David Graves

Gallery

Real Name

David Graves

Aliases

Graves

Relatives

Jennifer Graves (wife), Jason Graves (son), Emma Graves (daughter)

Status

Alignment

Bad

Identity

Public Identity

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Widowed

Occupation

Historian, Author

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Eyes

Black

Hair

White

Origin

Universe

Prime Earth

Created by

Geoff Johns, Jim Lee

First appearance

Justice League Vol 2 #6
(April, 2012)

The Justice League isn't coming to save me from this. No-one is coming to save me from this. So I'm going to save myself.

-- David Graves ^src

HistoryEdit

David Graves was a historian and published author, interested in fringe history. He wrote a series of books, on subjects such as Atlantis, the miracles of Fatima, the Nazca Lines, and how they could affect the modern world. During the very first adventure of the Justice League, David, his wife Jennifer, and his two children, Jason and Emma, came under attack by Darkseid's forces. Accepting what he believed to be his fate, and covering his children's eyes for their inevitable death, Graves and his family are saved by the superheroes that would eventually become the Justice League.

Believing that the superheroes were a modern incarnation of the gods of antiquity, he set out to research a book about the heroes. It became his most popular title, "Justice League: Gods Among Men".

Unfortunately, within a year of the formation of the Justice League, Graves had developed an unspecified malady which left him trapped in a wheelchair and unlikely to last another year. Faced with the knowledge that his family was gone and the heroes were not going to save him, he snapped, shot his doctor, and vanished.

Four years later, David Graves returns completely unrecognizable from his former self, with the faces of his children on his inner forearm. Vowing to destroy the Justice League for their hubris, he then breaks into The Black Room, which is A.R.G.U.S.' secret storage facility where they keep the world's most powerful mystical items, stealing the Orb of Ra.

Later, he writes in his journal the best way to destroy the Justice League would be through their public liaison Steve Trevor, who he mails a copy of Justice League: Gods Among Men.

Graves interrogates The Key and Weapons Master, in order to discover their weakness. His then kidnapped Steve Trevor and tortured him. Graves got Trevor to break by threatening to kill his family.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Abilities

• Investigation: Graves is a historian and a writer, able to assess his field to find evidence to strengthen his arguments.
  

NotesEdit

• Geoff Johns described David Graves as a character who would take the classical monomyth or "heroe's journey" narrative device, and turn it on it's head, illustrating how a villain would go through a twisted version of it, becoming a major threat for the Justice League.
  

TriviaEdit

• Graves may have powers similar to Metamorpho. In the Free Comic Book Day 2012 comic, the theft of the Orb of Ra from A.R.G.U.S. is mentioned.

Related

• 6 Appearances of David Graves (Prime Earth)
• 2 Images featuring David Graves (Prime Earth)
• Quotations by or about David Graves (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: David Graves (Prime Earth)

LinksEdit

Discover and Discuss

• Search this site for: David Graves · David Graves (Prime Earth)
• Search the Forums for: David Graves · David Graves (Prime Earth)
• Discuss this and other characters on the forums

Footnotes