been imprisoned while on a trip to the human world. Grodd probed Solovar's mind to find the secret of mind control so he could control Gorilla City and use the inhabitants to take over the world, but Solovar breaks out of his cage and tells the Flash, so the Flash defeats him and apparently knocks the power of mind control from his mind. But it is revealed he had not lost his power; he overcomes his guard and takes over an underground winged race by burrowing underground, trying to use a machine to take away the intelligence of the other gorillas. But Flash finds out from Solovar where Grodd has escaped and destroys the machine. The winged people are freed from his control and Grodd is imprisoned again. Grodd has four guards set to guard him, but summons a burrowing machine which he uses to escape. He transforms himself into a human and starts a factory to create a pill that will give him vast mental powers. Grodd easily stops the Flash, but then unexpectedly turns into a gorilla again, where his powers do not work as his brain is not evolved enough. He tries to get to the machine that turned him into a human, but Flash molds the metal into handcuffs for Grodd, then takes him back to Gorilla City. Grodd devises a means of transporting his mind to another body while his original one dies, and takes over a man in Central City, but is again arrested. Later he causes the first assembling of the Flash's Rogues Gallery, breaking them out of jail to distract the Flash after transferring his mind to that of 'Freddy', a gorilla in a zoo. Thanks to Solovar, the Flash found about Grodd's escape. Ironically, Grodd, despite using radiation to stop the Flash moving at super speed, is defeated by the gorilla's mate when she hears him mention another gorilla. He and Freddy are restored to their normal bodies.
In a confrontation with Wally West, Grodd increases the brain power of most of the animals in Central City. He hopes to endanger the lives of all the humans, but this plan backfires because some of the pets are too loyal to their humans. Grodd's plans are defeated by the Flash with the assistance of the Pied Piper, Vixen, and Rex the Wonder Dog.
At one point, the immortal villain Vandal Savage kidnaps Titans member Omen and uses her to form the perfect team of adversaries against the Teen Titans. Savage approaches Grodd, offering him membership in this new anti-Titans group, Tartarus. Savage sweetens the offer with promises of power and immortality. Grodd joins Tartarus on their mission to synthesize the immortal blood of the H.I.V.E. Mistress, Addie Kane. Savage seeks to create a serum that will grant immortality. Their schemes are thwarted when the Titans intervene, and Tartarus retreats. Tempest later leads a rescue mission to save Omen from Savage. During the rescue attempt, Tartarus battles the Titans, but collapses upon itself due to each member having a different agenda. This is because Omen had purposely chosen members who would not work well together. When Siren switches alliances during the battle and aids Tempest in escaping, the Tartarus members go their separate ways and the group disbands.
During the Final Night, Grodd attempted to use a mystical talisman called the Heart of Darkness that brought out the 'inner beast' of humans, turning the population of the town of Leesburg into feral monsters, including Supergirl (Matrix). However, Supergirl was eventually able to fight off Grodd's influence thanks to some outside sources, allowing her to oppose Grodd until the sun was restored.
Eventually, Solovar decides that his people could no longer use their science to hide from the human world and opens his city's borders to the world, asking for membership in the United Nations. He advocates peace — among the gorillas and with humans — and is behind two diplomatic overtures to the human world. The second tour of the U.S., sadly, is cut short by his assassination by a lethal car bomb. While a mysterious group calling itself the Human Supremacy Movement takes credit for the act, it quickly made clear that Solovar's assassination is in fact a ruse concocted by the Simian Scarlet, a group of gorillas within Gorilla City seeking to overthrow the ruling council, who are themselves manipulated by Gorilla Grodd.
Solovar is briefly succeeded by his nephew, Prince Ulgo. With tensions between humans and gorillas rising, the Justice League of America is invited to Gorilla City to assist in a diplomatic mission, only to fall victim to an ambush. In the heat of battle, the gorilla army tests its new weapon on the heroes, a "gorillabomb" that transforms humans into gorillas. While the JLA retreat to their moonbase to find a cure, Ulgo appears before the United Nations to formally declare war on the human race. However, he promises, there will be no bloodshed in the battle, and he makes his point by detonating a gorilla bomb in the auditorium. With the entire UN assembly transformed both mentally and physically into gorillas, the JLA act swiftly to minimize damage and loss of life. Alas, saving the delegates uses up their only chance to change back into humans, and so our transformed heroes must remain in their simian forms until they can find another way to return to normal. Not that they were allowed much time to do that; as the Martian Manhunter telepathically learns, the gorillas are strategically targeting several places around the globe, including Themyscira, Atlantis, Central City, Blüdhaven, Metropolis, and low Earth orbit. The heroes split up and set out to neutralize the gorilla army, end the human-gorilla war, and find a way to return to normal. Once the JLA have achieved their goals, Ulgo is later succeeded by Solovar's son, Nnamdi, who adopts his fathers old policy of isolationism and secrecy.
In the course of this, Grodd absorbs too much neural energy from his fellow apes, leaving him with the intelligence of a normal gorilla. He has since recovered, and a failed attempt to set up a base in Florida leads to his capture and incarceration in Iron Heights Penitentiary.
Grodd had been trapped inside the human body of an overweight street bum. He was attacked by a gang known as the Vultures. One of them commented on how their member Iggo had the strength of a gorilla, which reminded Grodd of his true form. Suddenly changing back to his original shape and size, he quickly defeated the gang, making them believe that they are burning in molten lava by using his telepathic abilities. Reading the minds of the crooks, he saw that one of the former members of their gang was a friend of the Flash, and a plan began to form in his mind.
He is responsible for crippling the Flash's friend Hunter Zolomon, resulting in his transformation into the villainous Zoom when Hunter tries 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.
Grodd makes a deal with Grimm to get Blockbuster an ape heart.
Grodd and his forces attack the Ultramarine Corps. Grodd has most of the citizens they are protecting killed. He personally eats some of the humans. During the course of this incident, Beryl informs the team that Grodd ranks number three on the latest "Global Most Wanted".
Combat Statistics[]
- Gorilla Grodd (Old STAR Labs)
- Gorilla Grodd (Gorilla Grodd's Lab)
- Gorilla Grodd (Stryker's Island Penitentiary)
- Furious Gorilla Grodd
- Gorilla Grodd (Prison Break)
- Deranged Grodd
- Gorilla Grodd (Flashtastic Voyage)
Involvement[]
- Gorilla Grodd is a subboss fight during the Prison Break operation.
- Gorilla Grodd is one of the iconic villains who fight the Anti-Monitor and his minions in the Attack of the Anti-Monitor anniversary event.
- Gorilla Grodd is the first boss in the FP: Flashtastic Voyage raid.
- Gorilla Grodd, empowered by the Still Force, is one of the open world bounties in Doomed Washington, D.C. in Legion of Doom (Episode).
Heroes[]
- Gorilla Grodd has launched an invasion of the Little Bohemia district of the city of Metropolis. He has sent his gorilla army out to devolve Metropolis' citizens, while he coordinates efforts from his hidden lab. The Flash located this base, but contact with the speedster was lost after he entered to bring an end to Grodd's plans. The lab must be infiltrated, and the Flash freed, if Grodd is to be stopped.
- He can also be found in the Duo instance Gorilla Grodd's Lab where he partners with Zoom.
- Gorilla Grodd and one other random villain are the final bosses of the Tier 3 Duo Shady Nightclub.
- Grodd is part of the Stryker's Island mission.
- Furious Gorilla Grodd is a bounty for heroes in the War of the Light Part I DLC.
Villains[]
- Lex Luthor asks that you assist Grodd and his minions against the S.T.A.R. Labs forces that are picking up exobyte canisters that have fallen around Centennial Park in Metropolis. Once you have battled through the S.T.A.R. Labs forces, you will assist Grodd in a fight against Flash (Barry Allen) and Flash (Jay Garrick).
Item Drops[]
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Trivia[]
- Gorilla Grodd first appeared in The Flash #106 (May 1959)
- Gorilla Grodd is voiced by Jens Andersen.
- Grodd has made no fewer than eighteen attempts to eliminate all traces of humanity from the face of the earth.
- Grodd is the brother of Sam Simeon, an intelligent gorilla who possesses telepathic powers and works as a comic book artist in DZ comics while also acting as a chaperon to private investigator Angel O'Day in the O'Day and Simeon Detective Agency in New York City.
Gallery[]
.png "Gorilla Grodd (Prison Break).png (990 KB)")
.png "Gorilla Grodd with Scientists (Metropolis Anti-Matter Invasion Zone).png (311 KB)")
See Also[]
External links[]
- Gorilla Grodd Wikipedia
- Gorilla Grodd DC Database