Gorilla Grodd

*Do you not know me, human? Often before we have fought and you defeated me. But today I have raised an army. An army of little brothers and they long to meet with you. Do you not know me? I am Grodd.*

**Gorilla Grodd** is a supervillain character appearing in American comic books and other media published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of The Flash (Barry Allen). The character was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, and first appeared in *The Flash* #106 (May 1959). He is an evil, super-intelligent gorilla who gained mental powers after being exposed to a strange meteorite's radiation.

## Background

He possessed amazing intelligence and force of mind capabilities, powers allegedly granted him when he was exposed to a space-rock that landed in the African jungles. (though another account states that Gorilla City originated on the planet of Calor and was brought to Earth as a result of Grodd's machinations when he already had his powers.)

Grodd's mind took over the body of criminal William Dawson, who was in prison. When released, he traveled back to Gorilla City. Upon reaching his destination, Dawson's body devolved back into Grodd's original gorilla form. There, he saw and fell in love with Solovar's bride-to-be, Boka. Determined to have her, he designed a machine that caused his body to emanate neo-magnetic radiation. As a result, everyone who saw him instantly liked him. He arrived at the wedding procession, and Boka immediately became infatuated with him. They were married, and Grodd was declared king of Gorilla City. Not satisfied, he had the gorillas build him a plane, which he flew to Central City, where the humans quickly began adoring him, including the Flash. He began running for governor as the Statewide Party candidate, planning on continuing on to president after that. However, the Flash foiled Grodd's plan when he discovered that the neo-magnetic radiation could be counteracted by solar flare radiation, which he duplicated by vibrating his body at super speed to match the frequency. Afterwards, Grodd was easily apprehended.

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 force of mind power. 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.

Grodd found another space-rock, identical to the one that had given him his powers, and contacted Hector Hammond, a human who had also gained similar powers through another space-rock, hoping to use this meteorite as a super-weapon to rule the world. However, while Hammond and Grodd tried to wrestle this meteorite away from the Green Lantern, who had joined the Flash in Africa, it exploded, accelerating Grodd's evolution even more so. With these heightened powers, Grodd was able to gain control of Gorilla City's entire population. With the help of Rex the Wonder Dog, the two were able to defeat Grodd. The battle left Grodd's mind like a child's, and he and Hammond, who the meteorite had turned into a Cro-Magnon, were left in Gorilla City to be educated into useful citizens. A few years later, the demon Neron restored Grodd's intellect, which allowed him to resume his rule on Gorilla City. However, Grodd was captured while stealing an artifact in the "world of man," again losing his throne.

After being nearly killed, Grodd was healed by the Nzame, a holy child to the gorillas of Gorilla City. He was prepared to kill the infant, but was suddenly summoned to Keystone City by Spin in an effort to defeat the Flash. Angered, Grodd proceeded to destroy Spin's lair. Their battle spilled out into the streets of Keystone, where they were met by the Flash.

At one point, as part of a mass exile of supervillains from Earth, Gorilla Grodd was sent to an inhospitable world known as Salvation. At one point, he came into conflict with Monsieur Mallah, attempting to kill him. Brain attempted to stop Grodd, but Grodd used Brain to kill Mallah, also killing Brain in the process. This impressed the Joker, but that didn't stop the Joker from pushing Grodd off a cliff in a murder attempt . Grodd survived and rejoined the villains and attempted to take out the Joker, but a Parademon attack stopped him. He later left exile when the villains found a method of escape.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Speed Force Evolution:** All apes of Gorilla City possess their accelerated physical and mental attributes due to their societies interactions with the quantum phenomena called the Speed Force. Through further exposure to it, Grodd could enhance himself, greatly expediting his evolution by leaps and bounds, even coming further along than an originator of his kind like King Solovar.
	+ **Super Gorilla Physiology:**
		- **Fangs:**
		- **Superhuman Agility:**
		- **Superhuman Durability:**
		- **Superhuman Reflexes:**
		- **Superhuman Strength:** Grodd is far stronger than any average gorilla, his punches are powerful enough to make even Wonder Woman and Amazo bleed.
			* **Super-Leaping:** Grodd can leap dozens of feet in the air.
		- **Superhuman Speed:** By directly imbibing upon Speed Force Energy Grodd could temporarily augment himself both physically and mentally taking his naturally high super simian abilities to entirely new heights. While initially losing these abilities when a ripple effect in the Speed Force weakened his connection to it. Grodd had temporarily reinforced his tie to the force by stealing Barry Allen's Speed Force energy.
	+ **Telekinesis:** A unique trait all his own, is Grodd's evolved ability to effect and manipulate matter with his mind. With the transferal of Barry's Speed Force energy into himself, Grodd has since reestablished these powers.
		- **Molecular Reconstruction:**
		- **Energy Projection:**
		- **Force Field:** **Telepathy:** In spite of not being one of the elders, Grodd's time trapped in the speed force gave him the psychic abilities apes grow into with age.
		- **Animal Control:**
		- **Mind Control:**
		- **Mind Transference:**
		- **Telepathic Assault:**
		- **Thought Sensing:**
* **Power Absorption:** By taking to the old Gorilla City tradition of devouring his fallen enemies' brains Grodd or any of his species would gain the knowledge and abilities of their victims.. Grodd could potentially assimilate any powers of those whose minds he devoured possess.
	+ **Enhanced Intellect:** Grodd has consumed enough information to be considered a genius.
* **Still Force Conduit:** After telepathically connecting to the Turtle, Grodd was able to access the Still Force, the cosmic force that controls the negation of kinetic energy.
	+ **Kinetic Energy Negation:** Grodd is able to use the power of the Still Force to negate all motion around him.
	+ **Energy Projection:**
* **Genius Level Intellect:** Grodd is extremely intelligent with knowledge of technology beyond the development of human civilization.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced):** Grodd bested his father in **mortal combat,** before eating his brain. He even managed hold his own against Aquaman and Wonder Woman, for a while.
	+ **Weaponry:**

## Equipment

* **Gorilla Grodd's Helmet:**
* **Quadromobile:** In Grodd's early days as a villain, he used a ship based on Gorilla City technology to move around. The ship could move at the same speed as the Flash, except could change direction without losing velocity instantly. The ship also had a bore on the front to drill through the earth and was named after it's ability to travel through Air, On the Ground, Under Earth, and through Water.**[1]**

## Feats

### Strength

* Once slammed his fists into the ground so hard it caused an Earthquake
* Is stronger then the average gorilla, the average gorilla is at least 6 times stronger then the average human
* A future version off Grodd ate Eobard Thawne's / Reverse Flash / Professor Zoom's brain
* The 'Sage Force' is a energy form that enhances the user's intelligence to super human levels. It also grants the user telepathy and telekinesis (Basically Grodd's abilities)
* Knocks out Darkseid's eldest son, Kalibak
* Throwed a police car
* Throws some wreckage at a helicopter
* Smashes Flash and Nightwing through a wall
* Breaks a wall created by Firestorm
* Decapitates an android with a giant spoon
* Throws a large column at Flash
* Destroyed a building by throwing a police car
* Knocks out Kaliback with a boulder

### Speed

* Catches Flash off guard
* Knocks Flash (Wally) down
* He can also react to Wally
* He can also ram him into multiple walls (Another strength feat)
* Kept up with Lex Luthor when he was wearing his Warsuit
* Countered a surprise attack from Rex the Wonder Dog.
* Kept up with Aquaman in a fight
* Deceptively fast for his size

### Durability

* Tanks over three thousand punches from Wally, stating even one million “taps” could never hurt him
* Weakened from various drugging and whatnot from being transported, Wally has to electrocute him with over a dozen powerful tranquilizers to take him out
* Another instance, Wally ran from Keystone city to Wyoming, just to build enough momentum to knock him out
* Is barely effected from Flash directly bombarding his face with punches
* He is largely unaffected after tanking a blast from Fallout
* And even take direct punches from Wonder Woman

### Skills

* He’s manufactured machines to enhance his mental abilities:
* And machines that dampen the powers of others (By dampen, I mean completely take away)
* He has even genetically modified a group of apes to kill Superman
* He is very knowledgeable about the human brain, and machines
* And has even created his own lair around a Spatial Anomaly
* Fought new Hulk

## Weaknesses

* **Generational Degradation:** Over time, Gorilla City apes began losing their connection to The Light; a name it's society coined for the Speed Force. Resulting in every new generation born after to degenerate into primal savagery.
* **Mental Disorder:** Because of the division of telepathy in Gorilla City, Grodd is forced to bear the burden of collecting all the nasty, savage thoughts of the entire city in order to keep Gorilla City calm and tranquil.

## Fun Facts

* Gorilla Grodd was the first main antagonist of the Flash franchise, the second was Professor Zoom. He was also the main villain of JLA:Ape and of the Angel and the Ape Miniseries.
* Grodd has a son who fought Impulse and a grandson named Sam Simenon.
* He was created by Carmine Infantino and John Broome.