Solovar

**Solovar** is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *The Flash* #106 (May 1959), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing Annual* Vol. 2, #3 (1987). He was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino.

## History

Solovar was from Gorilla City, a hidden city of hyper-intelligent gorillas originally located on the planet Calor but later brought to Earth by an unwitting Green Lantern (a fact which Solovar hid for some time by erasing the knowledge from GL's mind, telling others that his people had evolved on Earth in secret). Renowned for his wisdom and psychic powers, he was virtually unchallenged, except by the villainous Gorilla Grodd. This rivalry was so great that, after Solovar was captured by humans (playing dumb to keep his identity and origin secret), Grodd followed him to Central City to learn the secrets of Solovar's force-of-mind powers.

The Flash helped the gorilla leader escape and became the first human to learn of the city's existence and its location. This led to a rivalry between Grodd and the Flash, as well as an alliance between the Flash and Solovar.

Solovar was engaged to marry the beautiful Boka. However, Grodd, who had just arrived home after being released from prison, used neo-magnetic radiation to make himself irresistible to her and married her instead, becoming briefly Gorilla City's king.

Solovar was one of the heroes gathered by the Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths to protect his cosmic machines from the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons. Solovar was gravely injured while protecting the boy Kamandi from the demons and was presumed dead by his allies, but the Monitor actually teleported him back to Gorilla City in time for his life to be saved.

Under Solovar's guidance, Gorilla City was a technological utopia. Eventually, he decided his people could no longer use their science to hide from the human world. Believing that the world's ecological and political problems couldn't be solved by ignoring them, he opened his city's borders to the world and asked for membership in the United Nations. He advocated peace — among the gorillas and with humans — and was behind two diplomatic overtures to the human world.

The second tour of the U.S., sadly, was cut short by his assassination by a lethal car bomb. While a mysterious group calling itself the Human Supremacy Movement took credit for the act, it was quickly made clear that Solovar's assassination at the hands of human racists was in fact a ruse concocted by the Simian Scarlet, a group of gorillas within Gorilla City seeking to overthrow the ruling council. The manipulators were themselves manipulated by Gorilla Grodd.

### Blackest Night

Solovar returned as one the Black Lanterns. He attacked Barry and yells at him for not realizing he was dead.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Superhuman Strength:** As a gorilla, Solovar is many times stronger than the average human.
* **Telepathy**

### Abilities

* **Leadership**
* **Medicine:** Solovar is a skilled surgeon.

## Notes

* Solovar's name was misspelled "Solivar" in the first two issues of *Crisis on Infinite Earths*.