Gorilla City

**Gorilla City** is a fictional city in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. It first appeared in *The Flash* #106 (May 1959), but its first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing Annual* Vol. 2, #3 (1987).

## History

Gorilla City is a city in Africa inhabited by intelligent gorillas. It was originally located on the planet Calor, but was brought to Earth by Green Lantern (without his knowledge; the gorillas needed a safer environment to live in, and attached their city to GL's energy tral as he left Calor after fighting the monstrous Dryg there, oblivious to their presence).

The first known person to encounter Gorilla City on Earth was the Flash. When Barry Allen's friend, stage actor Fred Pearson (and star of the show "The Great Gorilla"), feared that he may be the strange gorilla creature that stalks the city at night, he called Barry for help. What in reality was going on proved to be even stranger: The night-stalking gorilla turned out to be a super-ape named Grodd, who had come to Central City from Gorilla City, located in a hidden place in Africa. He had come seeking the world's greatest mind so that he may learn the secret of Force of Mind and use it to control the armies of Gorilla City in order to take over the world.

Grodd found it in Solovar, a member of his own race who had been captured by humans and posed as an ordinary ape in order to keep Gorilla City a secret from the world of humans. Stealing the ability, Grodd then returned to Gorilla City to take it over.

Solovar freed himself and sought out the Flash and asked for his help in stopping Grodd. The two then traveled to Africa. Meanwhile in Gorilla City, Grodd had just taken over the army. The Flash managed to battle Grodd and by spinning around Grodd really fast, managed to knock Grodd out and remove the knowledge of Force of Mind from his memories. Flash then turned Grodd over to Solovar for punishment, and promised not to reveal the secret of Gorilla City. Returning to Central City, as Barry, the Flash told his friend Fred that he need not worry about the strange gorilla sightings anymore, and then took Iris out on a date to the Zoo.

Soon after, Gorilla Grodd took over the city briefly using neo-magnetic radiation. Gorilla Grodd, occupying the human body of William Dawson, was released from prison. He traveled to Gorilla City, where his human body devolved into his old gorilla form. There, he fell in love with Boka, the bride-to-be of his rival, Solovar.

Determined to win Boka's affection, he used a machine in his laboratory, which had remained undisturbed during his imprisonment, to cause his body to emit neo-magnetic radiation, causing anyone who looked at him to instantly take a liking to him. It worked as planned, and soon he was crowned king of Gorilla City, with Boka as his wife.

Not content with merely controlling Gorilla City, Grodd flew to Central City, where he quickly won the admiration of its citizens. Barry Allen, alarmed at everyone's positive reaction to Grodd's return, changed into the Flash to investigate. However, he also felt a great admiration for the gorilla when arriving in his presence. Leaving town to ponder the dilemma, he discovered that Grodd's radiation only had a hundred-mile radius. However, no matter how fast he went, he couldn't get back into the city without being affected by the neo-magnetic radiation. Meanwhile, the Statewide Party decided that Grodd would make the perfect candidate for governor. Grodd was ecstatic, planning to move from there to the presidency.

After several days have passed, the Flash had still been unable to get into the city without being affected by the radiation. However, he noticed that on a particular day, when solar flare activity was particularly high, the strength of the radiation was not as intense as normal. He vibrated at the same frequency as the solar flares, and was able to easily enter the city and apprehend Grodd.

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.

## Residents

* Gorilla Grodd
* Solovar (Deceased)
* Boka
* Gorbul Mammit
* Nzame
* The Ultra-Humanite
* Nnamdi
* Ulgo
* Kamau
* Malavar
* Primat
* Sam Simeon
* Doctor Zaius
* Tolifhar
* Gorilla Knights
* Gorilla Grimm

## In other media

*Main article: Gorilla City in other media*