Gorilla Grodd

Gallery

Real Name

Grodd

Current Alias

Gorilla Grodd

Aliases

William Dawson

Relatives

Boka (wife, separated), Gorbzil Mammit (son), Samuel Simeon (grandson)

Affiliation

Formerly The Injustice League, The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Tartarus, Anti-Justice League

Base Of Operations

Gorilla City, Africa

Status

Identity

Public Identity

Race

Gorillas

Citizenship

Gorilla City

Marital Status

Separated

Occupation

Professional Criminal, Terrorist

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

6' 6"

Weight

600 lbs (273 kg)

Eyes

Grey

Hair

Black

Origin

Universe

Earth-One, New Earth

Place of Birth

Gorilla City, Africa

Created by

John Broome, Carmine Infantino

First appearance

Flash #106
(May, 1959)

HistoryEdit

Gorilla Grodd was The Flash's enemy from Gorilla City, a city in the jungles of Africa populated by intelligent gorillas. He possessed amazing intelligence and force of mind capabilities, powers granted him when he was exposed to a space-rock that landed in the African jungles.

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 superspeed to match the frequency. Afterwards, Grodd was easily apprehended. ^[1]

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.

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.^[2]

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Telepathy: He can manipulate the minds of others and even higher order animals. He has demonstrated the following specialized uses:

• Telepathic Defense: He can manifest his telepathy in a number of defensive ways.
  • Telepathic Cloak: He can mask his presence and the use of his abilities from being detected by other psions and psychic entities. He can extend these defenses to others around him as well. Cloaking via telepathy is not perfect and powerful psis may notice and 'see' through this ability.
  • Psionic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of himself and of others minds.
• Telepathic Illusions: He can create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.
  • Telepathic Camouflage: He can alter the apparent physical appearance of himself and other people by altering the perceptions of those around him. This can go so far as to make other people believe that the camouflaged people are not there e.g. invisible.
• Telepathic Manipulation: He can manipulate other people's minds easily, achieving a variety of effects.
  • Mind Control: He can control the thoughts and actions of others.
  • Mental Paralysis: He can induce temporary mental or physical paralysis
  • Mental Amnesia: He can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia.
  • Mental Sedating: Can telepathically "sedate" his victims so that, if already rendered unconscious, they remain so for as long as he continues to "sedate" them.
• Psionic Blast: He can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and turning someone brain-dead.
• Mental Detection: He can sense the presence of another superhuman within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.

• Superhuman Strength
• Superhuman Agility
• Enhanced Senses

Abilities

• Genius-Level Intellect: with knowledge of technology beyond the development of human civilization

Strength level

Grodd posseses super strength somehwere between class 50 and 75. He was able to engage Kalibak in hand-to-hand combat but was visibly not quite as strong as Kalibak.

NotesEdit

• Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985-86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
  

TriviaEdit

A robotic version of Grodd was a member of Brainwave's Legion of Doom.

Related

• 188 Appearances of Gorilla Grodd (New Earth)
• 53 Images featuring Gorilla Grodd (New Earth)
• 8 Quotations by or about Gorilla Grodd (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Gorilla Grodd (New Earth)

LinksEdit

• Gorilla Grodd (New Earth) at Wikipedia.org 
• The Origin of Gorilla Grodd
• "Gorilla Grodd" at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning
• Unca Cheeks' Twelve All-Time Coolest DC Comics SUPER-VILLAINS article including Gorilla Grodd described as "One of the undisputed Main Bad Boys".

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• Search this site for: Gorilla Grodd · Grodd · Gorilla Grodd (New Earth)
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Footnotes

Flash Villain(s) This character, team, or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of any or all of the various incarnations of the Flash. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Flash Villains."